Bullet for my Valentine Interview

• 9th Nov 2005

Mark Cooper: You played the Glasgow Garage two nights ago how was that?
Moose Thomas: Fucking wicked.
Coop: First time you’ve played there?
Moose: No, we played there with 36 Crazyfists about a year ago.
Coop: You’re now considered the hottest new rock act in the U.K, the best newcomer award in Kerrang!-How’s that sit with you?
Moose: I dunno (Laughs.) It’s like I haven’t got time to think really, we just take it as it comes I think. It’s nice obviously yeah.
Coop: Do you feel there’s much pressure there, y’know-people pinning there hopes on you.
Moose: No.
Coop: Do you give a fuck?
Moose: No. (Laughs)
Coop: So what do you think about the current metal scene? Is there anyone out there you like?
Moose: The British scene at the moment is really terrible, there should be more; but nothing new really grabs us as a band. If we go out and buy an album, it would be more like a Judas priest album, or an Iron maiden album.
Coop: This is your first headlining tour proper-How does that feel? more control?
Moose: Take your sound check longer now, we get more beer, more rider, we get paid more (Laughs)
Coop: What set changes have you made now?
Moose: On the beginning of the tour we played-I dunno-but we played two lots, we had a couple of sets.
Coop: How long did you play?
Moose: We played for an hour and twenty minutes, so we had to cut the set down a bit, but changes, its cool, the set production.
Coop: So the sets and the backdrop, did you have more to do with that?
Moose: Yeah, our first backdrop, that was cool. Hopefully we’ll end up like maiden, with like fire and fucking dragons (laughs)
Coop: So in the crowd, has there been a noticeable difference between ‘Hand of blood’ and ‘The poison’?
Moose: Yeah, there’s way more people now, it’s like earlier, trying to get something to eat, trying to get a burger.
Coop: Did you get mobbed?
Moose: Oh yeah we got mobbed.
Coop: How’s that feel?
Moose: All I wanted to do is eat, I got two bites and I had to leave.
Coop: So what did you want to achieve with ‘The poison’? As opposed to ‘Hand of blood’.
Moose: The ‘Hand of blood’ album is like a mini album, we only expected to sell like 5000 copies, but it’s sold over 40,000 now.
Coop: It’s not been out long as well.
Moose: No, like a year. We just wanted better songs, with the mini album we wanted it to be the best thing we could.
Coop: Do you think you achieved that?
Moose: Yup.
Coop: ‘Four words’ is on both albums, do you think the song personifies Bullets sound?
Moose: Yeah, that was one of the first songs we wrote.
Coop: You know the songs on the game Madden 2006?
Moose: Oh yeah.The boys play em, Matt plays em.
Coop: (Speaking to Matt tuck across the room) what’s it like hearing your music on Madden 06?
Matt: I haven’t played that game yet.
Coop: That’s probably going to help you in America, being worldwide.
Moose: Yeah it’s going to help us a lot.Yeah we were on casualty last night!
Coop: (Laughs) What?
Moose: Yeah, two kids were listening to us before they went out.
Coop: What happened then? , normally they have a nice beginning before it gets fucked up.
Moose: (Laughs) I dunno, my girlfriend phoned me and says “Your on casualty”-it was fucking nuts.
Coop: So your off too America soon, with ‘It dies today’ when’s that start?
Moose: Starts on err, (Shouts to Matt), when’s the tour start in the states Matt?
Matt: October.
Moose: Its twenty two shows, in twenty two days.
Coop: All over? How’s that feel, your going to America now.
Moose: Good.
Coop: Any kind of preparations?
Moose: No, obviously we want to go over, impress people. Just really good for a British band to go over there and “Rock the house” (Laughs).
Coop: You see other bands going over, trying there hands.
Moose: Were ready to go six months of the year just playing concerts.
Coop: It can take a while to tour America, are you prepared to do that?
Moose: Yes.
Coop: Your first tour was with Chimera-What did you get from that?
Moose: (laughs) Middle of fucking February, in a van for five days, six days. But it weren’t nice, they weren’t pretty and they didn’t smell too good.
Coop: what did you learn, in terms of performance from that? Chimera are a great band.
Moose: Confidence, put anyone on after us, put Metallica on after us (Laughs)
Coop: You wouldn’t mind playing with the likes of Megadeath, Metallica and Slayer?
Moose: Yeah.
Coop: You recorded the video for ‘Suffocating’ in Solvenia, where did the idea for that come from?
Moose: I dunno we go for a look, a feel; it’s like “Were going in a cave” its like “Alright” (Laughs).
Coop: How did you find that?
Moose: Cold.Fucking freezing down there.
Coop: How do you find the whole process of making videos?
Moose: Good. I don’t like making videos, I don’t like doing much so (laughs) but cool, it just gets a bit tedious from take to take.
Coop: Riffs are obviously important to Bullet, what are some of your favourites?
Moose: My favourite riff of all time would have to be ‘Breaking the law’ by Judas priest.
Coop: So you like Scott Travis (Priests drummer.) then?
Moose: Yes, I like ‘Crazy train’s riff as well.
Coop: ‘No control’ sounds really Pantera.
Moose: Yeah, we listen to a lot of Pantera.
Coop: What covers did you do when you started off?
Moose: We played ‘Domination’ by Pantera, Metallica songs.
Coop: Do you write pretty quickly?
Moose: Yeah, I mean ‘Suffocating’ was written in like three minutes.
Coop: So your first bands were ‘Trauma’ and ‘Jeffkilledjohn’, what did ‘Trauma’ sound like?
Moose: (laughs) Fucking hell! (Shouts to Matt) Matt!, what did ‘Trauma’ sound like?
Matt: We played some Metallica songs.
Moose: We were like thirteen.
Matt: ‘Sandman.’
Moose: ‘Fade to black.’
Coop: Were you any good?
Matt: Yeah.
Coop: What did ‘Jeffkilleddjohn’ sound like?
Matt: Well, we didn’t really have an identity.
Coop: How long was it before ‘Bullet’
Moose: ‘Jeffkilledjohn’ was on for like seven or eight years. Trying to get a deal.
Coop: Was it similar type of stuff?
Moose: More screamy, I would say, more hardcore.
Coop: Reading the biog, was it just like like “Fuck it; we’ll just play what we want to.”
Moose: It just naturally happened.
Coop: Forget the trends.
Moose: Yeah.
Coop: You play a Pearl kit right, what models that?
Moose: Yeah, I play a Pearl Masters MNX.
Coop: Do you have an endorsement?
Moose: Yes.
Coop: Do you have a signature kit coming out?
Moose: I’ve got my signature sticks coming out.
Coop: Would you like your own kit
Moose: I’d Love em.
Coop: The other guys play Jackson and I know they have endorsements.
Moose: Yes, I think there going to do Matt a guitar yeah.
Coop: How do you normally prepare for a show?
Moose: Dunno, shit your pants (Laughs).
Coop: You still get nerves?
Moose: Yeah, I think when your nerves go, theres no point in doing it.
Coop: How do you find the process of recording?
Moose: It’s cool. I enjoy it, yeah; it does get a bit boring.
Coop: How does the stuff get wrote?
Moose: We write in the rehearsal room, once it gets to the album, me and Matt will sit in the room with Colin our producer and he’ll get the tempo, the clicks. It’s never a straight song; it’s always speeding up the parts.
Coop: Kind of like patching it together?
Moose: Yup.
Coop: How important is Colin then?
Moose: We completely trusted him.
Coop: Did you take any albums as a point of reference.
Moose: No, we didn’t want to sound like anyone.
Coop: What should someone expect at a Bullet show?
Moose: A really good rock show. No other British band puts on shows anymore. Bands like Oasis just stand there y’know?
Coop: What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Moose: After this tour we go for like a week and then we go to the states for rehearsals.
Coop: Are you going to change your set?
Moose: Yeah,were like first on so we’ve only got half an hour, so we’ll be touring mainly the mini album-so it’s mainly that stuff, maybe throw in a couple of new tracks. So from the states, to Germany, do some arena shows with Apocalyptica, which we are filming for a DVD.
Coop: Is that how Apocalyptica came to be on ‘The poison’.
Moose: Yeah, we were both on the same label and we wanted cellos and stuff to create an atmosphere y’know.
Coop: Was the big guitar scream at the end of ‘Intro’ a tribute to Dimebag Darrell?
Moose: Yeah, Yeah it was cool; as soon as I heard it I was like “Oooo”.
Coop: The artwork seems to follow through ‘Hand’ and ‘Poison’ was that intentional?
Moose: Well we obviously wanted a good front cover, the guy who designed it sent over lots of copies, and we were like “Nah, that’s shit that’s shit”.As soon as we saw the one with the woman on the floor and the bloke-that was going to be the one on the single, for ‘Suffocating’ but we decided that was the album cover.
Coop: I’ll finish up now, thanks a lot.
Moose: Thanks.