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Music Interview: MY DYING BRIDE
MY DYING BRIDE
English Version:
SNOW IN MY HANDS
- Exclusive interview with MY DYING BRIDE
by Demogorgon & Glacier
Done between June – July 2002
Published on the 1st issue of Dragonland Magazine
Official website: DRAGONLAND
Comes with a free CD, features a licensed My Dying Bride track, “She is the Dark (Live)”
Hello MY DYING BRIDE,
First, we come from China! To do an interview with a legendary band like MY DYING BRIDE is just a dream... We try to cover some minor topics normally not explored but... Anyway, hope you love to share some time on our questions...
MY DYING BRIDE is a band with a very unique sound, we always wonder how could those wonderful stuff jump out of your minds. It seems that no one could label MY DYING BRIDE anything expect MY DYING BRIDE... Is the weather of UK a good environment for MY DYING BRIDE’s Doom Death Metal music? Can we even say there is anything to do with surrealistic reasons?
I think the weather has something to do with it, endless grey skies and rain make it difficult to be anything but miserable here. We also feel quite at home with our style of music. And it seems that we are not alone anymore feeling this way.
How did you decide to use “The Dreadful Hours” as the title? Is it under influence of Draconian Times?
Not really but I can see where you are coming from. We just thought it fit with the general feeling that the band has had for sometime now. Constantly in pain.
Someone here think track 1,3,5,7 of The Dreadful Hours are distinguishing from others, if we are some kind of right, would you please tell us if this arrangement is your careful plan? and what was this plan based on?
There are no secret plans on the l.p. and if there were do you really believe I would reveal them here~?
In your opinion, what's the main function of music? Your music always creats an unbearable misery atmosphere. Aaron once said “I think for us, creating this kind of misery is a way of getting rid of our negative thoughts that are inside us, we take negativity and give it to MY DYING BRIDE, so that leaves us actually feeling really quite good.” How do you think about your fans who would tend to be fond of drawning in misery? Is it important for one to learn to deal with pain?
I not sure if we are wanting to teach people how to live with these feelings, it’s not really something for me to do. We do however simply enjoy the more morose side of music and lyrics.
We enjoy the darkness.
The main subjects of MY DYING BRIDE are Death, Love/Sex and Religion without any doubt. What’s their junction? Are they all based on your personal experience?
Most of them yes.
There is an old saying in Chinese: Beauty till death. How do you think about Death? Is it the destination of Doom? Is the thinking of Death the reason that made you begin MY DYING BRIDE; is the band your way to express your opinion about the relationship between Death and Beauty?
For me no, I see death as a deliverer to a new beginning. It is sad when a loved one dies and I wish it upon no-one, but it is inevitable. Beauty is something lacking in the world right now where as death has seen a great and new popularity, normally fuelled by our religious friends.
“I prefer the darker songs I admit but you have to see some light just to know where the real darkness lies.” Andrew said so in an interview. I like it. It has some kind of similarity with words from SOPOR AETERNUS. No light, no darkness. But how do you think about Dualism? On which side of things MY DYING BRIDE will stand? I know many Black Metal bands see Dualism as a bad mask that was brought to us by Christianity. And I think no matter how many sides things have, we as human being have to choose one of them eventually.
Dualism is just. How can you measure darkness without some light involved, how black are you when all is dark around you? It is not a philosophy of ours to be the darkest band or the most hatefilled or whatever, we can create all of those things but you first need to measure what you have before you can have it taken and then miss it. That’s when the feeling of loss and misery creep in.
There are certain views of point that everything has its value only when you cannot get it or when you lose it, no matter what it is! The worse is, you have very little things to try to save all your life; you may know what you love the most and try your best to get or to keep, but seldom success...
I think we just agreed on this in the last question, but the point is taken and I agree again
The lyrics are becoming simpler, why? And MY DYING BRIDE use pieces of foreign languages here and there. What’s your original (crazy) idea? Have you ever planned to use some Chinese words in the future?
We used Latin because here in England it is called the The Language of the Dead and we used French because it is considered to be a very romantic language I don’t think Chinese fits into the scheme of things but it is by no means something we would not try if we thought we could justify it.
Aaron once stated that the internet is not need to be invented, especially E-mail. But without E-mail, I suppose it would be impossible for us to do this interview, not mention our readers know about My Dying Bride. Does your opinion change a bit now?
I personally have benefited from the internet and would miss it if it was gone, it has broken down many barriers and made the world realize just how similar regular people are.
The Voice of the Wretched has been released a few months, did you get any responses? I notice that there are some mistakes not been corrected in “A Cruel Taste of Winter”...
The response has been quite astounding really, it has been very well received by the press on whole and we are proud of it. The reason A Cruel Taste Of Winter is different is because that was one of the few times we played it live and it was not finished, so in the studio we re-wrote some sections which makes it a really unique song as there are now 2 versions neither is wrong just one updated.
Ok, just stop here. Thank you for your time. Please say something to our readers at last!
Well I am honored to be the first member of MDB to write to anybody from China for an interview. I hope that we can see something from the interview maybe you have a web page.
Thanks to you both and good luck.
Enjoy the Darkness
Andrew
PS: If I want to get the license to distribute one of MY DYING BRIDE album in China, which one you will recommend?
The Light at The End of The World
Chinese Version:
我手中的冰雪
——MY DYING BRIDE独家专访
Demogorgon & Glacier
夜深了，空气有点湿湿凉凉的，味道像云的泪水。惨白的月亮低挂在左前方负十五度角，星星像被遗弃掉落的棋子，散乱在天际的棋盘上。我们燃起香烟，烟雾遮去了红光闪烁的城市夜景。周围的人劝我：“别这么痛苦。”我问：“你们看我很痛苦？”回答让我木然：“你的痛苦是让人感觉出来的。”
我真的痛苦吗？这个问题我问了自己好久。
我一直在听MY DYING BRIDE的厄运金属（Doom Metal）唱片，也许我应该歇歇了，把类似于刻骨铭心的东西放到心底。可是我为何还想弄清楚，乐团特有的哀伤凄绝之声是如何诞生的呢？每每我们使用任何一个“我垂死的新娘”以外的字眼来形容他们的音乐，都会有一种心虚的感觉——一定又是徒劳。也许不列颠阴冷潮湿的环境对他们发生了影响，虽然说到这个脱不开超现实的意味。
“我是觉得天气与此相关，看不到尽头的灰色天空和无尽的雨水让这里很难同除悲惨以外的其它情感联系起来。和我们这种风格的音乐在一起，我们感觉就像是回到了家乡。似乎这样我们就不再孤独。”吉它手Andrew Craighan这么解释。
无论如何，我总是乐于相信乐团的哀怨音乐里有着某种不为人知的秘密，这是让我感觉很好的一层神秘面纱，让我尤其对这支来自英国约克郡的传奇乐团着迷。MY DYING BRIDE一直在创造几乎让人无法承受的苦痛气氛，有一次，主唱Aaron Stainthorpe曾说，“我想对于我们来说，创造这样一种痛楚是我们祛除我们心里的消极想法的一种途径，我们将负面性给了MY DYING BRIDE，那么留给我们自己的就是相当好的感觉了”。但是似乎乐迷们非常乐于沉浸在这种苦痛气氛中间，让他们习得应对痛苦不也是乐团的目的吗？我还乐于相信这是MY DYING BRIDE眼中音乐的功用所在——当然，用他们的音乐作为精神上的药剂也许是我的又一个错误。
“我不大确定我们是否想告诉人们应该如何应付这些感觉，这不是我们要做的事。尽管我们的确享用音乐和歌词不那么开心的一面。”
“我们乐于享受黑暗。”
“我承认我更喜欢阴暗的歌曲，但是想要知道真正的黑暗在什么地方你也一定要先看到一些光明。”Andrew曾经在以前接受采访时这么说。这和SOPOR AETERNUS（永恒沉眠）的某些看法非常接近，我很欣赏。没有光明，也就没有黑暗——回到二元论的问题。很多黑暗金属乐团认为二元论是基督教给我们戴上的一付有色眼镜，因为事实上，不论事物有多少方面、受到多少影响，在我们最终做出自己的选择时却只能走一条道路。那个时候，MY DYING BRIDE又将置身何处？
“二元论是正当的。没有一些光明参与进来你将如何度量黑暗，而周围一切都昏暗无光你又能在哪种程度上显示出黑色？成为最阴暗的乐团或者是最心怀愤懑的或者不论是什么都并非我们的哲学，我们能够创造出所有这些东西，但是你先得衡量出你以前有过什么，你能有什么，得到了又失去了什么。这就是丧失的感觉和痛苦涌上心头的时刻。”
美的水中之月，柔和静谧。不禁想揽之入怀。指尖轻触水面的刹那，完美的轮廓顿时扭曲，犹如枯败的落叶……但是永远不要掩面而泣！我不大清楚我们的年轻读者怎么面对这些沉重的话题，但是我想，既然所有这些全都是事实，我们就无法视而不见。这也就是为什么我会在评论MY DYING BRIDE的音乐时说那是给所有因黑暗或者光明、残忍或者甜蜜的潮流化而变得晚熟的少年的唱片。最有价值的事物或是不能得到，或是业已失去，这和它在别人眼里有多么珍贵或者是多么平常毫无关系！我们一生中只有很少的机会去努力争取并不是最令人痛苦的地方；我们知道我们的所爱在什么地方，却很少能成功到她的身边也不是最令人痛苦的地方；我们尽了全力，但她们还是离我们而去依然不是最令人痛苦的地方。有的人一生只会勇敢一次，放弃了那个机会，日后空余悔恨交加。即使灵魂早已死去，德考拉伯爵的声音还是从遥远的古堡发出召唤——狂怒中喊出震惊宇宙的语言：“我还会爱的！”那一刻的天昏地暗，那一刻的激情蓬勃，那一刻我们中间会有多少人瞬间苍老，被时间融化？永远认真地面对自己的所有选择，永远不要在回头反思的时候追悔莫及……即便在一个时期你永远要选择这一些东西而放弃另外一些。
MY DYING BRIDE选择的是一种音乐。“坦城而言，（十二年的创作）是一场斗争，”Aaron承认，“我们没用过经济人，所以我们总是自力更生。我们看到事情的商业方面，同样我们也看到事情的乐迷方面。对于事情怎么样，我们有着相当广阔的远景。除了在这个类型的音乐里是支走红乐团，整个音乐圈子里我们依然什么都不是。成为一支地下乐团，有些崇拜追随者真的赚不到大钱。乐团里的每个人都有工作。我们是这么生活下来的。我们从乐团里赚的钱真的不值一提。也许Andy会用赚的钱买把新吉它。我们不把钱四处瞎用。赚回来的那点钱，我们再把它放到乐团里买新设备。毫无疑问我们将其投在帮助乐团出来和让我们继续创作的地方。我们可能为我们的电脑买一部新游戏或者类似那样的什么东西，但是我们从来没有钱买一部新车或者像那样的疯狂玩意儿。这是一种地下音乐，如果你进入这里来赚钱，整个就是走错了路。”
MY DYING BRIDE最主要的题材是生与死，爱和性，还有宗教，毋庸质疑。可是单单它们中间一个已经那么浩瀚，我没有信心凭借一己之力穷尽它们之间的盘根错节。我猜测基于个人体验也许是其中一个关节。
“大部分是的。”
永远存在的生命，永远存在的痛苦和不幸，中国自古不也有红颜薄命的说法？那么死亡可是厄运的终点？
“对于我，不是这样的。我将死亡看成是一次崭新开始的释放者。”死亡同所有生命都会发生联系，而美丽则是那么不常见，二者之间千丝万缕的牵连就成为了所有艺术门类永恒的讴歌对象。“一个亲爱的人死去是很悲伤的事，我不希望它降临到任何人身上，可那同样也是必然。美丽在现今世界上那么少见，而死亡却很多很广泛，通常是因我们的宗教朋友们而倍加成为这样的。”
一个爱思索的人必然爱黑夜多于白天，无论他多么地渴望光明。对于生死的思索赋予MY DYING BRIDE生命——乐迷的来来去去也是一样。“我想有些人会离开我们一到两年，回来时发现没有什么大的变化。其他人也许只离开一到两个月就会认为我们有了大量变化。人们总在变化。我们的大多数早期乐迷现在可能已经结婚生子，他们不再赶去看演出了。我们第一次出来的时候，人们是那么兴奋，因为我们在做的。乐迷们一直在来来去去而我们没有任何变化。天，只有天知道我已经多少年没再买一张CANDLEMASS的唱片了，原因在于我对他们现在做什么不再感兴趣了。我感觉就是不想去买他们的唱片。而我们的乐迷也一样。我们不是想用我们的每一张新唱片去赢得我们的老乐迷。每支乐团，不论你们的乐迷有多么献身，随着每张新唱片你都会失去你们的乐迷，但是同样你们也会赢得一些。”Aaron说，“现在在演出上看到些新面孔很好，新的进入我们的音乐的乐迷。”
谈论那么灰暗的话题时，MY DYING BRIDE刚刚于今年四月发表了2001年3月4日的首张现场专辑，《落魄者的声音》（The Voice of the Wretched）。这一分钟是纯洁易碎的自由翱翔，那一分钟是满腹哀怨的悲恸苦水。哀怨、诱惑，一时间粉墨登场；平和、胁迫，那么地令人信服。因为内心被强烈地震撼，双目不得不淌下感动的泪水……那个阴冷周末录制于荷兰蒂尔堡的十首悲怆现场定然获得了惊人的反响。而且，《落魄者的声音》面市是在新的录音室作品出版以后，我们注意到“A Cruel Taste of Winter”一曲的演奏和录音室版本不尽相同。
“反响真的令人吃惊，”对比起乐团并不倾向于推出现场专辑的初衷，Andrew说。“它很好地得到了整个媒体的接受，我们很自豪。‘A Cruel Taste of Winter’的版本不同是因为那是我们为数不多几次在现场演奏它，而那时还没完成，所以在录音室里我们重写了某些段落。它就成了一首真正特别的歌曲，因为现在有了两个版本，哪一个都没错而只是做了一次升级。”
这首歌的另一版本发表在乐团最新一张录音室专辑《可怖的时刻》（The Dreadful Hours）——听上去受到了PARADISE LOST（失乐园）《残酷的时代》（Draconian Times）的影响。“真的不是，尽管我能看出你为什么这么说。我们只是认为它适合于乐团现在有过一段时间的一般感觉。沉浸在痛苦之中。”
专辑里的单数歌曲和双数的听上去似乎有些区别，我一直感觉这种编排在冥冥之中好像要传达些什么……“专辑里没有秘密的计划，而且，”Andrew诡异地继续说。“假使有的话，你真的认为我会在这里揭示它们吗？……”
纵观Aaron的歌词，它越来越简单了。不时在歌曲里插入各种外语片段的疯狂主意最早是谁想起来的呢？以后有没有可能加一些汉字？
“我们使用拉丁语是因为在英格兰它被称为‘死者的语言’（The Language of the Dead），我们使用法语是因为它被认为是一种非常浪漫的语言。我想，汉语不适合于这一体系，但是除非等到我们认为自己找到了正当的理由我们是不会去尝试的。”
……想想原因，夏天也为此变得冰凉。Andrew在最后推荐给中国乐迷的一张MY DYING BRIDE专辑是：
《世界末日时的光》（The Light at the End of The World）
心事总有完结的时候，在不可预见的一天。
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