BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Frontman Says New Album Is Full Of Potential Future Classics

Steve Tauschke of Australia's Beat magazine recently conducted an interview with BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE frontman Matt Tuck. A few excerpts from the chat follow.

On the band's new album, "Scream Aim Fire":

"We've always been a band most interested in the quality of the songs, regardless of how fast we play guitar or how loud we can sing. It's always been about the songs as a whole and I think these songs have got the potential to be great future classics. So that was very important for us, to have them stand the test of time.

"We tried to make everything a bit more dynamic on this album. 'The Poison' was what it was because we had so many songs to choose from, from many periods and years of our lives but with this one we just wanted to take all the elements that make us what we are and how we sound as a band and just make them a lot more extreme."

On working with legendary British producer Colin Richardson, architect behind the bowel-shifting heaviosity of early FEAR FACTORY and MACHINE HEAD:

"Colin's a very timid and quiet person, probably the least metal person you'd ever meet. If you just walked past him in the street you'd have no idea he was Colin Richardson. When we first signed him up we were thinking, 'Geez, this is the guy who's worked on some amazing classic metal records' but he came into the studio in a pink polo shirt it was totally wrong! But he's a very funny guy and probably the clumsiest guy I've ever met too. Every day he'd break something or slip and fall off chairs and shit. During our sessions he broke a two thousand pound acoustic guitar!

"But when we got a record deal our record company asked who we'd like to make a record with and we didn't want anyone else but Colin Richardson. So the label got him down to hang out in the rehearsal studio to see if he liked us. Within ten minutes and two or three songs I think he was blown away and was in the team. He hasn't left, so we must be doing something right together. He's very laid back and he doesn't try to interfere with the songs, and he's got a very good ear sonically for the best guitar tones and drum tones."

On opening for METALLICA in Holland in 2006:

We were just hanging out in the dressing room getting ready for show time, and there was a knock on the door a guy popped his head round and it was Lars (Ulrich)! He came in and introduced himself and welcomed us to the tour and asked if there's anything we needed. That was a mad experience, to have the band who made me pick up a guitar in the first place and there I am on tour with them and he knows who the fuck I am! It was bizarre!

"We did some more shows with them and in Estonia and we'd just come off stage and their tour manager knocked on the door and said, 'By the way, METALLICA would like to know if you'd like to join them on stage tonight for a bit of a sing song?' So we went up and did 'So What', the ANTI-NOWHERE LEAGUE cover, on stage with METALLICA in front of one hundred thousand people. It was unreal!"

On selling in excess of a million albums worldwide:

"We never even dreamed we'd get a record deal anyway let alone achieve what we've achieved. It's been amazing couple of years for us. It's totally transformed me from being a boy who's passionate about writing and playing music in a band to it actually being my entire life now. And it's made me more money in the last three years than I'd ever thought I'd ever earn in my life. I've toured the world and played with my idols it's totally changed everything."