BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE SCREAM, AIM, FIRE WITH DRUMMER MICHAEL "MOOSE" THOMAS

In 2003, after a line-up change and renewed musical direction, Bullet For My Valentine were born.  Having been courted by labels after extensive venue playing in their homeland of England, the band finally agreed to a deal with Sony U.K. and their more than dramatic uprising came to be.With two EP’s out by the end of August 2005, the band – vocalist/guitarist Matthew "Matt" Tuck, guitarist Michael “Padge” Paget, bassist Jason “Jay” James, and drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas -  set their sights high with the release of their debut full-length album “The Poison”.

Panned and praised by critics alike all over the world, Bullet For My Valentine toured non-stop including an opening slot on the Download Festival with heroes and headliners Gun’s N’ Roses and embarked on other tours including Metallica and a six week stint on 2006 Van’s Warped Tour.  They also won two awards from Kerrang! Magazine for their single “Tears Don’t Fall” in ’06 and “Best British Newcomer” in ’05.  With all this momentum, unfortunately there were struggles and downfalls ahead. After landing an opening slot with Rob Zombie and frankly, very upset with the way they were being treated, Tuck ranted openly on the band’s message board which enevitably got them let go from the tour.  Most recently,  in June of 2007, while ready to set out on an opening slot for Metallica’s “Sick of the Studio” tour Tuck suffered laryngitis which not only led to cancellation of shows but also put a doubt of his return and possible end to the roller coaster ride of BFMV’s career. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, and with that Tuck made a surprising recovery, even to his doctors, and they began recording their next album “Scream, Aim, Fire”; although directionally different, the album is sure to break their unlucky streak and will demolish any hindering of a “sophomore curse”. On the eve of the new album landing in stores the in America, I had a chance to speak with drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas, who, with his young, thick accent, was just finishing up a later dinner celebrating what was the U.K's first day of release.

RockMonthly:  Scream, Aim, Fire is a great record... Moose: We’re really happy with the way it came out really; we went in, recorded the songs and out came the record, which we’re extremely proud of. RM: Tell me about how a few of the songs came about starting with the title track. Moose: Right after The Poison we already had a bunch of songs ready for the next record; we wrote Scream, Aim, Fire when we were in the studio in September of 2006 and after that we scrapped all the songs prior because we knew that was the direction we wanted to go.  RM: One of my favorite tracks is "Waking The Demon"...

Moose: That’s probably one of the heaviest tracks on the record and one of our favorites.  It’s about getting your own back at a bully, a bully from school or work or wherever.  It’s a very powerful song and very energetic and we love playing it. RM: "Forever And Always" is such an epic way to end the record; it's sound is so large and brillant... Moose: The last 3 minutes of the song, the kind of drum-outro thing, was originally finished for another song and we were writing a song that we wanted to make a handsome, arena-type song, kind of like Cream back in the day, so we came up with the end first.  We then wrote the first half of it…it seemed odd to have the end of the song written first, kind of backwards.  RM: How much of a struggle for you and the rest of the band was Tuck's throat problems? Moose: We recorded the album last year, in January, so the music and everything was done so we then continued to tour before the final completion of the album; we went all over through Europe, Japan, and Australia.  Then Tuck’s throat problems came along and it was a pretty scary time actually; there was a moment in time when we didn’t think we’d be able to carry on.  We stuck through it, went back to rehearsals, took baby steps again.  Basically, took baby steps and Tuck got his voice back together and now it sounds better than ever.  RM:  Do you generally write while you're on the road? Moose: This one was mostly written on the road because of the success of the record; I think about 95% of this was written on the road.  So when we got back from the tours, we went right into the studio and demo’d them.  RM: Are there any songs still left over from these sessions? Moose: Yeah, I think there are about 3 left and maybe they’ll come out as B-Sides and I actually think they’re pretty good songs too.  They may end up on B-Side or end up on the third record, you never know. RM: How was your first trip to America? Moose: It was kind of strange because we came out there when we had only released our EP and we were put on a 5-band bill and on a good night we were playing to only about 200 people and we thought “Fuck, America’s going to be a hard place to play” but then we kept coming back and working at it and working at it and then we slowly started to see progress. RM: I understand you'll be touring America on the Taste Of Chaos tour... Moose: We’re really excited; we’re going to be doing a European tour now and we really, really want to get back to America and being billed with Avenged (Sevenfold) and Atreyu we’re really stoked to be on that type of bill.  RM: Anything else you'd like to add? Moose: Just go buy the record because I think everyone will enjoy it and it's a record we're very proud of.