MY
DYING BRIDE are a band like no other, they express feelings
and emotions like no other band can and made albums, that can
be counted to the most depressive pieces of music ever. Since
MY DYING BRIDE are one of my All Time Favourite
bands, I was really excited when I heard that I get the chance
to talk to singer Aaron about their new album Songs Of
Darkness Words Of Light and I must commit that I have
never been that nervous before doing an interview.
Dunja:
Your new album Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light is going
to be released in the next few days. So how were the reactions
from the journalists and all the other persons who had the chance
to listen to the album before the release date so far?
Aaron: So far the reviews have been very positive and
all the people have been saying that this is MDB
at their very best, which is a nice thing for us to hear, because
we worked hard on this album so it would be good enough. In the
internet we have seen comments from our fans, who are going crazy
for the new album, but that's a normal thing with fans. The response
from the journalists were very, very positive, so we are very
lucky.
Dunja:
I also like this album more than the last two releases.
Aaron: Thank you very much.
Dunja:
Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light is much slower then
your latest releases and away from the “Back To The Roots”
Trip you had on The Light At The End Of The World and
The Dreadful Hours, away from fast passages and reducing
the growl vocals, back to clean voice and touching melodies. What
were the reasons for that development, did you plan it or did
it just happen?
Aaron: I think it just happened, we never really
plan albums, because when you plan them you have to stick to a
plan and I don’t really like that. We just let it go with
the flow, see what happens and hope it turns out okay. I didn’t
really realize that this album would be so progressive. It’s
different for me to judge about the music, because I am inside
the band and I see the music differently. You guys see it from
outside so you have a different feeling. It’s hard for me
to tell, if there are more Death Metal vocals. On this album I
use pretty wild screaming as well as some nice clean vocals, so
I like to keep it quite variety. I think that everybody who liked
TLATEOTW will like this album as well,
because it’s the next step, it’s the progression.
We do better writing, but I guess you are right, it’s a
bit slower now, but there are still some aggressive moments.
Dunja:
On the song The Scarlet Garden you used the violin again
– though it’s used in another way then on the previous
albums - what makes me pretty happy, because I preferred the albums
from Turn Lose The Swans to Like Gods Of The Sun,
where most of the songs were dominated by this instrument. It
would be interesting if you ever thought of using the violin as
a main instrument again in the future?
Aaaron: We would like to do it, but we can’t find
anyone who is as good as Martin was. We had a couple of young
ladies, who played excellent violin, but they could play classical
violin only, they couldn’t play the same stuff that Martin
used to play, that was very unusual. Firstly playing to this kind
of music is much more different then playing Vivaldi, what sounds
very strange for me, but these two girls have been trying to play
the violin for MDB, they couldn’t really
fit in. So we are not really looking for a violin player, but
if there is someone out there who wants to join MDB
then they can come along and send a tape, they may be in the band
next year, you can never know.
Dunja:
I really hope that someone will show up.
Aaron: Yes, but we are not looking for someone.
Dunja:
As far as I didn’t get the lyrics yet and think that they
are a very essential part of every MDB album I am curious what
they are about.
Aaron: They are quite typical MDB lyrics.
They are all black and very dark, and beside the black romantic
moments there are also some kind of brutal Death Metal moments.
There is some fantasy there too, like The Blue Lotus,
this isn’t really about anything personal, it’s like
a fairytale. It’s about a forest and stuff like a sleeping
beauty. I also like writing stories now and of course some lyrics
are about personal stuff. So there’s that personal stuff,
a bit of fantasy and some stories. Pretty typical MDB
lyrics.
Dunja:
Is there something like the story to the title song of TLATEOTW,
which was a special form of writing and story-telling?
Aaron: All the lyrics are special, I hope. When you get
the CD, there aren’t all lyrics written there, so I hope
that one day the whole lyrics of Songs Of Darkness
Words Of Light will be published on the MDB
Website.
Dunja:
You did the artwork for LATEOTW and The Dreadful
Hours, but the artwork on Songs Of Darkness Words Of
Light is done by Andy Green again – didn’t you
have enough time for doing it, or was there another intention?
Aaron: I also created some artwork, but my ideas were
too strange and so our friend Andy Green, who also did the artwork
for Like Gods Of The Sun came up with
an artwork and we liked it, so we used it. Of course I wanted
to present one of my works, but mine were a bit to surreal.
Dunja:
So do you think about doing another artwork for the band in the
future?
Aaron: I hope so, I really like to do the artwork, because
the artwork is almost like the visual style of the lyrics. So
when I write the lyrics I have some depressions and when I create
the artwork I’m kind of depressed, so they are very similar
things. I created my own website, where you can see some of my
artworks and it’s located under www.azzron.com.
So you can check out what my works are about.
Dunja:
You made a video for the song The Prize Of Beauty. How
was the shot? What is the video about? Why did you choose this
song?
Aaron: We used this song because of the variety of styles
in this song. There are several parts with clean vocals and there
are fast parts with aggressive vocals and lots of melodies and
it’s a different interpretation of all MDB feelings. We
shot this video in January and it shows the guys of the band playing
their instruments. We also filmed other aspects, but unfortunately
we ran out of time and when the deadline came, the video wasn’t
finished. So the video that you will see on MTV soon unfortunately
is not finished, which is a shame. The record label made us doing
this video, because we will release a DVD later this year.
Dunja:
If I am right informed, the last video you did was the one for
For You.
Aaron: Yes, it has been a very long time since we made
the last video.
Dunja:
So why did you stop doing videos for such a long time?
Aaron: In England some TV and radio programs just disappeared,
there was no program that would play videos in the style of MDB.
MTV changed here and some other TV channels disappeared and so
the record label had no point to make an expensive video. Now
our record label seems to think that the market has changed and
there are programs that would show our video. We are not a Rock
Star Band, we don’t like to do so many videos, not like
some American bands who want to show up on MTV every week.
Dunja:
I also think it’s better to not show the video everywhere,
because there are so many people who wouldn’t understand
your music.
Aaron: That’s what I think. Too much exposure is
a bad thing.
Dunja:
You will play at this years Inferno festival next to bands like
Gorgoroth, Konkhra and Khold. How did it happen that you play
there, I mean your music is pretty different from the other playing
bands. Do you see it as a challenge or are you a bit afraid of
getting lost between those bands?
Aaron: It is a bit of a challenge. I have recently spoken
to the person who arranges the shows and she told me that the
Inferno is not as black as it used to be. It has a lot of extreme
bands, but there are also some non-extreme bands, so the organizers
felt that MDB would suit into the Inferno Fest
and so they asked us to do it and we agreed to them. It will be
kind of strange, because there will be mostly Black Metal audience,
but MDB has never been a big commercial rock
band, it’s still kind of underground. We don’t sell
many records, we are not on every single magazine nor on TV, we
don’t promote ourselves. We do things in our own artistic
way and I guess all the people still appreciate that.
Dunja:
I know that you hate to play live, but though your mimics are
really incredible, because they really express the pain and agony
of the songs authentic. Is it because you really don’t feel
comfortable on stage or can you forget about everything else around
you?
Aaron: You are right, being on stage is difficult for
me and I would much prefer not to do it. But we are a democratic
band and the rest of the guys love it, so I have to do it. When
I write lyrics, they are quite emotional, quite personal and then
when I have to sing the lyrics live, I feel the pain of the lyrics
in a difficult form, I stand on the stage in front of hundreds,
sometimes thousands of people to sing what’s in my heart.
It hurts. So I would prefer not to do it. When the show is over
I am much happier walking off stage then walking on stage.
Dunja:
How is it then to play at a big festival like With Full Force?
Is it harder then a small gig?
Aaron: It’s actually easier. Because there seem
to be less pressure, because the people aren’t all MDB
fans and they came to see lots of other bands. When we play our
own headliner shows, then it’s much more difficult, because
almost everybody there has come to see MDB, so
there is much more pressure on smaller gigs.
Dunja:
I have waited more then 6 years to see you playing live in Austria
again, the last time was the show with Type O Negative and Moonspell.
It was the first time when I got in touch with your band.
Aaron: Did you like it?
Dunja:
Sure, otherwise I wouldn’t have bought all your CDs and
stuff after it.
Aaron: Thank you very much.
Dunja:
So it would be great, if I don’t need to wait that long
again to see another MDB show. So are there any tour plans except
of the festivals? And if yes, do you think about getting to Austria?
Aaron: We played in Austria this summer.
Dunja:
I know, at the Skeleton Bash Festival
Aaron: Yeah, so where were you?
Dunja:
I was there, but I mean I don’t want to wait another 6 years
to see you again.
Aaron: We are working on live shows at the moment, there
are some festivals planed. Our booking agency tries to get us
wherever they can, but it’s not so easy in some countries.
We try to play in whole Europe, but there are some places that
we can’t play for different reasons: business, politics…
But we want to play almost everywhere. It’s not our decision,
it depends on the people who promote us.
Dunja:
I just hope that you come here next tour, because all the tours
in the past years were just in Germany or other places too far
away for me. I read that Andrew had a side project, where he plaid
Black Metal in the style of Burzum or Taake. Is it still alive?
Or does any of the other MDB Members has a side project?
Aaron: I don’t know wherefrom you have this information
about Andrew?
Dunja:
I read it in an elder interview.
Aaron: Really? I have no idea he had another band, I
never heard about it. He has a record label with Hamish, our other
guitar player, now called Black Doom Records. But as far as I
know none of the MDB members plays in another
band, because they all give it to MDB.
Dunja: Is Sarah a full member of the band, or is she just
a session live playing member like Yasmin was?
Aaron: She’s like of a full member of the band.
She is still young and not professional enough, she is still nervous,
she is not sure what to do. But she is settling in nicely and
she also played half of the songs on the album and so she is almost
a member of the band, she will be one.
Dunja:
What makes MDB what they are, what do you think makes you so unique
and special?
Aaron: This is a good question, because I don’t
really know the answer to that. As I mentioned earlier I am inside
the band looking out and you guys are outside looking in. You
must see MDB differently how I see it. Our heart
is in the right place, we have never been a commercial band. When
we formed MDB we knew that we would write some
kind of Gothic/Doom Metal, which is very uncommercial and we knew
we would never make any money. We keep been going on with this
for 14 years, the people know that we are still going on, because
we love doing this stuff. We never wanted to earn any money or
to be Rock Stars and people can see that when they talk to the
band, when they see us, we are not some guys hoping to make quick
cash. And we are always working hard and trying to keep the music
interesting, every album is interesting, the lyrics, the photographs.
We try to keep all areas of MDB interesting and
I think that’s worth it and that’s why people still
like MDB.
Dunja:
Can you express everything you want on Peaceville? Because there
are some labels that limit the bands and tell them to use certain
covers that fit into the label concept.
Aaron: We are very lucky with our record label and that’s
why we’ve always stayed with Peaceville. We didn’t
really like when they cut that video shot, we would have liked
to work more on it, but the album has already delayed, so we can’t
keep delaying the album, so we have to release a video that isn’t
really finished. But apart from that Peaceville lets us do everything
we want and we are very, very lucky because as you said some bands
get told what to do and that must be terrible.
Dunja:
In some of your songs, for example Two Winters Only,
you use phrases like “My god, what have you become, dear
lord” or “Jesus wept for men could live forever on
earth in peace”. What is your connection to god? Isn’t
it unusual to use phrases like this in a Metal Band?
Aaron: I guess it is. I don’t have any religious
believes, but as I told before, I don’t only write down
personal things into my lyrics, I also write about books I read
or things I see and it’s like a fairytale then. I mean it’s
interesting to read about religions, but that doesn’t mean,
that I believe in it. The bible is an interesting book, but I
don’t believe in it.
Dunja:
Which bands and CDs do you listen to at the moment?
Aaron: Well I don’t listen to Metal CDs at home
at the moment, because when you play in a band for such a long
time and are surrounded by Metal all the time, you have to listen
to something else also. Before I played in MDB
I played in some extreme Metal Bands and so I need to break away,
I really need to move away from it, because it takes a large piece
of my life and sometimes I have to listen to something else. Nowadays
I listen to the album of an English band called Muse, whom I really
love. So that’s what I am listening to right now.
Dunja:
Did you listen to Pantheists CD O Solitude or Swallow
The Sun – The Morning Never Came? Both of the bands
released really good Doom albums and named you as one of their
biggest influences and I can really recommend them.
Aaron: No, I don’t know them. Maybe I should check
them out on your recommendation.
Dunja:
What’s the best thing about being in a band like MDB?
Aaron: Being free to create what you want to create und
not being restricted by the record label. Some people of the band
think that the best thing is to be on stage, for some people it’s
the best think to make albums, I just like being able to be free.
If we had to change our label and they would tell us what to do,
we would just leave and it will be over.
Dunja:
On your web page you wrote that the best thing about being in
the band is that you can be drunk and no one cares about it.
Aaron laughing: I didn’t write that! Well
of course it’s something important, but I think I wrote
this when I was drunken. Because it’s definitely the freedom
to create.
Dunja:
What’s your favourite drink?
Aaron: I just like good beers and great wines. I don’t
drink spirituals like Brandy and Whiskey. I like to drink red
wine and old English Ale.
Dunja:
Your All-Time-Favourite MDB Song?
Aaron: I think it’s Two Winters Only.
Dunja:
That’s also my favourite song.
Aaron: Well it’s a great song and we tried to rehearse
it for playing it live, but I can’t sing it anymore, I don’t
know why, the vocals don’t appear to be that challenge,
but I just couldn’t sing it anymore. Unfortunately you will
never see this song live, but it has lots of emotions, it’s
well played, it has different feelings, it’s very interesting.
Dunja:
Thanks for this interview, I was waiting to do for a long time.
Your final words?
Aaron: Thanks for your interest, we didn’t have
an interview with someone from Austria for a long time.
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