CRADLE OF FILTH Drummer Talks About AT THE GATES Reunion, New Bassist And Upcoming DVD

CRADLE OF FILTH drummer Adrian Erlandsson and singer Dani "Filth" Davey recently spoke to Tartarean Desire about the group's current European tour, their new touring bassist, and the possibility of an AT THE GATES reunion, among other topics. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

On the possibility of an AT THE GATES reunion:

Adrian: "Earlier on it has been like, 'No way'. I live in England and there was this show when THE HAUNTED and NIGHTRAGE played together [December 17, 2004 at the Forum in London] with ARCH ENEMY [and DARK TRANQUILLITY]. I talked to both Tompa [Tomas Lindberg] and the twins [Anders and Jonas Björler] and we decided that we will do a couple of shows some time when everyone can find the time, you know."

On the Ozzfest 2003 touring experience:

Adrian: "Well, it's a touring festival which means that there is no soundcheck or anything. It's just getting up on stage and play in broad daylight. We played at 3 in the afternoon so it was blazing heat all the time [laughs]. But it was fun and we gained a lot of new fans in the U.S. On the other hand you can not have much of a stage show in the middle of the day outdoors. It was a nice experience but I don't think I would like to do it again. It's pretty tough to be away from home for ten weeks."

On lineup changes in CRADLE OF FILTH:

Adrian: "I don't like to change members very much. If I had had it my way, Dave [Pybus, former bassist] would have stayed but he has totally had enough of touring. He hasn't told us definitely that he is leaving yet but if he can't cope with touring then it doesn't work. CRADLE has had a lot of line-up changes but it takes a lot of you both as an individual and all your time and attention. If you are not completely in on it then it becomes impossible. I think Ozzfest was what broke Dave, just that it took him another year to realize that he doesn't have the energy anymore. We spent 24 weeks away from home and did 107 shows and if you don't have any will to play the music then you are easily annoyed by little things and you might as well quit."

On the group's new bassist:

Adrian: "His girlfriend is a good friend of my wife, that's how I got to know him. He works as a guitar teacher at Colchester Guitar Institute. He has only played at local pubs in covers bands but seems to adjust to the situation pretty well now. It's still a little forced for him on stage with the make-up and costumes and all that [laughs]. When we played in Belgium in front of 2,000 people he was a bit shaky but he is a very stable musician."

On whether they have decided on whether the new bassist will join the band on a full-time basis:

Adrian: "At the moment everybody is hoping for Dave to come back or that he will say 'ok, I'll go on tour' but we'll see."

On plans to record a live DVD in Paris on April 3:

Adrian: "The DVD will probably be released in the end of October. We have loads of backstage clips since we recorded the last DVD in 2001. It will be a real documentary this time as well.

"We are in the process of capturing everything with digital cameras on this tour to put together a log and then we'll go through everything together so that everyone can vote on what they want and what they don't want to be on the DVD."

Read the entire interview at this location.

In other news, several photos from CRADLE OF FILTH's concert at Helsinki's Sports Hall (as part of the Tuska Winter War festival) on Monday (March 7) have been posted online at MetalPhotos.com.