The sixteenth PARADISE LOST studio album, „Obsidian“ has been released via Nuclear Blast and it's going to be definately one of the best albums of 2020. Due to their new release, RockOverdose.gr and Zisis Petkanas, had the opportunity to chat with lead vocalist Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost and seek more details of it, as well as the future plans of the band, during this new weird situation in the music industry.
Enjoy!
RockOverdose: Hello Nick and welcome to Rockoverdose.gr! How are you, through this difficult time with the coronavirus and all this stuff?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Hello! I’m fine, at home with my family and do promotion via skype for our new album, that’s what I was mostly doing the last four weeks. It’s kind of busy, apart from the fact we don’t have concerts, so we’ve got fingers crossed we can get out there you know… I think it’s going to be an issue for quite long time for the people to go out to concerts. I don’t know if it’s going to be any show this year but I really hope so. It’s a global thing, the same for everyone; we will see when the time is right. We have some shows in September and in Greece I think is December, fingers crossed!
RockOverdose: Your company Nuclear Blast, offered you the opportunity to postpone the launch of “Obsidian”, but you chose to release it now…
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Yeah, you know you can listen to music anytime, as long as you have electricity. The situation is not going to stop music. Music has no time limit, I listen to music since I was 10 years old. It doesn’t have to be current, it’s always with you, so I don’t see the point personally in the length of release.
RockOverdose: Yes, I see and I think it won’t affect neither the sales because everything is via internet now.
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Yes of course. We buy everything from the internet. The main thing now is the concerts!
RockOverdose: How did you select the name of the album as well as the cover?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Is a word I’ve seen used quite a few years and I always liked the word. Obviously is like a black glass, like an earth stone, is also used as like a lucky charm, an emblem, to represent prosper and I like that concept, symbols been to people quite interesting, fascinating. Symbolism and even witchcraft is exploited in our album artwork. The same with the song “Ravenghast”, I just liked the word and I used it.
RockOverdose: Let’s now talk about the production of the album. It is produced by yourselves with the assistance of Mr. Arelano…
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Yes, it is the same as with previous albums. Production is about writing the songs and get them in position, we don’t use to mess with the songs when we get in the studio. They are recorded as they were written, nothing is changed, it is just for getting the right sound. Gomez he’s very meticulous, he deeply cares about the sound, particularly the drums are incredible! We worked together really well again!
RockOverdose: I have to say “Obsidian” is really amazing!
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Thank you! Thank you very much!
RockOverdose: I felt that it’s so diverse and combines all Paradise Lost music elements, in my opinion.
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Yeah, of course the last album is the benchmark, and after that we wanted to be very specific and in that respect we wanted to be more varied and make it more heavy, dark as well, we just wanted to vary a little bit. When we started writing there’s no massive plan, just start and see where it gets you, that’s the fun part. You never know how a song is going to turn out. There’s always twists and turns, the conclusion when there’s a good song it’s always nice, planning stuff is never going to work, it’s better to start and see what happens!
RockOverdose: A friend of mine, who’s bigger fan than me, recommended that question. She said that if somebody wanted to listen for the first time your music should start with “Obsidian”.
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Yes, definitely somebody can start backwards. It’s always nice to get to a bands’ back catalog. I think it’s nice to start with the new thing and then go back and see what they write when they were teenagers! Songs sound different from years to years. The production is different… It’s good to start with the new and then go back.
RockOverdose: The new album starts with the song “Darker Thoughts” and the acoustic part is really amazing! I think this song has its own character, that’s why you chose it to open the new album?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Yeah, originally the song was going to be an acoustic intro, it wasn’t a song but then came all the melodic line for it which works really straight away! So we moved on and did second part which is heavier. It’s a very spontaneous song which came very quickly and it’s always nice when that happens, because writing usually takes a long time and a long time until we are completely happy with it, but this song was so spontaneous like a happy accident! Spontaneous things are more from the heart!
RockOverdose: Let’s go to the song “Ghosts”, it has a “Sisters Of Mercy” vibe, more goth…you had may years to write something like that, don’t you?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Is quite a simple song, it goes where you’ve expected to go, it’s very catchy, the entire song was written around the hook of Jesus Christ and everything that’s been written around that. Goth music was always around us as a kid, not necessarily the music we were listening, but it was always there and I guess it was an influence. It’s nice when you hear every instrument play; it’s not just a ball of noise, the old goth music stuff is gentle, you can hear everything and we love that. That song has a modern production but has a lot of old school goth vibe I think.
RockOverdose: Would you like to tell us more things about the writing process of the album? How many songs did you write on the first place, how you finally chose the songs?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Well, we did 11 songs; we tend to just write everything we need. We use everything we write, if we are not happy with it we usually scrap it. When we choose songs we usually think the A and B side of the vinyl, and each song has to follow the next song, we don’t just put them down randomly. The 2 bonus tracks “Hear The Night” and “Difiler” didn’t make the album bill, because we felt the album works as it was, in that order cause we don’t thing about b-sides, just write an album and then put some extra songs.
RockOverdose: Sometimes, b-sides are better than the album.
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Yeah! There’re a lot of bands that I like their b-sides. It’s always a nice surprise to discover a b-side! I like that aspect. If you write a song and you think “Ok, this is a b-side”, that’s kind of negative before you start! So I don’t think is good to think of songs as a b-side, you just write the best you can and then see how it all compares together.
RockOverdose: So after “Draconian Times” you totally switched your sound by releasing two amazing albums “One Second” and “Host”, you definitely create music over labels, would you go back and change this decision? Would you create again another album like “Host”?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost): Everything we did felt right at that time. We don’t try chase anything. We don’t follow trends. Those albums are very much powered by history, still think particularly for the “Host” album, that is one of our best albums, at that time a lot of people were offended by that, I guess because they expected a mel album. I wouldn’t be against doing something like that in the future, but it wouldn’t be a paradise lost album, we would call it something else.
RockOverdose: Yes, I agree with you, is a great album but has not the sound that the fans know by their band.
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost ): If we do it as a project it would be more easy going. It’s still in my top 3 albums, I’m very proud of it, for many reasons.
RockOverdose: Your singing style has changed over the years. You now sound more mature and your growling sounds more natural …
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost ): Yeah it is. There was a long time between when I used to do the growling voice and when I stopped, quite a long time. So I guess I rediscovered how to do it again. I don’t remember how I did it when I was a teenager or in my early 20’s. So, I guess voice naturally changes, when I was younger I didn’t have a proper technique but I used to blow out my voice a lot. But it’s not healthy to just throw your voice out, I definitely have a better technique now. But like I said, your voice changes, I haven’t smoked for 20 years and maybe that’s something it has to do with that!
RockOverdose: Greek audience and Paradise Lost have a very strong bond through the years, what do you believe?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost ): It’s always fantastic being in Greece! Very loyal fan base, we are really grateful about that. The shows are always memorable!
Rockoverdose: Which one was your favorite appearance here in Greece?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost ): I would say the last one in Athens, it was the last show of the year, it was fantastic, we were blown away! The early shows as well, when we play at the Rodon club, it was very memorable concert! We salute playing in that place the early days, we had long hair, and we were young kids….
Rockoverdose: We are looking forward to see you again and make an extra special night again.
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost ): Yes I hope so, as we said in the begging… There’s a lot of negativity around, people think about the worst but I believe is better to try to be positive. Keep the head up and hopefully we will get out there, back to what we do!
Rockoverdose: What else do you do as Nick Holmes?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost ): Well I’m singing with Bloodbath, I’ve been a member for about 8 years now and we are looking to do a new album, anytime soon. I’m busy but I love it! I can’t wait to go out and play some gigs again!
Rockoverdose: What else you’d like to say about Paradise Lost?
Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost ): The album is out, anyone who hasn’t already heard it go for it and I hope to like it! We hope to come to Greece as soon as we possibly can! Stay safe!
For Rock Overdose
Interview: Zisis Petkanas
Questions: Jovanna Spiliou
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