Dani's name is not Dani Filth, it is Dani Davey. Filth was inspired by the name of the band. Born in Hertford, England 25th July, 1973. That makes me 31. Star sign Leo, passion sign Aries. Live in Suffolk, England with my girlfriend of 14 years, Toni and my daughter Luna Scarlett. Mother: Susan Janet Moore. Father: Lawrence John Davey. Two sisters: Amanda (28) and Rachel (25). Younger brother: Phillip (22). Bands prior to C.O.F: The Lemon Grove Kids, PDA, Carnival Fruitcake, Feast On Excrement. Formed C.O.F in 1991 with previous/devious guitarist Paul.R and bassist John Pritchard. Little known fact; A full album was recorded in 1992 entitled 'Goetia' for Tombstone recs, but payment for the studio time was not forthcoming from the label for the recording, therefore the album tape masters were eventually wiped by the studio! This was probably for the best although i really do miss the time-immemorial opus 'Spattered In Faeces'. Favourite Music: (Old) Mercyful Fate, Danzig, The Misfits, Hanzel und Gretel, Dissection, Immortal, (old)Destruction, (old) Emperor, Bad Religion, Philip Glass, Limbo, Iron Maiden, Type O, Wojciech Kilar, Diamanda Galas, Danny Elfman, Jeff Wayne, GGFH, Rammstein, Carpathian Forest, Belisha, Eighties thrash- Darkness, Testament, Violent Force, Exorcist, Slayer etc; classic American hardcore-Circle Jerks, BadBrains, Dagnasty, Uniform Choice, Fear etc; European darkwave, Soundtracks, dark vampyric funeral marches, nocturnal war anthems and heart-rending melodrama. Favourite films: Curse Of The Demon (1930's), The Pit And The Pendulum, Coppola's Dracula, The Nightmare Before Xmas, Underworld, Blade, Dog Soldiers, Aliens, Sleepy Hollow, From Hell, The Masque Of The Red Death, The Omen trilogy, X-men films, Pirates Of The Carribean, good Zombie movies, Cradle Of Fear, Dominator, A Company Of Wolves, the Star Wars original trilogy, The Devils, Haxan, House of 1000 Corpses, The Exorcist, The Wicker Man, Brotherhood Of The Wolf, Withnail and I, Rosemary's Baby, Nightbreed, Hannibal, Prince Of Darkness, most Hammer Horrors, Universal Monsters, Hellraisers 1and 2, Carry On movies, Fifties B-movies, modern B-movies and stylish, good looking secretary porn. Other noticeable pastimes aside from trying to hold some semblance of a normal life together: Socialising, dining out, sightseeing, castles, horror/dark fantasy movies, shopping, driving my cars, 19th century ghost novels, sleeping with my girlfriend, collecting weird paraphenalia/antiques/masks/toys, football/cricket, Spongebob on the Xbox, amusing my daughter,designing stuff/brainstorming sessions, Heironymous Bosch, Egyptian artefacts, infrequent skateboarding, India and recreational drugs. Favourite food/drink: Seafood, Full English breakfast and a legendary Sunday roast, Medium-rare steak, Oreo icecream, chicken tikka masala, Italian, Space Raider pickled onion crisps, Parma violet sweets, junk food, thickly filled sandwiches/new york deli baps and rolls ten inch thick. Oh and more seafood! Prawns, mussels, crab, lobster, cockles the lot.... Drink: Vanilla milkshakes, tea, good coffee, ribena, root beer. Alcoholic- Guiness, wine, absinthe, pernod and black, Belgian beers, Jaegermeister, brandy, irish coffees made with the works. Dislikes- Urban sprawls/lack of trees, normality, obnoxious people, stupid fucking questions like these! Q&A In regards to Epic, who are basically Sony records,what is the deal with them? Surely such a big label will expect you to change your sound and eventually distort your vision? With regards to our new label, rest assured that we have already foreseen and dealt with a higher force trying to muscle in and corrupt our way of outlook and music. Don't forget that we have been signed to Epic now for almost seven months and as expected everything has been addressed. Henceforth this is why we have set AbraCadaver up, to serve as a self-controlled project with major financing. And don't forget that Epic signed us for what we are- they'd soon realise the errors of their ways if they ever tried to enforce dance moves upon us! The beauty of signing with a major lies in the finance and exposure they can supply you with to fulfill your visions- i mean, just wait until the videos for the new album to agree with my point. Did you think the year 2001 was a good year for the band? One of the best! We've had numerable tours across the world (the most notable being our US headlining tour with Nile and God Forbid) in support of "Midian" and then, "Bitter Suites..which of course we recorded in the early Summer as a means to air new material and improve older ones (a sort of interim recording if you will, to satisfy our output). Then there's been the DVD to contend with ("Heavy Left-Handed and Candid" should be released about now), filming two promo videos, Tattoo the planet, Cradle Of Fear (amid numerable TV and radio appearances), the writing of at least (well to date) three new tracks for the forthcoming album and that's without the usual guff to deal with just being part of Cradle of Filth. Fuck! even without the finer details, that's a immense amount of work to have undertaken in such a short length of time.Time for a spot of tea i think! Any other plans afoot in the Cradle camp that you wouldn't mind sharing with us, your humble but ever curious assembly? Hmmm! Well, there's talk of working on another project with other horror band members and Alex Chandon which must remain thoroughly undisclosed at the present, then there's AbraCadaver which we're eager to get up and running by taking a few bands under our wing, so to speak- more on this as it develops (though if anyone has demo recordings or albums they want us to check out, then feel free to send them through to the management address on the Ceedees and they shall be forwarded to us...), a possible voiceover for me for a manga-styled cartoon entitled "Dominator" via the Sci-fi channel next year.... and then there's of course the aforementioned album which at the present moment in time remains untitled and unwritten, though as stated, the songs are coming together fast and furiously. We are due to demo a few songs in January at the same studio we recorded "Bitter Suites.." in. A double live album is also in debate which would include (as well as the live songs) a few additional pre-recorded rare studio tracks. The working title for this at present is "Live Bait For The Dead" with a release date penned in for May, which is when we are due to play this year's Donnington and Dynamo festivals and enter the studio for our next album On a more personal level now, do you have any interesting pastimes outside of the band? Well, when there's time to myself i usually spend it at home with my girlfriend Toni and my daughter Luna doing family things. We've just moved into a new house less than a year ago and so a lot of our free time is spent decorating the place. Toni and i love watching movies together or going out to eat and then watching movies- mostly horror and fantasy as to be expected. Reading is another great pastime- at the moment i'm flicking between a book about the sins and excesses of the Roman Emperors, a book on the origin of evil and the entire series of Ramses by the Egyptologist Christian Jacq. All cracking stuff! I also collect creepy toys (which line the walls of my office), Egyptian artefacts and general ooky stuff that i peruse for in local country antique shops. A few favourite aquisitions of late include a mock, fully decorated sarcophagus, a bust of the vine-god Bacchus and a giant metal teapot from Thailand! They're a bit like the possessions of the bloody Addams Family! I also like to drive- i only got around to passing my driving test two short years but i'm totally hooked. So much so that i've gone and tied up most of my cash next year by ordering a nice new, shiny black sports car which isn't delivered till February, which is a good thing seeing as i'll probably be dead in it by April! Fuck it! C'est la vie... To be fair though, most of my time is spent in the company of the band and it's subsequent leanings, so any spare time is like manna from Heaven. Or Hell. Do you spend any time outside of the band socialising with any of the other members? Fuck off! Actually yes. Gian, Martin, trial-period Dave and myself all live in Ipswich so when the occasion arises we usually go out and get slaughtered together. Ex-member Robin also lives closeby so He's generally in the equation as well. Paul sometimes makes an appearance from his nearby town but usually we socialise and party all together on or after photo shoots or if we're called to London for whatever reasoning. We all get along famously- well when you're spending half the year on tour with one another, you'd bloody well ought to...mind you, Paul could perform a miracle and change his socks before the next one! Where do you rehearse? We rehearse in a converted barn in Suffolk. At the moment we are in the process of cheering the place up a bit in order to make it a great deal more creative environment to work in... .i.e...by painting it black, hanging stuff from the walls, creating a wank booth...you know the score. It's local to Ipswich and the majority of us...(poor Adrian has to commute daily from London), and it's nicely tucked away from prying eyes, which is imperative in Gian's case. Going back to something you mentioned earlier, the DVD, what did you hope to achieve with the self-titled Shlockumentary? Was it's intentions to allow viewers into the everyday real- life personas of the band or was it just a pastiche of cheap shit vomited onto a blank canvass as i've been led to believe? The last one you said. No, in all honesty, the Sifting through Filth documentary was an addition to the DVD whose sole purpose was to entertain our followers. It may be argued that this is for completists only, but i think that it remains a genuine and fuck-funny insight into a life that is often only a pale reflection of it's actual self. Plus it's an hour long. And what of the horror movie that you have just finished, Cradle Of Fear? Tell us a little bit about it - whose in it? what's it about? who directed it? when is it available? Blah, blah, blah... Cradle Of Fear is an underground urban gothic nightmare reminiscent of Amicus horror and early-eighties gore movies. Directed by Alex Chandon, the creature responsible for our "From The Cradle To Enslave" and "Her Ghost In The Fog" videos, it stars a variety of B-movie actors including Eileen Daly, Emily Bouffante, Stuart lang, Al Stokes etc,etc... as well as myself as a deranged killer and the rest of the band in cameo roles.Essentially it concerns itself with a gruesome mix of four horror stories all linked by the tale of Kemper, a child killer and eater who, despite being incarcerated, uses his ally in the outside world to reap revenge on those that imprisoned Him. Despite being put togrether for the 'small' price of roughly 80,000, the film is excellently shot and acted, and the effects are supplied by the people responsible for other cult movies like the Hellraiser series. The overall effect is very reminiscent of a modern-day Hammer horror but with gallons more gore and raunch, something that to avoid massive censorship requires the film ( for at least the first few months of it's life ) to be sold as uncensored director's copies directly from the Cradle of fear website (www.cradleoffear.com )-but then, you don't need to be told that do you? There are some opinions that feel that "Bitter Suites To Succubi" isn't a full length album and if it is, then not a particularly substantial one. What are your views on this, your last release to date? I think i briefly mentioned before that "Bitter Suites..." was an interim release to instigate a marraige between the old and the new..to give the people who supported us over the years something to listen to during our slew of touring commitments and deciding upon a new label. As it was originally intended, "Bitter Suites" was supposed to be merely an EP's worth of just new material, which in essence it was, it was only when we were due to record it that we decided on extending the length to include the Sisters Of Mercy cover "No Time To Cry" as well as the reworking of three tracks from our first album, "The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh". I really like "Bitter Suites.", for me it is very reminiscent of a previous work like "Vempire", fast,brutal and with a production like heavy razors through flesh.Also for me i feel that the vocal production on "Bitter Suites" is among the best yet on one of our own recordings. Why then release it on Snapper, a substantially smaller label than your previous label Music For Nations? Firstly, we left MFN because our contract with them was up and with no disrespect intended, we wanted to shop around and see if we could find another label with better funding and distribution... amongst other things.When the interim deal with Snapper reared it's head we were only too pleased to accept it..here was a one release deal (inclusive of a DVD) that would enable us to get some tunes out posthaste with plenty of freedom and scope and to be fair, a sizeable advance to tide us through to the next album. And last but not least... Any final words of wisdom / salutations / anything at all? Urrgh! Yes, actually i did want to thank a bunch of people, namely those who have supported the band through thick and thin over the last few years...i hope it has been worth it- i can certainly promise that the proper fireworks are yet to begin....also our fans who saw us perform through what was the worst onstage sound that we have ever encountered in Denver-we most certainly apologise to each and every one of you for that and promise that we will rectify the situation when once again we come to your neck of the woods. In the meantime you might just catch yourselves on our new DVD, as some of the signing footage from the shlockumentary was filmed in the store next to the venue..... Also, some have asked after the lyrics to "Ebony Dressed For Sunset" on the site, so best i honour their request. Ebony Dressed For Sunset Unshadow thyselves children The reign in flesh begins again... V empire Funereal majesty awake Cneajna wreathed in snake Draconis talons rake... So haunted is my silent heart Dreaming only of the moon When velvet darkness falls tonight The thirst crescends anew... Only for you ...and finally, a quick acknowledgement to the following; The Webmaster Robert Powers DulcetHymns Pyrael Eenzaamheid and Nyarlethotep Thanx again, all the best, your fiend...Dani xxx
