Cradle Of Filth released their 14th album "The Screaming Of The Valkyries", and a few days before its release (the inteview was held on 17th of March), Dani Filth talked to RockOverdose and Apostolos Pantazoglou about the album, its inspiration, the new members of the band and life on tour.
RockOverdose: Good evening Dani and welcome to RockOverdose. How are you?
Dani Filth: I’m very well!
RockOverdose: In a few days “The Screaming Of The Valkyries”, the 14th album of Cradle Of Filth is being released. How do you feel?
Dani Filth: Yeah I’m pretty excited. The album was delivered last July, so I've kind of got second wind on feeling excited. And naturally, I've done plenty of interviews of late about the album. So yeah, I'm excited. I've got a big signing in HMV in London on Saturday as well, to mark the occasion, which I'm also looking forward to.
RockOverdose: You already released three singles from this album. And I read all the comments on the YouTube and on Facebook, and people are really excited. And they really dig the songs so far.
Dani Filth: Yeah, that's really cool. We have 3 tracks already out there “Malignant Perfection”, “To Live Deliciously” and “White Hellebore”.
RockOverdose: Something that I’ve noticed on many of the comments, was that Zoe's (Marie Federoff – keyboards, vocals) addition to the band brings something really fresh and it sounds really cool. And I can’t agree more with that.
Dani Filth: Well, yes. I mean you can call them new members. They've been in the band three years, which is 21 years in musician’s life (laughs). But yeah, I think both Donny (Burbage – guitars) and Zoe have brought something to the band. And I think the songwriting has enabled certain aspects to shine. I think if you place a duet or female vocals carefully, it can be very effective. And I think it's pretty effective on “White Hellebore”, “Non Omnis Moriar” and “Demagoguery”, I think.
RockOverdose: So you agree that it fits perfectly to the whole sound of this new album?
Dani Filth: Yeah, absolutely. Everybody was, even if they were considered new members, were expected to work on the record and contribute to its construction. So, yes, I think it worked really well because she's a very good singer. She's got the right tonality. I think it also works very well because the parts were written for her by this new lineup. I think both in tandem have allowed for some pretty new and versatile sort of additions to the sound.
RockOverdose: You've been with them for quite some time, so you guys know how to work together. I mean, they knew the songs, they knew how you work. So I guess it was a bit easier to do the recording of the album.
Dani Filth: Well, absolutely. Post-pandemic, we played a lot of shows. We played everywhere. We felt like we had to make up to our audience for being away. And subsequently, we would have played plenty with Donny and Zoe. And I think we played at least six or seven different playlists. So they got adapted to the sound. And they were fans of the band beforehand, so that always helps as well to get people in the right frame of mind.
RockOverdose: Back on the album. Where did you draw the inspiration about the album and what's the meaning of the title, “The Screaming Of The Valkyries”?
Dani Filth: The album's all about escapism and it doesn't unilaterally, it doesn't join. There are nine different songs and there are many themes on the record. Τhe album actually derives from a line in the last song, “When Misery Was A Stranger”. It concerns itself with the fact that we're mere seconds away from midnight on the doomsday clock. And metaphorically speaking, if you were to hear the screaming from the heavens of the Valkyries, you would know it was the end of everything. It would be Ragnarök and yeah, it would be a big cataclysmic moment.
So I think that the title stands for cataclysm. Much in the same way, as you would know, there would be pure finality if you were standing on a beach or to witness a huge tidal wave above you or be standing near a volcano when it erupts. Or dare I say, more likely a hydrogen bomb going off above a city and you're like, you see the cloud.
And it would be that inevitability of complete fatality. So aside from sounding like a very good heavy metal album title, it also has some dark connotations. But that being said, the album actually has quite a positive message, even if it does end on what pertains to be more of a dark one, almost like a warning, I guess, at the end.
RockOverdose: So it's not a concept album. It's just standalone songs.
Dani Filth: Yes most people assume it's a concept album because we've done a few (laughs).
RockOverdose: When you were writing this album, did you have in mind your older sound or something similar or you just write whatever comes to you?
Dani Filth: No, we write whatever comes to us. There's not a checklist. Basically, everybody was given free rein to write material. And we usually start by filling a Dropbox folder up with riffs, which then Martin (Škaroupka – drums, keyboards) works on.
And then we start piecing songs together, which we had a good job of doing on the road across America. We would whole up in a couple of hotel rooms on days off and collate songs. And that process carries on backward and forward.
Obviously, we have opportunity on the road to play those songs or when we have rehearsal days before tours. It's just an ongoing process, really. But yes, when we write an album, it's really a clean slate.
RockOverdose: So it's a collective work from all the members of the band.
Dani Filth: Absolutely.
RockOverdose: You're leaving for the US next month and then some festival shows in Europe. Are you going to add a second leg of European tour?
Dani Filth: No. This year we're spending mostly in America. Then we have a handful of like headline shows with Nervosa who are supporting us in between festival shows of the summer. And then we go to South America, although it hasn't been announced yet. And then we'll see what happens at the end of the year. There may be some more European stuff. Don't know just yet. There's many options open to us at the present. Next year we will be in Europe.
RockOverdose: I would like to ask about your other projects, if you don't mind? The Devilman and the Temple Of The Black Moon. Are there any news regarding these bands?
Dani Filth: I'm working on the Temple Of The Black Moon slowly and surely every time I can get to LA to work with my friend Rob Caggiano. I'm actually going to pop out there in a couple of weeks time, just prior to the American tour.
As for Devilman, that's on a permanent hiatus at the moment. I just don't have time for that. That was a lot of work and coupled with how busy Cradle Of Filth are at the moment and how busy my personal life is as well. I just don't have the time for it. It was great when it lasted. I just don't want to drag it out or make it painful. I'd rather leave it with good memories. We had a great time doing it and two really great records.
RockOverdose: Well, you need some personal time as well. It's not everything about music. You need some, you know, family time.
Dani Filth: Absolutely. It's important.
RockOverdose: Talking about touring, I forgot to ask you, you were supposed to play two gigs in Greece last year, but unfortunately you played only once. So you have to, you know, let's say fix that and return to Thessaloniki (laughs).
Dai Filth: Oh yes. Our bus had an accident in Turkey, in Istanbul, trying to leave a car park. The trailer caught, flipped over, smashed against the bus and then tore off the back of the bus. And we managed to get it fixed in six hours, which was unbelievable with the premise that we'd easily make the show. But then we got to the Turkish border. We were supposed to be there at like 5 in the morning but we got there at 12:30 and the queue was miles. And then we befriended a customs woman whose friend was a fan of the band. So she got photos and autographs and we gave her a t-shirt and whatever in the hope that they'd expediate it because we said, we've got a gig in Greece. But once we went through what she was doing, it just took as long as it took. So we weren't going to be able to get to Thessaloniki until like 10:30 at night. We wouldn't have been on stage till almost 1:00 in the morning.
My partner was in Greece at the time, in Athens. So they dropped me off when we knew the gig couldn't happen at all. It was impossible. And I just flew to Athens that night and the rest guys just drove slowly down.
But yes, it was a real pain in the ass ‘cause we were very much looking forward to it. Obviously we spent the night in Istanbul trying to get the bus fixed. In fact, the bus was fixed in record time. I was like, “this is not going to get fixed in like two days”. And they fixed it in six hours because the whole back of the bus had ripped off like that. All the fairing and all the connector for the trailer and the trailer had flipped and broken and snapped. It all got fixed in six hours. It's just the border fucked us up.
RockOverdose: Yeah. I have personal experience from that. I know. Because I live really close.
Dani Filth: Thing is, I said to the booking agent, why are we doing the gig in Turkey one night and then Greece the next? And they said, “It will be fine. Don't worry”. Which in truth it would have been had we not have had the incident with the bus.
RockOverdose: Well, it happens. I mean, life on the road, you never know what happens.
Dani Filth: Yeah, exactly. We had the same thing happen to us. Well, not the same thing, but our bus just broke down at the very end of the last European tour just before Christmas in Amsterdam. And we made the show, but we didn't get there to about 9:00. So we did have no support bands. So in that normally it takes about four hours, four or five hours to set everything up. They did it in two. So I think we were on stage at 11.
RockOverdose: I would like to ask about a collaboration that you announced a couple of years ago with Ed Sheeran. I know that you cannot say a lot of stuff because there's a lot of things pending, but how did that happen?
Dani Filth: It happened because he's local to me. There was something said in the press about him being a fan of Cradle Of Filth and somehow the managers spoke and went very well. And they joked about a collaboration because Ed used to be a fan and then it was put to Ed and he was like, “Yeah, sure”. And it took a while before his schedule and our schedule aligned, but it's done. It's just that we're not releasing it at the present because we've got an album coming out and there's a blast radius of no contact about that. And then he's got something coming out. I don't know what it is. Can't say, but there's a blast radius around that. So once those are dispensed with, and there's a bit of clear air, then we'll release it.
RockOverdose: Just before we close this interview would you like to say anything to your Greek fans, you know, there are a lot of them.
Dani Filth: Yes of course. We love playing Greece and that's why it pissed me off so much that we missed that show. They were trying to get us to divert, to do that after the Athens show, but it would have meant we wouldn't have gotten the next gig on time. And then it would have thrown us off as well with like mileage and everything like that. But we will make it up. We promise we will do. Bu thank you so much for being continued fans of Cradle Of Filth. New album “The Screaming of The Valkyries”, I think will be very much, appreciated by everybody I hope judging by some of the reviews thus far.
Check out dates, Instagram, Facebook, and our website because we're always putting new stuff up, new merch, new collaborations, new music, new tour dates. And keep your eyes peeled for another video forthcoming.
RockOverdose: Oh, you've got another one coming?
Dani Filth: Yes pretty soon.
RockOverdose: Thank you very much for your time, Dani.
Dani Filth: Take care.
For RockOverdose: Apostolos Pantazoglou
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