LK: So how’s things?

AA: Yeah we’re very good. Sort of excited, come nervous, come everything about filming the DVD, but looking forward to the gig. We’ve only done the one gig since writing the album, a festival in Poland, so we’re all a bit rusty in the headbanging department, but I think we’ll pull through.

LK: Yes it’s quite a special gig tonight isn’t it? Celebrating the first 10 albums. Am I right that the setlist tonight has been mainly chosen by the fans?

AA: Yes, there’s a bit of that. There’s some songs that we simply have to play, and they are usually the ones the fans pick anyway, so some of them are definitely fan picks, and there are also some that we haven’t played very often, in fact one of the songs tonight we haven’t played in about 12 years, so that’s going to be…erm…quite exciting and interesting! (laughs)

LK: Do you find going back over some of the older material a bit trickier, because your musical style has evolved a lot over the years?

AA: Well we can play songs off of Host and Gothic and live, they all work together. On the albums you had different production, and the production on Believe In Nothing was never quite what we hoped for, but we like some of the songs off there a lot…

LK: Yes Host was quite a different thing for you at the time, but even so I thought it was a great album.

AA: It’s a brilliant album! Ok, I’m biased, but it is brilliant. At the time no other heavy band had experimented with the electronic side of things quite as much, and I think the combination of that, and cutting our hair probably didn’t work out for us, but yes, despite the different productions we’ve had, when we play them live it all sounds as if it could be off the same album.

LK: So you have a new album coming out in shortly, ‘In Requiem’…

AA: Yeah I’m very excited about that, it’s ace! (laughs) We started writing the album last year between festivals and touring South America and Russia, wrote the album and went into pre-production around November time with Rhys Fulber, who done our last two albums, he’s a great fella and helps pull the best out of us I think. We recorded at Chapel in Lincolnshire where it’s 4 miles to the nearest shop, but only yards to the pub (laughs), so we finished pre production in December and Nick and Greg went and finished their parts in Vancouver. Century Media have been working really hard for us, and not just in the territory where they signed us, every territory seems to be working hard, which is refreshing and something that I haven’t felt quite as much probably since we left Music For Nations. On the last few albums we were playing places like Scandinavia, and whilst the label hadn’t arranged any publicity or interviews for us, we were getting bigger crowds than before. We got Mike Fraser to mix the album, which we were really happy about. The guy’s like a God! He’s done Slayer, Metallica AC/DC, The Cult, when they were good… but yeah, everything seemed to fall together this time, the songwriting and recording. It’s like a heavier, more complete version of the last few albums mixed together. I’ve got some nice meaty riffs on this one, so I’m happy.

LK: I’ve noticed over the last couple of albums it all seems to be getting progressively heavier again. Interesting what you say there about the problems with the labels. I’ve noticed, especially over the last couple of albums, that the promotion in the UK could have been better, to put it mildly.

AA: There was a reason for it as well, it wasn’t just a fuck up, it was a legal thing. When we done the last album for BMG, they have 3 months to decide whether they want to release an album or not. It got to that time and they were thinking weeelll….so we said ok, if you don’t want to release it then please let us go so we can negotiate a new deal, but then you are not allowed to negotiate another deal until that time has finished. It was easily 9 months before we could do anything, due to legal wrangling, but we were fishing around for a better deal somewhere else, and the Century Media lads stepped in.

LK: There seemed to be a huge problem getting the last album onto shelves in the UK.

AA: Yeah, and with the delay, it seems that everyone who had an interest in the album has downloaded it anyway. The downloading thing has, and not just us, it’s knackered a lot of bands. It’s at the point now where bands are going on tour just to make money, where as 10 years ago we’d do an epic tour with production costs of £200,000, but it was ok because you’d make money back on the records, but now…I mean the record companies still make money but the artists never seem to be the ones who quite get it. It gets to the point where you go on tour and if you break even, you’re doing well. Also with the downloading, record companies turn to you and say, ok you’ve not sold as many records, so your budget is 1/3 of what it was, yet people still expect the same quality of recording, but we’re lucky now in that we have a label that believes in us so things are looking better.

LK: Good stuff. Now I don’t remember an official announcement, but I take it now Jeff (Singer) is an official member of the band?

AA: Yes, he’s no longer the slave we keep in a little box under the stairs. Yes, we brought him in about 2 weeks before we recorded the last one, so it was very much thrown in at the deep end, but he’s been involved in the writing on this one and it’s got more of his stamp on it, and it sounds a lot better. The drums sound great on this album.

LK: You’ve got a US tour coming up. America has always seemed a tough nut for you guys to crack.

AA: Well we’ve been over there twice, and the buzz is quite good this time around. I remember when we went over with Draconian Times we did a lot of press in the build up and then the record label we were with, Relativity, literally the week before the album came out they decided to drop all the rock acts they had and turned it into a Rap label.

LK: Charming!

AA: Yeah! Steve Vai got dropped, loads of people did. We’ve had that a couple of times. We got single of the week for Rotting Misery (Doom Dub) in Sounds, the week Sounds didn’t come out because it folded! (Laughs) So we’ve lots of that sort of luck over the years.

LK: So the way the band have evolved over the years, starting with your death metal days, through the doom sound then your Metal phase and electronic phases. Where do the influences come from? Now for example, what are you guys listening to now? Anything you’re being impressed or influenced by at the moment?

AA: To tell you the truth, I’ve been buying up a load of the old albums I had on re-mastered CD to replace my Vinyl, recently got Celtic Frost, but it’s everything and nothing in particular to be honest. I’ve been going over our back catalogue a bit recently, just reminiscing, but influences band wise? We did a lot of the twin guitar thing through Icon and Drac Times, but we toured Icon for 15 months, wrote Drac Times, toured that for 2 years, and I think we just got sick of it, so we brought in the electronics to freshen things up a bit, and now we’ve got some of that out of our system, I mean we still like some of that and in some ways I’m missing some of the electronic bits on this album, it’s a lot more guitar based with some orchestration, so yeah I miss the electronics a bit, but it’s nice to get the guitars back.

LK: That was my main criticism of Host, that the guitars were, well…missing.

AA: When we were doing the album, Greg would play something on the keyboard and I would end up trying them out on guitar, and when we played the songs live, they got heavier again because we added the guitar parts in. On the road it was a lot better.

LK: Talking of Greg then, he was quite ill last year…

AA: Yeah, his appendix ruptured and a few months later it herniated. We were on tour at the time. He was trying to rest all the time, so he’d get out of bed, go on stage and then back to bed. We actually had to do a few shows without him, which we’d never have done had they not been booked already, but we couldn’t get out of them. He’s a lot better now thankfully.

LK: So with bands like yourselves and My Dying Bride, what is it about Yorkshire that breeds misery?

AA: (laughs) All along the M62 just breeds miserable bands, from Manchester through Halifax where we’re from, then Bradford and Leeds where the Goths came from, I don’t know, it’s like some bizarre ley line under the M62. It’s grim up North mate! There is something about it, the weather or something. The thing is though to be honest, I’ve never had such a laugh as I’ve had with this band, so a lot of the time it’s almost like it’s for the cameras.

LK: You’re 10 albums in now, with the 11th on the way, so are you still going to be doing this in another 10 albums time?

AA: Do you know what? If you’d asked on the first album, do you think you’ll be doing this in 10 albums time, I’d have laughed and said can I have a puff on whatever you’re smoking, but I don’t know. I think if you put too many landmarks in the future, most of the time you’ll end up very disappointed or let down. You can sort of prepare for the future, but you don’t want to plan too much, because you never know. I’d love to do another 10 albums, but I don’t know whether my back would be able to do it. I think my head would fly off probably. As we are now, PL as a band, I’ve never been as happy as with people as we are now, so the end is something I don’t think about. That’s what happens when people stop buying your records.

LK: Next year will be Paradise Lost’s 20th anniversary. What’s been your best and worst memories of that?

AA: High point was playing Donnington in 96. The lowest point for me was probably when Believe In Nothing was due to come out in September, and then because there was a delay on the mix they said we won’t be bringing it out in October due to ‘Superstar traffic’, meaning pop releases on the way up to Christmas, so they said we’ll bring it out in February. Someone then leaked it on to the net and everybody downloaded it 6 months before the album came out. That was my low point, I mean everybody had it, they were already bored of it when it finally came out. Besides that…it’s a pretty good job to be honest!

LK: Certainly looks it from where I’m standing! Well Aaron, thanks very much for your time today and all the best for tonight and for the new album!

AA: Thank you!

LK: See you down the front!

You can visit Paradise Lost on the web at www.paradiselost.co.uk

Interviewed by Lee Kimber
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