Cradle Of Filth recently wrapped up the US Viva La Bands 2 tour, headlining, with a diverse bill including Gwar & Vains Of Jenna. I caught up once again with guitarist & founding member Paul Allender. Paul played on the 1st 2 COF albums (Principle Of Evil Made Flesh & vEmpire), before going on hiatus with various other projects (Blood Divine, etc..) & then returned to Cradle for albums like Damnation & A Day, Nymphetamine & Thornography.

MH: How has the Viva tour been?

PAUL ALLENDER: it’s been going well, we’ve only got tonight & tomorrow to go & then we’re at home. It’s been going well, it’s certainly been a different mixture of bands but everybody’s getting on really well. Surprisingly, for the lack of promotion it’s had it’s done really well.

MH: Did Bam approach you about this?

PA: Yeah, there was talk about it, I remember when we first heard about it, it was like that’d be pretty cool, then it was on, then it was off. Then when we found out they wanted us to headline I figured let’s do it & see how it turns out & it’s turned out really well.

MH: Do you see different crowds than a typical Cradle gig?

PA: Yeah, there are definitely different kids. It’s a bit odd cause you get hardcore Gwar fans coming up & vice versa with Cradle fans all doing the same so it’s quite weird, but it’s good though. Eventually by the time we finish playing everybody’s into it.

MH: Has anything been written for the next album?

PA: Yeah, we’ve got 4 or 5 new tracks now. We go in the studio in January. The new stuff is nothing like the last album is. It’s a lot harder. It’s a lot-lot faster. We’ve brought all the huge keyboards & the choirs & the orchestras back into it again.

MH: Do you think it’ll have a conceptual vibe?

PA: I don’t know. It depends what Dan wants to write about lyric-wise. I know we’re not writing the music as in like a concept album or anything. We’re just basically writing stuff & seeing how it turns out.

MH: Any covers you’d like to try?

PA: No, we’re pretty much gonna bang the idea of cover songs on the head. I think “Temptation” was the last resort for me.

MH: Are you still playing PRS guitars?

PA: Yeah, that’s all I do play. I’ve got my signature series out in shops.

MH: What are the specifications on it?

PA: It’s a flat body. It’s basically an SE model. It’s a Korean made version. It’s still got all the bats on there. It’s still got the black sunburst, the coated top, gold hardware. Basically what they’ve done is change the pick-ups a little bit on it to make it sound a lot heavier. It’s amazing how heavy they sound. I’ve had 2 or 3 delivered to me on tour. I gave them to people in support bands. I’ve seen they’ve played them & they’ve gone this guitar is amazing; it plays itself. It’s cool as hell. You can get that in shops. If anybody wants to buy a private stock version they can as well, but that’s ridiculously expensive.

MH: Do you still practice much?

PA: I try. At the end of the day I do a hell of a lot in this band. I don’t get time to practice, to be fair. The way I practice is usually when I’m writing, that’s my practice time. Then eventually I’ll write stuff, which I find really hard to play, & (when) you come around to recording it you can play it inside out, back to front & that’s your practice time really.

MH: What’s your philosophy on leads? Do you write lines or improvise?

PA:  I can’t improvise to save my life. I prefer to write them. To be fair I’m not really into all the widdly super shred-y stuff. To me it’s boring & a waste of time. I prefer to write more melodic lines, something that enhances the rhythm tracks & makes the particular song (better), whatever it is. Because you could be the best shredder in the world & you could play it to any punter & it’ll go straight over their head. Unless you were playing for another musician, then they’re obviously going to appreciate it. I’d much rather write cool harmony melody lines, or anything like that, which is really spaced out & people get into it & they’ll go, listen to it, this bit’s coming, if it’s like a slow melody line or something & that’s the thing that gets me, is playing that sort of thing. You could play the speed-shred stuff to an average Joe in the street & they’ll just go what the fucking hell is that?

MH: Then it becomes part of the song, where crowds can sing along to it.

PA: Exactly! I’ve written a lot of melody lines for this band & had the crowd actually humming or singing the guitar melody lines while I’m playing it. That’s amazing, but you’re not gonna get someone trying to sing like a hundred mile an hour shredding solo are you? The whole shredding thing doesn’t do it for me.

 “Between Me & Dan, We Do Everything Basically”

MH: Do you think the non-metal stuff you listen to comes out in any direct or in-direct ways?

PA: Sometimes. When I wrote “Rise Of The Pentagram” it did, cause “Rise Of The Pentagram” is based all around jazz chord progressions, nobody had thought of that.

MH: Al Dimeola type stuff.

PA: Yeah, that type of thing. Totally! I like the whole jazz chord progression thing. It’s really good. I just sit there strumming away with old jazz classics & it’s a good laugh.

MH: In the early 90’s Cradle resembled a British version of Norwegian Black Metal. Were you aware of that scene?

PA: Yeah, we were aware of it, but they basically did us a favor, because when we first started out they point blank refused us acceptance. So we went off & basically thought big. We were just out on our own. Nobody would accept us into that scene. We just went fuck you then & wrote our own stuff, but in an English based version of it & they still interested us, but it’s quite funny.  We haven’t added to any of that (style) because they wouldn’t accept Cradle for what we were. They wouldn’t accept the music for what we were  & basically shut us out. So we went well fuck you then, we’ll go & do our thing! That’s what we’ve done & now we’re god knows how many times bigger than what they are.

MH: Was that ever frustrating?

PA: It just drove us that much more. As a band we’ve never gone ah fuck, that’s not happening, let’s stop it; we’ve always gone well that hasn’t happened, fuck them; we’re gonna go & do it ourselves & that’s the idea we’ve got with everything. We’ve got a get up & go vibe, which is, if anything gets in the way or it doesn’t work we find a way around to getting it done.

MH: Do you still do designs for merchandise?

PA: Yeah, all stuff like that I’m still doing. I’m gonna start (work for) another DVD soon. I’ve done live videos for us. The last one was “Tonight In Flames.”

MH: Anything filmed from this current tour?

PA: Little bits, because it’s not our tour. We’re not allowed to film anything or do anything like that because of the whole Bam thing, so it won’t be for this tour. It’ll be for stuff we’ve used in the past, to up & coming stuff.

MH: Back in ’95, how did leaving Cradle lead into doing The Blood Divine & did you do anything else musically in that time?

PA: Just before I left we wrote Dusk & Her Embrace, from that (I started) The Blood Divine, which was really good cause it was a completely different style of music. Basically I wanted to play something different to be honest. After Blood Divine I set up a band called Primary Slaves & it had really catchy songs. It was a mixture of Strapping Young Lad & Fear Factory, but before Fear Factory really got big on the stuff. When the Slipknot thing came out, it wasn’t as bouncy as that but it was similar. It was before Slipknot got big, but instead of having a deejay guy we had a program called Igoff. We were programming & sampling hardcore Dutch techno samples. We had techno samples going  & it sounded fucking amazing.

MH: Did the percussive riffs get boring?

PA: Oh yeah, totally! The whole stoner rock thing was good, & then when the second Blood Divine album came out I didn’t like it. I fucking hate Hammond organs! I actually hate it with a vengeance, but the keyboard player at the time put Hammond all over it & I said what are you doing? It’s not what the bands about.  Then the singer tried to sing, when he can’t. He’s fucking brilliant doing the gruff stuff on that but he can’t hold a note & it didn’t work. So I went fuck it, this isn’t what I was into when we first started.  The whole thing went really gay so I thought stuff this. I’d done a (new) demo & played a few gigs & kids went absolutely mental over it, which is amazing & then I was just about to sign a contract with Primary Slaves the day before or the day after Dan called me up to ask me to come back into Cradle. When I came back, Rob, the bass player we had at the time was like what are you doing? & I said well I wanna play this, & he says but I’ve heard your stuff, it’s fucking amazing & personally I think you’re gonna be a fucking idiot, so who knows.

MH: Is it true that you & Dani are the only 2 official members?

PA: Yeah.

MH: How did that come about?

PA: I don’t know. Between Dan & I we do everything basically. The others don’t get a look in at all.  It’s just the way it happened. The pair of us have got a massive drive to push this forward. As far as I’m concerned it is the- be all & end all of my existence. It’s what I’m here to do, is this band.  Albeit if people get in my way I don’t care, it’s just what I’m here to do & as far as I know Dan feels the same way. We’re just gonna keep pushing & pushing it. It just so happens that we are the original members from when we first started. It’s just the way it’s turned out.

MH: Any chance of releasing the early demos?

PA: The thing is they’re all out there, so it’d be a complete waste of time because everybody’s got them anyhow. There’s so many bootleg CD’s of those demos out. It’s just ridiculous.

MH: Do you guys have any masters of those that are better quality?

PA: Well no, they’re on tape. They’re on cassette so there’s like no urc to see who’s doing it.

MH: Do you think you’ll ever do a box set of a collection of everything?

PA: Possibly, if it was actually on the same record label I’d say yes, cause pretty much every album’s got a completely different record label, so that’s pretty much not even possible, because trying to get that many record companies to agree on the same thing would just be a nightmare.

MH: Would you ever wanna re-record any of the other old tunes?

PA: Possibly, like I said though it’s just down to he bloody record companies. We’ve talked about stuff like this before with past labels & just to be a pain in the ass they’ve gone no you’re not doing it, so none of the past labels actually wanna help. It’s just (how) record labels (are) in general.

MH: It seems like it’d just draw more attention to those albums, publicity wise.

PA: I know, but unfortunately they don’t think like that.

MH: Do you think stuff like the “Jesus Is A Cunt” shirt, actually helped the band in the long run?

PA: Absolutely, that shirt out-sells Marilyn Manson for Christ sake.  It’s absolutely fucking huge. There was no way we would’ve actually thought that shirt would’ve got that big.

MH: How did that idea come about?

PA: Just drunk one night at a party. Actually the best things usually happen under the influence of alcohol.