MP: Have you expected from your old fans to follow you with your electronic sounds?

Lee: It seems inevitable with anything you release that some fans don't really understand what you're doing. So you gain some fans and you loose some fans. But it's not anything we put too much time on thinking about, because in the end of the day we write music for ourselves. It is important to keep pushing ourselves and try to develop. You'll never please everybody - that's the thing with music.
Greg: We knew exactly we would get criticized for 'Host' before we brought it out. I think we gave some people too much credit. We thought, they would get the idea but they did'nt. People said "Why are there no guitars"? ... There's lot of guitars. You don't need a big distortion padel on a guitar to make it sound heavy and deep. We were just experimenting with sounds and trying to make an atmospheric miserable album without being the same as every other album we've done. If people hear the new record, 'Host' will make a lot more sense to them - maybe they'll get it now. I remember when we did "Gothic" and no one liked it. Everyone said "that's a sell out" - but then a year or two afterwards we got high in the charts. It will take a bit of time for people to catch up with 'Host'.

MP: On your hompage you mention "one of our great achievements is being one of the fathers of Goth Metal". What do you think about the Goth scene today?

Lee: "New goth" will be the next big thing coming. It will replace new metal.
Greg: No, that was again ironic what we said on the homepage. We don't really fit into a scene. We always had our own thing, but you get categorized. When I listen to music I don't think: 'I kinda like this because its metal or its goth' - it's just a good song.

MP: "Believe In Nothing" is your 8th album. On which one did you have the most significant changes musically?

Greg: The biggest change was probably "Draconian Times" and "One Second". "Icon" and "Times" are very simmilar, so there was time for a change and "One Second" - where we were experimenting with new sounds - was a hint for "Host". We loved the dynamic livesound on the last tour and we wanted to come close to that with the new record.

MP: Have you written the new songs on the computer or on the guitar?

Greg: Of everything - the same way as "Host" was written. Some ideas start with a riff, a bassline or on the piano - it's different. "Mouth" for instance came from one riff, but that was written as an additional track. We had finished the album, mixed it, but then we were'nt happy with the way they mixed it. So we sent the album back to be remixed. In the meantime we wrote four more tracks, replaced two planed and one became a single.

MP: What did you expect from producer John Fryer?

Lee: Actually we wanted to do "Host" with him, but at this particular time we had different conceptions. This time we wanted the record sound fully live, like in the rehearsalroom, and we thought that he'd be perfect ... The only reason we don't produce ourselves after such a long time, is that we can't agree on anything. A producer to us is an extra-ear, a mediator.

MP: Your write all songs on your own, don't you sometimes want some support from your fellow-musicians?

Greg: Our philosophy to it is (Doris: You are a dictator!?) No, no! The sound of Paradise Lost is a mix from the way Nick writes the vocalmelodies, my music, how Aaron plays guitar, Steve's basslines and Lee's drums. Everyone contributes to the sound of Paradise Lost, but the songwriting will always be the sound of how Nick and me do it. Our philosophy is "if it isn't broken don't fix it". Aaron tried a couple of things some years ago, but it did'nt really fit with the style. If you have five people arguing you spend ten years making an album ...
Lee: Too many cooks just boil it.

MP: You have inspired various british bands like Anathema or My Dying Bride.

Greg: Yeah! They are the second wave after us. Sometimes we meet the guys in local pubs and they tell us they hate their interviews cause they are always getting asked about us - especially My Dying Bride. I think they don't sound like us now, so I tell them 'Thats your problem - I'm not asking the questions'.

MP: What would you do, when you weren't musicians?

Greg: No idea. You tell me ...
Lee: What should we do, we don't know anything else.
Greg: We could go to the employment agency. When they ask "What have you done the last ten years", I would say "Well, traveling, drinking, playing music". I dont think they would offer us a good job.

MP: Why do you play your evergreens like "As I Die" live completely different than some time ago?

Greg: It's not trying to change - we have changed. We can't help, it just happens when you play the old stuff. It's not gonna sound exactly the same - it's an adopted style. It's not something conscious, it's just how we play these days.

MP: Will we ever hear songs like "Eternal" live?

Lee: It's funny because with the older songs we have actually tried for the old fans, but it did'nt go particulary well. It's really hard when you do a tour to pick out songs especially with the older material. The songs worked then - when we recorded them - but don't fit to our current style. We sometimes get asked for 'Eternal' and when you actually play it there's only one guy at the front jumping up and down.

MP: Apart from a line-up change at the drums (in 1994 Lee Morris of MARSHALL LAW came for Matt Archer) you play with the same guys from the beginning.

Greg: Nick and myself were in London at MTV the other day and we saw Matt, but only through the window, because he was recording MTV-Select. Of course we tried to disturb him, what made him really nervous. It was great fun.

MP: To which movie would your music be the perfect soundtrack?

Greg: That's difficult. Something really bleak and miserable like 'Jude' by Thomas Hardy with Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet - miserable as hell. The most miserable film I've ever seen. Or maybe "Angela's Ashes". Just winching, northern english, moaning stories.

MP: Your music has changed a lot - have Nick's lyrics changed as well?

Greg: Nick is still moaning (laughs). No, they have not really changed, the subjects are still the same. They got more realistic over the years. The lyrics have been more phantastic in the beginning, it was not about real subjects. Now it's just about things that affect us day by day. He does it line by line: with a song that has a rough subject still every line will be about different things.

MP: How do you work together when you write a song?

Greg: Well, when I get a rough verse and a chorus together I give it to him. Then he'll come up with a melody line, hand it back to me and I'll finish the song. And then give it to him and he'll try and fit his lyrics around ...

MP: Vocally Nick ist back on top...

Greg: He's getting more confident as a singer. He just doesn't care anymore. When you change from the kind of singing he used to do in the early days to how he's doing now... Over the years its just been a gradual thing. His vocals carry a lot of the guitars now.

MP: What are the videos to the new album?

Lee: We shooted "Mouth" and "Fader" in Vienna with the director we like, Thomas Job.

MP: Does it make a difference to be with a major like EMI - instead with Music For Nations?

Lee: Not really, there are just more free CDs we can get.
Greg: A lable for us is just to put records in the shops. They don't get involved in the music side. With every lable you are on you have to sell a certain amount or you get dropped anyway. It does'nt matter if it's an indie or a major.

MP: What was your bestselling album so far?

Greg: Probably "Draconian Times".

MP: How is it to be on tour with the SISTERS OF MERCY?

Greg: It's good fun - it's allright. Andrew Eldritch is just like one of us: just sits around all day drinking coffee, looking bored. That's what we are doing, that's what he does. They seem fine.

MP: Is the crowd here only for the headlining Sisters or for you as well?

Lee: I think it's parts. The first show that we did in Hamburg, tickets already sold well before we were added to the bill, but I think there's been a different ticketsell after we've been added. The Sisters audience definitely understand what we're doing and we are doing well every night.
Greg: The most people who listened to the Sisters heard of us anyway. The audience is not that drasticly different as when we play on our own.

MP: Today ist the last day of this leg of the tour. Will you do some practical jokes?

Greg: No, as I have to fly straight to Greece.
Lee: Maybe the roadcrew will do some... I'm not sure. Who knows? Maybe they'll drop the lighting tross on us after the last song!

MP: With which bands would you never go on tour?

Lee: There are some bands we obviously think wouldn't be right for us. I mean figure out supporting Iron Maiden, their fans wouldn't understand were we're coming from. You have to make sure that the bills are pretty compatible.

MP: Who is your favourite tourpartner?

Greg: I would like to tour with Britney Spears. Insist on sharing a dressingroom...
Lee: As long as she does'nt want to share the bands - a big band-sharer (Jutta: What about Christina Aguilera?)
Greg: She's not pretty enough ...
Lee: Well, we could do it first Britney, then Christina, yeah! That'll be good.
Greg: And then N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys, after all we are a boy-band.

MP: Nothing more to say...

© MEGALOMANIAC PRODUCTIONS 2001 | 05

The official Homepage is: http://www.paradiselost.co.uk
Whoever missed Paradise Lost in March is getting a second chance in May and June, as they again tour through Europe. All tourdates are listed here: http://www.paradiselost.co.uk/tour.htm