Matt Tuck from Welsh metal band BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE guested on the latest episode of Occupy The Void With Xtina and Tim, a new podcast about mental health, music making and staying alive. Hosted by Christina Rowatt and violinist and clean vocalist Tim Charles from Australia's NE OBLIVISCARIS, you can listen to the full 44-minute episode on Spotify. Check out the YouTube clip below for some highlights.
Speaking of the challenges of life on the road, Tuck had this to say (transcript by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “This lifestyle and what we do as a touring band is not for everybody. We're fortunate enough to be global, which is amazing. We've worked really hard to make it happen. But, yeah, the travel and the schedule and all that stuff takes a toll physically and mentally. It's a lot to deal with. We've adapted to it. We're almost 20 years into our career at this point, so we kind of know how to deal with it now. But in the early days, the first few album cycles were really hard. Physically, yes, but I really struggled (mentally). It was hard to adjust to all of that. The lifestyle of being a successful touring rock band is a bit of a car wreck and a beautiful thing at the same time. It's all rolled into one. It's just so hard.”
When asked if adjusting to touring life has become easier through experience, or if he and his bandmates have had internal discussions about how to deal with it, the BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE frontman replied: “Like I said, we've been in our career for almost 20 years at this point, so as we go along we've learned how to deal with certain things and how to adapt going forward so it doesn't struggle as much as it did before. It's all about pacing yourself, the lifestyle, not drinking too much. In the early days, we worked hard and partied and enjoyed life and the experience. I think everyone does that in the early stages of their career.”
“If you want to make a career out of it, there comes a time when you have that conversation of, 'OK, you need to calm down. You need to take this a little more seriously,'” he explained. “If anything, it's more for your health than it is for your career, because if you're not careful, it's going to catch up with you and mess you up.”
Tuck also spoke about the fact that BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE have defied the odds to become one of the most successful UK Metal bands of the new millennium. He said: “I couldn't be more proud of myself, my bandmates and my whole team. They've been with BULLET for a long time. We put all our effort into a gamble of nothing in return, super high risk, no chance of reward. But that's what we were going to do. We were so passionate about the band and the potential we had. We knew it was going to be a long road with a lot of work, but that's OK. But we didn't mind. We were getting the experience of traveling the world with the best guys and playing in front of people who were singing the music we made back to us. That was the reward at the time. Just getting to that point was hard, but that was the struggle. But thankfully, we're still here and going stronger than ever. We're still making the best music we've ever made, and now we have control over everything ourselves, which is amazing. In the early days, you were just told, 'this is what's going to happen,' and now you just turn it on and hope for the best.”
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and TRIVIUM recently announced continental European dates for their “The Poisoned Ascendancy” tour.
The Poisoned Ascendancy will play six UK dates in late January 2025, before the two bands, plus support band Orbit Culture, head to mainland Europe for a further 18 dates.
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and TRIVIUM will be performing the albums “The Poison” and “Ascendancy” in their entirety to celebrate the 20th anniversaries of those albums, respectively. The newly announced shows will kick off in Dusseldorf, Germany on February 2nd and conclude in Madrid, Spain later this month.
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE released the deluxe edition of their latest self-titled album via Spinefarm/Search & Destroy in August 2022. The expanded release features four new tracks, as well as the song “Stitches,” which was previously only available in Japan. Following the CD and digital release, a vinyl pressing was made available in November 2022.
