Interviews

Interviews

Jeremy Coulson: Are you in the studio with Dimmu Borgir now?

Nick Barker: No. We're just in Norway writing new songs. We'll go into the studio on March 20th, so we're just rehearsing and getting material together.

JC: Are you looking forward to that?

NB: Yeah, yeah. It's going to be killer. The new songs are going to sound great.

JC: How did the Death Metal supergroup of Lock Up come about?

NB: Just through getting drunk over the weekends and talking shit and saying "Hey, let's form a band" and in the end it just came about. Just as like everybody else. We had known each other in different bands and said, "Let's get together and make a side project." And we did and it sounds killer and we did it all in like 4 days.

JC: How do you keep that killer blast beat up?

NB: Just practice I guess. I just do my thing and hope it works.

JC: How does Lock Up compare with playing with Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth?

NB: It's totally different. Lock Up-all the songs in the studio are like one take. Just let it go. If there's some small mistakes, just let it go. Trying to recapture the old school vibe of Death Metal like in the late eighties or early nineties.

JC: I read that they used a 15-watt guitar amp.

NB: Yeah just for the tapes. Shane and Jesse would send the tapes down to me and they just had a drum machine going through a hi-fi and the 15-watt practice amp and recorded it onto a separate cassette player.

JC: Did they add Peter's voice after all of this?

NB: Me and Shane flew over to Abyss studios to so the vocals and Peter did all the vocal tracks in one day. We pretty much did it over music and everything was recorded over two days. Everything was recorded, mixed and mastered over 4 days.

JC: It's pretty damn tight for such a quick operation.

NB: Yeah, thanks. I'm pretty impressed. It sounds swell. It was cool having Andy Sneat there to help us out with stuff. We only had 4 days and he kind of understood what we was trying to achieve in such a short amount of time and I think he got the best out of us all.

JC: Is Lock Up going to be a band, or will it just remain a side project? Are we going to see it on tour?

NB: Not really on tour, just festivals because everybody ahs got different commitments, but definitely at festival dates.

JC: What else is going on with your band schedule?

NB: Basically, it's just Dimmu Borgir. I'm here in Norway at the moment and we're writing new songs for the new album and we've got 5 songs so far. None of them have any titles yet. We're just carrying on, writing music, just having a good time. It sounds killer.

JC: How does it relate to the older stuff?

NB: It just sounds more mature. It's got all the elements there, plus something else because there's a new drummer on there this time.

JC: This is your first record with them?

NB: Yeah, I joined just after the last record.

JC: How was it joining Dimmu Borgir?

NB: Hell yeah, I'm having a great time. It's a lot better than my old job.

JC: Really? You didn't like that?

NB: Towards the end I didn't, no. I just grew tired of the one man show bullshit, so I walked.

JC: How big was your Lock Up set?

NB: It's the same set I used for Cradle. It's my Pearl custom kit.

JC: What's in the future? Any new bands?

NB: No, Dimmu Borgir is my full time occupation. Lock Up is just some fun with another bunch of guys, which doesn't take up half the time as what Dimmu Borgir does.

JC: Is Dimmu Borgir going to tour?

NB: I think we're going to come back to the U.S. probably in September.