Legendary British goth metallers PARADISE LOST have released a brand new record Obsidian and the world reactions have been fantastic.
We have singer NICK HOLMES via Skype to talk about the new record, the rather unusual situation in the world today, the future of the musical industry and more…
an interview conducted by Vassil Varbanov
JUST A DAY TO THE RELEASE OF PARADISE LOST’S BRAND NEW ALBUM, YOU SOUND PRETTY HAPPY ABOUT IT. EVEN WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING YET? I CAN FEEL IT IN YOUR VIBE THOUGH, IN YOUR VOICE. ARE YOU HAPPY BECAUSE OF THE NEW RECORD?
Urm, of course, yeah. Ha ha ha. The album is great, I am very happy with it. I’ve been doing promotion for three weeks – lots and lots and lots of interviews and the reaction has been very positive, so it’s really nice to hear good comments and I am looking forward to everyone else hearing it. Which is tomorrow, yeah, the 15thJUST A DAY TO THE RELEASE OF PARADISE LOST’S BRAND NEW ALBUM, YOU SOUND PRETTY HAPPY ABOUT IT. EVEN WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING YET? I CAN FEEL IT IN YOUR VIBE, IN YOUR VOICE. IS IT BECAUSE OF THE NEW RECORD?
-Urm, of course, yeah. Ha ha ha. The album is great, I am very happy with it. I’ve been doing promotion for three weeks – lots and lots and lots of interviews and the reaction has been very positive, so it’s really nice to hear good comments and I am looking forward to everyone else hearing it. Which is tomorrow, yeah, the 15th May.
WHEN DID YOU ACTUALY FINISH THE WHOLE PROCESS?
I think, we started recording in November, so maybe mid- December we finished it. We started writing it, may be, January last year. So It took us about 10 months – the best part of the year for writing and recording. We certainly don’t rush things – we’d like to get things right. And we are very happy with the result.
THE GOOD THING ABOUT THIS RECORD IS THAT IT DIDN’T HAVE THE CHANCE TO BE CONTAMINATED BY THE SPIRITUAL VIRUS THAT HAS BEEN SPREAD AROUND THE WORLD – NOT THE DISEASE ITSELF, BUT THE FACT THAT PEOPLE DISCOVERED TONS OF STRANGE AND DARK DETAILS ABOUT THEIR OWN MINDS. LOOKS LIKE ‘OBSIDIAN’ IS TOTALLY FREE AND CLEAN FROM THIS PERESPECTIVE, RIGHT?
Yeah, I mean, there is so much ambiguity in the lyrics that I write and some people thought that ‘Fall From Grace’ was about the virus, but it was written long before that, anyway.
But, it’s a strange time to release albums and not playing gigs as it was…
DO YOU THINK IT GOES THE OTHER WAY NOW – OBVIOUSLY FOR A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME, PROBABLY MORE THAN A DECADE NOW – RELEASING NEW ALBUMS WAS NOT THE MAIN POINT IN THE INDUSTRY. BUT NOW, WITH NO LIVE SHOWS POSSIBLE – DO YOU THING WE’LL GET BACK TO CREATIVITY AND RELEASING NEW STUDIO ALBUMS WILL BE IMPORTANT AGAIN?
I don’t know – it’s a tricky one. Obviously, I come from an era when it was all about the album. And the live show was always a secondary thing in the early days.
I don’t know actually, because it’s interesting to see if when people are once allowed to go out in groups, I think the LIVE think will probably get bigger. Once the finger is taken off the PAUSE button, it’s going to be crazy out there with concerts. So, maybe it will go bigger in the live circuit, perhaps. But as far as the albums dominating the whole thing, as you said, I couldn’t see this happening again, personaly, but you never know.
WELL. THERE WILL BE FOR SURE A NEW SEXUAL REVOLUTION – WHEN PEOPLE CAN GATHER TOGETHER IN PUBLIC – BUT, PLEASE TELL US – IS IT TRUE WHAT WE SEE HERE – THAT THE NATIONAL UK LOCKDOWN IS DOING GOOD FOR THE CONSOLIDATION OF YOUR ISLAND NATION OR IT’S JUST A SOCIAL MEDIA THING?
I think it’s doing good. We have a daily briefing from the government everyday, although they’ve started to repeat themselves, to be honest. They cannot give anything new, but it seems to be working with spreading the disease. But I think the longer in the lock-down, it’s not necessarily a good thing because JOBS is the people are worrying about. There’s everything behind it, but I think that actually getting rid of this virus is the main concern. So, pretty much what you hear is probably true. But we’ve been very hard hit with it. But the weired thing is that no one knows what’s gonna happen as you said in the beginning.
DO YOU ACTUALLY SEE WITH THE OTHER GUYS OR YOU ONLY TALK ON THE PHONE?
Ompf, I haven’t seen them from the last time we played live, whenever that was, hahaha. No, he have a WhatsApp group. We always send each other silly photographs and stuff, so hahaha. Well, everyone’s well. Everyone’s fine. Noone is too far with the internet.
WELL. SO FAR SO GOOD, BUT WHO TOLD YOU THE INTERNET WILL LAST FOREVER…
TO BE CONTINUED
‘Obsidian’ is out now through Nuclear Blast.
photo credit: Anne C. Swallow
