Ever since the first incarnation of the band in Suffolk,
England in 1991, Cradle of Filth has gone through numerous line up changes and produced nine studio releases. The band has risen to become one of the most sought after extreme metal bands in the world.

After their ten month excursion as headliners of the Ozzfest B Stage, Cradle of Filth signed a deal with Roadrunner Records and immediately entered the studio to record their ninth studio effort, 'Nymphetamine,' an album which features guest vocal appearances by Liv Kristine (formerly of Theatre of Tragedy) and Doug Bradley (Hellraiser I-VI).

Already about halfway through the U.S. Tour in support of the new album, we got to hang out with Cradle's of Filth's resident bassist, Dave Pybus.

LD (Empire): How are you doing? How's the tour going so far?
Dave Pybus:(laughs) Fine. We're two weeks into it. We had sold out shows and some of the venues are quite small but those are usually the better ones. The crowds get really close. The tour has been going well.

LD:I read on the web site that you added “Tortured Soul Asylum”, “The Principle of Evil Made Flesh”, and “Funeral in Carpathia” to the set list this time around, songs I've never heard Cradle play live. How do you guys go about choosing which songs to play live?
DP:I don't know. (laughs) Well there are a lot of people who want hear different kinds of songs, but when you've got a curfew you're limited to how much you can play. And obviously we're busy doing other things so it's difficult to take the time to learn the older stuff.

LD: The new album is just amazing. It's quite notably different than your past efforts. Was that intentional?
DP: Well, we kind of use the older albums as a reference point. We don't want to drift too far away from what we are. We're always trying to push the boundaries to better ourselves. I think a lot of bands today want to change to the point where you don't recognize them.

LD: Could you walk me through the songwriting process?
DP: Because we're a six piece there are always a lot of ideas floating around. We just record the ideas that we get. We can write a record rather quickly. That's how it worked out on “Damnation”. After “Damnation” we did Ozzfest for ten weeks, went home and wrote for six weeks, went back to America with Type O Negative, had about ten minutes break (laughs), and then we cut 'Nymphetamine'

In comparison to Dimmu Borgir who did eight weeks of Ozzfest and are taking two years off because they're burnt out. What? We did ten weeks of Ozzfest, a new album, and another American tour. Well, actually, they just said they're taking two years off the road. I don't know if they'll be writing new material or what, but they don't have a drummer. Nick left He started on a tour with Nile two weeks ago so I don't know what they're going to do. For a band that good, they're going to need a good drummer. When you lose a drummer you lose the backbone of the band.

LD: 'Nymphetamine' seems to have more of a live sound to it and a little less processing. Is there any truth to that?
DP: A little (laughs). That's Rob Caggiano's thing. He wanted us to go home and learn the songs so we could actually play them in the studio. Nowadays you can just learn four bars of each part, and copy and paste. Rob wanted to get the edge on this album, and not come out with something that sounds like everybody else. When you do ten takes of each song you're definitely going to get a better feel. When Carl Richardson came to mix the album he said it was the greatest recorded album he'd ever heard. That method of recording works, but I wouldn't advise it as it's expensive and takes twice as long.

RT: Money's always an issue.
DP: Yeah. There's a lot of bands out there that can play fifty times better than we can but without the budget to do it. It's kind of a shame because they would benefit from recording like that

RT: You mentioned money before. Since you signed to Roadrunner, has that been any help with recording and touring?
DP: The only difference between Sony and Roadrunner is that we are aware of where the money's going. Sony is an endless cloud of money. When we did videos for “Damnation and a Day” we'd ask how much it cost...it's just ridiculous. Whereas with Roadrunner Records they'd give us a specific figure. We actually got an answer out of them. You wouldn't hear back from Sony until nine months after the video is produced and find out hat it cost eighty million dollars. It's good to have the money to waste, but at the end of the day you want to know how much money you have access to so that you don't spend it all before you realize there's none left.

There's a lot of the business side that we don't know about because we don't want to know. I don't want to know about the promoters, money, and bank accounts. People ask me how much I get from a show. I say, 'I don't know.'

LD: Did you have any particular record label in mind when you parted company with Sony?
DP: No. They've been after us for two years. We like all the stuff they've produced in the past in their back catalog. We've got a lot of respect for Mike Gitter . He constantly made himself heard during the recording of 'Damnation and a Day.' So we didn't stray away until a few weeks later. At which time we started knocking around a contract for Roadrunner.

We're really into music and we're very aware of the past, what is going on presently, and where we want to go. But contrary to popular belief, Sony never told us what to do with the music. Hit singles, or vocal changes were never mentioned.

RT: I hear that there are a lot of hidden clauses and such in their contracts that dictate what you can and can't do.
DP: The thing is at the end of the day, Sony holds all the aces, but in our situation, we wouldn't have been there if they had never heard of us.

LD: Do you think having a track on your album called, “Gilded Cunt” will affect sales?
DP: Cradle will never be a fucking radio friendly band.. You know, with writing a song like 'Gilded Cunt' you're already damaging sales. If some fan's parents go out at Christmas and go to buy an album that has “Gilded Cunt” on it they might decide to skip that one and get something more like Nickelback.

LD: But Cradle already has an established audience.
DP: You've got to be at the right place at the right time, working hard, getting yourself out there, and trying not to let bands that are ten times better than you get involved. There are a lot of fucking brilliant bands out there that would do so much better than we do but we don't give them a chance. Everybody's got a new album, a new tour, a new production. We could just as easily just say, 'I can't be bothered' for six months and then you'd have ten bands that are better than us at Ozzfest, and we'd be kicking ourselves.

RT: How was Ozzfest, by the way?
DP: It comes down to playing the shows between the band and the crowd.

RT: That's a lot of new audience.
DP:Yeah, that's pretty good, huh? We wanted to be on the B Stage because we wanted to prove to America as a market that we were not just going to jump on the Ozzfest main stage with all those big bands. We wanted to get to the true grit. It proves a lot to the people who buy the records that we're not just some fad.

We get a lot of negative comments about the band. You know, like we're just a trendy band or just a black metal band. We're good. I don't worry about them, though. I'm me. I'm not punk. I'm not death metal. I'm not anything. That's me I’m a fucking idiot (laughs).

RT: That would be a great t-shirt: 'Cradle of Filth Stupid Idiots.' (laughs)
LD: Do you still get fans that can't separate your stage personae from your actual identities?

DP: It's 2004 and there are still people who can't grasp the fact that we're real people behind the make-up and all that bullshit. It died with KISS I think. They were very mysterious. Never appeared anywhere without make up. I thought that was cool, but its different now. People have more access to what's real and what's not. We read a lot of the press, the reviews, and the intimate stuff available on the Internet and you realize some of these kids are not quite right. I've had people have ask me if we drink blood, eat babies, live in a castle...

RT: OF COURSE I DO! (laughs)
DP: Yeah, that's what you say. Of course I do! I used to live in my parents' house in fucking Suffolk, England. No. Sorry to blow it for you, but no. I don't look anything like I do when I'm on stage right now. I could go out to the side of the stage tonight and watch Himsa and Bleeding Through and no one will look and talk to me. I like that. I do that on purpose. I don't want people to go 'Oh, my God. Let me touch you.' I like standing by the bar and checking out he chicks like anyone else does. I don't want to be poked, prodded, and treated differently. I suppose there are some people that aspire to that, but personally I don't like it. I play the guitar as hard as I can. If I do a good show then that's all you get. The rest is me.

LD: What kind of music have you been listening to on this tour?
DP: I don't know. I'm drawing a blank. Lots of stuff. The usual shit. Misfits. It's around Halloween so you have to listen to that kind of shit. I like to try to keep with current times. I try to read books and watch films but I just can't get into it. I can't bother reading. It just bores the shit out of me, and music's just...I don't want to sound negative but I listen to the same four bands every day, so the last thing I want to do is listen to more noise. At the end of the day I just want some silence. I'm not saying the bands are bad (laughs) but I guess it’s like a farmer growing peas. The last thing he wants to do is go to the store and count cans of peas. After awhile, you just want to say, 'Shut up! I fucking hate music’ (laughs) It's all just noise after awhile.

Himsa's my favorite band on the tour. You guys know those guys.

LD: No.
DP: There fucking bad, man. They're great.
DP: I like the production. To me, they're needed on the tour because they're the smallest band. They're always coming up to us saying that this is the biggest band they've ever played with, biggest venue, and biggest crowd. They're really buzzing off of it. We kind of take all that stuff for granted. I can feel where they're coming from. I like that. I like the fact that their buzzing off the roster. We don't even care anymore. If they ever get to the point that we're at they'll be as miserable as we are.

RT: With success comes misery...
DP: Yeah, eventually. Well, don't get me wrong, I'm not miserable. Would you want to be in my position?

LD: Well...
DP: Of course you would! (laughs)

RT: How old are you?
DP: I'm 34 now. I was just talking to Molly from Bleeding Through. She's only 20. They’re seeing a lot of success now. She's played as a guest with AFI before. Fast forward through life 14 years have gone by. I don't even worry about it anymore. You know it's another record, another band playing, another kid screaming. It's cool, but it's not the life for everybody.

You guys into the new album?

LD: Yes, it's been in my CD player since I got it a month ago.
RT: No. I did download 'Gilded Cunt' from the web site though. It's a completely different sound for you guys and you know what its good. It's like you renewed yourselves.
DP: It's more to the point. That's what we were going for, but that's Rob Caggiano for you. Big peanut head. (laughs)

RT: The producer?
DP: Yeah, he basically recorded the whole thing. Robert plays in Anthrax opposite Scott Ian, the tightest rhythm guitarist in the world so his standards for playing are pretty high. When we were getting ready to play 'Gilded Cunt' Robert just said, “Play it proper and you'll be fine.” (laughs) That's the secret to new bands. Try playing your own songs properly for a start. That's half the battle.

LD: How did you hook up with Liv Kristine for the title track?
DP: We originally sat down with a bunch of demos to try and get a female vocalist to be a guest on the track. She was one of the last demos we listened to. We had to change a little part and she was very helpful. When we suggested that she be in the video she was really up for it. I was surprised that she wasn't pretentious in any way. She was very humble. She knew that this project was going to help her whole band and she was cool. I thought she might be a right stuck up bitch, but she was really nice. Most of the time you never get to see the session people. I think King Diamond just contributed to a cover that's to be on the special edition of 'Nymphetamine' due out in March. Obviously though he's doing that in Texas or wherever he's from.

LD: What else will be on the special edition?
DP: There'll be three covers, two new tracks, demos, and some other stuff. That's all we've been talking about, the album. We'll do a South American tour, then we'll be off to the studio for two weeks.

LD: How is it working with Doug Bradley?
DP: Surprising actually. I've met him four times. We always make jokes with him we’ll say, “Where do you live? Hell?” (laughs) I've been listening to the way his career has developed and the stories of what he's doing nowadays. It's quite interesting. After doing the Hellraiser movies he said he wasn't really into doing all the convention shit, and he stayed away from that for a few years but he realized that there's a big niche for the fans of the movie and it’s a way to connect with them. So he swallowed the pill and he says he really enjoys it. He travels the world now doing conventions with all the other stars of the film. It's really cool.

LD: Aside from the forthcoming special edition of 'Nymphetamine', what else is on the horizon for Cradle of Filth?
DP: Just a European tour for six months. We already have the next album planned out too. That'll probably be released in 2006.