Halloween with Cradle of Filth | A CHAT WITH DANI

Hello Lord Filth.

Massive news: Halloween live stream. St. Mary’s Church, Colchester Art Centre, England: an iconic location close to your home country of Suffolk. What is the best thing about being English? And what’s the most English habit that you yourself have?

Well, the best thing about being English is not being Scottish, Welsh or Irish. Hahaha! The most English habit I guess, tea drinking, or grammar correction. We recently did a collaboration with Pitch Black North to release breakfast teas. You can find them at most stores.

There’s a new keyboardist and backing singer. Does having new members entering the band change the dynamics?

I guess it would change it in some respect, yes, since there’s someone new. But with this record, the keyboardist has contributed as much as everybody else did. And I can say now that we are at the mixing stage, and her contribution to the record has been invaluable. It’s great, the keyboard playing and her ideas and her contribution to the songs, and naturally her voice and the contribution she’s provided with the backing vocals to the album as well. It’s phenomenal. It’s probably our best record yet. We’ve had quite a long time in the studio, because obviously the Covid business, we’ve been able to stretch out the studio time. The producer actually lives in the town that the live stream is gonna happen, so it was difficult at first, but overall it has been easier than other records because we haven’t been under a pressure to finish it a certain time. Very proud of it. I’m venturing out to Italy this week and when I’m back I’m hoping to get to the mixing with the producer and have it ready in October. Then we go into rehearsals for the live stream, which is happening at the end of October. It’s been quite a productive time for us. Last year it was one of the busiest years we’ve had on the live front.

There’s going to be an exclusive limited VIP experience graveyard meet & greet. Which I’m sure a lot of people are excited about. Does meeting the fans ever gets overwhelming or too much to handle? And what’s the most extreme thing a fan ever did for the band?

Currently, it won’t be overwhelming, at the moment it’s terribly underwhelming because we’re doing nothing as a band really, interacting with fans, since there are no live shows happening, to spell out the obvious. As for the past, it has been overwhelming yes, especially in places like Brazil, it has been places where we were like “wow, I can’t believe this is happening” As for the most unusual thing, we’ve had people throw parties at penthouses, people bringing wonderful gifts for the band, including one person in Australia who actually gave us his fake leg. They gave it to us to sign, so we signed it for them, gave it back and then during the concert the leg came flying over on the stage. The guy never came to collect it.

Besides having to deal with fans there’s extensive touring, crazy work hours, demanding schedules.  Is it hard to maintain healthy relationships when you are in a world-famous band? How do you deal with that?

It’s all about the time. I’m saying this now but I’m going to Italy to see my girlfriend Eva, and naturally, we haven’t seen each other the whole of this year, she is coming from Spain, it’s actually quite difficult, I can’t travel to Spain without having to quarantine, but Italy at the moment seems to be ok, seems to be open, a travel corridor. But even without that, it’s difficult. It was difficult with my wife as well, especially having a daughter, just making sure that we were busy but not too busy, and then when we were at home that our time was precious. Keeping things fresh. Adjust the situation.

So we are given to understand that this live stream will be epic and I’m sure that once again you will blur the lines between art and real-life to create chaos. That’s what you do. So I was wondering what if in a magical way someone would strip you off all the visuals, corpse paint, costumes and atmospheric elements. Would you feel naked?

I would definitely feel a bit odd. Just as if the guitars were suddenly unplugged. Its tools for the job, isn’t it? What if a grand Prix driver would have to drive around in a shitty, everyday car, then it wouldn’t be the same, would it?

What’s the most annoying stereotype that people believe about Cradle of Filth or Dani Filth?

I don’t know, you’d have to ask them.

Let’s wrap it up with a happy note. What’s one thing that surprised you pleasantly in the music industry the past few months?

Is there a music industry? I don’t know anymore. I’ve been keeping in contact with a lot of people, made new friendships, rekindles old friendships. I think it’s the spirit of unity that’s happening amongst musicians during these dangerous and precarious times. It seems that bands are being very creative during this downtime, people starting to do al these live streams, we’ve been planning ours for months. The venues even for the live streams, they have to comply with certain Covid restrictions. It was going to happen in July, then August, the September we said fuck it, we’ll do it for Halloween. It’s going to be great, it’s a labour of love. I’m excited about this and also to see the album finished and move on to the next thing. At the moment, believe it or not, there’s a lot of things going on with Cradle of filth, the new album. The live stream, the collaborations we’ve been working on, despite everything it’s been very busy!

Not only can you buy a ticket for the live stream but fans will also be able to buy not one but two different exclusive t-shirt bundles as well as an exclusive limited to 100 people VIP experience graveyard meet & greet with the whole band from rehearsal on October 24th –  so order quickly as this will sell out right away.

If you cannot watch the show live, tickets will be available to watch or re-watch on the site until November, 12th.

The concert will begin at 22.00 BST / 23.00 CEST / 3.00 pm PST / 6.00 pm EST and is the only live performance of CRADLE OF FILTH happening in 2020.  With this atmospheric online extravaganza, the band promises to deliver a show of malefic proportions just in time for this year’s Halloween.

So, grab your tickets and be ready when the tortured souls and spirits gather this October, 30th, in St. Mary’s Church, Colchester to witness the electrifying and horrific presence that is CRADLE OF FILTH.

Also, Dani just released a makeup palette, the DEADLY NIGHT SHADES, exclusive to VE cosmetics. It’s vegan and cruelty-free, forged in the very fires of Hell itself.

The grotesqueries of evil never looked so good!

Stay spooky. Until the next one,

Chelf