PARADISE LOST Guitarist Says New CD Is 'Heavier, More Complete Version Of The Last Few Albums'

MTUK metal 'zine recently conducted an interview with PARADISE LOST guitarist Aaron Aedy. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

MTUK: Do you find going back over some of the older material a bit trickier, because your musical style has evolved a lot over the years?

Aaron: Well, we can play songs off "Host" and "Gothic" and live, they all work together. On the albums you had different production, and the production on "Believe In Nothing" was never quite what we hoped for, but we like some of the songs off there a lot…

MTUK: Yes, "Host" was quite a different thing for you at the time, but even so I thought it was a great album.

Aaron: It's a brilliant album! OK, I'm biased, but it is brilliant. At the time no other heavy band had experimented with the electronic side of things quite as much, and I think the combination of that, and cutting our hair probably didn't work out for us, but yes, despite the different productions we've had, when we play them live it all sounds as if it could be off the same album.

MTUK: So you have a new album coming out in shortly, "In Requiem"…

Aaron: Yeah I'm very excited about that, it's ace! (laughs) We started writing the album last year between festivals and touring South America and Russia, wrote the album and went into pre-production around November time with Rhys Fulber, who done our last two albums; he's a great fella and helps pull the best out of us, I think. We recorded at Chapel in Lincolnshire where it's four miles to the nearest shop, but only yards to the pub (laughs),so we finished pre-production in December and Nick and Greg went and finished their parts in Vancouver. Century Media have been working really hard for us, and not just in the territory where they signed us — every territory seems to be working hard, which is refreshing and something that I haven't felt quite as much probably since we left Music For Nations. On the last few albums we were playing places like Scandinavia, and whilst the label hadn't arranged any publicity or interviews for us, we were getting bigger crowds than before. We got Mike Fraser to mix the album, which we were really happy about. The guy's like a God! He's done SLAYER, METALLICA, AC/DC, THE CULT, when they were good… but yeah, everything seemed to fall together this time, the songwriting and recording. It's like a heavier, more complete version of the last few albums mixed together. I've got some nice meaty riffs on this one, so I'm happy.

MTUK: I've noticed over the last couple of albums it all seems to be getting progressively heavier again. Interesting what you say there about the problems with the labels. I've noticed, especially over the last couple of albums, that the promotion in the U.K. could have been better, to put it mildly.

Aaron: There was a reason for it as well, it wasn't just a fuck-up, it was a legal thing. When we done the last album for BMG, they have three months to decide whether they want to release an album or not. It got to that time and they were thinking weeelll….so we said, "OK, if you don't want to release it then please let us go so we can negotiate a new deal," but then you are not allowed to negotiate another deal until that time has finished. It was easily nine months before we could do anything, due to legal wrangling, but we were fishing around for a better deal somewhere else, and the Century Media lads stepped in.

MTUK: There seemed to be a huge problem getting the last album onto shelves in the U.K.

Aaron: Yeah, and with the delay, it seems that everyone who had an interest in the album has downloaded it anyway. The downloading thing has, and not just us, it's knackered a lot of bands. It's at the point now where bands are going on tour just to make money, where as 10 years ago we'd do an epic tour with production costs of £200,000, but it was OK because you'd make money back on the records, but now…I mean the record companies still make money but the artists never seem to be the ones who quite get it. It gets to the point where you go on tour and if you break even, you're doing well. Also with the downloading, record companies turn to you and say, OK, you've not sold as many records, so your budget is 1/3 of what it was, yet people still expect the same quality of recording, but we're lucky now in that we have a label that believes in us so things are looking better.

MTUK: Good stuff. Now I don't remember an official announcement, but I take it now Jeff (Singer) is an official member of the band?

Aaron: Yes, he's no longer the slave we keep in a little box under the stairs. Yes, we brought him in about two weeks before we recorded the last one, so it was very much thrown in at the deep end, but he's been involved in the writing on this one and it's got more of his stamp on it, and it sounds a lot better. The drums sound great on this album.

MTUK: You're 10 albums in now, with the 11th on the way, so are you still going to be doing this in another 10 albums time?

Aaron: Do you know what? If you'd asked on the first album, do you think you'll be doing this in 10 albums time, I'd have laughed and said can I have a puff on whatever you're smoking, but I don't know. I think if you put too many landmarks in the future, most of the time you'll end up very disappointed or let down. You can sort of prepare for the future, but you don't want to plan too much, because you never know. I'd love to do another 10 albums, but I don't know whether my back would be able to do it. I think my head would fly off probably. As we are now, PL as a band, I've never been as happy as with people as we are now, so the end is something I don't think about. That's what happens when people stop buying your records.

MTUK: Next year will be PARADISE LOST's 20th anniversary. What's been your best and worst memories of that?

Aaron: High point was playing Donington in '96. The lowest point for me was probably when "Believe In Nothing" was due to come out in September, and then because there was a delay on the mix they said we won't be bringing it out in October due to "superstar traffic," meaning pop releases on the way up to Christmas, so they said we'll bring it out in February. Someone then leaked it on to the net and everybody downloaded it six months before the album came out. That was my low point, I mean everybody had it, they were already bored of it when it finally came out. Besides that…it's a pretty good job, to be honest!

Read the entire interview at www.metalteamuk.net.