BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Frontman On 'Temper Temper: 'We Wanted To Make A Complete Album'

ARTISTdirect.com editor-in-chief Rick Florino recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Matt Tuck of Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect.com: Was your vision for [the new BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE album] "Temper Temper" clear from the beginning?

Tuck: Yeah, we always wanted it to flow like it did so we were aware of writing in a way that was spontaneous. It was a fresh way of doing things. We did want to make a complete album. Each song individually had to be an amazing song, but even more importantly, the album had to sit as one piece of work together as a unit. We wrote a lot of other songs as well. They were great individually, but they never made it on the album just because when we put them in the album, they didn't fit very well. It was always a conscious decision to write great songs individually but also focus on the album as a whole.

ARTISTdirect.com: Has the process of composing songs changed? These tracks hit harder.

Tuck: It was a conscious effort for us to do things differently in the songwriting process. One of the main ideas was slowing things down. Automatically, as soon as we did that, it was a bit of a struggle for us. It was odd slowing things down. It felt a bit uncomfortable to play, which is odd. You'd think the faster things are, the more uncomfortable they'd be. It was actually the reverse. As soon as we came to grips with everything and did the first few songs of the album, it was all good.

ARTISTdirect.com: When you slow things, they get even heavier.

Tuck: That was the main point in slowing it down. It wasn't to make the album more accessible, it was to make it heavier, bigger, and fatter. It was a conscious effort that definitely paid off. For us, the longer we've lived with it, it gets better and better. As we've been in rehearsals for three weeks now, it makes the experience of playing the songs far more enjoyable as well. Everything's a bit thrashy and quick, which is great live. We're seeing the benefit of slowing things down in the bigger picture.

ARTISTdirect.com: What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of [BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's debut album] "The Poison" now?

Tuck: Just craziness! I haven't listened to it in a long time. When I think of that album, it was the most exciting time in our lives. We've become a lot bigger and more successful since that album, but I don't think anything will ever beat the feeling of when that album came out and did what it did for us in the sense of success and being pushed to the top of the tree. It was crazy. It brings back bad memories too because I was pushed to the point of crazy physical and mental fatigue. It was an absolute whirlwind of good and bad memories — most good though. It was a special time in my and the boys' lives. Those two and a half years will never be topped. They were very special moments.

Read the entire interview from ARTISTdirect.com.

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