Interview with Dani Filth by David Lee Wilson

They're creepy and they're kooky, altogether spooky and perhaps even a bit contrived but that doesn't stop CRADLE OF FILTH from making records or in this case a DVD. Before long there will be a live disc and new studio release on a major label to add to your collection of demonic porn and all the while Satan is laughing his pointy tail off as he spreads his wings in flight to catch the next CRADLE OF FILTH show.
Dani Filth, CRADLE OF FILTH's vocalist/leader, is the Napoleon character of Black Metal, short in stature, big on vision and with a boundless drive to direct his crew along the path to Hell. It is this combination of personality factors that is most responsible for carrying CRADLE OF FILTH from a group that industry folks openly laughed at to potential Metal superstars and kiddy cash siphons for Sony Music's masters in Tokyo. I can't help but think Dani wets himself just at the thought of having people's impression of him turn from goof to god and I am right there with him, well not peeing myself but anytime somebody can pull one over on mainstream industry dickheads I do want in on the laugh.
It's not like we are old buddies or anything so the reason for Filth to phone was to promote the current COF project which, as already mentioned, is a DVD, "HEAVY LEFT HANDED AND CANDID", and a fine collection of music and images it is. In its laser etchings you will see the live, the uncut the raw and plenty of the stupid but most of all you will see a giant phallic gesture aimed at the heart of the mainstream and that alone is reason enough to buy or in my case, to take the call.

This time out it is a DVD that you have to offer us, this is the second in fact, is it not?
Actually, in terms of DVD's this is our first. We did put out a long form VHS before the likes of DVD actually came into effect.
Does this DVD format allow you to do anything that you couldn't have done before?
Yeah, the DVD itself has quite an amount of material on it for instance there is a live concert which is the basis of the DVD and that was recorded at Nottingham Rock City on the 14th of April of last year which just happened to be Good Friday.(laughs) That is eleven tracks filmed with eight cameras and it looks pretty good and sounds even better. The DVD format allowed us to put on three promo-videos as well as an hour long documentary called, "Sifting through Filth" which is basically an amalgam of tour footage and various other things like photo shoots. It is actually quite funny in the line of like how "SPINAL TAP" is funny. Also it allowed us to put on a trailer for our Horror movie which is called, "CRADLE OF FEAR," some downloads and web links, a link to our on-line gallery and various other little things. It enabled us to also doctor the title page and title sequences so that it all moves with effects and as with most DVD's when you flip onto index chapters you can get CGI effects and we were able to incorporate a lot of that. There is a lot of stuff on it, I think that the total running time is about 160 minutes.
With the use of the DVD technology to show so much of the band and the other videos that are available do you worry about losing some of the mystique that surrounds the band?
(Laughing) I would say that this DVD definitely destroys the mystique especially the feature on the DVD entitled, "The Blair Twit Project." That was the culmination of a night on various substances, lots of booze and that, and it was the last night in the studio when we recorded "MIDIAN." Whilst this DVD was being compiled we were on tour in America and subsequently the director of the video found this footage and that is why we called it "The Blair Twit Project" because it was us lost and drunk in the woods. He decided to put it all into a little documentary that was like nine or ten minutes long and that in itself could totally destroy our career. It is appalling!(laughs) It was quite apt though the way that it was found and the way that it was put together and though we do look like complete cocks in it is something that fans may want to see.
Scenes of you listening to Brittany Spears and such?(laughs)
Oh well, no but there is a whole career ahead of us yet.(laughs) The documentary is my favorite part really because it really was a labor of love. It was all just compiled by the band with footage from America on there and everything. It is all seriously shot and authentic material but it fell so much into place to become this shockumentary like "SPINAL TAP," it brings a sort of humane touch to the proceedings.
Is this the last of the independent releases for CRADLE OF FILTH now that you have signed on with a major label?
That is right, we signed to Epic Records which is a division of Sony in America and it was obviously a massive opportunity for us, one that we have worked quite hard toward. We haven't yet but I can foresee some people giving us some flack for entertaining the notion of being on something as big and corporate as this music label but I feel that the only way is up and for the benefit of bands like ourselves moving to a major and having major financial backing to improve records and production and touring, it will only help the scene and lift the scene up. It will lift up other bands and the scene will grow and therefore everybody will be happy.
Then again what are you going to do when someone comes to you and says, "We can't get this in Wall Mart unless you remove the naked breasts, change the lyrics and invert all the crosses?"
What we have actually done is to form an imprint called "Abra Cadaver" on which the last record, the DVD and the forthcoming "live" album are released on and although our parent company will be Epic Records "Abra Cadaver" will serve as the utility to release stuff without the said corporate fingers pointing and pressing and making us conform to what they want to do. We were actually signed by the head of Epic in the UK and Europe and the reason that he signed us, which he has made pretty clear to us, is that he doesn't understand what we are doing.(laughs) That is to be honest of him but he likes it and he wouldn't fuck with the ingredients and ruin the cake as it were. He likes what we do and what we do is up to us. As long as that rings true I will have no bones with it but we will see.
That is great to hear. Back some twenty years ago Epic signed Ozzy Osbourne in a similar way and had no idea what to do with him and some beautiful music came out of it probably just because they didn't know what to do with it.
Yes. In fact, about three quarters of the way through writing our new album and we have disappeared off to a location in Wales with a deadline for the end of this week so we did it, we finished writing it and are now for the next five weeks it is sort of the continual spit and polish. We also have rehearsals for Donnington which also links us to Ozzy because we will be doing the British Ozz-Fest.
Yes, well let me ask you this, last year you were to appear on the American Ozz-Fest but pulled out of that which was disappointing to many especially because you would have been one of the few groups without a turntabelist...
Or baggy trousers!(laughs)
Right! What happed?
I know, it was unfortunate because we were asked to do that and we were also asked to go out on tour with SLIPKNOT at one point but both things had to be turned down because the label manager for Epic put his foot down basically. He said that basically before any vast commitment to touring he wanted an album and that the album was his number one priority. In a way I can see it. This summer we were asked to go on the American leg of the Ozz-Fest again and we had to decline again because we are do to be in the studio in June right through the end of August. And then there is the subsequent shit to deal with, press duties and videos and everything else that makes a record wonderful.
Has the band evolved since the last time around or have we managed to stick with the same band for two projects in a row?(laughs)
(Laughing) Oh yeah, we are all stuck with each other! We have had a change since the last record, Robin Graves who was pretty much the foundation of the band or a founding member of the band has left. He actually left before the American tour and his replacement then and now is Dave P who was formerly with ANATHEMA. On the American tour he was merely standing in but once we came back from America we went to do the "Tattoo the Planet" shows in Europe and he was the bass player for that as well so when it came to the writing process we said, "Why are we looking for someone else, we have this guy here who knows the stuff as well as anyone else and has already shared two stuffy tour busses with us!"(laughs) So yes, that is the only change. I can not personally sight the reasons for Rob leaving, I know that it has been an amicable thing though. He was recently married and he is very much into his wife and she wants to move closer to London for a job and I just think that he wants a fresh change of direction. He has been in this band for quite a while so it does seem a little strange but who am I to judge?
Especially when things look to be happening on such a grand scale for you all. All the work to get here and not staying, must be one hell of a woman!(laughs)
Hopefully!(laughs)
Will you be trying to fit in any other touring to support this DVD, other than what you have already mentioned for live dates?
No, in fact the only two live dates that we have are the Ozz-Fest which is May the 25th and on the 24th we are doing a low key small warm up show in Oxford for about 400. It is kind of a first come, first served ticket via our web site so those are basically our only two shows. The next ones would be in Russia at the end of October and then a tour of South America including all of the scarier places like Chile and Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil etc. And then we will do a small tour of larger venues in Europe towards the back end of the year, which would culminate in our usual Christmas show on home ground in London on the 14th of December. The next time that the States will see us on full tour will be early next year, January to be precise.
It is interesting that you should use the term "Low Key," I don't think I have heard that term being applied to CRADLE OF FILTH before.(laughs)
Well it is going to be the most low key than we have done for a while but I think it will probably be one of the most fun for a while. I think that we need that kind of wake up call because it will be 400 people in a small sweaty club compared to the 70,000 in a massive field the following day.
Are you losing all the production and just going out to play, kind of naked I guess?
I think pretty much so, yes. Our lighting guy is a little bit miffed about it all and he is looking at the dimensions of this venue and going, "What? I can't do a fucking thing with this!" Yeah, it is just going to be a hot and sweaty one, just the kind of kick up the ass you need for playing a big gig that we need.
At the risk of offending someone's wife or girlfriend, nice pair of legs on whomever it is serving you a drink in the DVD, who do they belong to?(laughs)
Oh, that is actually one of our friends that helped out and also appeared in, are you aware of the film that we appeared in?
Yes.
"CRADLE OF FEAR," which has only just come out here in England, straight to rental of course.(laughs) That is mainly due to the fact that it is a total blood-fest! Anyway, the producer responsible for the film was actually responsible for the videos from "From the Cradle to Enslave" and "Her Ghost in the Fog" and a couple of years back we came up with the notion of him returning back to his main forte which was horror and what initially started as a flagship for the band kind of slowly morphed into a full-scale production so though it shares some of the name, "CRADLE OF FEAR," and it does feature the band and myself in cameo roles it is actually a fully fledged British horror film. It is very much in the vein of something like "EVIL DEAD" or the early Peter Jackson films, "BAD TASTE" and "BRAIN DEAD." It kind of runs in the same line as "PULP FICTION" in that there are four stories that all interlock and interrelate and is kind of reminiscent of the English Amicus Films productions of the 70's. It is slick and pretty street-wise and shot in North London. It is brutal, psychologically brutal and visually brutal.
Will there be another one, a part two?
Well, it has actually received such good reviews in Fangoria and a few other magazines that there is talk of people actually funding, in a proper way, a second or a sequel or a prequal or something else along the same lines. Coming back to your original question, it was one of the female stars of that movie that the legs belong to.(laughs)
Yes, well hopefully we will see more of her.(laughs) This is a bit strange but in this is the third consecutive interview that I have done with a member of CRADLE OF FILTH where there have been sirens in the background. I would think hat you have a track running in the background or something but each time we have done this in a different city, they must be following you!(laughs)
Yeah! I just bought a new house. I used to live in a small village and now I live in a large town on one of the main roads or routes into town so we do get some police traffic.
Is it closer to work for you?
No, just a bigger house!(laughs)
http://www.cradleoffilth.com/
http://www.myspace.com/cradleoffilth

*Click here to read an interview with them from Winter 2000*