Interviews
Into the Abyss of Existentialism: An Interview With Cradle of Filth’s Dani Filth
There’s a decent chance you’ve had an existentialist thought or two in life. Why do humans act as cruel as they do? What’s the point of existence? What happens when we die? These huge thoughts that involve layers and layers of thought and have gone through decades of examination are but a small taste of existentialism. It’s a perspective of philosophy popular in many walks of life – especially that of black metal artists.
On Cradle of Filth’s 13th studio album, Existence Is Futile (read my review), vocalist/lyricist Dani Filth finds himself both intrigued and unnerved by existentialist thought. Humans continuing to destroy the planet and overpopulation make up for some of the thematic subject matter Filth explores throughout Existence Is Futile. But while existentialism has a means to sometimes lean in towards negativity, it’s also a train of thought capable of bringing about positivity – something that Dani also acknowledges through the record.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Dani and I talked about the creation of Existence Is Futile. We also discuss existentialism through the lens of the famous occultist Aleister Crowley, growing as an artist, the band’s 1998 album Cruelty and the Beast, and of course, horror movies.
Michael Pementel: At this point in the band’s career, why is now the time to release an album revolving around existentialism?
Dani Filth: I consider the last three records, which are Nuclear Blast records – we signed for three albums – [they make up the ideology of a] trilogy. We started with Hammer of the Witches, which is medieval based, about 15th-16th century; then Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay, which is all about the Victorian age and our obsession with the macabre. Existence Is Futile felt like it needed to be a bit more modern, within context obviously. I think after four years of being out on the road, playing in a lot of sprawling metropolises – it just felt like the places were overpopulated. Obviously, when you’re on tour, that’s where you’re playing the biggest places. […] Although we’re having a great time – the best time of our lives in fact – I feel like there’s this undercurrent of existentialism, regarding the planet being chocked by people. I don’t know, it just came across my mind. We were writing on the road, and if I was at home in England, in a park beyond my house, maybe the [record] would have come out a bit more different.
MP: As much as Cradle of Filth’s music has involved horror, it has also very much been about history. How does Existence Is Futile fit into that scope of subject matter?
DF: When you’re writing lyrics, there’s not like a little instruction manual. I presume, the horror inherent in reaching Armageddon – or conclusion to, or whatever human life is pertaining to – is quite rife on this record. On Existence Is Futile, we’re kind of talking about future events; a lot of the songs deal with prophecies. There’s a lot of self-exploration, as you would expect from an album about existentialism. The potential end of everything. The fear of the unknown. Uncertainty of state. Meaningless of life or the meaning of life. But I also think despite the album title [coming across] very horrific, seemingly bleak, and nihilistic, it can also be seen in various aspects. I think one of them is the fact that if life is truly futile – that there is no overarching grand scheme of things, no golden ticket at the end, no Saint Peter, no hell – [that concept] literally wipes away all religion in a blink of an eye. [This] means we’re all just a lucky accident and we just get on with it and embrace everything for its fleeting nature.
MP: Well on that note, I wanted to ask you about Aleister Crowley’s perspective when it comes to life and its fleeting nature. His belief is that – in general – life should be indulged while we possess it, knowing we will die. How does that approach resonate with you?
DF: In respect to that, if you take that mantra to heart – when you’re in the darkest hours, the dark nights of the soul, etc. – and you’re being very introspective in a very negative way, you don’t really think about, “Yeah I feel like shit now, and it may go on for weeks or months, but it’s going to change.” [During those times], think about all the masses of things you really like about life, even if it’s just Star Wars movies, eating Pâté, horror movies, a celebration of Halloween. Then that mantra kind of rings true – use that as a catalyst to go on and think of better things in your darkest hour. Pulls you back from the brink of the abyss.
MP: Given Cradle’s career, how have you grown as a writer? How have your habits evolved over time when it comes to maintaining your wellbeing?
DF: […] When you’re young on tour, you go a bit crazy with everything. After being on the road for at least 25 years, you know when to party and when not to party; when to eat well and not to eat well. You know the tricks of the trade on how to get through a tour. Bands come and burn themselves out in four days. Especially as a vocalist, given that’s what I do, and getting older. But you also have to enjoy yourself a lot more. Like if you’re not partying every night, you’re going out and exploring. [During our time in Boston], I went out, had to have a lobster roll, visited Harpoon Brewery, caught a movie, went to the mall – all socially distancing of course.
MP: On your current North American tour you’re playing Cruelty and the Beast in full. Where did the interest in performing that come from?
DF: [Having released the remixed/remastered version of Cruelty and the Beast back in 2019] was the catalyst for our extended world tour. It was more like, “We got this coming out, we might as well continue touring.” Basically, we toured Cruelty and the Beast everywhere: New Zealand, Australia, South America. We just felt we owed it to North America [to perform the album]. The tour was booked prior to knowing when [Existence Is Futile] was coming out. We finished the album, literally a year ago, but saw no point in releasing it during the pandemic when we couldn’t support it or whatever. So, when the opportunity came to be one of the first Guinea pigs coming to the States […] we just took the chance. We thought, “Well great, we can play Cruelty to the American audience and include some new songs.” It’s a percussor to a bigger tour coming next year.
MP: What is it about Cruelty and the Beast that stands out to you now after all these years?
DF: I think it was the album that really catapulted us; I don’t know how to say it – it got us big basically. It was also painstakingly hard for me because of the lyrical concept and [approach to telling a narrative]. Centering that around the music and everything was very laborious. It was a great feeling to have actually accomplished that in the end. It was also great having Ingrid Pitt, who was a famous Hammer Horror actress [and who voiced the character of Elizabeth Bathory on the album], god bless her soul, involved as well. The artwork as well – everything is very special about it. We achieved the beginnings of success with Dusk & Her Embrace; everyone was looking to Cruelty and the Beast to see if we could follow that up. I think it did. It was special. It was definitely worth remastering and remixing it a few years back as well. […] Long story short – big album for us, a game changer.
MP: You’ve done some acting, most recently in Baphomet (2021), as well as Cradle of Fear (2001). Have you wanted to do more acting and film work?
DF: Well yeah. I take opportunities as they arrive. I’ve been offered to do lots of weird things, not necessarily acting. […] I’ve always wanted to do a Cradle of Fear 2, but the first one – it fitted snuggly into a period of our time where we had plenty of time to do it. I know we just had a pandemic, but people weren’t working during the pandemic and it was hard enough to get people to work on a movie even of that caliber. […] I’ve got some ideas; I’m starting to formulate the beginnings of a script. Because I know there are people I can call upon to come in and make a film look glorious. But the bottom line is, films cost a lot of fucking money. A lot of money. Catering budgets. Location shots. It’s a real labor of love. It is something that would have to be balanced against the band. I would want it to be good, I don’t want it to be like, “Oh god it’s another guy from a band bringing a shitty movie out.” I would want the film to be good.
MP: Have you considered other creative paths? Or is Cradle more of a top priority?
DF: Well that’s my job, so yes it is. I have enough poetry for books. It just, I kind of hold back on that. Cradle is my entire work/life. Also getting older, you suddenly realize you can’t immerse or burn yourself out being creative all the time. I’m starting to find things to calm me down; other avenues that aren’t all related to business. Because essentially a band is a business. That’s what it is. I’m not looking for any excuses because people go to work every day. This is our work. It’s pretty much 24/7; going on tour is 24/7 because you’re away from home. The great thing though is that we love what we do, we love everything that surrounds it.
MP: What recent horror films, or films in general, have you enjoyed?
DF: That’s a really good question, one that I can literally never answer. I must say, I haven’t found anything incredible. I saw a good film on the plane – I was surprised it was on the plane. It wasn’t a B-movie, but it was a super indie movie, it was called: The Wolf of Snow Hollow. I thought the lead character, the policeman, was very Bruce Campbell. I really enjoyed it. I watched Godzilla vs. Kong and The Quiet Place Part II which I really enjoyed. I thought the whole premise about Godzilla vs. Kong was like – “Fuck it we just want to see you fight, we don’t care about a stupid elaborate story [used to make everything] all possible.” Currently watching The Deep Ones when I get a chance in the back lounge of the tour bus. But when somebody asks that question – and I’ve done interviews for horror magazines – I always ask, “Can you give me some examples of horror movies you suggest are great?”
*Writer’s note – I recommended Titane*
MP: What scares you?
DF: Your rudimentary things; things that scare other people I seem to delight in. The whole horror genre, anything related to the occult, or death, stuff like that – I just can’t give a pinch of salt. In fact, my house is like a Victorian museum. I seem to forget when I have a workman come in; big burly workman who come in to quote me for a job and never turn back up again like there’s something going on here.
[Regarding what scares me], normality or the existential things that everybody deals with I guess. But creepy shit, no. A fear I guess of going back to a rudimentary life governed by other people. Nobody likes being told what to do, but, I fucking hate more than most. I’ve always done things, not in a selfish way, but just in my own way. I think the band is an extension of that, with like-minded people. We try to make the confines that we are in – timetables, being here/being there, getting things done – lenient and as fun as possible. Because there are no rules to life – [there are just] laws imposed by other humans. You don’t have to take it; you can break out of that mold. Being put back into that “coffin” is probably the scariest thing of all. And of course, the rudimentary things that come with getting older, like cancer and other morbidities.
MP: Well to conclude our conversation, with the band releasing its 13th studio album – where’s your creativity at?
DF: Bear in mind we have just been through a year and a half of lockdowns and restrictions. [In that time], the band has written a lot more music, but there is no need to release it for the sake of it. Creative-wise, we are still as fervent as we’ve always been. Sometimes I find it a little tricky; we come out with something [and look to share] stories, reflections, passions, and intimacies forward in new ways. Sometimes it is a little hard. It’s kind of like writing a book and going to a library and going, “Oh fuck this, there are too many books. Somebodies always got a story.” […] I think I like this new album because it’s rooted in a little bit more than just mythology; it’s modern – in the way I address the [content], it’s sort of in that classical format – but it hasn’t steered away from any Cradleisms [sic].
Bloody Disgusting and I would like to thank Dani for his time in taking part in this interview. Existence Is Futile is out now and you can read my review of it here.
Interviews
‘Rubberhead’ Director Nick Taylor on FX Maverick Steve Johnson, Practical Effects, and Seven-Year Journey
Horror journalist, producer, and podcast host Nick Taylor moves into the director’s seat for his feature debut with illuminating documentary Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson.
It chronicles the wild life and career of SFX maverick Steve Johnson, based on the multi-volume book series Rubberhead: Sex, Drugs and Special FX, and those familiar likely already know Rubberhead isn’t your standard horror documentary.
Johnson is responsible for so many memorable movie monsters, having worked on Fright Night, Poltergeist II, An American Werewolf in London, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and Night of the Demons, to name a few. He’s also extremely candid in ways that feel atypical in this industry, open about his failures as much as his successes.
“It was a natural progression for sure,” Nick Taylor tells Bloody Disgusting of his transition into filmmaking ahead of Rubberhead‘s world premiere next week at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 23. “I think with my podcast, I got adept at interviewing people and pulling creative lessons out of them, which was the point of my podcast. I wanted this movie to be sort of a creativity pill for artists where if they’re starting a project or feel creatively stuck, they could watch this movie and be inspired and get actual practical creative lessons.”
Taylor’s background in PR and marketing also organically led him down this path.
He charts the course from book promo to documentary director: “But also Bloody Disgusting had a lot to do with this movie because in the very beginning when I first met Steve, I was helping him promote his book and I said, ‘Hey, I got a marketing background and a journalism background. Let me help you promote this book. I’ll just pitch stories from your life to the media, and we’ll see what happens.’ And John Squires wrote an article about Steve making Slimer under the influence of tons and tons of cocaine, and that went fairly viral.”
“For a week, it was story time with Steve,” Taylor continues. “He would tell me a story from his life, and every story was about a major movie, a major director, lots of drugs and alcohol and insanity. I would write them up, and I think John published about three or four of them. So huge shout out to John Squires because that was really great. So yeah, there were definitely a lot of outgrowths of my journalism background that definitely contributed to this movie.”
Rubberhead condenses the multi-book series into a cohesive feature film with a breezy runtime, sparking the obvious question as to how Taylor approached condensing Johnson’s life down to an under 2-hour documentary film.
“That was one of the more difficult parts of all of this, because we had enough for a series or an epically long six-hour fan documentary,” he answers. “But from day one, I did not want to make a fan documentary. I love them. They’re a lot of fun, but I did want the movie to stand on its own two feet as a character-driven portrait of an artist and a time period and a technology, that being practical effects. I did want to be objective. I didn’t want to make this too long. I wanted to make it re-watchable. So I think we just really had to focus on what the narratives were that we wanted to tell. So there were some basically almost cliché archetypical mythic narratives present in Steve’s life. We could have made this way longer, but we wanted to keep it short. But luckily that’s why you have special features.”
Johnson quickly proves to be an engaging subject thanks to his self-effacing wit and frank self-reflections; expect no shortage of stories about how drugs factored into the height of his career or the failures it wrought.
That rare quality was an asset for Rubberhead, Taylor confirms. “He does not shy away from anything about the drugs, the addiction, the bridges burned, the mistakes made, the lessons learned. He just is honest about all of it. He’s had a lot of time for reflection, and he’s done a lot of reflection, so he doesn’t shy away from any of it, which is huge because it’s very refreshing. I don’t think a lot of people are that way, at least in this industry from what I can see. So I think it was hugely beneficial. We wanted to lean into that, and we wanted to make this sort of a gonzo Hunter S. Thompson sort of wild tale through Steve’s overall life.“
Condensing his life into this doc was a slow and steady process for Taylor, too. “It’s been almost seven years. It’s been a labor of love. We’ve been as indie as it gets. We would shoot what we could when we could, and then we would edit when we could. Then after a while it all came together.”
In a way, making Rubberhead brings Taylor’s horror fandom full circle. It turns out that the very film that sparked his interest in the genre and practical effects also comes with an amusing Steve Johnson anecdote.
Taylor explains, “My gateway for sure was Beetlejuice. I saw that at a very young age; I think I was four or five. I felt somebody had shown me, my soul. I get a little emotional thinking about it. There was something about that movie that felt so strange and unusual, but also felt so familiar. It was spooky, but it was fun, and it was lighthearted, and it had humor, but it also had this macabre celebration to it that I just really got into as a kid. I felt somebody had shown me my own soul. And funny story, Steve got fired from Beetlejuice because Tim Burton gave him his hand-drawn designs and Steve’s like, ‘Oh my God, these look like kids did them. This is not what you want. I know what you want. I’m going to redesign these for you.’ And Tim Burton was like, ‘Yeah, no, you’re not.’ So yeah, funny story.”
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