“I wouldn’t call myself a dark person and I’m definitely not depressive…”

Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost talks about the British band’s new concert DVD “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, as well as about urban legends, gothic stuff , Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and more…

Stefan Yordanov: It’s good to have you with us especially because there’s a new Paradise Lost DVD on its way. Tell us something more about this project and why did you decide to release this DVD right now and what is going to be inside.

Nick Holmes: Eh, we’ve never actually done a live album or a live DVD in the 20 years we’ve been around and I think may be one of the reason is that we’ve been always very busy writing new albums and they take a great deal of time, you know? We thought it was pretty much good time for us approaching a doing a live album. We had a lot of material to do that, so we thought now is as good time, as any really. So that’s pretty much why we wanted to do this.

S. Y.: Yeah, but there are going to be some videos inside or not?

N. H.: Oh, yes, the promo videos. It’s pretty much 21 songs… It’s pretty much everything from our career.

S. Y.: Yes, that’s what I meant in the beginning, because it looks like something that compiles your career in a way.

N. H.: Ah, pretty much, I mean we tried to cover everything from the second album to the new material. I mean, that’s 21 live songs, interviews with fans and promo videos and tour report from our 2007 headline tour. It’s pretty much the best from we have done in our career rather than a live album really.

S. Y.: This DVD is something that your fans have been waiting for years, but besides people who know you, do you think it would be helpful for others to trace your career and become familiar with the inventors of at least two or three sub genres of metal or let’s say rock music?

N. H.: Yeah, I think so. I also think it will be interesting for people to hear how the songs sound live on an album, because especially certain songs in our career sound heavier live and this particular production of this live album is really good. I mean, we really planned how it would come out. So, yeah, I think it would be interesting for people to see the different sound as opposed to the sound of studio albums to a live album.

S. Y.: Thank you. Sometimes when I listen to Paradise Lost albums from the 90’s, I think you are so genius that you hurry to move forward from one thing to another. Sometimes I have the impression that followers take more credit than the leaders. Do you agree with me?

N. H.: Well, I don’t know really. We try not to attend… We are pretty much single minded and we don’t really pay attention to what other people are doing. Obviously you’ve got to be aware of the other bands out there. In our entire career we’ve always seen bands that would come along and soon would go massive and then would be fallen back a little bit. I mean, for us, to know that lots of bands cite us as influence is very flattering, you know?

S. Y.: Do you consider yourself a dark person?

N. H.: Eh, no, I wouldn’t say dark but may be I think about things more than a lot… I don’t know, I have kind of weird view point on things, weird kind of thought process about certain situations whereas I find a lot of people don’t think about things, but I  wouldn’t call myself a dark person and I’m not a depressive person…

S. Y.: Like when something happens you try to think about it from different perspectives?

N. H.: Yeah, what I try to do is to rationalize with the way it’s happening to me, I try fo make sense and find logic. I always try to find out why it is happening. I also think it has a lot to do with getting older really as much as anything. I think when you are younger you things are going without much thinking on them. So, I would say I’m a lot happier now I’m older than when I was younger actually. But I hate getting older as well, so it going to be a contradiction.

S. Y.: I still have your first vinyl and several years later I was amazed that you did this cover version of “Walk Away” of Sisters Of Mercy. Have these influences been with you since the death metal years or you just developed a different taste through the years?

N. H.: Well, I think we listened to them since the “Gothic” album or just before the “Gothic” album. Perhaps when we were writing it, we were into Sisters Of Mercy music. It attracted us, because it was very dark and kind of dreary. We liked that. You know we pretty much more liked death metal and doom metal. Obviously it was a different music musically, but the kind of imagery and things were very kind of similar- they were all dark and… So that’s pretty much why we got into it. But, you know, it was by chance that we decided that we were going to fuse that kind of style together with doom metal or death metal and “Gothic” is a result of that, I think.

S. Y.: I have a special program on this radio station which is profiled to be about urban legends, gothic stuff and etc. So, some of my questions will be about these things. Do you mind?

N. H.: No of course. Why not?

S. Y.: OK. So how many times you have read Milton’s “Paradise Lost”?

N. H.: Eh, zero.

S. Y.: Zero? Never?

N. H.: Yeah, I mean, I own the book, but I haven’t yet read it. It’s a kind of book to me that I can pick up and flip a few pages, I may read certain lines and paragraphs, but I would never read the whole book. It’s not my kind of thing.

S. Y.: It’s difficult, right?

N. H.: Yeah, it’s not my… I can’t kind of vanish in that kind of world. It’s too fictional for me, you know.

S. Y.: There was a movie called “Gothic”. It was directed by Ken Russel. It was about Byron, Mary Shelly and Percy Shelley. Is there anything common between this movie and your album “Gothic”?

N. H.: No, absolutely not. I remember the film. I saw it when it came out. I wasn’t overly impressed…

S. Y.: Yes, I wasn’t impressed too, but it was a good movie.

N. H.: I thought it was OK. I wasn’t… I thought it could be better. I mean I saw it so long ago I can hardly remember it, but I don’t recall any feelings, any associations when I watched it. I think I would remember it fine if I did so.

S. Y.: Is it obligatory to listen to Paradise Lost when it’s dark or you can do this in a sunny morning?

N. H.: You can do it anytime, because we played festivals in the middle of the afternoon in the glorious sunshine, so…

S. Y.: Yeah, I know. In Phoenix, Arizona you had a concert in sunshine.

N. H.: Yeah, I mean, you can do it any time, but obviously it’s better if it’s dark. But of course you don’t always get that choice so…

S. Y.: Well, how did you come up with the idea of using the voice of Charles Manson in “Forever Failure”?

N. H. I was… I might have heard a sample of… he said it on a video film or a TV show and I just stole it. He was kind of talking in riddles and it didn’t make much sense, but I liked how his voice sounded. When we were looking for samples that might work we tried it and it just worked, you know…

S. Y.: Is it true that you still have to pay the Manson family for using his voice?

N. H.: No, we had to pay a fare amount of money to the victims of Manson murders. It didn’t go to him.

S. Y.: Have you had any problems with this?

N. H.: No, no at all.

S. Y.: Well, in this video there’s a hand that puts coins on the eyes of a man before the burial or during the burial. What does it stand for?

N. H.: Hum, in the legend you have to put coins to pay the reaper. There are a lot of legends, you know. That’s an idea of the video director at the time.

S. Y.: Have you ever used any subliminal messages in your records?

N. H.: No, I mean I used to flip and playe records backwards when I was a kid, but … Things like Slayer and Venom, but no, we haven’t really bothered about it.

S. Y.: Do you believe that there are subliminal messages in other records like Judas Priest’s “Better Than You, Better Than Me” or Zeppelin’s “Stairway To heaven’ or it is an absolute bullshit?

N. H.: I think it’s bullshit actually. I just can’t see that happening really. Especially with early recording techniques, I don’t think it could be done, you know.

S. Y.: Yorkshire is famous for dark and gloomy bands. Do they put something in the water out there?

N. H.: Yeah, I don’t know why really. It could be the weather, you know. It could be.

S. Y.: Do you have any plans for a new studio album?

N. H.: Yeah, I mean, we just starting to write it now I mean. We’re trying to crack it now between the DVD launch and we’ve got some shows in September with Anathema and My Dying Bride- a couple of shows but we’re looking forward for the DVD launch and we will be trying to do an album in between.

S. Y.: What will be the direction - different or experimental again?

N. H.: Ultimately we wanted to make a heavier album last time and I also wanted to make it a little bit experimental, so I wouldn’t mind songs that are super heavy and then something that is not heavy at all. For me I would like to really mix it up a lot more than in the last album. But ultimately it’s not good to plan thing, it’s good to get along and see what happens…

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock