Ex-CRADLE OF FILTH Keyboardist LINDSAY SCHOOLCRAFT Embraces Her Love Of Nu Metal On 'Harrowing'

By David E. Gehlke

Best known for her seven-year stint with U.K. extreme metal veterans CRADLE OF FILTH, Canadian multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Schoolcraft is an open proponent of nu metal. While the unflinching and unbowed true metal denizens found endless joy in the subgenre's mid-2000s demise, the style has since undergone a renaissance, with many of its key players now headlining arenas and even stadiums. Such developments have helped people like Schoolcraft embrace their halcyon nu-metal days when its aesthetics (see: baggy pants, tank tops) were just as important as the music. In Schoolcraft's case, it adds another layer to a musician who is Juno-nominated, classically trained, held her own in the extreme metal world, and can sing and also play the piano and harp.

Schoolcraft's new, seven-song solo album, "Harrowing", finds her getting valuable contributions from former EVANESCENCE drummer Rocky Gray to lean into the aforementioned nu-metal action to go along with some highly personal subject matter. Indeed, "Harrowing" served as an outlet for her to exorcise some demons, including overcoming alcohol addiction and getting her mental health in check, a topic that continues to make the rounds in the news. All things considered, Schoolcraft is in a good place at the moment and was kind enough to connect with BLABBERMOUTH.NET from her current home base in Hamilton, Ontario to talk "Harrowing", nu metal, taking care of oneself and more.

Blabbermouth: Your last album, "Worlds Away" focused on your harp playing. What made you go heavy again with "Harrowing"?

Lindsay: "It was time. When you're in heavy music, you get to a point where you realize that you miss making heavy music. In 2019, my first solo album, 'Martyr', came out; then I did a harp album, then I did this weird thing on Patreon, but I was like, 'I need to do a heavy album again. I miss it!' The other stuff, live, it kind of translates as a snooze fest. People know me for doing metal. It was overdue. It's like a calling: you have to do it."

Blabbermouth: How much influence and / or input did Rocky have on the new album? Is he a good incubator for ideas?

Lindsay: "Yeah, all of this started with Rocky. He was essentially the one who got the ball rolling on the heavy aspect of this one. He was the one sending me ideas in the first place. He always pushes me to do a little better, which I appreciate. You need people around you who know your potential and know how far you can go. If you don't have those people and you have yes-people around, I find it creates fall-flat music. [Laughs] He's always pushing me to do better and try new things. He's kind of the founder of this album in a way. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have started doing this."

Blabbermouth: He has a good track record with this kind of music. That has to help.

Lindsay: "I admire him; I look up to him. He was my idol when I was in high school. This guy has Grammy awards and a Diamond record. He's such a cool dude, but to have those accolades, it's like, when he brings something, you have to be serious. He's a pro. The real thing. A superstar."

Blabbermouth: On the pop-up video for "I Wait For You To Fall", it says you "haven't left the year 2003." What is so special about that year?

Lindsay: "Oh my gosh, it was the best time! LINKIN PARK was at their peak. There were EVANESCENCE, SLIPKNOT, KORN, KITTIE and CHEVELLE. I can keep going. Even A PERFECT CIRCLE. It was such a great year for music. That was really the last height of MTV and MuchMusic up here in Canada. Everything made sense, you know? I was in grade 11, and it was all so magical."

Blabbermouth: Do you remember the cyclops haircuts? That was a thing.

Lindsay: "Those were so good. We had 'Hit Parader' magazine, which came back recently, which is nuts. I'd see photos of the girls in KITTIE wearing these leopard-print tank tops with spiked cat collars. Of course, I went to the local pet store and bought a spiked collar. [Laughs] It was the do-it-yourself, the simplest thing. We all thought we looked pretty cool in high school, but today's kids' standards in doing their makeup and getting dressed up, I look back at old photos that were developed, I go, 'We look pretty rough. We thought we were cool!'"

Blabbermouth: Did you have JNCO jeans up north?

Lindsay: "We did! They got wrecked in the winter. Your bottoms would get sopping wet."

Blabbermouth: You could fit a telephone booth into them.

Lindsay: "You could fit a lot into them, like your lunch and your homework."

Blabbermouth: You are most known for being in CRADLE OF FILTH. However, you are a big backer of nu metal. It used to be a dirty word.

Lindsay: "It became cool again. Out of nowhere, the kids on TikTok, the Gen Z'ers, maybe Gen Alpha, they're like, 'Hey, we think this is really cool.' For the longest time, I was like, 'I'm not nu metal. I'm symphonic metal!' [Laughs] Now, finally, I'm at the age where I don't care what anyone thinks of me. It's nice to be able to go, 'Legit, I love nu metal.' And there's a huge influence on this album. I'm going to own it like a badge of honor. It's weird that something was considered cringe for 15 years is cool again and on trend. You mean I can look like that, and everyone will think I'm cool on social media? What happened?"

Blabbermouth: I don't know if "suppress" is the right word, but did you have to hide your love of nu metal when you were in CRADLE?

Lindsay: "I mean, not really because some of the guys in the band and I, we'd be listening to KORN backstage. As long as it was heavy, it was cool. If I tried to pull pop music, it might have been an issue. No, especially playing shows alongside SLIPKNOT. I didn't have to hide anything; they kind of dealt with it. [Laughs]"

Blabbermouth: Where did the idea for a pop-up video come from? They were pretty cool when VH1 was doing them back in the day.

Lindsay: "It was one of those scenarios, I produced all these music videos, which I do not recommend unless you want to sacrifice a lot of sleep. It was a late-night thing, and when we all decided 'I Wait For You To Fall' was going to be the second single, it was like, 'What do we do with this? It has a lot of influence from KORN and PRODIGY. What do we do?' I was like, 'What if we did a pop-up video?' I'm shocked that no one in this day and age hasn't done it yet. I'd expect it from one of the bigger bands. Maybe they are traumatized by it because it didn't paint them or their favorite artists in a good light. I watched some of them, and I was like, 'Damn, some of this has aged like milk.' I said to the guys, 'Let me make a few phone calls and see.' Five days later, it was like, 'We can totally do this.' We found a venue that looks like 'Empire Records'. The guys in STRIKER, Dan [Cleary], the singer, did the post-editing, and Pete [Klassen] did the motion graphics. If it weren't for them, it wouldn't be what it is. It was like, 'Can we do it?' The best part was that our wardrobe was shit we had from high school, 20 years ago, and was in the video again. We never got rid of our pants or necklaces. [Laughs] That's the type of kids we are. It was out of, 'Can we do it?' Then, 'Why not? What do we have to lose?' It was very left field. I think people were expecting a dark, sad Gothic epic, then they're like, 'What's this?'"

Blabbermouth: "Harrowing" details some pretty personal things that you were able to overcome. Was it cathartic to put it on tape?

Lindsay: "Totally. I went through some pretty rough stuff at that point, as I was coming into the pandemic. I was in quite a bit of therapy. You can talk with your therapist, and you can talk your way through it, but for me, until I alchemize it into art, I haven't healed. Of course, Rocky is bringing all these heavy riffs in that are heavy sounding, so putting pen to paper, I believe the pen is a sword. [Laughs] It all started coming out. I was like, 'Oh, shit. I'm still really angry. There's a rage here.' That's what they say: You don't really heal until you feel that layer of that. That's a lot of what came out on this album."

Blabbermouth: Were you at all reluctant to put yourself out there like this?

Lindsay: "Not really. I feel like in the metal world, we can be like rappers. We decorate or paint in such a way that we have diss tracks in the most poetic ways. It's not good to slander people online. If you start saying the truth, you could get in trouble, but you can write a song, and it's completely open to whoever is interpreting it. You're not directly calling people out by name or naming the time, place or scenario; it's kind of like not a love letter but a hate letter to whoever has done you wrong. That's the beauty of music. I wish that the metal world was more like the rap world and had more diss tracks."

Blabbermouth: While on the subject, Phil Labonte from ALL THAT REMAINS recently said that therapy is "only for women" and that men don't need it. Did you catch that comment? If so, what's your take?

Lindsay: "He's not a healthcare professional, he's not a psychologist, he's not a therapist, so, because of that, anyone who has taken his opinion seriously, I think he's, and this is my opinion and I'm not a professional either, I have a lot of male friends in therapy and it's done them a world of wonder and has transformed their lives, because you can do healing work and then you can do growing work, and there's life coaching. You can come out on the other side. You don't have to struggle. Discouraging people from going to therapy, especially men — that's an extremely toxic, masculine view that is ultimately an opinion from the patriarchy that has done a lot of damage to society and is the reason why it's crumbling right now. I don't know, I think he probably does need to go to therapy and is a scared little boy who cares too much about the scared little boy inside, his inner child and is scared of what his macho homies are going to think of him.

"There should be no shame in getting help. If your brain is broken, you need a doctor. If you broke a bone, you're not going to leave the bone broken; you're going to get help. You're not going to get a Band-Aid. You're going to get it reset and cast and x-rayed. That's what therapy is. It's healing the brain. But I don't think that's a very good message, especially for young men who could be struggling."

Blabbermouth: This all ties into your journey with "Harrowing". As in, "I've been in therapy, and I've come out on the other side."

Lindsay: "Plus, also, this was my first sober album. It's crazy when people tell me they need substances to make art. I've never been clearer about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to put it together. I did do 'Martyr' when I was struggling with drinking. It was more of a chore than it needed to be. [Laughs] No fear and no shame in talking about it, but that comes with healing and going to therapy, right?"

Blabbermouth: I'm sure your wallet feels better too.

Lindsay: "I have an app on my phone for this. I've saved 18,000 dollars. It's crazy. I didn't realize it until I started tracking it."

Blabbermouth: Was there pressure when you were in CRADLE to drink and party?

Lindsay: "The issue was that I'm a recovered alcoholic. I can admit that I have an addiction; it's an issue in my family and lineage. It's always there. It's always free. It definitely helps you be more social, and it's hard when the most powerful person in the room is doing it. You want to fit in, but as you get older and more secure in yourself, it's kind of like — nothing great happens after 11 p.m. It was career changing. It's always your gift and talent that you put out there that you put into records and perform onstage: that's what always got me the call to join other people's albums and do my own work. Everyone who is drinking at that point, if you're sober, you're gone by 11 because you're exhausted. You want to go back to your hotel room and sleep. Or, no one remembers what happens because they're all drunk. It's not worth it. In the beginning, I absolutely felt pressure to fit in. I was around the wrong people, but near the end, I'd say the last two years I was in CRADLE, I wasn't really drinking, and I didn't feel the pressure. I could see by 11 P.M. everything was going a bit weird; I'd be like, 'I'm good. I'm going to sleep.' It's kind of boring if you think about it, but it helped me survive those last two years because we were on world tours."

Blabbermouth: Would you ever pursue a role like you had in CRADLE again?

Lindsay: "It has to be the right band. I've had offers since; I can't tell you the crazy offers I've had, but I believe joining a band is like dating. It's like a marriage. I learned that through my experiences, and like it is with dating, if it's not a 'hell yeah,' then it's a 'hell no' or a 'fuck yeah,' then it's a 'fuck no.' There have been iconic, legendary, legacy acts who, in the past decade, have come to me and been like, 'Do you want to join?' I'm like, 'Thanks for the offer, but it's not my cup of tea. It's not a genre I'm into.' I'm an all-in person. I will be there. I will play my instrument; I'll look the part. I'm a team player. I'll be in the industry side, in the business; I'll be on social media; I'm all in, but I have to love the music. I genuinely liked CRADLE OF FILTH. I hated them in high school; I had to grow up a little bit, then I loved them the year before I joined. I really fell in love with them. So, I have a very small list of bands that, if I were asked to join, I'd be like, 'I'm flying out tomorrow.' I haven't had the right offer. I'm enjoying being a solo artist. I also still have my supergroup ANTIQVA. We're working on new music. It's slow as molasses, but we're still doing it. I'm happy. I can't talk about it yet; it's going to come out this year, but some big bands have asked me to play harp on their album and sing on their album. It's still going on, but I'm not a full-time committed member."

Blabbermouth: Have you enjoyed stepping out from behind the keyboards and being a frontwoman?

Lindsay: "I like it! I was doing it before the pandemic hit. We had quite a few shows with pretty much the same band. I was having a lot of fun. I was really enjoying it, and I recently did a festival in my new home city of Hamilton, and it felt great. It was cool, but it's definitely like getting back on a bike that you haven't ridden in a decade. It feels a little uncomfortable at first, like, 'Oh my god. What do I do with my arms? My legs? How do I move my body?' With rehearsal, we're getting back into it, but I'd definitely feel more comfortable if a keyboard or a harp was in front of me. It's a new role to learn. It will take some practice."