Before Paradise Lost perform live in Athens for their European tour in 2022, Rock Overdose and Zisis Petkanas had the opportunity to talk to the band's legendary guitarist, Aaron Aedy. Through this discussion, we learn all about his memories from Greece, some of the biggest highlights of Paradise Lost through the years, as well as the upcoming plans of the band.
Enjoy!
ROCK OVERDOSE: Aaron, hello and welcome to Rock Overdose! How are things going with Paradise Lost these days?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): You know, it’s one of those things where you just get going again, we did a UK tour last month, the first one we’ve done for two years, so it was two weeks, where building up to it I was pretty anxious, to be honest, but the weird thing was, the minute we sat down on the tour bus with a cup of tea, it felt like nothing had happened!
The shows were really good, as a musician it’s so nice to be playing again, it’s been horrible, really, you kind of lose your purpose. A lot of people in other jobs have had the same vibe, it’s been horrible. But we’re looking forward to coming to Greece, that’s for sure. It’s the 20th anniversary of our first time in Greece this year, so we’re looking forward to it.
ROCK OVERDOSE: And I suppose you have many nice memories from Greece.
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): It’s one of the shows I always look out for! Anything we do in Greece, whether it’s festival or club, cause normally I prefer just to be playing a club show, I like getting close to the audience, I like the atmosphere a bit more than the festival. But in Greece the festival feels like a club show, there’s still a lot of atmosphere, it’s not just people rolling around in a field. I fell in love with Greece the first time we came in ’92, because I’d never heard anyone sing the guitar melodies before. I was like “wow, this place loves it, this is great!”, so it’s somewhere special for me.
ROCK OVERDOSE: So, what about your upcoming show in Athens? Will your setlist include only songs from your latest albums or are we going to also hear some classics?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): I’m not sure if we’ve finalized it, but last week we played, like, four songs from the new album, then the rest of it is a mix of all the old ones. We’ll be trying to play at least three or four from the new album, but in the UK tour I think we played five, actually.
ROCK OVERDOSE: Are you planning to play any unpublished material for your fans here?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): No, we never do that… we used to do stuff like that in the 90s’, but nowadays if you do anything different, something that isn’t released yet, it’s like you’re releasing it, because it’s on the internet within an hour, you can’t really do that anymore. Plus, it’s not just on the internet, it sounds like shit! But in the early 90s’ we did some shows before some albums, where we went under a different name, we called ourselves “The Painless”, which is the name of the fan club.
We used to do small shows where we would test our new songs before the albums came out, but you can’t really do that anymore. And anyway, we don’t have anything new, beyond the new album yet, we’ve been spending time with the side projects, wanting to make sure that we’re touring to actually promote the last album, so it’s gonna be all about the new album and lots of the history of Paradise Lost.
You know, there are some songs that pick themselves, but we like to change things around sometimes. Sometimes we pull out some obscure ones, because Waltteri wants to play them, which is pretty cool, it’s also good for us, because sometimes, you can forget some songs.
ROCK OVERDOSE: I see. So, “Symbol of Life”, one of your fans’ (and also mine) favorite albums turns 20 this year!
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): Yes, blimey! It just seems like this year it’s 30 years from “Shades of God”, 25 from “One Second”, 20 of “Symbol of Life”… it’s quite a year! I’d forgotten about “Symbol of Life”!
ROCK OVERDOSE: Time flies!
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): It really does… but you know what, “Symbol of Life” and working with Rhys (Fulber) was great fun. Rhys is a super good friend and he was great fun to record with. And there were some great songs in “Symbol of Life”! "Pray Nightfall" is one I wish we were still playing live.
ROCK OVERDOSE: Are there any plans to do something special to celebrate this anniversary?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): At the moment, we’re still trying to get the European tour together for Obsidian, so it’s kind of… I think if we knew what we were doing for the album tour, it would be easier to plan all the special things. I’m not really sure, we’re still waiting to see how certain countries are coming out, because each country has its own regulations, so it’s actually quite hard to plan a European tour.
Once we know what we’re doing with Europe, who knows, if the tour doesn’t happen properly, we might do an anniversary show or something, but at the moment we haven’t really discussed it. If we did one, it would probably be “One Second”, it was our biggest selling album and it has a lot of songs I’d love to play again.
ROCK OVERDOSE: Through time, Paradise Lost have tried different music styles. Which is your favorite period with the band?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): I’m somebody who always says “if you’re happy where you are now, then that is the best time”, cause everything leading up to it gets you there, but there’s obviously massive highlights along the way. Doing the first proper European tour was a highlight, doing the “Chaos AD” tour, that was another massive highlight, we were getting a lot of attention and we thought that Sepultura was going to be the next Metallica at this point, they were incredible live back then. It seems like all their concerts were amazing on that tour.
Through Draconian Times and One Second we’ve had some amazing times, I don’t know whether there’s a better time. We’re on the European tour, I thoroughly love that, it’s one of my favorite times, because we’re being trapped for two years, you know. I played Bloodstock Festival last year, it was the first concert for a year and a half, besides the streaming show and I was just screaming all the way through the show! I was so excited, it ended up being one of my favorite things we’ve ever done, we played the whole Draconian Times album, which we were supposed to do the year before for the 25th anniversary. It felt incredible to play live again.
That was a massive highlight for me, to be honest. But for best period, I don’t know! I think the best period is now, because I can’t believe that Paradise Lost is 34 years old and we’re still going and we’re still enjoying it! You know, I go on stage and I feel like I’m 18, then I wake up morning after the show and feel like I’m 80! But it doesn’t matter, because the show is good! So I’d say the best period is now, because the longer you go with it, especially after the pandemic, we really appreciate what we have. It’s good to be alive and it’s good to be able to do what we do, I feel so lucky! Quite humbled, that people are still interested after so long.
Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Athens show is gonna be a massive highlight, because coming to Greece, for 20 years now, has been a massive highlight for me. I’m not just saying it because I’m talking for a Greek interview, it’s one of the shows I always look for.
ROCK OVERDOSE: What do you remember from your first appearance here in Greece?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): I remember it very well! I studied ancient Greek and history lessons and the first time we came, the hotel we stayed was literally just down the hill from the Acropolis. I was so excited! I still got the ticket. I’d get up in the morning at 8:30 and go around the hotel, go up the hill, I think it was 20 drachmas to get in and just walk around the Acropolis, I couldn’t believe I was there! Then, after having that super high for the day, we’d play the concert and it was like… the people were singing the melodies and I was like “this place is amazing!”. I’d never heard that before. It was such a good vibe. People just being there to enjoy themselves, I love playing live, so it’s my favorite thing. It was a beautiful moment! I got a t-shirt from the gate, which was all in Greek writing, I wish I still had that, but I was a bit thinner then.
ROCK OVERDOSE: I see! And what are your next plans with the band?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): At the moment, it’s to try and do the tour for Obsidian really. We’ll be working on side projects a lot, because we don’t want to write a new album until we promote this one. It will probably start later this year, but it would also be lovely to do some anniversary show for either of the albums mentioned earlier, I think “One Second” would be the most likely, if we did one. It would be nice, but I think that, with everything being still up in the air, we have to wait and see.
But yeah, touring! Touring, as much as possible. We have a few shows in the States as well, still got some festivals this summer, so that’s gonna be really good to do as well.
ROCK OVERDOSE: Do you have a message to send to your Greek fans especially and to your fans worldwide?
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): We’re coming! I can’t wait, I’m so excited, playing for the Greek fans is just the remedy I need for not having played for much of the two last years. It was getting moved all the time and I was like “I need that show, I really need it and I can’t wait!”.
So please come along and enjoy the show with us! If you can’t be there, rock out with some other band if you can go see them. A lot of artists and their crews need you, so if you can support any band out there, that would be cool, but more than anything, look after yourselves and keep smiling!
ROCK OVERDOSE: Aaron, thank you so much for this interview and I hope to see you in Greece!
Aaron Aedy (PARADISE LOST): It’s been a pleasure, if you’re around there, come and say hello!
For Rock Overdose,
Zisis Petkanas
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