The Downbeat - DANI FILTH | AUTHOR, ACTOR, VISIONARY.

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

My guest on the podcast this week is Dani Filth, singer of seminal UK symphonic black metal band CRADLE OF FILTH. We caught up at this years Sonic Temple Festival to talk about the reaction to their latest album ‘The Screaming of the Valkyries’, as well as his upcoming book AND horror movie, cars, vices, and much more.SUPPORT THE POD:the downbeat clothing available at:https://www.thedownbe.atpatreon: http://www.patreon.com/thedownbeatGET SOME PLUGINS:get 30% off all plugins with code THEDOWNBEAT at https://www.neuraldsp.comget MY drum sound at https://www.ggd.coGET MY GEAR:https://sweetwater.sjv.io/3kZreACHECK OUT THE SOCIALS:twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/reynlord instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynlord/instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedownbeatJOIN THE DISCORD:discord: https://www.discord.gg/thedownbeat

What's up guys, welcome back to the Downbeat podcast, live but not live, on location at the wonderful Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio. What a bloody, lovely day we're having. I've just talked to the legend that is Danny Filth of Cradle of Filth. Last time we did the podcast, their album, Screaming of the Valkyries was not out yet, so we talk about that. We talk about movies we were both excited for at time of filming the last podcast, and now we have seen those movies. We talk about the festival a bit, we talk about what's next for cradle of filth. It's really good, you should check it out. If you like this, and you like us doing stuff like this on location, there's a way you can support us so we can continue doing it. It's called patreon.com for slash the downbeat.

On it, you can get early access to episodes, you can get ad-free episodes, you can get early access to merch, discount codes, giveaways, all that good stuff. Patreon.com for slash the downbeat. We couldn't do all this on location stuff without you. If you do not want to give us that money, but you also want to give us slightly less, money but you look good out of it as well. You could go to www. The Downbee.combe and pick up some clothing. We got hoodies. We got, I don't even have to tell you by now. We've got loads of cool clothes. You're going to look cool. In fact, Danny Filth himself, after doing the podcast last time, asked me for some clothes. That's how cool it is.

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It's Danny Filth of Cradle of Filth on the Downbeat podcast. Danny Filth. Hello once again. Welcome back to the Downbeat podcast. Thank you. What time does the makeup go on? Well, we've got a woman with us at the moment

who's doing our makeup and it's all airbrush and stuff. So it's, and this is the last day. We've been on tour for two weeks. And I think tomorrow I'm just going to have a meltdown when it comes to it. But it starts, you know, as soon as I get up, because I've totally forgotten how to do it. She airbrushes it and everything. Oh, this is the last day she's with you?

Yeah. But the tour continues after this. It does, yeah, until 23rd, I think. So you'll be doing it yourself? Yeah, which I normally do. But, I mean, it just got used to just sitting there and going, oh, this is great. How long does it take when the lady does it?

Like about a quarter of the time. Well, we were talking time-wise when you do it? I got it down to about an hour. That's pretty good. That's less than Madison. No, chauvinism. That was a joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that was pretty good. Did you learn now, or was it just back in the black metal era? No, it's just, you know, it's like anything, isn't it? You get good at it. 35 years. You get good at staying at, well, you think you get good at living on a bus, but that's not true. I had a terrible night's sleep yesterday. Really?

Yeah. Well, I'm lucky enough being, you know, head honcho in my band that I and I'm currently writing or bug well writing it with someone else and I'm editing it at the moment and I'm not really in the head space to be doing it but because of that I've taken the back lounge as my living in well my yeah it's my so I feel a bit like at the captain's

you know sort of table that being said I don't want to moan in front of everybody that's confined to coughing and sliced bunks yeah I'm right over the back wheel so as soon he's starts the engine, like everything, the table, my laptop, everything's set up. Yeah, exactly. Well, you were here in a minute when that stage plays. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Is it one of those like back lounges that has like a bigger bed in it then? Yeah, yeah, it's got a proper bed. I know, right. You lucked out. You deserve it. Danny Filth, cradle of filth. That's my fucking bedroom. Yeah. No one ever kicks up a fuss, though.

Well, no, no, they haven't. No. Bless them. Behind you back. It does it. Yeah, probably. But in Europe's a different matter. What's the deal in Europe? Like, so in the US, for people that don't know, the US don't have the double-deckers. Well, that's not true because the other day at Rockville, I saw, because beat the street and now started over here. And obviously they bought a load of Prevos, but there was a double-decker there. Now, I always thought that was a thing in America because of the height clearance or something. Because I thought, well, you know, you've got double-decker trains, surely won't a double-decker bus.

But I guess Prevose the engine of choice. We used so British. I love it. I've lived here for so long any time a British person comes. Start talking about engines. I'm like, yeah, top gear. Here we fucking go.

You ever do a bandwagon tour? No, fortunately not. Yeah, I love them, but the key is you have to be... Yeah, you're a good sight younger, though. Getting on now, nearly 40. Oh, God, my heart bleeds. How old are you?

52. Look at that man for 52 years old. I know, right? All the comments when we did... I know. pushing a good 65. No, all the comments are just like, he doesn't age, he's a vampire.

Jesus, are they even commented on that at the moment? No, we're not live. Thank God we're not live. If you want to see this life, give me more money. I'm talking about Britain. As probably the most British man in extreme metal, I would say, right now in extreme metal, Rob Halford, not quite extreme, very British.

Do you like being in America? Well, he lives in America, so he's obviously got enough. Yeah, he lives in Texas. No, not Texas, Arizona, I believe. Oh. Near Phoenix. And Birmingham to Arizona. Well, you would, wouldn't you?

No, yeah. To be fair, yeah. I mean, Birmingham would take on a different kind of transcendence if it was very hot. Accord heat. And there were a lot of cowboys about it. A fucking desert in the middle of Birmingham. Stick it next to the ball ring. Yeah, exactly.

Do you like being in America? I do. The funny thing is, you know, everybody's like, Europe's very cultural, obviously. but we've done it so many times and there's something about America I like there's a gothicism to it of just stopping at a day you know like on a day off

as yesterday there's a mall and there's a Walmart and you can go in the pool and there's a steak and shake or somewhere like a red it's just one of those things I don't know just grown accustomed to

look forward to yeah I know if you think about it it's kind of tacky but it's not there's a soul there it's just different it's just very different

I feel the same way, was talking about it the other day, just like driving down a road and there's like, like you say, like a staking shake and a Walmart and all this stuff. And I turned to Madison and I was like, what do you think about what this looks like right now? And she was like, oh, it's just like normal America. It's a bit busy, not very beautiful. And I was like, I think this is fucking awesome.

Just because it's so different. It's like... You can't walk anywhere though, can you? No. It's like we went to the mall. We went to see Mortal Kombat 2 yesterday. Any good? Yeah, it was great.

I liked the first one. Yeah, it was really, really good. But, yeah, it was like 0.8 miles. And then the Americans are like, fuck that. No way. It's like, that's fine. But because you're not, you've got to get across two highways. No sidewalk.

And if there is, you know, you're the last people. They're going to let cross. When you go to the movies in America, what do you get for snacks? What does Danny Phil get for snacks at the movies? What are those milk darts? Milk duds. Yeah. I try not to get too much sugar, but you can't help it.

And then like 25 litres of root beer. The most insane. I get small and it's like illegal in the UK. Yeah, exactly. What about the popcorn? I've got issues with American popcorn. With what? Are you not a popcorn guy?

I am, but what you mean with all the stuff they put on top of it? Like the butter and stuff. Yeah, yeah, that's a bit much. There's a different name. Kettle corn is what they call our, you know, like sweet popcorn. And they don't do it in the movie. What's that sneakers and trainers, isn't it? I do, but I'm a bit of a sneaker guy these days.

There's certain words that I have to mitigate for the US audience just because it's a 20-minute conversation. If I go into a coffee shop and I go, oh, sorry, like, where's your car park? Because I don't say car park, do they? They say, parking lot. And then that's like a car park. And then that's 20 minutes out in my fucking day. But sneakers is one that I have to do.

I do enjoy days off going to the movies. I think it's, you know, even though you've got like Netflix and we watch a Punisher on the bus last night, here we go. Here we go. Maybe it won't be that bad. You just don't ruin my favourite interview of the day. No, I haven't seen anyone else. I do enjoy it.

I had a weird experience a couple of years ago where me and the keyboardists, we were in Northford, Virginia, and we went to see a film. And it was the last one of the night. And we were leaving in the morning, first thing, one of those, you know, like hotel, get up at six. get on the bus, whatever. And we left the theatre, which was part of them all, doors shut up, behind us and that,

guy there with his headphones on you, just like a movie, polishing the floor. And I went, fuck, I just left my bloody wallet in there. Oh, no. And I was banging on the door, banging on the door. And the guy was just like, couldn't hear me, whatever. So in the end, I threw myself in front of the police car. And this lovely, lovely female cop

rang someone, the station who rang and they opened up for me and I'd crawl around in the dark. What do you mean you threw yourself in front of a cop? Well, I saw her driving on the road and I thought this is my last chance. I'm not going to give a wallet. So I literally just jumped in front of the car,

screeched to a hole. And the police... I thought she was going to arrest me. The police took time out of their day to help Penny Shilf get his wallet. She felt really, really sorry for me. That was really nice. Are you walking around Norfolk the whole time

when you see a sign for Norfolk? Like, this is a Norfolk? Doing Alan Park for your presence. Exactly. Speaking of movies, last time we spoke, there was a good 15 minutes of both of us extremely ecstatic for Nosferatu because it hadn't come out yet.

Oh yes, and you're going to ask me what I thought of it. Thoughts. I was disappointed at first in certain parts of it. But after my third watch, I've grown to really appreciate it. I know that everybody was like, oh, he doesn't look.

I don't like his beard, you know, it's a bit weird. I thought it was really good, actually. It grew on me. me. It obviously borrowed from a lot of other films. There was some really great aesthetics. Nothing too original.

I'm really looking forward to the Werewolf movie. Same. But if you compared it to the new Luke Beson, Dracula, a love story, which was the biggest pile of shit I have ever seen in my life. Thank God you said that. When you see reviews of it, people go, oh my God, this is even better

than Francis Fulclius' Dracula. Are you the fucking lavish? It's, what the fuck? CGI gargoyles in France and it was more like perfume and it was just... The way I described it, Madison's upset because she enjoyed it. I did. I think I like any vampire romance, so it doesn't matter how good it is. As long as it's vampire romance, I'll probably enjoy it.

Yeah, I agree, but I think it was, I was just skewed by all the positive reviews. I just got annoyed by them. Yeah, I think, I didn't even read a single review, but it's a Dracula movie, so I'm going. Yeah. I described it as if Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula is Slipknot, then that one was mushroom head. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can say, you might not be able to.

Nosferatu, obviously, Robert Eggers, The Witch. Yeah. It's going to bring us around to your album because your album was not out when we last spoke. You just had one single. That's right. And since then, it's come out. It's absolutely fucking amazing, by the way. Oh, thank you.

Like, everything I wanted, I can't think, I'm going to glaze, Danny Glaze again. I cannot think of another band doing the kind of music that you make, symphonic, black and death metal, whatever. What would you call it? What would you call, Greyfield? Oh, I don't know. I think the biggest accolade to just be called, you know. You don't think of Iron Maiden as you waive a British heavy metal. You just say Iron Maiden, you know exactly who they are.

It's like Metallica. You know, there's a Bay Area thrash legends. Yeah. Because I mean... So just metal. Yeah, well, it would be just nice. When you said cradle of the film, people would go, yeah, I know they are. I think you're at that level.

But I can't think of another band that does the symphonic stuff that's been going for as long as you. Period. I can't think of one. Period. As they say in America. Look at me. Fuck me.

Consistently getting better. Well, we actually are in a studio. Well, we're not in the studio at the moment. Yeah, we're in two places at once. We're getting that good. Yeah, we just put one of the starting touches to our new album. On the next one. Yeah, it's definitely a move up.

We've got a new guitarist, obviously, you know. I went through a bit of a debacle last year. I wasn't going to ask you about that. Well, I can't really touch upon it too much because, you know, probably throw up a bit of a shit storm again. But, yeah, it was difficult. I just kept quiet throughout the, yeah, I think pretty much 95% of the whole thing and just let all the slurs stick to me

and why they're still getting them. You've got thick skin for that. Oh yeah, like a rhino. By now. It's been a fucking hot minute. Did I read correctly, your drummer does the orchestrations? He does some of them, yes.

Yeah, yeah. That's fucking insane. And I was like, everybody in our man's very talented apart for me, really. I'm just, I'm a singer. I just get to hang around with musicians. Yeah, but you're the one that people care about. It's very annoying as a drummer.

But also what's even more annoying is when I saw that lawsuit shit, I was just gutted. The drummer wasn't involved because I was like, I could probably sneak in there. Every time I'm listening, I was like, yeah, I could probably do that. It's cool, that is cool. I could do the makeup. So to live deliciously, a witch quote?

More eggers? Well, I guess so, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it was used way before that. But, yeah, I think we want to do something that was more celebrated. You go, restart that whole sentence. You got it. You got it. I wanted to do something a bit more celebrable.

to one of them is a little bit like that. Lyrically not about the witch? No, no, no. Just about, you know, living your life to the full, regardless of, I don't know, like any moral dilemmas or religion or, you know, like a sort of self-imposed law. Very Crowley-esque. Yeah, kind of like Crowley Satanism. Well, I wouldn't go so far as that. I would just say it was just, you know, we're here and enjoy yourself.

and don't be a people. Don't be a c, Simon, you're going to have to edit but we'll say it again. No, it comes up as hate speech. I really? It was in,

I spotted one in Mortal Kombat yesterday. Was it, was it Johnny Cage? No, it was someone else to Johnny Cage, I think, all that. British.

He said a lot of F words, yeah. I'm excited to see that. I really liked the first one. It was bubble gum, you know? It's bubble gum. I remember. How much of a plot can you get out?

Yeah, Yeah, but remember the first Mortal Kombat movie? Did you ever see it? No, I remember the Street Fighter one with Kylie Minogue in it. See, I have like that has a soft spot in my heart as well. Who, Kylie Milogue? I mean, back of the day, but I mean, in general, that Street Fighter movie. But like, you've got fucking Gomez as M. Bison.

That was a banger. But terrible movie, but the OG Mortal Kombat movie when I was a kid was like everything to me. And then I watched it again recently. I was like, nope. Funny enough, there was a trailer for the new street. fight a movie. Yeah, that's a crazy cast. Yeah.

Kind of excited about that. You play any video games? Well, I sort of retired for it for a bit. I bought PlayStation 5 because my friend was like, yeah, yeah, get one. This is some great games. And then you got super busy. So all this idea about playing with headsets every night. So I went out the window and I just like, I bought a couple of games.

And then I find myself playing it and then getting the sort of anxiety. Yeah. I think I need a better, I need like someone like a school, the sexy school mistress. To guide you through it? No, no, just to say, right, at 9-10 today, you've got half an hour to play, I don't know, Mortal Kombat or something, and then you can get on with some lyrics.

But I always get this anxiety that I'm wasting my life. I did the same thing. And I think it would be great to get PlayStation 5 game where, like, write an album or, you know, go to the shops, but in real time somehow. That's Grandfifth Auto, but just don't kill any people. Yeah, yeah. Was it multiplayer games you were looking?

for was it a single player you strike me as a single player guy well we're single i love guns and cars it just just love guns and cars so if you can i don't understand what i don't take the model because every year they upgrade the formula one you know formula one 2006 you think how different can it be from the previous one yeah why can i use that engine and then just mod it with you know like mario cart shit so and that would be the ultimate game louis hamilton running around throwing shells at people. Absolutely, yeah. You said you love guns.

Have you got a gun? You allowed a gun in the UK these days? Of course you not, no. Don't you? Well, you can, but you have to be a farmer, don't you? And I mean, we'll almost qualify as a farmer. I live in Hipswich. You feel like you could pull it off.

When we were recording Damnation of the Day, we all bought BB replicas. Nice. And we just took it too far. And thinking back on it, and some of it was on one of our videos, because we bought some explosives, as they know, crow scarers and that. Put them in, like, antique vases, you know, big metal ends and blowing basketballs out and just blowing things up, really.

But we used to take them out with us. And I'm just thinking back, what were we doing? We went to a pub in Hastings and we're all sitting there. And it would be like one person would go reach for their pocket and everybody get their guns out. It'd be like a ball bearing fight in the middle of a pub. You'd have the fight in the pub. Well, we did a couple of times. We broke a window.

So we then reverted to plastic bullets. So I've got a hole in my face about there, which has been growing out for the last, you know, 22 years or whatever. From that? Yeah, I got caught in a crossfire one day. We didn't have masks or anything. We just thought we'd just shoot each other. That's fucking funny. You say you like cars as well.

Believe it or not, I just bought an electric car, which I know for a coffee. That, Danny Felfth thing I could think of. But it's a neutron GTS and it's 600 brake horsepower and it's like Automan's car. You know? Yeah. Like everything, everything's electric. Everything's, you know, it weights itself up in the middle of the night, talks to the tyres and shit like that.

Seriously. Who talks to the tyres? Because it's for, I got it because my missus wanted to have, you know, I had just had a two-seat of a sports club before then. Now, because there's so much room in it, it's like 3.5 tons. If it breaks down, it has to be picked up by a train. Bam. So, which might happen, you know, me and my mind and running out of electric

and getting used to that. But you can wind the seats back and it's like having put the stereo on and the lights and everything. It's like having a personal light theatre. I miss my Audi. They don't do Audi's in the States like they do back home. Are they not the same? They put them, don't they? When I picked you up, I had that S3 with the hatchback.

They don't do hatchbacks here. It's like a saloon version of it. I'm like, no, that's not for me. A Ute version. Yeah, Ute. There we fucking go. West Coast. This one is for you.

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where I'm going to keep telling you this stuff. Any surprise fan favourites from the record since you started playing songs from it? I think White Hellebore, actually. Why is that a surprise? Well, I don't know, because it's, you know, we always do a couple of songs on an album, like Malignant Perfection, for example.

I don't know, not quite as, they're not the brutal songs, do you know what I mean? And sometimes the fans, not give it a miss, But you know what I mean? They prefer the more eclectics or, you know, old-schooly-tight numbers, like Ex-Sanguine Dracula or something like that. But, yeah, we've been playing it light. Fortunately, we've got to drop it today because we don't have enough time to play.

Yeah, enough time. That's the one with the, like, the banger singing chorus. Yeah. Love it. So good. You mentioned ex-sanguine Dracula? Yeah. Correct?

Yeah. Fuck, yeah. That one is so old-school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was that like on purpose or it just come out? A bit, both really. I suppose it's just the writing of it. We were, you know, different people,

we had to it and why other. And yeah, we're just old school. There's a couple of really old-schooly ones on the next record as well. Really? As well as some big stuff. And obviously, the Ed song was going to be going on there. Is the Ed song actually happening?

Well, it always happened. It was just there were things, you know, we talked about it. Yeah. Things that meant that it had to be. I thought it was coming out sooner and it did. So I banged on about it in the press. And of course, the press jumps on it.

Oh, they all stole my story. And then the kind of, you know, the magic and surprise has been sucked out of it. And then we felt that it was going to overshadow the last record. Yeah. So that was part of the reason as well. Do you think it'll be on the record? It will be on the record. It won't be a single because that's a deal that we did.

But it's a really good song. It not being a single is absolutely. criminal, I know. Yeah, but really. I'd like to have done it for charity, you know. Yeah? Christmas song, maybe. Just imagine you got it onto Radio 1, they would have run with it, you know.

We'll play the whole of this if, you know, if you don't donate money. Yeah. But I mean, do you not think with it not being a single, like, it's just going to get picked up anyway because it's Ed Shearon? You're getting a free single, really. Well, hopefully, hopefully. Is that when they say, as a deal we did, is that like, it's not allowed to be played on radio or you're not allowed? No, no, no, it wasn't more like that. It was more the fact that he was, there was a part of his career where they decided to, I don't know, take some time off and whatever.

And then he was doing something else and it kind of collided with that. And of course, if you're trying to, I don't know, do something new in a new area, you don't want to be tarred with the brush of like, as they would say, playing with a deaf metal band. Because that's what they would have said, you know, death metal. You nearly gave away the song title last time. And I don't think you're going to give it to me now. No, because you just said that. I probably would have done. Fuck up.

Run it back. Can I guess one word from it? And if I'm right. Well, if I said it last time, you really know which word. No, but you went, it's called and you went, that was it. But I'm going to guess, random guess. Go on.

Ecclesiastical. No. Damn it. Because you say it's called it. And it was like, what's the Danny Phil fucking word? Ecclesiastical. What does that mean again? It's like, I think it's relating to the church.

So I was like, it's got to be that. But I'm wrong. Yeah. You don't want to tell me what it is? No, fucker. Damn it. What's demagoguery about? We're not a band that really dwells on modernity.

You know, I don't mention cars or... The modern world is such. The E-Tron. Exactly, yeah. It's a bit out of keeping, in it. But, you know, I want to be a green guy as well. That's the reason for that. And obviously, with the fuel crisis as well.

Yeah. Oh, my God. saving money right now yeah exactly i'm not there not driving it um saving even more money it's about how misinformation is spread as a weapon and you see all the time now on the news and what have you that he ai is doing it you know today something came up on my feed about moscow being engulfed in flames and it's like it was just like a i mock video it's crazy how those things blow up why like what people are trying to sewed discord and Yeah.

You know, it's a different kind of warfare, isn't it? Are you anti-AI? You know, a lot of it when it first started was like some horrible nightmare. You know, like you get a dream and everything's not quite what it is. Oh, what it looked like, like the image generation, yeah, yeah. There's some amazing stuff out there, but I am against it. I know you can use it as a tool and what have you and, you know, an artist say, yeah, well, I just use it for a bit of this and that.

It's just too easy a crutch to lean back on. And I also am a big fan of Terminator, and all I think about is fucking Skynet. Yeah, as soon as they bring those robots in and they realize, it's like a real thing. Like Terminator becoming reality is like a real. It's been weaponized for years. If it's got, if AI is available to us, it's been weaponized like 20 years ago. Yeah. For sure.

Where I stand on it. So if it's been weaponized that long, imagine where they're at with it. you know, those robot laser dogs from China. Jerome's and all that stuff. I think I'm against it for anything military and then creative. But like if you want to use... Yeah, but how could you control that? Oh, there's no way.

No, exactly. It's a little bit annoying when you've got someone with a lot of talent, you know, like a tattooist or an illustrator, scriptwriter, lyricist, whatever, musician. And then someone with zero talent can just veer in that direction, learn the program for a couple of weeks and they come out with something you know that takes other people a long time to do

and people will realise it when it does actually become robotic you know like when it's serving you when it's a plumber Amazon delivery drivers postman you know when it really gets like that and people are just like I think I'd rather be off this planet by then hopefully I will you heard it here first

I think it's important that people like you say that you're against it creatively because particularly stuff like synths and programming and stuff like that, that's where producers, like I saw a video the other day where Diplo, that producer Diplo, anyone, it's just talking about how I don't need this thing or anymore, I just use this app.

What's his last name, Docus? Diplodocus. He's like, yeah, I don't need that anymore. I can just use this. And it's like, well, it might be all right for you in your fucking mansion, but there's people that need jobs. and like synths and orchestral stuff, that's going to be like first to go

when people are just like, oh, do I pay someone to, you know, make this nice orchestral score? Well, that's the thing. It comes down to money, doesn't it? Yeah. That's the thing. That's a sad reality of it.

And in the music. And you've seen people with album covers, you know. I mean, I've been veering away from that. I've really been veering away. But I've seen it creep in all over the place. And you can see why, you know? If I can do this myself overnight, Why am I going to pay three grand for an image from someone else?

But for the record, you're not going to do that. No, the record. I think metal artwork in particular, just for me growing up, like all those old Dan Seagraves and stuff like that. Like, UK. Ed Repker. Ed Repker. Like, for me, it's just such a part of the artistic thing that we're trying to do

that you should just be paying someone to do it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right, you've been doing this for 35 years. How was life in to- yeah, you're. if I can have. How was life on tour changed since then? Well, I don't drink. So that really helps. It's a bit boring. But then, you know, I'll say life is what you make it.

I don't miss the hangovers. My friend, I'll baseball had a hangover yesterday. It didn't look like it was coping well. No. Not at all. And I really don't miss that. Was there a tipping point for quitting drinking? Yeah. Well, it was weird, actually, because it was two days before New Year's even.

And every year I'd made a vow just to give up. And some years it was like four months, some years it was two months. The one year it almost got six months. So I ended up in the rainbow bar and grill. And my friend Yerke for 69 and I just went, no, you're drinking that. And then that was that over and done with because I could have gone through that year. I fucking party with that guy before in Finland. They're from Finland, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. That guy took me to the fucking Children of Bowden bar. I heard that name in so. long and he was like, you come with me tonight, you drink him. He's a priest now. No fucking way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. I mean, he's still in 69 eyes and he doesn't drink either. But anyway, yeah, Tori now is so much better because, oh, sorry, I was about to tell you why. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Two days before. So I was going to stop at New Year's Eve, you know, after New Year's Eve. And me and my missus had a bit of a running. And I was a bit rude to her because I'd been drinking tequila.

And so I said to her, look, I won't even drink on New Year's Eve. Eve, I'll stop right now. And I haven't drunk since then. And that was, what, three and a half years ago. Damn, good for you. Yeah. It was nice for it to be like a nice story and not like, I fucking nearly died or whatever.

No, I never got to that. But the trouble was, you know, I could not drink for weeks. But then as soon as I started drinking, it was like, I'd get up in the morning. I don't want to hang over. Oh, cool. I've got some more beer left. And then I find that it'd be like three days later.

Yeah. You know? And I'm not saying, like, legless, like a bing. but it catches up on you. What's your vice now, though? You strike me as someone that likes to live deliciously. I do smoke a bit of weed every now and then.

But not really. She's got you if you need it today. Do you need anything? Ice cream. No, ice cream. Yeah. What flavor? Honestly, boring as fuck.

Don't you fucking dare. Vanilla. Oh my God. I just like vanilla. Have you got a brand at least? Your favorite vanilla? Any, any. Any vanilla ice cream?

Any vanilla ice cream. That's not that hairy ice cream. cream. Do you know what I mean? No. There's an ice cream you get in England and I think it's got more ice crystals. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like the proper just comes in a white tub.

Yeah, yeah. I call it a hairy ice cream. Not that. Just like a nice vanilla ice cream. A nice vanilla ice cream. Is it on the rider? It actually is. We don't always get it.

The other day we've got Greek yogurt. I was like, well, that's not the same fucking ding. America. Put some butter on your popcorn and fuck off. I almost starting me drinking again, that. Danny breaks edge because there's an overlaw. in her ice cream. Got any retirement plans?

Like cheeky sod. Isn't it? It's bad, isn't it? No, it's just because... No, you're doing it and you're so heavy and your vocals are so fucking intense. When I speak to some people,

they're like, you know, you can tell that they don't want to keep doing it forever. I think you could do it forever. Well, obviously not. I mean, it'd be a bit ridiculous to be on stage, you know, at 80 doing it, unless I looked 50, which you're not going to. 50 now and I don't look 50.

So there you go. Yeah, I just think there's a point. So, I mean, you could say this, I don't know, you know, when Extreme Metal came in, you know, I don't think anybody knows about longevity, do they? Yeah, just keep going. You mentioned Glenn Benton. He's got to be, what, 57, 58. Saw him the other day.

I don't know if he's here. Yeah, they're playing, I don't know, actually. No, I don't been here today. You mentioned a book. Oh, yeah, this is an autobiography thing. To be honest, I'm not really into it. I don't like talking about myself. and like there's a lot of family stuff in there and um at the moment i'm not really in the right

head space to be finishing it off because it's been brought up to date and so um yeah i mean i will be into it it's just i've got a deadline and at the moment we're doing the album so whenever i'm in that space what i've got to do some writing i instantly start on the book and go yeah go straight on to lyrics and be like yeah did i did so much it's a bit like math homework at the moment. I've got to make it a bit more interesting. You'd rather do your music and English homework. Yeah.

Did someone come to you and say, do you want to do a book? Or did you say I want to do a book? No, somebody came to me. The co-author is very, very good. Nice. It's a lot of good stuff. And it's on a really big publishing thing. And yeah, I mean, it's all for the good.

But you've got to, heart's got to be into it. And if you're not really into talking, you know, if people interested in this, or do they just want, like, loads of gore stories about hotel desecration? and shit like that. Do you find when you're writing the book, you find it hard to write normally? Well, it's already been transcribed.

I'm just going through it and going, mm, yeah, I don't quite like how that's come out or that. And it's sort of like remembering when it happened. I find myself going, oh, sugar. This is completely, you know, not in the right time frame. I don't even know what we've actually gone into this part. Well, one cares. Probably not.

So you sit down, with the guy and talk and then he writes it. Yeah, we went away for about a week. We've still got another one to do. We only went up to like chapter 12 or something. But yeah, he came down to Suffolk. It was really cool, actually. We rented, we were in a hotel, so a very famous one near Lavenom.

It was really, really haunted. I took the room where the haunted stuff was supposed to happen. It's pretty cool. And then we just drove around the Suffolk countryside, visiting places I liked and talked about them. Yeah, that bit sounds fun. But when you're like, I have to go through this now. Well, yeah, yeah, because, you know, I mean, I could have just left it, but it would have been awful. Would that?

Not awful because of these, the way he writes it, it just wouldn't have made sense to me. Did you see any ghosts during the spooky? No, we were, you know, where bawley retry was where I was just down the road. So we did all of that. A floor in the room, I just kept tripping over because it was so old, the floor was like that. If you put a marble at the top, it was gone. classic UK. I love that.

When I go back to the UK and I go to like a pub, like a real pub. Madison went to her first real pub the other day. She was like, why is this healing so small? Yeah, this is it.

Hobbit world. Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is the shit. Have you ever had like a paranormal experience? Yeah, my ex-wife still haunts me. Sorry, I'm sorry,

it's too fucking easy. Yeah, she woke, we used to live in a very, very old house, 1685. It was emblazoned and actually I don't know if it was in pink, but it was Suffolk pink, which is made with pig's blood.

And so, yeah, it was very witchy. And she woke up one night. She was sleeping in the surface. She didn't like sleeping upstairs on her own when I was on tour. And she was sleeping on the sofa, watching a movie, whatever, fell asleep.

She said she woke up and it was like she was in middle of the winterland. Everything was covered in frost. Things were pulling at her. And she was, I'm wide awake. I'm wide awake. What the fuck? So she said buried a head under cover.

Eventually he fell asleep and in the morning was, you know, nothing. But people used to come around our house and go, what the fuck? Cats used to, we used to have three cats. It all just congregate in a corner and be like. Oh, the cats stare when they're just looking at ghosts. Yeah, it was, it was quite uncanny. And I thought I saw a ghost once, not far from Boreley Retry. He went to a trip to Boree Retry.

And there's a park in a village not far from there. and there's this woman standing on the bridge in like, I didn't think anything of it because it was like, wow, that one's got Victorian clothes on, what the fuck? In the middle of this bridge.

Lots of shit, you know, it could have been a fate, whatever. And I literally turn around and talk to a friend like that and I want to look back like that and she was completely gone. And it was like, unless she sprinted. And also another time up at a country lane

and I was cycling back from a rehearsal. And this old woman walked across the top of the hill, walked across the top of the road. And I was like, that's weird. I hope she's not lost. So when I got to the top, put my bike down, see where she went.

It looked like she just walked into another house. And there was just like two old, knackered old agricultural places and thorns and everything. I mean, I couldn't get through there. Yeah. And that really freed me out. That's awesome. I've not had any ghost experiences.

I've had like supernatural things, but not like a real ghost. We're doing one of these incarceration. Have you been to that one? It's the one at the place they filmed Shawshank. No, that sounds cool. It's Ohio Performatory.

They filmed Shawshank there and over 200 people have died in there because it was a prison but for the death penalty people like if you were there in the first 15 years you helped build the rest of the prison and you helped build the execution area where you were later killed.

So there's like murders and just the executions from the prison apparently it's like one of the most haunted places in the work. We're doing an episode there. Incarceration, Denny Wimber presents. Good luck. And I'm desperate. I'm trying to go a day early to go like lights off.

Night Vision, most haunted Derek Acora style. For the American viewers, that is a very UK TV show on Bravo TV. Are you having fun? Yeah, it's good, man. I love hanging out with you. All right, we've got some little questions and then that's it. Cool. Fire away.

What was the first album we ever bought? UltraVox. the collection. Nice. I still like UltraVox. We actually did a cover of the voice by UltraVox. Never released it, actually. Why not?

Pump that on Spotify. Probably, yeah. It was good. I didn't think we finished it, actually. Oh, yeah, I guess. Yeah, you're going to do it. After everything we said, it comes out and it sounds like a robot voice. We are here at Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio.

Quite a lovely setup for a festival. Have you got any festival memories over the years that spring to mind? No, absolutely zero. I don't know. Would you mean? We headlined the B stage in the American Oz Fest in 2003, the same year as we did the typo thing as well. And that was just 10 weeks of proper touring a minute,

like this every day. But B, probably like Rotville. Yeah. The main stage, it was like Manson, Ozzie, you know, whatever. But we had, we headlined and we had Voivod. He always stayed at that position because, their basis at the time, which was...

Jason News said. Yes, was also playing for Aussie. So they didn't have to... Because all the rest of the bands, they'd worked the way up to or about 1 o'clock, starting at 9, and then they'd go back to the bottom again.

So it was like Killswitch, Shadows 4, motor grader, which then became, 5-finger Death Bunch. Really? I didn't know that. Or bits of them. Shadows 4, etc., etc. I remember Killswitch going on,

nine o'clock in the morning in their pajamas. That was brilliant. Yeah, that was crazy, crazy, 10 weeks. Sponsored by Yeager Meister as well. Have you ever had the Yeager Meister sponsorship for Cradle itself? Well, it kind of was because you had to a signing at a Yeager tent before and after, and they'd give you a bottle of Yeagermeister. They stopped giving it individually, you know, because we got a bit out of hand, as you can imagine.

I had an old band that was sponsored by Yeager Meister and it was fucking the most unhinged like responsible thing ever at the beginning of like a 32 day tour I'd get a pallet delivered and it was 32 bottles of Yeager Meister exactly and once they accidentally

sent me one of those cool Yeager things that the thing you know when the shots come out ice cold and they were like can you send that back? I was like yeah I'll send it back fucking didn't I got skateboard album I got a Danny Phil festival moment moment that I remember physically happening. Someone threw an apple at you.

Do you remember this? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do, yeah. Download, I want to say 2006. Was that the one my daughter introduced? I don't know, I brought my daughter out. She was only about this big. I remember Keith Flint took a real shine to her because she had all her hair in like braids and bits and pieces and that.

And she introduced this. I think it might have been that one. But yeah, I remember it. Do you remember what you said? No. Fuck, yeah. You don't remember. British thing ever and I've scoured.

I was there. I can't remember if it was 2006 or maybe it was 2004. I scoured the internet for a clip. I can't find it anywhere. It's pre like this. You said, who throws an apple, honestly?

And then there's a gap and you went, wanker. And it was just, I've been desperately searching for that clip. It was just the most British thing ever. Ollie got, Ollie Sykes got hit by a phone the other day. People throwing shit on stage. Really? fucking horrible

do people pass out at cradle of filth shows these days I don't know maybe at Rockville it was pretty hot I feel like every show I go to at the moment

there's like a three songs where someone's passed out I hope someone throws a phone at me I could do with a new phone yeah grab it fucking white bit

just really wind them up white hot and I'll get a load of freebies loads of coins why do you need a phone you need a new phone you broke your phone I keep dropping it all the time

It's in the back of the bus It's charging and that next thing Trying to write my fucking book And my lyrics Last thing Okay Thank you by the way for being here I watch Cradle of Fear

Between the time of I mean I watched it when it came out But then I watched it again After our interview Because we didn't really talk about it Any thoughts on acting again Well I have done a film recently I don't know what the title is

It had a work in title called Blind Girl Trapped It's very Jeffrey Epsteinish because I won't go into it, but just say that. But it's about cannibalism, rich people are people. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah. The thing was, I agreed to do this thing, and I've been talking a lot, obviously, with the producer and everything. And there was one conversation in particular.

I had to keep going back to because I said, my printer just suddenly stopped working, or I didn't have enough paper or whatever. I said, is it okay if I print it out from where I appear in the script, page 32 onward. He said, yeah, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, cool, yeah. As long as you read the rest, you know, context, yeah, yeah, yeah, course, yeah.

So every time I spoke to him over a period about two months, I had that in my mind. I get to the place, having almost broken down on my electric car because I almost ran out electric, first time we used it. I get to Wolverhampton, meet the lead lady and the lead girl. And we're just talking on the way to the first scenes. And she says, something that makes you go, no.

She said, apparently, my character just had a name change at page 32. Oh, no, Danny. And I've been in it from page one. And I was literally the second main character. I thought these two people were separate and there's a bit at the end, which was a bit, I don't know if he was going to make out that they're the same, not the same person, but, you know, whatever. Ruined the plot.

No, no, no, no. It's nothing to do with that. But, yeah, the horror. Because the first scene I had to do, I literally had two pages of stuff I had not learned at all, not even seen, really. Maybe once when I read through the whole thing. And it was the first day, it was, it was literally like going on stage. And all your clothes blowing off, you know? Yeah.

And you got screen. Like one of those stress dreams you had before a tour starts. Yes, exactly. I don't, oh, my ear and ears are broken. I don't know what I'm doing. But in reality, it was horrible. Did you get through it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it was strange because there was something that had to drag the main cameraman away who was like sort of integral to the film. And we got someone else in just luckily, very quickly, but we had a day off. And that day off, I just sat and just was like, you know. Cramming. Cramming. But I do have to do some reshoots and probably those days, I should imagine. The first 32 pages.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I look for it. Do you know when it's coming out? Even the end of this year, more likely beginning next year. Awesome. I can't wait. Danny Phil, thanks for coming back. Absolute legend. Well, don't go that far, eh?

Are you not a fucking legend? Well, I'm still only 25, you know. Time to feel. I like the fact you don't call yourself a legend because you've earned it. Cheers, man. Thanks again, man. Thank you. Thanks, guys.