BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Bassist: We Will Be 'Up There With The Big Boys For The Next 20 Years'

Brian Giffin of Australia's Loud magazine recently conducted an intervie with bassist Jay James of Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Loud: Looking back on the ["Temper, Temper"] album now it's done, what are your thoughts about it?

James: I think it's a new hybrid BULLET. To sum it up in one word, I'd say it's more mature than our previous stuff. We adopted a rule that "less is more" [with] this album and gave the songs just exactly what they need. It's not crammed with so many technical things. It only needs and only has the crunching, crazy riffs where they need to be. We've tried to approach a wider crowd and a wider audience as well as keeping the BULLET fans. It's a fine edge to try and grasp. I think it's a better, bigger album. We follow the rule that you're only as good as your last album, so I think this is going to take us to the next level. Our thirst for world domination hasn't changed. We think we're going to be up there with the big boys for the next twenty years with this album.

Loud: There mustn't be too many big things left that you haven't achieved. You've been around the world, you've played massive festivals. You've played with some of the biggest bands in the world – some of which you'll be playing with again here at Soundwave. If there was one thing you wanted BULLET to achieve in 2013, what would that be?

James: A Grammy! [laughs]

Loud: Do you think that would validate what you do, or would it be just an extra bonus – something to put on your mantlepiece?

James: Just a bonus for the mantlepiece mate! I reckon just to be bigger and better again. If we could achieve a constant arena standard, I'd be really happy. If we can achieve the level of being in an arena whenever we play, wherever we play, flying in and out like the big boys, like METALLICA, like IRON MAIDEN, that's where we want to be.

Loud: You've been in the band now for ten years and it must be a big thing for you to be constantly recognised wherever you go. But Matt's (Tuck) obviously the frontman and he always gets most of the attention. Does that make it easier for you to disappear incognito if you need to?

James: [laughs] Well, it's normally the frontman who gets the most of it. That's just the way it works. That's cool. He's the main songwriter, he's the lyricist, he's gonna get a lot more hype than the rest of us and I'm totally fine with that. I'm a single dad as well, so right now I've just been in the gym... I've got my cleaning chores ready to do when I come home from rehearsal and my children come back. I'm a single dad now so sometimes it works out when the boys are doing press. We've got a lot of press tonight and I can't do a lot of it because I've got my children. It just works out.

Loud: It must be really difficult sometimes to be so far away from your children.

James: That's what a lot of people don't see. They think that it's a glamorous life touring and oh, I'm so lucky and "I'd give anything to do that." It is quite demanding on you mentally because you have to leave your loved ones behind for long periods of time and you have to deal with things from the other side of the world. So there's two sides to it. But the benefits outweigh the bad things. This is the best job I could ever get for my family. It's my dream and it's all I've ever wanted to do, so I'm never gonna stop. It all works out, but the toughest part of touring is leaving the little ones behind.

Read the entire interview from Loud magazine.

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