Kerrang! – June 28, 2019

52 KERRANG!

Your 2013 fourth album Temper Temper

received quite the critical panning, whereas

up until that point Bullet had been an

unmitigated success. Did it feel like a

stumbling block?

“That’s just life – you can’t win ‘em all. To

continue on that trajectory of always going

up as we were, there was always going to

be a point where it levelled out and that

was our moment. There have been so many

bands come and go, so to have that six or

seven years of being an untouchable band?

That’s a long stretch to have, and looking

back on it, it was pretty amazing.”

On 2018’s Gravity you wrote much more

personally about the end of your marriage

and you’ve said that you experienced bouts

of depression and anxiety. That was new for

you, right?

“Those are just moments in life you don’t

really expect. There are a lot of things

going on behind the scenes in life with work

commitments and career paths. Things start

to show cracks, especially when you have a

young family. You either crumble or you pull

your socks up and get on with things, and

I had both of those moments. I did crumble,

and I did fall into a bit of depression, and

I did doubt whether I even wanted to be in

a band anymore. It felt like my family was

falling apart and some of it was because of

the band.”

What was it like being faced with those

doubts? It sounds like your faith in the band

was unshakable before...

“It wasn’t nice, but it was my mental

health playing tricks on me. When you

get yourself into those emotional downhill

moments, it’s hard to pull yourself out.

But in a way, the thing that was making

me feel that way has

brought me back up,

because I still had

the band. It was a

crossroads where

I thought, ‘Well,

I can either detach

myself from this

and do something

different, or I can fight

for what I do best and

hopefully this will all

be behind me.’ That’s

where I’m at right now.

Everything feels good

and now that I have gone through all of

that I can recognise the signs and deal with

it better.”

Do you think that men in particular are taught

to toughen up rather than be honest about

how they might be struggling?

“Unfortunately, I think that is true. Even

up until a couple of years ago there was

a massive stigma around mental health,

especially amongst men. The whole ‘man up’

thing is so unnecessary. If you’re struggling,

male or female, it can feel like your whole

world is crumbling, but simply feeling able

to speak to somebody is the start of getting

out of that shit. That’s what it was for me.

I really didn’t want to talk about my problems,

but thankfully I did speak to somebody, then

I wrote a couple of songs and all of a sudden

I had this outlet where people were listening

and helping me through. I don’t think there

should be any shame or embarrassment

about it.”

As a father, has that changed the way you

relate to your son?

“Oh, absolutely. We’ve already had these

conversations where I’ve told him, ‘You can

tell me anything that’s on your mind,’ and

he totally understands it. I think it’s good to

pitch that to him at an early age where he can

come to me with any situation without fear

of being embarrassed. That’s not the kind

of relationship I had with my dad. My dad’s

amazing and I love him to bits, but we didn’t

really have that kind of openness. So I want

to make sure now that when Evann grows up

and he feels the need to speak to someone,

I’m the guy.”

Do you still feel as competitive as ever?

“Not really. Those days are, maybe not

gone, but they’re few and far between.

We’ve achieved

everything we ever

wanted to achieve, so

we’ve got nothing left

to prove in that sense.”

Even on a personal

level? Is there anything

left in life you would like

to achieve?

“Honestly, no. Everything

that I’ve wanted to do

has been music related

and everything else

has come because of

that. Becoming a dad has been the most

incredible thing. Playing with our idols

and touring the world? These are all

amazing things that we’re very fortunate

to have done, so we’re going to keep it

up rather than try to be anything. I think

we’ve achieved that, so we just need to

enjoy it now.”

Finally, what would you tell your younger self

growing up in Bridgend?

“Maybe just to do it the way you want to

do it, because when it does happen it’s

so much more rewarding than if you had

bent to someone else’s opinion just to make

it a success. It’s not something Bullet have

ever done, and to be here 15 years later

because of that way of thinking makes

me proud.”

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE’S LATEST

ALBUM GRAVITY IS OUT NOW VIA

SPINEFARM RECORDS

“YOU EITHER

CRUMBLE OR

YOU GET ON

WITH THINGS”

MATT TUCK

The Airbnb listing

promised something

a lot more palatial

AxeWound: denim

and leather

Bullet For My Valentine:

garage days

And you thought little loops

on jeans were for belts...