This year signifies the 25th anniversary for doom/death metal outfit Paradise Lost. Ghost Cult caught up with frontman and singer Nick Holmes to probe his mind about PL’s past, present and future, his working relation with guitarist Greg Mackintosh and the band’s peculiar preference for left centre cover songs.
Paradise Lost is celebrating its 25 years of existence with a special tour. What can people expect?
We have a pretty hefty back catalogue with plenty of songs to choose from. We asked people on our Facebook page which songs they’d like to hear us play. A lot of bands ignore their fan’s demands, but we actually listened to them. The funny fact is that most of the songs they choose are in our regular set anyway. We may throw in a couple of curveballs, you know, like stuff we haven’t played for a long time. People will be surprised.
Do you guys have a DVD or a special boxset in the works to commemorate the 25 years thing?
We don’t know yet. I’m not sure what the deal is with that yet. We did a live album for our 20th anniversery and to me, that doesn’t seem such a long time ago. I’m not big on the nostalgia thing anyway. I’m always looking forward and for me that’s recording a new album. I’d rather focus on writing a new record. The whole 25 years anniversary thing is a side issue for me personally. We’re doing some pretty big shows though with Lacuna Coil and Katatonia. We love those guys, so that should be fun.
So what do you consider the pivotal moments in the band’s ongoing career?
Probably around 1995 with the release of Draconian Times. We couldn’t do anything wrong around that time. Everything we did turned to gold. As far as success goes we were very lucky, because we were at the right place at the right time. We had our ups and downs, just like any other band with longevity. There are only a few bands out there that can maintain a long period of success. Probably the period of 1995 to 1998 we were at the peak of our success.
Things went sour after the release of Host. It’s clearly an artistic statement, but many long time fans felt you drifted too far away from the band’s original sound.
That’s true, but when you look at any documentary of a band that’s been together for a very long time everything is exactly the same. They’ll do an album people don’t like, it drops a bit and they’ll come back again, but it will never get as big at a band’s pivotal point in the five to ten years after that. It’s the natural cycle for bands who’ve been around for twenty odd years. Even Iron Maiden went through such a phase shortly after Bruce Dickinson left. It’s the same story. Fans get older and life gets in the way of things. If you’re lucky fans will stay with you and when you’re truly lucky their kids will like you as well. The great chain continues. Our story isn’t drastically different from many other bands. The other day I watched the new Saxon film and there are so many things that ring true as far as dropping in popularity and getting back again. They didn’t change their style completely, but they still dropped a bit off. When people get into heavy metal, they generally don’t stick with it for the rest of their life. A lot do, but most will outgrow it. It’s a fact of life.
This summer, Paradise Lost played a special show at the Golden Gods awards, which included Christina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) and Gus G (Ozzy, Firewind) as special guests. How was the whole experience for you?
It was pretty nerve wracking. We didn’t have time to rehearse together and I’ve never ever sang with somebody else on stage. I had something something of a bad throat, because I partied too hard at the Download festival. I didn’t want to go, but I did anyway. I was a bit concerned; Christina just feels so natural on stage and she really loves being on stage. I was just freaked out at having somebody else on stage singing alongside me. She’s such a great singer. Gus G is of course a great guitar player. I wish we had some time to rehearse together, but it was a nice experience and a good opportunity.
Last year you guys released Tragic Idol, which is seen by many as the finest PL record since ‘Draconian Times’. Would you agree?
I think Tragic Idol is a better album than Draconian Times personally. That album sounds like the time it was recorded in. In a modern context I don’t think it would work, because those songs are very much written in the nineties metal style. Tragic Idol is certainly our best sounding album we’ve ever done. You can’t let the grass grow around your feet for too long and you can’t take five years off, unless you’re Metallica.
You and Greg are the creative backbone behind Paradise Lost. How has your working relationship evolved over the years?
It has become a lot harder. Greg taps into music in a very passionate way and by the style of his writing I know what he’s been to listening lately. As for me I’m still very much into the same style of music for years and years and I don’t drift too far from it. Greg dives headfirst into something new and even if he wasn’t into the music before, he’ll pick it up very passionately. With Vallenfyre he really got into the old doom/death style again. The type of music he was really into when he was a kid. Fair enough. I’m influenced by what he gives me to work on and not by any outside stuff. Any PL song is determined by what Greg writes, so he’s our style point.
Paradise Lost is known for recording off beat cover songs. Would you guys ever consider recording a song like ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke or anything by Lady Gaga?
Haha, we’d rather record a good cover version of a song than a shitty original song. We do have a few shit original songs. I’d love to do a cover version of ‘Who Knew’ by Pink. I think that’s a fantastic song. If you strip it all down, it’s still a good song, so it would be very interesting to cover that one. I couldn’t do the first verse, because she does that semi rap thing which sounds ridiculous, but the chorus could be done. I like the Robin Thicke song, but it’s written in minor key. When we recorded the Everything But The Girl cover it was decided right in the studio. I loved that song and I still do, but Greg wouldn’t have it. Eventually he grugdingly went along with it. The best cover song we ever did is ‘Smalltown Boy’ by Bronski Beat. It doesn’t say anything about the sexual leanings of this band or anything of the sort. It’s just a good song and at the age we are we all remembered that song. It was just good clean fun recording it.
Raymond Westland