Dani Filth is the frontman of one of the biggest metal bands in the world. Over nearly two decades and eight epic albums with Cradle of Filth, he's established himself as both a metal legend and an expert on gothic horror.
Since forming Cradle in the early 90's, Dani has played to huge crowds at Ozzfest and the Download Festival and starred in a horror film called Cradle of Fear. There's been some controversy along the way. For instance, the band's notorious "Jesus is a Cunt" t-shirt didn't go down well in certain areas of society. Although Cradle of Filth don't make it their mission to offend, someone -- usually parents -- will always find a way to get upset over the fascination with the darker side of human nature that's reflected in their songs.
A lot of that darkness is rooted in historical fact, though. Dani recently finished work on a massive book on the history of the occult, called The Gospel of Filth, with metal journalist and Church of Satan Reverend, Gavin Baddeley. Right now, Cradle of Filth are also wrapping up a tour for their latest record, Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder, which tells the story of an obscenely wealthy 15th-century French aristocrat and his experiments with alchemy and witchcraft.
Everything Dani Filth creates, whether it's a Cradle of Filth concept album or a bible of the occult, seems to be elaborate and grand in scale. He kindly chatted with us about a little slice of his work while getting ready to play a show at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.
Jay Hathaway: You guys are playing in LA tonight?
Dani Filth: We sure are.
JH: What's your pre-show ritual like? Do you have a routine you go through before you play a show?
DF: Not particularly, other than the ritual of getting on each other's nerves. A handshake, you know. We like to keep things different. I have different rituals. I'm on the bus, generally, getting made up, watching a horror movie or something, warming up. Then I'll meet them in the dressing room later. Lots of candles, food fights. [laughs]
JH: Does going on stage ever make you nervous, even after being after a rock star for so many years?
DF: Yeah, it does. I mean, I flew home at the weekend, cause it was my daughter's birthday, so I flew back to England. Of course, that was a lot of flying, and I ruptured my eardrum. I had to go and have my eardrum cut open to let the fluid out, yesterday. My voice was really affected by it, so I was nervous yesterday for going on. I knew I wasn't performing 100%.
JH: Oh, wow. How did it go?
DF: It went ok. People liked the show.
JH: How are you feeling tonight?
DF: I feel a bit better. I've got antibiotics, so now I feel a lot better. The sound check was a lot better today, so it'll be good.
JH: What are some firsts for the band on this album, or this tour? Did you get to do anything you've never done before?
DF: We've got a different sort of stage show and layout and lighting, accessories, different set list. We're obviously playing stuff from out new album. We've got a different crew, so I would say that was quite different.
JH: What did you do with the set?
DF: It has video projections playing behind it, as well. It's more dramatic than our previous outings.
JH: Tell me a bit about the concept for this album. What's the story behind it?
DF: It's Gilles de Rais, who was a 15th-century nobleman, possibly the richest man in Europe at that time, one-time compatriot and protector of Joan of Arc. After her death, he slid into a life of debauchery, which ended up with him trying to reclaim his fortune through alchemy and witchcraft. This led him to murder and kidnapping. He was eventually arrested by the Catholic Church and tried. It's a great gothic sort of fairytale story, because he's a very pious man at the beginning, turns extremely evil, serial-killer material, and then eventually is redeemed. It's a true case, and my explanation doesn't really do justice to the gravity and the scale of the situation. There's obviously a lot more to it than that.
JH: So the album covers that entire narrative arc?
DF: The story runs concurrently throughout the album, it's not just vague ideas orbiting a main satellite. It's a story, and the narrative is actually taken from trial transcripts that were taken down in secular court at the time of his judgment.
JH: How long did it take you to do all of the research to write that?
DF: Well, I've just finished writing a book called The Gospel of Filth, which is like an occult study, and it's co-written with Gavin Baddeley, so I had my head in that space already. So, a couple of months, really.
JH: When is the book coming out?
DF: Well, the book has just been finished. It's with the publisher and the printer, going through its final editing, so it should be announced all over the place. It's only going to be available via our website for the first month, and that'll be a limited one with an extra chapter in it, leather-bound, hand-signed. After that, it'll be out in regular bookshops, like Borders and all that. But it is a complete study of the dark arts.
JH: What made this the right time to write a book?
DF: Well, we've been writing it for about three years. It's a huge book, there's a lot of research gone into it. Other people validate the subject matter, people who've contributed to it. Like Clive Barker, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pierson, and people of that ilk. So, it's not something that's just right now
JH: Do you think it's possible to make good music or good art without an element of darkness to it?
DF: Well, possibly, but it's not really in our repertoire, is it?
JH: No, not at all!
DF: I think you could do, but that's not what Cradle of Filth are about. It would be a bit silly for us to do an album about My Little Pony, for example.
JH: That's true. You mentioned your daughter earlier. What does she listen to? Is she into your band?
DF: Yeah. Well, funnily enough...She's 10 years old now. I flew back to England for her birthday. She appears on the album; she appears on the song "Darkness Incarnate." There's a narrative sort of poem. She's into our music, as any kid is, you know. They're into what their friends like. We've got a quite kooky house, so she's kind of used to it.
JH: If you ever made an album that didn't offend anyone, would you consider it a failure?
DF: I don't think our new album is offensive. It's based in historical facts. It depends what you deem offensive. We could easily be really offensive, but that's easy, isn't it? There's no real substance to it. I realize it doesn't fit with everybody's cup of tea, but that's just the way we are, isn't it?
JH: Have you come up with any ideas for concept albums that you considered doing, but ended up rejecting?
DF: We've done three concept records, and others are sort of -- well, Midian is a concept record, but I don't list it as being so, cause it's a collection of small narratives relating to a theme, which isn't exactly what I'd call a concept -- but I don't know. We've got some ideas for other things, but we're one of these bands that changes from album to album. We don't want to become entrenched in familiar territory.
Since forming Cradle in the early 90's, Dani has played to huge crowds at Ozzfest and the Download Festival and starred in a horror film called Cradle of Fear. There's been some controversy along the way. For instance, the band's notorious "Jesus is a Cunt" t-shirt didn't go down well in certain areas of society. Although Cradle of Filth don't make it their mission to offend, someone -- usually parents -- will always find a way to get upset over the fascination with the darker side of human nature that's reflected in their songs.
A lot of that darkness is rooted in historical fact, though. Dani recently finished work on a massive book on the history of the occult, called The Gospel of Filth, with metal journalist and Church of Satan Reverend, Gavin Baddeley. Right now, Cradle of Filth are also wrapping up a tour for their latest record, Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder, which tells the story of an obscenely wealthy 15th-century French aristocrat and his experiments with alchemy and witchcraft.
Everything Dani Filth creates, whether it's a Cradle of Filth concept album or a bible of the occult, seems to be elaborate and grand in scale. He kindly chatted with us about a little slice of his work while getting ready to play a show at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.
Jay Hathaway: You guys are playing in LA tonight?
Dani Filth: We sure are.
JH: What's your pre-show ritual like? Do you have a routine you go through before you play a show?
DF: Not particularly, other than the ritual of getting on each other's nerves. A handshake, you know. We like to keep things different. I have different rituals. I'm on the bus, generally, getting made up, watching a horror movie or something, warming up. Then I'll meet them in the dressing room later. Lots of candles, food fights. [laughs]
JH: Does going on stage ever make you nervous, even after being after a rock star for so many years?
DF: Yeah, it does. I mean, I flew home at the weekend, cause it was my daughter's birthday, so I flew back to England. Of course, that was a lot of flying, and I ruptured my eardrum. I had to go and have my eardrum cut open to let the fluid out, yesterday. My voice was really affected by it, so I was nervous yesterday for going on. I knew I wasn't performing 100%.
JH: Oh, wow. How did it go?
DF: It went ok. People liked the show.
JH: How are you feeling tonight?
DF: I feel a bit better. I've got antibiotics, so now I feel a lot better. The sound check was a lot better today, so it'll be good.
JH: What are some firsts for the band on this album, or this tour? Did you get to do anything you've never done before?
DF: We've got a different sort of stage show and layout and lighting, accessories, different set list. We're obviously playing stuff from out new album. We've got a different crew, so I would say that was quite different.
JH: What did you do with the set?
DF: It has video projections playing behind it, as well. It's more dramatic than our previous outings.
JH: Tell me a bit about the concept for this album. What's the story behind it?
DF: It's Gilles de Rais, who was a 15th-century nobleman, possibly the richest man in Europe at that time, one-time compatriot and protector of Joan of Arc. After her death, he slid into a life of debauchery, which ended up with him trying to reclaim his fortune through alchemy and witchcraft. This led him to murder and kidnapping. He was eventually arrested by the Catholic Church and tried. It's a great gothic sort of fairytale story, because he's a very pious man at the beginning, turns extremely evil, serial-killer material, and then eventually is redeemed. It's a true case, and my explanation doesn't really do justice to the gravity and the scale of the situation. There's obviously a lot more to it than that.
JH: So the album covers that entire narrative arc?
DF: The story runs concurrently throughout the album, it's not just vague ideas orbiting a main satellite. It's a story, and the narrative is actually taken from trial transcripts that were taken down in secular court at the time of his judgment.
JH: How long did it take you to do all of the research to write that?
DF: Well, I've just finished writing a book called The Gospel of Filth, which is like an occult study, and it's co-written with Gavin Baddeley, so I had my head in that space already. So, a couple of months, really.
JH: When is the book coming out?
DF: Well, the book has just been finished. It's with the publisher and the printer, going through its final editing, so it should be announced all over the place. It's only going to be available via our website for the first month, and that'll be a limited one with an extra chapter in it, leather-bound, hand-signed. After that, it'll be out in regular bookshops, like Borders and all that. But it is a complete study of the dark arts.
JH: What made this the right time to write a book?
DF: Well, we've been writing it for about three years. It's a huge book, there's a lot of research gone into it. Other people validate the subject matter, people who've contributed to it. Like Clive Barker, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pierson, and people of that ilk. So, it's not something that's just right now
JH: Do you think it's possible to make good music or good art without an element of darkness to it?
DF: Well, possibly, but it's not really in our repertoire, is it?
JH: No, not at all!
DF: I think you could do, but that's not what Cradle of Filth are about. It would be a bit silly for us to do an album about My Little Pony, for example.
JH: That's true. You mentioned your daughter earlier. What does she listen to? Is she into your band?
DF: Yeah. Well, funnily enough...She's 10 years old now. I flew back to England for her birthday. She appears on the album; she appears on the song "Darkness Incarnate." There's a narrative sort of poem. She's into our music, as any kid is, you know. They're into what their friends like. We've got a quite kooky house, so she's kind of used to it.
JH: If you ever made an album that didn't offend anyone, would you consider it a failure?
DF: I don't think our new album is offensive. It's based in historical facts. It depends what you deem offensive. We could easily be really offensive, but that's easy, isn't it? There's no real substance to it. I realize it doesn't fit with everybody's cup of tea, but that's just the way we are, isn't it?
JH: Have you come up with any ideas for concept albums that you considered doing, but ended up rejecting?
DF: We've done three concept records, and others are sort of -- well, Midian is a concept record, but I don't list it as being so, cause it's a collection of small narratives relating to a theme, which isn't exactly what I'd call a concept -- but I don't know. We've got some ideas for other things, but we're one of these bands that changes from album to album. We don't want to become entrenched in familiar territory.
VIEW 12 of 12 COMMENTS
interesting i just bought their latest effort last week, but i still think cruelty and the beast was by far best album, prob followed by dusk