CRADLE : NYMPHETAMINE REPTILE...

-James : Yes, we’re definitely happy. The thing was Sony is such a big label, they have so many bands and we were one of the small bands on this label, they're not interested in a band our size, we didn’t sell shit loads immediately, as much as they thought someone like J-Lo would and they kind of lost their interest, and it’s a real shame for them, because they could have done much better with the Ozzfest tours we did, and with everything around the band, a powerful image, but they just didn’t take it, so we found a loophole in our contract and Roadrunner was waiting, they just snapped us off and gave us much more support : it’s a lot better with them, because they understand the music, they’re a small independent label, they understand metal, they’ve got experience with big bands, they know how to push big bands, press, albums a lot better than Sony might. They understand music more and they're more willing to get closer to smaller bands, because it's their bread and butter.

-What are for you the main differences with the previous Lp, considering lyrics, sound, everything?

-James : I think it’s more live : basically, James McIlroy came on board for the tour for ‘Damnation and a day’ ; everyone is writing here and there, we did a lot of touring for the album, we came off the Ozzfest and started writing and went on another tour, wrote some more and we got all this material. It has a very cohesive feel because it’s written by everyone, without any pressure because we weren't expected to be writing then, but it all came together, and the album has more of a live feel.

-Is there a general feeling for this album, or does each song have its own identity ?

-James : I think that, on this album, which makes a difference with our previous albums, each song has its own identity, its own feel. Instead of the whole album having its own vibe, its own sound, each song has an individual character to it, basically it sounds like it has something for everyone, so you go from an extreme to the other and I find it’s more fun to listen to an album which is varied, musically, than listen to one where no song really stands out.

-Maybe more guitar oriented ?

-James : Yes, and that comes from Rob Caggiano, who produced the album : he does excellent guitar sounds, he made them sound full and crunchy despise the fact that we haven't recorded that many guitars on the album, but they are very powerful, so it’s a case of less is more !

-How did you choose Rob ?

-James : Basically, he worked on the mixing for ‘Damnation and a day’, and really impressed us then, so we decided to try to make him produce the album, he worked with one of the tightest guitar players in history which is Scott Ian, so he really knows his stuff and he's got a very very good ear : so he knows about sounds, about structures and that's why the album sounds as powerful. I like Anthrax, I was very much into them when I was younger, they were excellent!

-In January, Dave Pybus, bass player, left Cradle : do you have any commentary about it ?

-James : I don't think anyone really knows what happened with Dave, he really needed a break and sometimes it’s better to let someone have a break than push him and push him on until they kind of break in some ways. It’s a good thing he left, he’s finding his own world back again and just gets everything back together. We’ll see what happens there, but there's no bad blood at all, it was his own decision, it wasn't based on anything special. I still live right next to him, and we still go out for drinks, and nothing really changed, apart from the fact that I don’t see him on stage anymore, which is a bit weird, but... !

-Keyboards are very important in Cradle, as well as guitars, but the use of keyboards was very controversial among the true black metal fans : what do you think about it ?

-James : Something new is always labeled as controversial, because no one has ever heard it before, it’s quite simple : as soon as you do something new, or different, it’s controversial, and people say that you can’t do that because all the other bands are doing it like this and you’ve got to be like all the other bands. My opinion is more that doing something new is not controversial, it's creating your own identity rather than just following the crowd. So, Cradle was controversial because Cradle wasn’t following themselves : what could people say about that ?

-Tell me more about the new version of the record : there are two new songs, three covers and a video...

-James : We had the opportunity to put two new songs we had written already but that didn’t make it to the album because they’re very different from the rest. We liked both songs so we needed to record them and we chose songs to cover because we like the bands : we like Ozzy Osbourne, and that version of Mr Crowley’ is fantastic ; and who doesn’t like Bathory ?

-And...Cliff Richard ?

-James : Yes, Cliff Richard’s was an odd one, I must admit that it raised a couple of eyebrows, but I think it came out really really well, and it's something unexpected and different instead of just covers of metal songs like we’ve done before : covering something that isn’t metal at all is fun. People are wondering what we’re doing ! I think it’s cool ! And King Diamond singing on it, it’s so...metal ! ! !

-Did you get any reaction from Cliff Richard ?

-James : No, not that I know of, but he didn’t say no to us covering him, but I don’t know what his reaction has been at all. I just hope he probably plays it ten time a day, just listening to it !

-I read that one of your English fans, Dale Wilson, was arrested in January for wearing one of your ‘Jesus is a cunt’ t.shirt : do you still often have that kind of problems in other countries ?

-James : It’s the same thing with any religion : people can understand that they can go off and insult any religion which isn’t their. But when it comes to their own, they get really offended if you say something. As a person, I don't believe in anything, let’s make a statement about that : you see much worse on TV everyday, worse things happen in the world, much worse violence, and yet people get an uproar about a couple of letters on the back of a T-shirt, and you’ve got this whole thing about freedom expression. It’s not as if he's alive or anything, or possibly even real. People get really touchy when it comes to things like that, and I'm more surprised when it’s happening in England, I expected a lot more of these arrests to happen in America. When we were over there, we were selling the ‘Jesus is a cunt’ T-shirts , and nothing was said about it, I thought we would be picketed in the Midwest by religious fanatics, with pitchforks, that just never happened. There’s still problems with it, but it's such an old T-shirt, much worse is happening, there’s a bit of hypocrisy from a lot of people, for something that small and insignificant as a T-shirt, they can waste so much press, so much time...and it’s good for us ! No press is bad press ! But at the same time, they should be going off and finding more constructive to do with their time, to be honest.

-What bands made you wish to be in a band ?

-James : Iron Maiden ! Straight up, that's what did it for me ! I was ten-eleven years old, and they were just gods ! Maiden made me want to play guitar, to be in a band and play music. And all the other bands reinforced the same thing, but it has always been Maiden. I still look up to the now, the kid feeling never leaves when it comes to Maiden ! I think they still influence my guitar play today, but also Megadeth, Paradise Lost, old Sepultura, Morbid Angel, Ozzy, a bunch of other stuff. For Maiden again, I loved twin harmonies on guitars : Dave Morris is God, man ! The rest of the band will maybe be against me on that one, but it’s alright ! ! !

-Could you tell some records which changed your life at one moment ?

-James : ‘Killers’ by Iron Maiden changed my life. It’s the first Maiden album I bought, on a tape, and you can't say it's Iron Maiden’s Killers’ coz it was played so many times that the tape has gone a very strange color, and I can hardly hear it, it’s worn out completely. That definitely changed my life. Then you have Morbid Angel, album 'Domination’, which got me into fast and extreme music, as well as Paradise Lost, which got me into a more extreme kind of vocals. Everyone has to go though a transition to get to that stage where they understand it. Most people think it's noise and then it clicks and you realize it's not quite noise, it's like a distorted guitar. It's like another instrument.

-You’re filming a new DVD this week end in Paris...

-James : Yes, and most of it was filmed yesterday, but because we would only fit so many cameras in, we’ll do a lot of close ups today, make it more relaxed and try to do the same make up as yesterday, which should be a challenge, because I can’t remember what I did yesterday ! But I think it’s a very good place to shoot a DVD, because the crowd in Paris is always amazing, you forget how loud they are, how nuts they go, and it’s a very good place to record a DVD. There will not be only live footage, you’ll also have the usual of us falling about drunk, and many other things ! We will try to cram in it as much as possible and make it good value for money and a very good package. We’ll try to make people laugh, as well as enjoy the live show, of course ! There’s also a book on the way, and there's always something going on around Cradle. When you’re in a full time band, you can’t really never sit back and rest and relax because you’ve got competition, so you always try and move forward as a band, and if you rest six month a year, then you can just stagnate, I guess, and get lose touch with what you’re doing. If you’re a musician, you don’t really want to sit about on yourself for a year, just smoking cigarettes and watching TV or playing Playstation. You want to write, to be creative, come up with new ideas to push the band forward.

-Doug Bradley, from Hellraiser / pinhead fame, appears on the record...

-James : Yes ! Great ! When he came up to the station, I screamed because it was Pinhead ! But without his pins in the head, it’s Doug Bradley ! I think his voice is so nice to have a narration, just gives an extra dimension of atmosphere! I definitely find that the music of Cradle would fit in that kind of movie. I think that Cradle’s music has this creepiness to it, darkness that would really fit in with horror movies. I would love to do that, to compose for that kind of film, something where people could get chopped up ! Lots of blood and gore, excellent !

-Did you know that Coil composed a soundtrack for Hellraiser, which was rejected by their label at the time ?

-James : That happens ! There are lots of bands now like Ulver doing soundscapes, soundtracks then move away completely from where they started, to a more ambiant territory. If they'd done it now, I think they would have gained a lot more acceptance than back then. But that’s because the boundaries have changed !

-If Cradle or your life was a movie ?

-James : Myself as a movie, would be a mixture of disaster and comedy, close to slapstick movies, where everything goes wrong but is still funny !

-After those years in Cradle, how do you feel to have become such an icon yourself today ?

-James : Is it weird, to be honest, it’s a bit strange, because I didn’t expect to get this far : even when I first auditioned, I did it for kind of a joke, because I thought I would never get this, this will never happen, but I gave it a try anyway, just to see what happened really ; then I got the chance to go for a tour, which was cool, and then played on an album ; I thought something very strange was happening, and each member of the band kind of falls into it, in some strange ways, everyone has a different strange story to tell you how do they got to the stage. So it’s still strange, but I kind of start to be used to it, as I always do in any situation, I adapt to it, but it’s still weird to look at four years ago, people standing outside the venues waiting to see bands play, and now, people coming to see us play, and now I’m standing on the stage, and the transition has been kind of gradual in a way, it just crept in, but it still feels strange, definitely. It’s fun, for me personally, when some kid comes to the show and goes "I want to play guitar" or any other instrument, then there’s your job done, as an entertaining musician is to inspire other people, and I feel very lucky to be able to do that, to be able to have a kind of influence, it is still very strange, but if you do your job properly and get people to play and express themselves, then, you’ve made a mark !

Interview made in Paris, April 3rd 2005.

Thanks to Karine and Sabrina, from Roadrunner France.

Trad : JPC & Marie Lecocq.