I must admit, Cradle of Filth intimidates the hell out of me! Especially CoF’s lead guitarist Paul Allender. When trying to capture his essence on film, it was pretty nerve racking. He frowns when he is concentrating on his performance. His Beijing opera-like makeup makes him appears even more menacing therefore intimidating me further. But to my surprise, when he greeted me and fellow journalist Karma Omowale for our joint interview, he was quite… quite… nice. With a proper British “ ’ello!” followed by a firm handshake, I was put a bit at ease. (Yeah, so what, I’m a sucker for an accent and pleasantries!) But that wasn’t all Paul was about. Read ahead…

Erika: Tell us a little about this “stuff”. [Note: an array a computer gear that would impress even the Pentagon.]

Paul: This stuff?

Erika: Is this a part of the production?

Paul: Our tour manager’s. We catch our emails. It’s just somewhere we can disconnect. You know what I mean? It’s a way to escape for a few hours.

Erika: Oh, so it has nothing to do with the production tonight?

Paul: Oh no, it has nothing to do with it at all.

Erika: Let’s try and go into the background of you and your history with the band.

Paul: Okay, well the band’s been going on since ’92. When I actually joined the band in ’94 it was Dani, the singer and Paul, the original guitar player at the time. They were the two that started the band. The band was just a hardcore band. It was sort of horrible, nasty, typical punk rock stuff. And then they did a couple of demos n’ stuff like that. I joined and we did our third demo which is a bit more sort of like the stuff we’re playing now. Then one of our friends sent the promo tape we managed to do, to a record company without us knowing. Next thing you know, there was like record companies wanting us to do stuff. Well! Shit. Whatever. [He shrugs it off] Know what I mean? [Laughs] We released Principle of Evil Made Flesh. Toured all over Europe, England and everywhere for that. Then we managed to do Dusk (and Her Embrace). Pretty much when Dusk came out. Then I came back in to record Midian. I joined the tour for Midian" and it’s pretty much up to date ya know.

Erika: For you being with the guys, then leaving, what was your major reason for coming back? 

Paul: [Pauses] To be painfully honest, it was money! [Laughter]

Erika: Hey, nothing wrong with that.

Paul: Know what I mean? It’s a job to do for honest work. It was working at the time.

Erika: So what were you doing when you weren’t with the guys?

Paul: Doing graphics ‘n stuff.

Erika: I definitely want to touch on that later and get a bit extensive as far as that’s concern.

Paul: Oh, cool.

Erika: I’m a graphics person myself and for all the other art fans out there. The treatment. Everything. You guys have a cult following. How do you all handle that mentally?

Paul: Every time we play we get general people just into the music. We don’t actually look on it as a cult following. We know we’ve got one, ya know. But we don’t actually physically take it for granted that fans will be turnin’ up. We tend not to take anything for granted at all. Cause it could all be snuffed out tomorrow. So we tend to keep our feet on the ground. Just like every time a gig comes along it’s like ‘Ah, we’re lucky anyone’s gonna turn up at all. Know what I mean? It’s like going back to the “demo days”. You know you start pacing up n’ down wondering ‘God, I hope it’s gonna sell out' or 'what happens if it’s a dozen people.' You know what I mean? We still get that same sort of jittery, nerve…not for playing but just people showing up at the shows.

Erika: Understandable. Now, for a new Cradle fan. What notions would you want a fan to walk away with when they see a Cradle show?

Paul: A good buzz. A definite good buzz about them. Thinking that … not thinking that anyone in particular was amazing but that the whole band was really cool, ya know. I mean that’s what we really get off on. We go off and sign stuff for the kids n’ people and stuff. Then they say to us "That was amazing, that was brilliant, that was fuckin’-“ they totally go into it. That’s like very cool because we’re getting across. As a band not individuals. Luckily, we’re tight we can still manage to do it.

Erika: Going back to that individually. Dare I even ask this question but since there has been a revolving door…

Paul: I knew that was coming [laughs].

Erika: How is it now?

Paul: It's pretty solid now. [As he states, looking me straight in the eye]. The new album and the album before that, we have had the same lineup. It's pretty solid now. Ha, well, I say solid but you don't know what could happen in the meantime! [He chuckles].

Erika: And with that, it seems you guys have matured with each album because you have grown as friends. A band unit. What do you attribute to that?

Paul: To start off with, we've physically gotten older. We've worked together for like 10 or 11 years! As we've gotten older our playing abilities change as well. It has gotten more precise n' stuff. So, I think that definitely adds a lot of maturity. You notice it, you can hear it in the albums. The last album, Nymphetamine it is just like, a really mature sounding album.

Erika: And commercial too!

Paul: Yeah, totally!

Erika: How are you adjusting to commercial status?

Paul: We don't even think about commercialism. Just write [sighs] or not being commercial or not doin' this or that. We just write what we like. Ya know!? And that's where the maturity comes into it. Because as we write, more stuff that we like, it seems to be toned down more (?) Without purposely doing it. We're not thinking it's got to be toned down. We got to do this. We got to do this to sell "x" amount. We're just writin' the stuff! And alas, it must be where the age n' stuff is coming into it. We've been together for this amount of time, it's coming out more commercial without physically trying to do it.

Erika:  So how do you leave your mark one each album? What do you like to think you personally bring to the table?

Paul: I don't know besides playing ability, guitar wise. Writing ability as well. I write a lot of whole songs n' stuff ya know? Cradle's structure and all that. The harmonies and everything. Program drums n' put keys on this stuff, ya know. And plus I do a lot of the artwork. I do a lot of shirts, posters, right? I've done the Cradle website. Just loads of stuff…

Erika: Now we'll go into graphics a little bit. Who handles the treatment for Cradle?

Paul: It's usually me and Dan. We usually like tend to sit down and come up with the concept of the album cover. I mean Dan usually, because he writes all the lyrics, he usually has a good idea of what he wants for the cover n' stuff. And between us, we'll sort out it. We'll get a hold of an artist or something to do the album cover because it's like too involved. You know what I mean. I can do it but I haven't got the time to do them ya know? So we'll get a hold of them, go to the briefings and the whole rigmarole.

Erika: Are you all extremely technical?

Paul: Oh totally! We're so anal it's unbelievable [laughs]! It's the slightest little thing that can't go unnoticed. When we got the artwork, what'll happen is we'll have our photos taken. Band shots of the artwork n' stuff. Then I'll take the band shots and turn them into merchandise or take various different artwork and turn them into merchandise for back prints or sleeves, posters, that sort of stuff.

Erika: Who comes up with the slogans?

Paul: Dani. [Laughs] He's so good at doing the lyrics and stuff. He'll phone me up "Look at what I'm doing to this…" Oh, that's freakin' rubbish! Or that's really for crap! Or I'll say something and he'll go "Oh, that's rubbish!" Or he'll say, "That's amazing!" or "That's really cool, we'll use that!" Or he'll change it around a bit so that it's just done to n' fro.

Erika: Do you keep it close knit between you and Dani or do you bring in outside graphic corporations/graphic companies or is it solely you and Dani?

Paul: Yeah, just us because my argument was…well, we tried that and it was rubbish.

Erika: Really?!?

Paul: You know what I mean…

Erika: But I guess you know what you want.

Paul: Exactly! [Passionately] Exactly! And nobody knows what we think! Nobody knows how we think or what images we have in our head or anything like that. And because we write the lyrics ourselves and we actually produce the whole image as well, we know what we want. That's why we keep it all in-house. I mean, I do like the DVD menu pages. All the animations and bits for videos as well. But you have to keep it all in-house because that's the reason why it works so well.

Erika: So what programs do you use if you don't mind divulging your secrets?

Paul: You mean for doing graphics?

Erika: Yes.

Paul: Okay, ummm… I use Photoshop After Effects…

Erika: Which was your favorite?

Paul: After Effects 6! [He thinks] Yeah, 6 at home. I've used Photoshop 7, After Effects 6. For videos I use Final Cut Pro, Cinema 4D. For 3D and animations and for live audio, Sound Effects 2 and for recording demos, Logic Audio as well.

Erika: Are you set up on the bus to record?

Paul: Nah, there's nor enough room on the bus to record at all. I mean, I got this stuff at home, ya know. I have a G5 at home as well. It's pretty cool. I just does it!

Erika: Studio or stage?

Paul: [Long pause] Both! [Laughs]

Erika: Why both?

Paul: It's two completely different entities. Studios, yea you know you can keep an eye on what your playin' but when you play live you don't really worry about it too much. Cause the kids come to see you and they don't care what it sounds like. Obviously, we care what it sounds like cause we want to play as tight as possible but they're there to completely let loose. It's like their letting off steam-time. You know what I mean. That's why we do what we do, ya know. We live for live! So that's me, studio and live.

Erika: What is your muse or inspiration?

Paul: For music or graphics?

Erika: Hmmmm… both.

Paul: I knew you were going to say that. [Bites his lip] It's weird…cause I'm really weird when it comes to stuff like that. Because I don't really get inspiration from anywhere, it's really strange. For artwork, if I'm not doing an original piece of artwork, I'll use it in a drawing or scan it in or you do what you would do in Photoshop. But I just keep adding to it, takin' it away, move it 'round until 'Fuck, that looks amazing.' Ya know what I mean. So there's no real inspiration coming from anywhere so when I'm writing as well, I don't listen to any types of music because I want everything to come just straight from me. I don't want to be influenced for the music. I don't want to be influenced. I suppose if I had an influence for the music, one influence would be like [sigh] just sort of the artwork I've done. I try to put, like, music to it. So, therefore, it'll still all come from me. So far, so good. I've managed to pull it off so far. [Laughs]

Erika: Some artists do their piece and never want to look at it again. Do you always feel as though you've got to improve it?

Paul: I always feel like I've got to improve it. All the time! All the time! Even the music. What I do, I'm done with it, look at it and I'll go funny or that's really cool or wow, that looks amazing whatever. Then I leave and look at it again, I think 'Hmmm, I don't know now. [Laughter]. That's a real pain in the ass and everyone's going "Just leave it, leave it alone. It's fine!'

Erika: You  can be your own worst critic.

Paul: Totally, totally. Same with music. I listen to it n' go Ah, I don't know 'bout that. "Leave it alone." No, um, the changes… "Leave it!" Do you know what I mean? [Laughter]

Erika: How difficult in the studio for you guys?

Paul: It's pretty hard, especially on tour.

Erika: How do you set up arrangements?

Paul: We have like our own studios, high on all that digital base. So we take all our computers n' stuff in the studio. We have our own chalets, you know.

Erika: Chalets?

Paul: Yea, then you've got the main studio as well so while we’re in our own chalets improving stuff. Trying to like add stuff. Even trying to record stuff on our own then transferring it across to the main one [computer]. That's what it's like for like four months. That apart from us killing each other as well.

Erika: How's the camaraderie between everybody during recording? Is it horrible?

Paul: Don't even go there!  [He waves me off]

Erika: [Karma and I laugh] Oh no, but I want to know.

Paul: No, it’s alright. Know what I mean but after about a month of it you trend on people's feet. You just want to punch everybody! That's why it's good to have a chalet to yourself. You can just lock yourself away from everybody for a couple of days on your own and just have time to yourself.

Erika: Best place to record?

Paul: Best place to record? You mean different studios? [Pause] When we recorded Nymphetamine, it's a place called Park Gate, it's in a town called Hastings in England. Over there where they had the Battle of Hastings. It's basically right there! Smack bang in the middle of the countryside. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing! Cause it's like when it's night and it's really good in the summer, you come out and especially around midnight. When it's really dark but warm, it's a clear sky. You can actually see, physically in the sky, you can see the Milky Way going across on a really clear night. I only noticed, not this session but the last session. We were just outside smoking a reefer. I can't remember who I was with but they noticed it. Looked up n' go "Woow, look at that!" and I'm just [imitating high expression] Wha's… that's…Holy shit! [Big laughter]

The things we take for granted. One thing that I'm sure their not taking for granted is the Grammy nod for Best Metal and Hard Rock Performance! Big thanks to Paul for the interview as well as showing us some of his "dark art". Also, thanks to the Jensen and Adrenaline PR for the hook up. Look for Cradle Of Filth's special edition release of Nymphetamine to be released March 1st, which includes additional artwork and two new tunes.

The interview doesn't stop there...
Click here for Paul's Speed Round Questions!

& here for photos of tonight's show