Interview with: Hamish Glencross from MY DYING BRIDE

Hallo. Is that you Harry?

Hi! How are you?

I'm fine thanks. Well, it's a bit cold as most of the times (laughs). It was snowing some days ago but now only the clouds remain.

Oh, no, I'm fine. It's all been good and interesting interviews and I'm so exited talking about our new album so it's all good. Definitely I'm not tired by the interviews yes.

(Interrupting) Yeah, because I have quite a lot more to do (laughs).

Yeah, it's coming out on the 23rd of March. We are very exited about this release. We've put a lot of hard work into it over the last year. And of course, there have been a lot of changes over the last two years after our last album. We have new members; the introduction of the violin, a lot of very good shows have taken place since Katie has come... It's been a busy time and now we are exited and anxious to listen to the people's opinion about the album.

The album was recorded at Futureworks Studio in Manchester which was a change for us. Usually, we've recorded at Academy Studios before. So, it was a different studio but with the same engineer and producer that we have for a long time now. Our producer Mags has been with us for years and he knows exactly what we want. We had many songs ready in advance before we hit the studio, but we worked on them in order to continuously improve them. All that went really well and the album demanded a really good artwork to go with it; so, we used a new artist this time, Rhett at The Machine Room. He is a wonderful artist. We gave him the concept so as to feel the vibe of the album and he came back with an amazing artwork and you'll see the full booklet, there are so many wonderful pieces of art that he's created were some of them I believe they can be an album by themselves.

Well, we are not living by our music. We have daily jobs which it freeze us to keep the integrity of the band as much as possible, because we are not going to be one of the most popular bands, for us it goes up to a certain level, we don't write popular music, but music that we want to create and we want to be proud of -and we are- for all the albums we have recorded. So, we have those jobs because we still need to have food on our table. So we don't have the freedom that probably other bands have and our time is more limited, for example, being on a tour.

Oh, shit! (both laughing)

I think it's the most complete album. I think the album has the roots of the band and also is looking to the future as well. So, as soon as the violin had come back into the mix, of course, people would think that we went back to the old sound of the band. And, yes, there are some parts in the album that remind early days of MY DYING BRIDE. Also there is some stuff that represents what we did during the resent past years. But, there are also some stuff that will happen from now on. We pushed our sound a little further than before. The Death Metal elements are here, the more dark ones too. There are songs like Bring Me Victory which is a low tempo straight ahead song with Gothic elements, which is quite uncharacteristic but still make sense. As far as if this is the best MY DYING BRIDE album? Well, we'll have to wait and see what the fans would say.

Yes, you are right. Sarah played with us for the last time at a festival in England at the end of 2007 and we needed someone to take her place...

Yes absolutely! We had shows booked for the next year, so we knew we had to find someone. We had a couple of options, a couple of keyboard players, but we are happy that Katie plays the violin as well. So, we figured that it's been quite a long time since we are without the violin and the people almost stopped asking for it to come back! And the timing just seemed right.

Ten years, right. It's been a long time! That's why the time was right. By the time people learned that the violin was back, they were anxious to listen to the new album. In Katie's first show, she didn't play any violin at all. We haven't really announced that she was playing with us and after that show we were convinced that she is a good person that she's fitting well with the rest of us. We've played the first show with the violin in France and again we haven't announced it at all, so everyone was very exited. The reaction of the people after the first song with the violin was something else. There were men down in the crowd crying!

Well, we are very comfortable now. And the return of the violin is adding some interesting parts in the new songs. And it's nice to listen to some older songs with violin, like She Is The Dark from The Light At The End Of The World.

Yes, very quite different. And it's also nice to hear it as a bridge for the gap between those many years without the violin. And as a guitarist, we play much different from those years, our sound has more depth in some ways.

Well we are all influenced by the darker aspects of life...

Well, we are not! If you meet us and have a drink with us, you'll find out that we're quite grounded sensible people who are not manic depressives. We just channel our anger and frustration through the music. There are lots of things in life that can inspire you. You have to channel your feelings somewhere and we are fortunate that we have music to do that.

Well, at the very least, I hope that our existence throughout the time is appreciated. Also I like to hope that maybe new generations of fans may be interested in what we are doing and that we're going to be able to play some good shows in as many different places as possible. I think that this album is the first chapter in a new book of MY DYING BRIDE. There have been some different eras of the band and I'm so exited about this new one. We are looking forward to see what the fans would respond to the album, because we've put so much of our souls into For Lies I Sire and it would be a disappointment if people don't like it (laughing).

Yeah, it would be a shame. But, we made this album exactly how we wanted it to be, so even if we're the only people on the planet that we liked it I think it's a well worked album.

Well, I suppose for the casual listener from outside the kind of music that we do, they could just listen to the very deep, heavy guitars and say that this is really dark music, fast or slow, different variations. I personally believe that every album we released is very different from each other. For example, The Angel And The Dark River doesn't sound a thing like The Dreadful Hours, ... Dreadful... doesn't sound a thing like As The Flower Withers. All our releases are very different albums. I think that those who said that for us are not going deep into the album....

Exactly! They will be nearly scratching the surface, even the vocal performances are different in every album. Obviously, people are going to think what they want to. That's why people have individual thoughts, but I wouldn't agree with them myself. I would have asked someone to listen to A Line Of Deathless Kings and then As The Flower Withers and then tell me where the similarities are.

The song itself is part of the history of the songs that MY DYING BRIDE has about vampires, love and lust, such as A Kiss To Remember. The music is very different in those kinds of songs, but they share a similar bloodline. The kind of feel that the song was that that in a way wanted a different language.

The album will be out soon, we have lots of interviews to do, we have a handful of festivals already booked and some others are being negotiated and a lot of mini tours as well. Also it's possible to go out in a North America tour at the end of the year, that's something that is also negotiating at the moment. I'm looking forward to go to nice places and do some nice shows, evolve as a band and hopefully not have more lineup changes. I don't know (laughing).

Oh, absolutely! We played with METALLICA and MASTODON. It was amazing! The weather was fantastic, the scene was so beautiful, the hotel had a roof garden and you could see the Acropolis from there. We had a great time in Athens with MASTODON. And we'll always remember playing on stage in front of these amazing Greek fans and James Hetfield was watching us from the edge of the stage, and me thinking Oh, my God! How things change over the years.. I remembered me as a young boy back in 1988 watching METALLICA. And twenty years later, James was watching me! (laughs) And of course we will come again in Athens. It's been a while since our last show, so I'd love to come again. Greece is a wonderful place. It would be a different show, since we play different songs.

Thank you so much for this phone interview and I hope that we will see our Greek fans very soon. I hope you'll enjoy the album. It would be great to drink a beer when we come, cheers.