{"id":7328,"date":"2012-10-15T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=7328"},"modified":"2012-11-08T00:10:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T00:10:19","slug":"feature-my-dying-bride-10-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-my-dying-bride-10-12\/","title":{"rendered":"MY DYING BRIDE – Rock Till Doomsday (October 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MY DYING BRIDE – Rock Till Doomsday<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nOctober 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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My Dying Bride (l-r): Shaun MacGowan, Andrew Craighan, Aaron Stainthorpe,
Lena Ab\u00e9 and Hamish Glencross<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Parts for 11th My Dying Bride studio full-length A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em><\/a> began to be authored during early 2011, guitarists Andrew Craighan and Hamish Glencross writing various components at home. On a monthly basis the outfit met, sharing and placing together their collective ideas. \u201cQuite a big\u201d database of ideas spanning a year resulted, forming the basis of what became the Yorkshire, United Kingdom-based doom metal group\u2019s 2012 offering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had so much material that we actually started to put it together in what is recognisable song form,\u201d remembers Aaron Stainthorpe, vocalist and co-founder of My Dying Bride. \u201cIt\u2019s fun but it\u2019s also hard work as well, because you\u2019ve gotta make sure that with all these great ideas you don\u2019t spoil the broth as it were, so we constructed the songs in the best way we thought we could. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe recorded 13 songs in total, although only eight appear on the album. One will appear on a special edition of the album and the other four will appear on the new EP, which I\u2019m guessing will probably come out around April 2013. We recorded at Futureworks in Manchester where we\u2019ve recorded the last few albums. Mags (Robert Magoolagan) was the engineer again. I\u2019d love to be able to tell you some funny anecdotes about it, but to be honest, we kind of really nailed the songs before we hit the studio. It was all a case of \u2018Heads down. Let\u2019s get this over and done with. Let\u2019s not waste time. Let\u2019s be as professional as we possibly can.\u2019 We were in and out of the studio in a fairly quick time with a fairly polished piece of vinyl, which we are all chuffed with.\u201d<\/p>\n

November 2011 EP The Barghest O\u2019 Whitby<\/em><\/a> was penned during these writing sessions. \u201cIt was a surprise for all of us actually, was Barghest<\/em>,\u201d the frontman admits. \u201cWe certainly never planned on writing a song as long as that, but typically when we do write songs we don\u2019t bother wondering when it\u2019s going to end. We simply keep writing until everybody in the band is happy that they\u2019ve had their input, and as a collective we feel the song is complete. With Barghest<\/em> we simply didn\u2019t bother looking at the clock, and when it came to saying \u2018Right, I think we\u2019re all happy with that\u2019 it ended up being 27 minutes long. Probably not ideal for the record label, because it was probably not gonna get much radio play. We\u2019re lucky though we\u2019ve got a record label who\u2019ve backed us for years and have told us we can do pretty much anything we want, which is great. Not many bands can have that much artistic freedom, surely. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, Barghest<\/em> was around that same sort of time. We had a lot of riffs in our database \u2013 which I keep calling it \u2013 to choose from, because normally when we record an album we would only write enough music for one album, record it, and then release it. For the first time ever we\u2019ve written more than we needed, and recorded all 13 tracks knowing damn well that they wouldn\u2019t all fit on the album. The label said \u2018Yeah, cool. We\u2019ll do an EP as well sometime in 2013.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A bonus number included on A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em>\u2019 special edition version, \u2018My Faults Are Your Reward\u2019, additionally surfaced. \u201cYou know what record labels are like,\u201d Aaron observes. \u201cThere\u2019s always some sort of digipack, fold-out limited thing, which I quite like. When I was younger I would collect picture discs and goodness knows what, so I quite like special editions. \u2018My Faults Are Your Reward\u2019 is sort of typical My Dying Bride in that it\u2019s a song regarding failures, and how other people can somehow take advantage of your failures and become better… or they think they\u2019re gonna become better people because of what\u2019s gone wrong with you. They\u2019re quite nasty people really. <\/p>\n

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\u201cSo yeah, there\u2019s a bonus track there for the diehards and as I say, an EP sometime in 2013 as well. We\u2019ve got quite a lot of material at the moment \u2013 more than I think we\u2019ve ever had \u2013 which I think is a testament to how effervescent we are when it comes to writing at this moment. We\u2019ve got a flood of ideas, and we\u2019ve still got \u2013 in this database \u2013 loads more ideas. We simply weren\u2019t able to get down at this moment in time, so it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if some of the stuff that hasn\u2019t been used for A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> would turn up on something we release in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> explores familiar territory, lyrically speaking. \u201cIt might sound a bit dull for me to admit, but it\u2019s the doom and gloom that people have come to expect from us over the years,\u201d the singer confesses. \u201cThere are some sad, tragic love songs, there are songs filled with hate, there\u2019s a bit of aggression, and there\u2019s obviously a pop at religion. I can\u2019t help myself going down that route from time to time, but they are the subjects that people want from My Dying Bride as well. It would be criminal of me to start singing about politics in a very upfront manner, or technology, or something a bit more contemporary. People don\u2019t want that from My Dying Bride, and I don\u2019t want that from me. The music I create is escapism; I want people to listen to our music, and drift off to a different time and a different place, and forget all of their daily woes. The last thing I\u2019m gonna do is sing about their daily woes right into their faces. I would want our fans to put their headphones on, turn the music up, and just lie on their bed and really indulge themselves in it without any content within the album bringing them crashing back down to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> is arguably quite a heavy album title though, and perhaps at odds with an escapist strategy. \u201cYeah, but again people want that sort of stuff,\u201d Aaron counters. \u201cWe\u2019ll never be one of these bands who uses one-word titles. You need to at least give the fans a bit of a hint to some of the content. A one-word title doesn\u2019t do anything, unless it\u2019s Hate or something crazy like that. I like words and I like the theatre, and so being theatrical with words is what I do. People have come to expect that from me, and so I\u2019d like to think that I deliver something that they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mainman\u2019s writing habits reflect his listening habits, his music collection not including more overtly political material. \u201cYou\u2019re not gonna see much political music in my CD collection \u2013 there\u2019s no Black Flag in there, for example,\u201d he divulges. \u201cThere\u2019s a place for that kind of stuff, and it\u2019s simply not my place (laughs). I like my music to be a vehicle to transport me to somewhere else, somewhere away from the rat race, away from the taxman and the annoying neighbour and the car that won\u2019t start, the money that I don\u2019t have and the people who want my money. My music has to take me away from all that shit, so that I\u2019ve got somewhere to go that isn\u2019t all nasty. Despite the fact that some of the music I listen to is quite morbid, it\u2019s morbid I think in a beautiful way. It\u2019s the escapism that\u2019s the most important thing for me though, and that\u2019s why I write things which some hard-nosed journalists might say is a bit airy fairy. Fine though; that\u2019s what I want. I want to be taken away to a different place and a different time for an hour, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s too much to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some political groups seem to want to convert individuals towards their ideas, as opposed to playing to individuals for their musical enjoyment. \u201cThat\u2019s true,\u201d Aaron agrees. \u201cThere are political bands out there who slag off whatever it is they\u2019re slagging off, and they\u2019re trying to get you to aggressively follow whatever movement it is they\u2019re a part of, be it CND (Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament), or Greenpeace or whatever, or some other subgenre. You sometimes think \u2018Is this music now, or is this a campaign?\u2019 I\u2019m just not into that \u2013 I don\u2019t preach. I tell stories to some great music and for me that\u2019s my opinion of what music should be, but everyone has their own opinion. If somebody wants to scream and shout in a political manner, they have every right to do that. It\u2019s just not my cup of tea.\u201d<\/p>\n

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My Dying Bride (l-r): Shaun MacGowan, Andrew Craighan, Hamish Glencross,
Lena Ab\u00e9 and Aaron Stainthorpe<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Title cut \u2018A Map Of All Our Failures\u2019 \u201cis about a guy who has nothing left, and not just physically,\u201d the co-founder reveals. \u201cThe idea was he sat in a room which has a bed and a chair, and nothing else. Everything he\u2019s had in his life has gone through wrong decisions, bad decisions, dodgy characters, and so on. Now he has ended up with nothing, but it\u2019s a mental thing as well. He realises he\u2019s got no love. He\u2019s never loved, and you could argue that if you\u2019ve never loved then you\u2019ve never lost properly. He feels like he\u2019s lost everything, so it\u2019s complete and utter desolation. I\u2019m sure some people feel from time to time that the world is really against them, and in realistic terms it probably never really is. You\u2019ve always probably got a roof over your head, or can find something like that. I wanted to write a song about someone who really has absolutely nothing, and that\u2019s what \u2018A Map Of All Our Failures\u2019 is about. He\u2019s realised that there is nothing there. The map itself if you want could be completely blank; it just contains nothing, and there\u2019s nothing left to live for. I\u2019m not suggesting for one moment that suicide is on the menu for this evening, but you just wonder sometimes. If somebody actually has absolutely nothing, can they survive that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, some turn in the opposite direction and kill other people as well as themselves. \u201cThat is true, yeah, but that\u2019s a consequence of the world we live in unfortunately,\u201d Aaron laments.<\/p>\n

The vocalist relates to the title number\u2019s central character. \u201cTo be honest, I get moments like that,\u201d he confesses. \u201cObviously I\u2019ve over-dramatised it because I\u2019m an artist, and that\u2019s what artists are allowed to do. You take an idea, and you really flesh it out and give it the full monty as it were. We\u2019ve all felt lonely, and there are times when you just kind of sit there looking out of the window, especially where we live in Yorkshire. It\u2019s pouring with rain, and you just think \u2018There must be more to life \u2013 there must be. Am I missing something? Am I doing something wrong? Life isn\u2019t giving me what other people have got.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a little bit low in general, and I do quite like a glass or two of wine. Obviously when you\u2019ve had a little bit too much those sorts of feelings balloon, and you get a bit more theatrical, thinking \u2018Woe is me. Oh, the world is full of toil\u2019 and all that sort of lark. I take an idea, and I really like to flesh it out and take it to the very nth degree. Hence that song is taken to a moment where I felt a bit low and a bit blue, and I\u2019ve really sort of run it and pushed it as far as it would go. The result is that particular track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listeners might assume that a \u201cpop at Christianity\u201d arrives in the form of \u2018Abandoned As Christ\u2019, but this isn\u2019t the case. \u201cIt would be the obvious choice to some people, but no, that song is a real obscure track,\u201d Aaron cautions. \u201cI\u2019ve mentioned this in a couple of interviews in the past… I encourage our fans \u2013 again, mostly the diehards \u2013 to just read between the lines a bit with that song, because there\u2019s something else going on which isn\u2019t immediately obvious in the title. It\u2019s less to do with religion, and more to do with \u2013 again \u2013 people trying to get one over on you, and you feeling left abandoned as it were. There\u2019s a track… Again, I keep mentioning the EP. I should be really promoting that later, but there\u2019s a track on the EP which is much more anti-religious and it\u2019s not really particularly any religion specifically. <\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s more to do with the pressure of religion as it comes knocking at your door. No matter how much you try to close that door, they always try to put their foot in it and try just that little bit harder to get right into your face when you really don\u2019t want them to. You can probably apply that message to any religion really. I guess it depends on where you\u2019re from, and who you consider to be the enemy of your God. There\u2019ll be some people thinking \u2018Ah, yeah. I know exactly that guy\u2019, just by them having religious beliefs themselves. Really, you could be looking in the mirror. I guess we can talk about that when we come to promote that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merely a handful of moments on A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> bear anti-religious sentiment. \u201cThey\u2019re almost out of context though,\u201d the frontman notes. \u201cThere are times within a song when I just like to go off on a tangent every once in awhile, and then come back into the narrative. There are a couple of little spiky lines which are references to various religious things \u2013 lords, gods, deities and what have you \u2013 but the songs themselves aren\u2019t specifically anti-religious. There are just shining little moments just to let you know that we haven\u2019t abandoned it completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

May 2011\u2019s Evinta<\/em> sported classical reworkings of previous My Dying Bride material, though revisiting past tunes didn\u2019t influence Aaron in penning lyrics for A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m sure when people read some of the lyrics from A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> though they\u2019re gonna think \u2018That reminds me of Turn Loose The Swans<\/em>,\u2019 or \u2018… The Light At The End Of The World<\/em>,\u2019 or something like that,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cThat\u2019s my style; that\u2019s who I am, and I can\u2019t really shake that \u2013 I\u2019m quite glad that I can\u2019t. It\u2019s nice to have an identity, so that when you create something people know that it\u2019s yours. Without constantly repeating yourself it\u2019s nice to have a style that\u2019s recognisable. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to listen to all of that early stuff again as we were putting Evinta<\/em> together, but when it comes to writing a new album you\u2019ve got to have all fresh, new stuff. If it\u2019s regurgitated stuff \u2013 even disguised regurgitated stuff \u2013 people will spot it, especially the diehard fans. They\u2019ll pick it apart. Why put all the effort into writing a new album just to have it pulled apart? It\u2019s all a 100% fresh and new. The past is where it should be; we love it for what it was, but it\u2019s always time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of My Dying Bride\u2019s past full-lengths, the singer cannot select a favourite. \u201cI would like to consider most of our albums like my children; they\u2019re all slightly different, but I love them all,\u201d he muses. \u201cThey were right at that time. You might look at them now and think \u2018Okay, perhaps that could\u2019ve been better when we did that,\u2019 but at the time… Like with the new album. It\u2019s brilliant and it\u2019s as good as it can be right now, but in ten years I might look back at A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> and think \u2018Actually, we could\u2019ve polished a few bits here and there.\u2019 At the time it was right though and I\u2019m happy with that. I\u2019m proud of everything we\u2019ve released in the past, and I\u2019m not one of these people who kind of shuns their first album or anything like that. Playing live, any opportunity we\u2019ll sing songs from every single album in the same style that they were recorded in because we\u2019re proud of all that material.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> features a wide array of vocal stylings. \u201cWe purposely put a nice little mix in \u2018Kneel Till Doomsday\u2019 to show people that there are still a bit of death metal vocals there,\u201d Aaron highlights. \u201cThere are some talkies, there is some singing \u2013 it\u2019s just a nice variety. We\u2019ve never told people we\u2019re a doom band, and we\u2019ve never told people we\u2019re a death metal band. We\u2019ve always tried to stress \u2018Look, we love both genres as well as a bit of gothic.\u2019 We do all these genres and we\u2019ll mix them together, so don\u2019t think we\u2019re just a doom band. To reiterate that, we\u2019ve put that track first to show people that there\u2019s still a bit of aggression. I can\u2019t play an instrument, so I have to do what I can with my vocals. <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess with any vocalist you want to try to better yourself with each record, and so it\u2019s nice to try harder to try to hit a few extra notes, and keep it varied on the whole album. There are whispers, there are shouts, there are talkie bits, there\u2019s singing, there\u2019s low stuff, and there\u2019s high stuff. I try to keep a good variety to keep everyone interested, and of course it keeps me interested as well. I like to try to push myself and prove that I can do not just one style, but a few different styles to represent which characters are doing what in each particular song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing whether to sing, whisper or shout specific lines and so on isn\u2019t an exact science. \u201cSometimes you know beforehand because of the way the lyrics are written,\u201d the mainman explains. \u201cIf it\u2019s an obvious narrative which tells a quite clear story with a start, a middle, and an end, you kind of know \u2018Oh, that line\u2019s definitely gotta be whispered because it\u2019s a real creepy little moment there.\u2019 There\u2019s no point screaming on that. Other times when you\u2019re not a 100% sure what sort of vocals to do, you go into the studio and try a few ideas, most of which you pretty much expect to work. Then there\u2019s a couple you think \u2018Actually, I\u2019m not gonna sing this. I\u2019m gonna whisper it, and we\u2019ll just see where that goes.\u2019 Just changing from a standard singing vocal to a whisper suddenly adds a lot of creepiness to a song, and despite whatever riff you\u2019re singing or whispering over it changes the mood quite dramatically. It\u2019s well worth trying out different vocal styles on different riffs and where appropriate, because you can really give a song a good kick up the backside just with that slight alteration.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> marks the first My Dying Bride full-length platter to feature violinist \/ keyboardist Shaun MacGowan. \u201cShaun\u2019s been great,\u201d Aaron enthuses. \u201cHe added a bit on Barghest<\/em> which was fine, but we\u2019re trying to get him to come out of his shell a little bit more because he\u2019s quite shy. I think he was one-year-old when My Dying Bride formed, so it\u2019s a bit weird him being in the band. He doesn\u2019t wanna tread on anyone\u2019s toes. He\u2019s joined a well established band, and the last thing we want \u2013 and the last thing he wants \u2013 is him saying \u2018I\u2019ve got some shit hot guitar riffs for you guys,\u2019 because he\u2019d get kicked out straight away no matter how good his riffs were. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want him to come out of his shell a little bit more, because he\u2019s still quite a shy, young lad. He\u2019s put some great, woeful violin parts on the album though, and they\u2019ve really embellished the material that it\u2019s been played over. It\u2019s haunting and sounds beautiful, but in a tragic kind of way. With the violin it has always been like that for us, particularly in the early days. He added a real good amount to it. All the violin parts have been his own stuff; at no point has anyone said \u2018Here, play this.\u2019 He\u2019s said \u2018I\u2019ve got this. Does it work?\u2019 We\u2019ve said \u2018Yeah, bloody brilliant,\u2019 but we expect more from him in the future. Fingers crossed that on the next album there\u2019ll be a bit more of Shaun.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A generation separates Shaun and his fellow bandmates. \u201cIt\u2019s different working with someone who\u2019s a generation younger because he doesn\u2019t contribute that much, but we want him to,\u201d the co-founder emphasises. \u201cI wonder if he\u2019s thinking \u2018Oh, they\u2019re just being polite,\u2019 but we want everyone in the band to feel like they can contribute absolutely anything and feel equal to us. I can understand he\u2019s a young man though, and we\u2019re not (laughs). It\u2019s slightly tricky for him to to just step in and say \u2018Hey guys, I\u2019ve got this great idea,\u2019 because we could throw it back in his face. That isn\u2019t likely because we\u2019re not really that kind of band, but it must be awkward. He\u2019s settling down; as each month goes by, he\u2019s definitely gelling a lot more. We\u2019ve just come back from a trip to Romania, and we had a blast. It was amazing, so he\u2019s really settling down. As I say, the next time we come to do another album I expect quite a bit more from him, and I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be ready to commit.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with each and every My Dying Bride outing, Robert \u2018Mags\u2019 Magoolagan was at the production helm for A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019ve never not worked with him, so I don\u2019t actually know what it\u2019s like to not work with the guy,\u201d Aaron chuckles. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked with him since day one, and we will continue to work with him because he\u2019s unofficially the seventh member of My Dying Bride. He comes with us on the live shows; he does all of our live sound for us, which makes perfect sense. If he\u2019s mastered the album he knows the band and that album better than anyone else, so why not bring him out to a live situation? <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy, and because we\u2019ve worked so long with him he\u2019s quite happy to contribute stuff left, right and centre. If he doesn\u2019t like something or thinks it\u2019s a little bit out there, he\u2019s happy to comment on it. We don\u2019t necessarily take any notice, but he\u2019s comfortable with saying \u2018Does that really sound right? Maybe if you change this key, it might sound a bit more interesting.\u2019 Sometimes he\u2019s right and sometimes he\u2019s wrong, but we\u2019re happy for him to contribute anywhere he feels it might be necessary to keep the band upfront and fresh. He\u2019s never gonna slag off interesting and wonderful ideas \u2013 he only wants the best for the band, which is great. We\u2019ll try to continue to work with him for as long as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mags is by no means a taskmaster. \u201cOh God, no,\u201d the vocalist responds. \u201cNothing like that, because the studio is so expensive. You need to have most of the songs nailed before you get into the studio, so if he\u2019s gonna pick faults with anything there\u2019s not a lot left to pick faults with because it\u2019s all pretty much nailed by us. He\u2019s not a taskmaster at all; he will contribute where he feels he needs to or if he\u2019s got an opinion, and that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s nice to hear an outsider\u2019s voice sometimes, because we\u2019ve sat ourselves in this dark, dingy room in Halifax and constructed these songs in our own particular way. To then hear someone else\u2019s voice say \u2018Oh, that\u2019s interesting\u2019 or \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve got a brilliant idea that might work with this\u2019… We\u2019re all ears and he can say as much as he likes. We love the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron feels that A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> is an improvement on predecessor For Lies I Sire<\/em> (March 2009). \u201cI think as we\u2019ve got older, we\u2019ve become better songwriters and performers,\u201d he judges. \u201cWell, at least you\u2019d hope so. As the old adage goes, practice makes perfect \u2013 that comes to mind here. I mean, I love For Lies I Sire<\/em>; it\u2019s really well crafted, and I really struggle to pick holes in it now three years down the line. Statistically we should be better at what we do, and I\u2019d like to think we are. I think the songs on A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> are better constructed. I\u2019d like to think it\u2019s an easier album to get into for the average listener. Some people may argue that that\u2019s complete rubbish, but I think that it\u2019s a more accessible album. That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we\u2019re mellowing out, because there\u2019s some extreme stuff in there as well. But yeah, we\u2019ve matured over the last three years since the last album, and I\u2019d like to think that our music has come along with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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London, England-based South African illustrator Rhett Podersoo designed the artwork for the effort, having previously designed pieces for For Lies I Sire<\/em> and the October 2009 EP Bring Me Victory<\/em>. \u201cI really liked his style, and so it was good to return back to him for this album,\u201d the frontman reckons. \u201cWe were considering using another artist in the early days of writing the album because the album was taking on an apocalyptic sound, and so we wanted something representative of that. We were working with an artist going down one route, and then when I wrote the lyrics, put the lyrics on the album, sang them, and recorded them, the album veered off course dramatically. We needed a new artwork for it because what we were working with worked with the music, and if we were doing an instrumental album it would\u2019ve been fine. Once I had put the vocals on the album though, it took an extreme right and went down towards a different route altogether, and so we needed to change the artwork quick. Rhett wasn\u2019t in from the start, but when we needed him he pulled out the goods for us. I think it\u2019s come out beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

A music video will be filmed for the track \u2018The Poorest Waltz\u2019. \u201cI met a Gothic dance troupe a couple of years ago, and we thought we\u2019d work with them at some point,\u201d Aaron discloses. \u201cWhen we had written the song \u2018The Poorest Waltz\u2019, I thought \u2018This is ideal for those girls.\u2019 They all dress in black and they wear blindfolds, and they do this amazing dance routine. I\u2019ve given them the tracks, I\u2019ve given them the lyrics, and I\u2019ve told them what the song is about. I\u2019m getting Charlie over from Sweden, who\u2019s gonna film it all. It\u2019s a story about two guys from a village who in the middle of the night sneak up to the sanitorium on the hill where all the outcasts from the village are kind of stored as it were. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey break into the dormitory where all of the blind girls are kept, and they quite innocently take a bit of moonshine up with them. They take an old gramophone and they crank it up, but keep the volume low. They have a few drinks and they dance with the blind girls just to give them a little bit of relief, a little bit of fantasy. It\u2019s all lovely. At the end of the night they pack their gear away, they sneak back down to the village, and no-one knows this funny little midnight tryst is going on. It\u2019s very innocent, but almost romantic. Because of the innocence though, it\u2019s not really romantic. It\u2019s just a lovely little, sad tale where these girls are given a little bit of relief every once in awhile by these two sneaky little characters, and so the video is gonna be based on that story. Ideally, it\u2019s gonna be filmed at The Dance Mill in Halifax which works well because it\u2019s an old mill, It can double up for a dormitory no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music video for \u2018The Poorest Waltz\u2019 will very much reflect its lyrical content. \u201cThe storyboard is the lyrics,\u201d the singer augments. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those videos where you could almost have karaoke words on screen; as I say things, they will appear. It\u2019s almost like somebody narrating a story. It\u2019s pretty straightforward; it\u2019s a story with a start, a beginning, and an end. The lyrics are easy to read. We\u2019re not challenging listeners with anything obscure \u2013 there\u2019s no Latin like I\u2019ve done in the past, or anything obscure. It\u2019s a very, very simple story, a nice little tale about a couple of urchins who\u2019re just offering a little bit of relief to some poor souls that the local village have deemed outcasts, and then it\u2019s all over come dawn the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

As previously touched upon during this feature, My Dying Bride are due to issue a four-track EP in roughly April 2013. The EP in question will be entitled The Manuscript<\/em>. \u201cThey\u2019re very similar to A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> because they were written and recorded at the same time, except for one song,\u201d Aaron critiques. \u201cThat really stands out (laughs)… It\u2019s full on sort of epic death metal; it\u2019s swords and axes, a proper warrior battle kind of track that\u2019s almost medieval in flavour. You can almost picture the scene; it\u2019s set in a snowy kind of mountainous landscape. There are sound effects and all sorts of mayhem going on in it, and death metal vocals not quite all the way through it, but near enough. It even has a Swedish title which because my Swedish isn\u2019t great, I\u2019m not gonna repeat here (laughs). I need to get the pronunciation right before I do that.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYeah though, we\u2019re probably gonna do a video for the title track which is currently called \u2018The Manuscript\u2019. It\u2019s going to be done by Charlie Granberg who did the \u2018Bring Me Victory\u2019 video, but prior to that Charlie and My Dying Bride are working on a video for \u2018The Poorest Waltz\u2019, the second song on the album. There\u2019s gonna be a video for that as well that will be a shot towards the middle of October. So yeah, a couple of videos from My Dying Bride are coming soon as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Manuscript<\/em>\u2019s tracks will be similar in length to those included on A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em>. \u201cWhen we had 13 songs on the computer we were looking at three to four of them, and they were 7:47 which was a bit of a coincidence,\u201d the mainman discerns. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how or why that happened, but that was the case. There are probably a couple on the EP which are 7:47 as well. A song\u2019s over when it\u2019s over, and the evidence of that is The Barghest O\u2019 Whitby<\/em>. We don\u2019t try to aim for a three-and-a-half minute track to get a bit of radio airplay \u2013 that will never happen from My Dying Bride. If a song happens to be over in three-and-a-half minutes, that\u2019s fine. That was just how it should be, but we never purposely try to write a song with any specific length. We all contribute and when we\u2019re all happy that the song\u2019s over \u2013 whether it\u2019s three minutes or 30 minutes \u2013 it\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Dying Bride\u2019s back catalogue has grown over the years, meaning the quintet have a wider range of cuts to choose from in devising a setlist. \u201cObviously with each album it gets more and more difficult because we\u2019ve got more songs, but the same sort of time,\u201d Aaron laments. \u201cSome songs are gonna have to fall by the wayside, but how we pick a setlist is to simply look at last year\u2019s setlist and not include any of the songs from that setlist on the new setlist. That way we kind of keep it a bit fair. If anyone who has seen us one year comes to see us the following year, you\u2019re guaranteed not to have the same setlist, and that\u2019s really the best way we can do it. We have so many songs to choose from, and that\u2019s quite a good format that works well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many groups simply adhere to almost the very same live setlist night after night. \u201cI suppose it\u2019s easier to do, but we\u2019ve got tons of stuff to choose from,\u201d the co-founder submits. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what you do; you always see someone in the crowd screaming for a song that was perhaps on last year\u2019s setlist (laughs). It\u2019s inevitable; we\u2019ve got a lot of music now in our history. Especially festivals are the worst, because you generally will only have an hour to cram a good spread from your history into an hour. It\u2019s really difficult, and it gets harder with every passing year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Poorest Waltz\u2019 aside, none of A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em>\u2019 tracks are confirmed to appear in My Dying Bride\u2019s forthcoming live setlists. \u201cIf we\u2019re doing a video for it, it makes sense to sing it live as well,\u201d Aaron reasons. \u201cEverybody will see the video, and they\u2019ll want to see it live. That\u2019s perfectly normal, and it\u2019s a great song as well. Plus Hamish will be doing the backing vocals, and I quite like having a band member to help me out onstage. It\u2019s great, and it adds another dynamic to the performance too. \u2018The Poorest Waltz\u2019 will definitely be there. We can pick and choose. I\u2019m sure we\u2019re gonna be arguing about which of the new tracks are gonna be included, but we\u2019ll cross that bridge when we come to it. It\u2019s nice to have a good choice. We\u2019d like to choose all of them, but some have to get the elbow. We\u2019d rather not bombard fans with the new stuff, but three to four new songs will be aired on the December tour. We\u2019ll be promoting that album, so it makes perfect sense to do a few songs from it. To do our own shows we\u2019ve got at least 90 minutes, so we can get away with four new tracks and plenty of old classics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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2012 marks 25 years since the formation of Peaceville Records, a label My Dying Bride has been signed to since 1992. \u201cThe great thing about Peaceville and the reason why we\u2019ve stuck with them for this amount of time is because they\u2019ve never, ever tried to push us or make us into something we\u2019re not,\u201d the vocalist praises. \u201cAt no point have they ever said \u2018C\u2019mon guys, we need a three-minute song for the radio.\u2019 We delivered The Barghest O\u2019 Whitby<\/em> to them, and they had no idea what it was about or anything like that. I\u2019m sure eyebrows were raised when they realised that it was a 27-minute long song, but they didn\u2019t bat an eyelid at the same time. They kind of realised \u2018Look, we signed My Dying Bride because we like what they do and the last thing we\u2019re gonna do is tell them what to do.\u2019 We already know what to do, so they don\u2019t interfere. I bet there aren\u2019t many bands in the world today who have complete artistic freedom over their work, but we have that. That\u2019s why we stayed with them; they let us do absolutely anything we want, and that is an absolute gem.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course when our contracts are up, we shop around though. We have to have our business heads on at the same time and there are other labels throwing deals at us and asking us \u2018C\u2019mon, it\u2019s about time you moved off of Peaceville.\u2019 They\u2019re a great independent label, and there have been bigger labels saying \u2018You need to step up a bit with your profile.\u2019 We\u2019ve been thinking \u2018Yeah, we kind of see where you\u2019re coming from but then you\u2019re also going to tell us to do this, you\u2019re gonna tell us do that, and we\u2019re gonna say \u2018Fuck off,\u2019 and then the contract will be over.\u2019 We\u2019d be left flat on our face and crawling with our tail between our legs back to Peaceville, because we\u2019d end up being a little fish in a big pond. With Peaceville we\u2019re a big fish in a little pond, and we\u2019ve got some control. We like the people who work there, and they listen to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Map Of All Our Failures<\/em> was released on October 15th, 2012 in Europe and subsequently on the 16th in North America, all through Peaceville Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in October 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MY DYING BRIDE – Rock Till Doomsday Anthony Morgan October 2012 My Dying Bride (l-r): Shaun MacGowan, Andrew Craighan, Aaron Stainthorpe, Lena Ab\u00e9 and Hamish Glencross Parts for 11th My Dying Bride studio full-length A Map Of All Our Failures began to be authored during early 2011, guitarists Andrew Craighan and Hamish Glencross writing various […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[379],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-dying-bride"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7328"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7477,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7328\/revisions\/7477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}