Matt Tuck – Bullet For My Valentine

Bullet For My Valentine will finally be back in Australia this October. It’s been a long wait, and with the band’s 2015 release, Venom, notching a number 1 on the ARIA charts, I’m pretty sure that fans and band alike are equally excited about the upcoming tour. I had the extreme honour of talking to Matt Tuck for 30 minutes last week. He phoned me up from his home in London and we had a great chat about how the band has evolved, their hottest show ever, and of course, Pokémon Go…

Our first topic of the day was the European festivals that Bullet have been playing all summer. I asked Matt if he enjoys them as much as he enjoys the band’s own headliner shows, since festival audiences can sometimes be a bit rigid. 

“I think they’ve been the highlight of the year so far actually. We’ve been to almost every major European festival so far, we’ve played in front of 20-50 000 people, so it’s great, the energy levels have been immense. It’s a lot different to doing clubs and arenas, we only get to do them once every 2-3 years so you know, it’s a pretty cool vibe.”

I guess that’s a testament to your music as a whole, that you can get crowds going even on the biggest of occasions? 

“Yeah, we’d like to think so you know, especially now with the latest album Venom out. It’s just, from the very first note of No Way Out to Waking The Demon the crowds are losing their shit.”

I have been a fan of Bullet For My Valentine since my angsty teenage years. When the band released Temper Temper in 2013 I was very disappointed, it was not my cup of tea at all. In Combination with discovering other genres, it almost got to the point of me completely forgetting about the band. But then, one day in May last year, I received a press release. I wasn’t even aware that the band had been in the studio at this point. I checked out No Way Out, not really expecting much. I was completely blown away though, and my initial reaction was, “holy fuck! Bullet are really back!”. I asked Matt if it’s fair to apply that reaction to the current state of the band. 

“It depends on the individual. Temper Temper for some people is the best album we’ve done. But I think a lot of people had that opinion because of the differences in the sounds of the two albums, Temper Temper was a lot more a rock record, not a lot of aggressive singing and attitude on that record. So that’s why we wanted to apply that a lot more going forward because it was something we felt that was lacking in the direction we went down.”

Bullet For My Valentine are set to celebrate last year’s 10 year anniversary of The Poison by performing the album in its entirety in the UK. Thinking back to the time, it blows my mind that it’s been ELEVEN years already! Does the band feel the same way? 

“Yeah, it’s gone in the blink of an eye. The lifestyle of the band has been so hectic. It really has just gone by. When you think of the reality of how long that’s passed since then, the journey we’ve been on since that record is incredible. We’ve achieved the unachievable in many ways and twelve years later we’re still very relevant in heavy metal. Very, very shocked how quick it’s gone.”

Which song do you look forward to performing the most of that record? 

“I don’t know! Probably Her Voice Resides, the opener. It was the opening soundtrack to our career in a way. Having that intro play at our first headline shows and launch into Her Voice Resides. They were very exciting times in our lives. I think as soon as that intro rolls, we haven’t used it since 2006 or 2007. Having that intro in the PA system and people screaming in the background will be a very goosebumpy moment for us.”

What about the Australian shows, will you perhaps perform more songs of The Poison than you normally would?

“Not really sure. These aren’t like shows to celebrate the Poison. Venom really deserves it’s time to shine. We’re doing it in the UK because we’re having multiple nights and we don’t have the luxury of playing two nights in the same city everywhere. We’ll definitely play a bunch from that record, we know it’s a lot of people’s favourite and it’s ours as well in many ways, we always want to give the fans what they want to hear.”

Do you think you’ll do something similar for Scream, Aim, Fire down the line? 

“I think there’s always room to do something, I guess it depends on the band’s schedule whether we want to do it or not. We didn’t want to detract any attention away from Venom, that’s why we didn’t do it in the first place. But it’s a cool thing for bands to do, celebrating the history of an album.”

Bullet had an incident in Russia recently where some people in the audience lit a flare and moshed around it. Needless to say it’s a very dangerous thing to do, but it made me think. Almost every band/artist I have interviewed have crazy stories to share from Russia. I wondered if Matt could share something else that has happened there. 

“I think the hottest gig we’ve ever played was in St. Petersburg. It was in 2011, on the Fever tour. We played this club, about 2000 people there. I think it was about 38 degrees outside, and the venue had no air conditioning. I don’t even know, it must have been close to 60 degrees inside with all the people and no ventilation. We got through about three songs and had to stop the show. We had to go backstage, we had ice packs everywhere. People were vomiting and passing out in the audience. Russia is a fucking extreme place in many ways, we have many fond memories from there but also a couple not-so-fond ones.”

New bassist Jamie Mathias has really grown into the band, and watching live clips from the current tour, it’s easy to see that he’s one of the best things to happen to the band ever. Having had some record label drama with his former band Revoker, I asked Matt about the situation and how Jamie’s doing now, having been given a second chance at the rock star life. 

“He’s a very talented man. He’s a great guitar and bass player. He was the frontman/vocalist of Revoker.  He’s always been singing, so having that package is great for us. His vocal ability really adds a whole dynamic to the band. It’s something Jay would do anyways, but Jamie is many levels above him in terms of vocal ability and playability on the bass. He really brings stability and an amazing sound to the band. He also brings energy and enthusiasm, he had a taste of it with Revoker and then it was taken away. So be given a second chance in Bullet, one of the biggest bands in the world, is like, his mind is blown. He’s really, really happy, he’s excited. It’s brilliant, you know, to have that young, fresh energy and he’s a talented guy, so it works out on every level for us.”

Does he in any way remind you of yourself when you first started out? 

“In some ways yes, he just loves what he does. I think the main point is that he had a taste of it, but then it was taken away. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like for him. He had kind of become the great performer that he is. He’s just really keen to take the band to the next level, performing and writing, he wants to be involved, which is great.”

Being at this stage in your career, do you find that your audience have grown up with you, or do you still get a lot of teenage fans at your shows? Maybe a bit of both? 

“It’s a great mix. We still have a young fan base in many ways, from the early to late teens, and then we’ve got the people who got into our band during the EP and The Poision that were 19-21 or whatever and they’re all in their 30’s now. They’ve grown up with the band but still love the band. We have a very wide range of fans that come to our shows. We’ve got young kids and parents of the kids coming as well, so it’s good man, we’re very lucky. We’ve crossed that boundary now, we’re not a cool, young band and we’re not a heritage band, we’re somewhere in the middle. It’s fantastic, it’s not something we intended to do, it’s just kind of where we are right now.”

Moose took some time off from the band at the beginning of this year to spend time with his wife and newborn daughter. I wanted to know how he’s doing at the moment and when he might return to the band. 

“He’s good, yeah. I haven’t spoken to him for a couple of weeks, but we got together I think it was two weeks ago when we had a couple of days off. We basically played, he came and we had a couple of days of rehearsals with him. It’s cool, he’s really, really enjoying his downtime with his wife and his little baby girl. And it’s important that he has that. It’s important that we all have that when the time comes. We’ve been travelling the world for the last twelve years, so if it’s anyone deserves a little bit of downtime it’s us! <laughs> It’s cool man, he’s happy, Jason has stepped in for him and he’s doing an incredible job. I think the fans just appreciate and respect the decision we’ve made.”

One of the most common comments I’ve seen on Bullet For My Valentine live videos recently is about the added breakdown in No Way Out. It adds another dimension to the song that I feel is slightly lacking on the album. I asked Matt about how it all came together. 

“Yeah, well, I was lying in my bunk <laughs>. On the last US run we did about six weeks ago. My brain was ticking overtime and I was just wondering what we could do for the very first song to create some fucking carnage. I just came up with this little thing in my head, and the next day me and Jason ran through it at sound check and everyone was like, “fuck!” <laughs> And we tried it in America and the crowd lost their shit and we were like, “fuck, let’s keep it in there!””

This will be Bullet For My Valentine’s first headline tour in Australia in about six years. I wanted to know if the band is excited about doing it’s own headline tour, and not just be a part of Soundwave. 

“It’s good, it’s something we would’ve chosen to do over Soundwave anyway. As great as those festivals are, there’s nothing better than doing your own show, having control of your venue, your stage and your crowd. That’s perfect for any band. We came through briefly on Soundwave in 2013, got fucked around a bit with different stages, didn’t enjoy it that much because of those reasons, but we were due to come back and headline one after that. It didn’t work out because of agents and stuff like that, we got a bit fucked over behind the scenes. We decided not to do that, which sucked because we really wanted to, but at the end of the day we’re not going to let anyone take advantage of us. Thankfully we managed to get a tour together, it’s finally happening, very excited. It’s been a very long time, we’ve got two new albums out since the last time so we have a lot of catching up to do!”

Do you have any especially fond memories of your past Australian visits? 

“The fondest I’m actually looking at right now in my living room. On the Fever cycle we did in Australia, when we played the Sydney show, it’s the biggest Australian show we’ve done, and it still is. We were presented with this huge plaque thing, which is gold awards basically, but we got a Platinum Brixton DVD, Gold Poison, Gold Scream, Aim Fire, Gold Fever, all in one big frame. It’s brilliant. Yeah, it’s a moment I’ll never forget. So we have very fond memories, every time we come down there we have time of our lives. It’s a shame that it’s taken so long for us to come back, but it’s happening, and we’re really, really, really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a very special vibe. And Venom is our first ever number one record there as well, which is again something to celebrate when we come down, it’s the first time that’s ever happened to us and it was in Australia, it’s beautiful!”

It seems like the entire world is in a Pokémon Go craze at the moment. Before we parted ways, I asked Matt if anyone in the band had started catching the monsters in real life yet. 

<Laughs> “I just found out about that on our way home from Spain, on a news channel that someone found a dead body when playing, I thought it was kinda funny. So no, we haven’t yet! I still really don’t know what it is, I just know that it’s kicking off globally, I know Jamey Jasta was on twitter last night going, “what the fuck is this Pokémon shit?!” But I’m sure we’ll find out and be addicted soon enough!”

Bullet For My Valentine with Atreyu and Cane Hill

Tickets on sale now from Destroy All Lines.

THURSDAY 20th Metro City, Perth – 18+
FRIDAY 21st HQ, Adelaide – Lic A/A
TUESDAY 25th 170 Russell, Melbourne – 18+
THURSDAY 27th Big Top, Sydney – Lic A/A
FRIDAY 28th Eatons Hill, Brisbane – Lic A/A

Let everyone know you’re going by attending the official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/events/254161314927669

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