BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE – Fuck these people don’t even care

Eternal Terror skribent Thor Fretheim og fotograf Kenneth Sporsheim fikk gleden av en prat med Michael Thomas og Matthew Tuck fra Bullet for My Valentine da de gjestet Hove tidligere i sommer. Gutta fortalte blant annet om sin verste konsertopplevelse noensinne og man kan bare lure på om noe sånt kunne skjedd på denne siden av atlanteren.

You’re back in Norway, how does it feel coming back to Hove?

Feels good, we haven’t been here for a few years. So yeah, it’s always nice to be a part of these events you know.

The last time you were here, you played at the main stage. Now you’re back at the Amfi, how do you feel about the change of energy and sound between the two stages?

Uh, it doesn’t really matter which stage it’s on you know, we’re just here to do our job. But we always find the smaller stages more energic and good.

You’ve been to Norway a couple of times the last years, why are you coming back so many times? Do you like it here?

Yeah, it’s good you know, always good to be at these… like intense European Scandinavian tours and stuff. And if the fine years are still coming, keep coming.

Do you like the audiences, or do you have any experiences you remember, from Norwegian fans?

Nothing specific, ‘cause we do like… so many shows, and its kinda all the same stuff really, apart from the venue, hahah. But we always have good times here.

Yeah, I can see that. You have any expectations for tonight, or?

Not expectations, we hope it’s gonna be a great show, and not a lot of people just walking out, you know.

Matt, you’re in the band AxeWound. You have any plans for like… after touring for the new album?

Yeah, there’s nothing concrete at all you know, everyone in the band is actually busy at the moment, being in their own bands, but hopefully sometime this year we’ll get together to do something.

Are you the kind of band that looks far ahead with the music, or do you kind of just go with it?

What, like in making music? We definitively talk and think about it before we… actually do it. We’ve actually thought about the next album already, so yeah.

Yeah, you came with a new album in… January?

February. Yeah, we’ve already talked about the next one and… Doing what we do, time goes so quick. We need to get a head start on things; otherwise it just takes too long.

You’ve changed your like… "Style" of music from album to album, how do you feel that’s gonna change for the next album?

Uh, we’re gonna go back to trashy… metal kind of sound. You know, we always want to make every album different from the last. Not drastically, but you know, it has to be something interesting. So I think this time, after doing the last two records where we were much more song focused, we want to go back to the more kinda… the words Master of Puppets has been thrown around a lot, so kind of long, kind of indulgent metal tunes, lots of riffs, lots of songs.

How about when you started your first album, did you think you would get this far, like still making music today?

Probably not. I mean, we had a… we always hoped we’d get a record deal, to do music as a living, and that happened, and we went with the flow you know. And when we got the record deal we kind of had the opportunity, and since the first record it’s just been mental you know, so it’s been great.

You guys do concert almost all the time, do you get much time with family and friends, stuff back home?

Not as much as we’d ideally like, but at the same time we’ve achieved something that is amazing, so we have to continue on, I mean, people would kill to do what we do. So we have to take things seriously, sacrifices has to be made, but everyone back home is superproud.

That I can believe. What would you do back home with your friends, just hang out?

Just, normal shit which everybody would think was quite boring, you know? I love going to shops, cooking my own food, just… hanging out with friends, you know, just stuff people get to do every day. We don’t get to do that.

Yeah, just live a normal life?

Yeah, just… Get out of the bubble for a minute.

Alright, a couple of last questions. What are your worst, and your best concert experiences?

Um, I honestly couldn’t pick one best, because there is so many moments in out career so far, it is mind blowing, everything from headlining arenas, headline festivals, touring with bands like Metallica, get to know them personally, I mean, there’s just so many things that just has been amazing. I think the worst one would kind of be, man it wasn’t kind of a bad experience, it was more kind of a learning one, would be a tour we did in North-America with Iron Maiden, and it was the first time where we actually experienced like… hostility, towards us, not in like a crazy way but it was booing, I mean, just stuff. They didn’t know who we were, they didn’t care. We knew it was gonna be like that, ‘cause we talked to band that had like, done it before, so it was just kind of this experience like, "fuck these people don’t even care". Even before we went on stage, they were just kind of like… yeah.

We started booing ourselves, ‘cause we were like, didn’t want to make a show now.

We get it you know, but that was kind of a… more of a learning experience rather than a bad one. It wasn’t enjoyable you know but.

Yeah, know what you mean. Well, good luck tonight!

Thank you very much.

And enjoy your stay in Norway.

Oh, we do.