After winning the newcomers awards for Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods, London based The Defiled got working and their second album ‘The Daggers’ which is due at the beginning of August. The enigmatically monikered keyboard player, The AvD, tells us the remarkable story of how it came into being.
Your album ‘Daggers’ is funded by the fans themselves via Pledgemusic. How does that work?
Pledge music is actually how we managed to pay for our album to be made. If it wasn't for Pledge music and all the pledgers Daggers would have never been made! The approach to it was: let's get this album done and see who buys in to it rather than signing a contract and having a label tell us how they would like the album to sound.
Is the financial side of running a band something you find intriguing or rather a drag you must get through as fast as possible?
The business side of running a band is just as intriguing to me as the music. Obviously the over all goal is to get your music out and play kick ass shows but it's how you get there that is very interesting. I love learning and playing this game called life so no, it's not a drag to me it's just another piece of the puzzle.
The previous album was even available for free with an issue from Metal Hammer? An interesting move in these download ridden times?
Well, we had the album ready to go and sent it out to a few people. We then got a call from MH asking if we wanted to out it on their cover in its entirety. For us it was a no brainer. We could either press 2,000 copies our self and sell them to... Well, no one. Or have it printed for free, put on the front of metal hammer and straight in to the hands of 50,000 readers. It really couldn't get much better!
It’s been a rollercoaster ride since you won the Golden Gods Award for best newcomer. That must have opened a lot of doors for you.
Most definitely. Because the votes are by the readers and the mag has nothing to do with it, labels really look at you differently. It was a real honour to win that award and I'd like to thank everyone that voted!
Who are the best newcomers in your opinion for 2013?
I think the votes are in and Bleed from within won that one. Who am I to argue?!
You’re often easily thrown in with the metalcore crowd, but the sound is somewhat different though with all the sampling and the synthesizers. How do you see yourself?
We get called all sorts of things, I don't know what we are, we have just stumbled on our sound. Stitch and I who are the song writers are influenced by various styles and bands. I could not seriously give you 3 names and define The Defiled. The Defiled is a melting pot of all the experiences we have had going through life musically, visually and intellectually.
What did you try to do differently with the new album compared to the EP and ‘Grave Times’?
Sonically it's definitely superior to 1888 or Grave Times as it wasn't recorded in my home studio.
Musically I'd say it's not far from "Grave Times" as in, we didn't try to change our style. We just wanted to write a kick ass metal album.
Lyrically, "Grave times" was inspired by the world around us, this one is more to do with the world within us.
Any final words?
I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone that has ever believed in us and helped make our dreams come true!