If you’ve read my other interviews from Sonisphere then you’ll know that I asked every band the question “What is your biggest Rock Sin”, and there was no band I wanted to ask this question more than Londoners The Defiled. Reputed for living the rock and roll dream to the extreme, we caught up with debauched board master The AvD.
This is Lisa Fox from Rock Sins and I’m here with AvD from The Defiled. How are you?
Yeah, I’m fine. I’m coping.
You’re coping.
Yeah, I’m doing fine– yeah.
You’re holding it together.
I am. I don’t know why I’m tired – I actually went home yesterday and had a really nice sleep, had a couple of pizzas too and I’m still tired. I think I went too hard on Friday.
Ah. So how was the show for you?
It was awesome. First time we’ve ever played the main stage over here. We actually started on the smallest stage in Sonisphere and we’ve slowly worked our way up to the main stage. It was fucking awesome, to be honest. And yeah, to see a crowd – I used to watch English festivals and watch the sea of people that was out there and it just looked unreal to me. It was kind of like watching a cartoon version of real life and to step on stage and see that was quite awesome. So yeah, actually a childhood dream come true, that was.
Aww. Did it go really quickly?
No it didn’t because Vincent’s bass broke. That went really slowly.
Broke?
It got smashed. That went really slowly. Waiting for him to get a new bass and all that. But we watched it back on video and it was all faster than we thought. Actually, when you go on stage and you’re quite nervous everything kind of slows down because of the adrenalin and you’re like ‘Oh man, this must be wrong. We’re doing something wrong.’ Paul is needle-less – needless. Needles must be just tripping or something. But you watch it back and it’s all at real speed. So yeah, it all goes really slow actually.
Did he get his pack back?
His pack back?
The pack for his bass.
Oh, his pack for his bass. Oh yeah.
Yeah, because I just remember Stitch going, “If somebody has the pack can we have it back please?”
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Incredibly politely.
Yeah, he is very polite. That’s something that’s wrong with him. We need to change it. But I think he did. Oh, actually it was the house pack so it doesn’t matter.
Right, so let’s talk Lego.
Yeah. Well, as The Defiled we like to stick Lego up each other’s asses so we thought we’d make a Lego video which is great. And in the Lego video we have one of our band members dies at the end. He gets engulfed by a ring of fire.
That’s a way to go.
He’s dead.
He goes up in a thing of flames. So what’s the story with Aaron then? He’s dead.
I think the Infected video is pretty clear. Engulfed by a ring of fire. I don’t know. We’ve tried to get in touch with him but the phone won’t … It’s a sad state of affairs. We’re all very upset.
You sound it as well. You sound completely devastated.
Yeah, I’m down. I’m down about it.
Did Stitch cry after the show? Because he said he was going to cry after the show. He said, “I’m going to go cry now.”
No, he’s a man. He doesn’t cry unfortunately.
Aww, that would have been fun.
Do you want me to say he cried? He cried.
He cried. He cried tears of blood.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So tell me about the Nirvana set.
The Nirvana set is half an hour long. We decided that – actually it was – I’m not going to be doing anything. I’m not going to be playing keyboards because it would be – who wants to see a Nirvana covers band with keyboards, right? That would be a bit weird.
Well, with you going nuts on the stage, jumping around and throwing your keyboard.
Go nuts. So I’m going to do something else. I’m not sure, we’re going to figure it out.
You still haven’t figured it out and you’re going on in four hours.
Yeah, we’ll see.
Something will happen. You’re going to be there.
I’ll be there.
So what’s going on with the acoustic album that you’ve been talking about for ever?Oh yeah. I forgot about that.
You’ve made so many acoustic songs now that you’re going to end up with the whole album released through Kerrang cds.
Yeah, true. No, we haven’t – those tunes are not incorporated in the ET that we’ve been working on since 1987. No, but we’re going to release it at some point. I’m not sure when. Maybe – I’m going to go ahead and say this year.
Is this like going to be a Chinese Democracy?
Yeah. No, look, it’s not something that we’re in a rush to release or anything and it’s something we do just because we love the tunes we put on it and we thought we could do them well so if they’re not done no-one’s expecting it really so it will be done when it’s done. So yeah, maybe Chinese democracy, who knows? Maybe when it comes out everyone will be like, ‘Oh Jesus, that’s …’
At last.
No, it’s just like, ‘Oh, is that it?’
Anti-climax and a half. So what’s the plan for the rest of the year?
We’re going to write a new album, go on tour in November and write a new album and go on tour in November.
Write a new album, go on tour, write a new album, go on tour.
We’re going to release another single off Daggers. That’s going to be really cool. We have something special in store for that.
Really?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we’re going to go shoot on location somewhere.
Somewhere warm, I hope.
No. Somewhere really cold.
What is it with you guys with going to cold places?
I don’t know. I really don’t know but yeah. Actually we do go to hot places too: Arizona, the hottest place ever…
Yeah, true. You did the American touring thing as well.
Yeah. Deserts or freezing.
One way or the other.
No in between, yeah.
The most extreme band.
Yeah, trying to keep extreme weather-wise.
You know what’s interesting? It’s quite fun that you’re my last interview because I’ve been asking lots of bands as the last question – because I’m interviewing for Rock Sins – ‘What is your rock sin?’ And I’ve interviewed 15 bands, half of which have said, ‘Man, none of my stories are going to compare to The Defiled.’ They’ve been like, ‘I thought that I was rock’n’roll and I told a story and The Defiled went, ‘Oh yeah, well my story – we did that but actually …’
There’s so many – I don’t they’re even stories, they’re just …
Things that happened?
Tour diary. It’s just kind of – yeah, I wake up stressed on tour because I know something fucked-up’s going to happen every day and I think it’s just we’re plagued or something. I don’t know how it works but we always get into some trouble or …
You just don’t know how you get yourselves into these situations.
I really don’t, to be honest. I think we’re very proactive and maybe yeah, we talk too much and get ourselves in – yeah – situations.
You get yourselves into trouble.
Mm. Yeah.
So what is your biggest rock sin?
What’s a sin?
It’s open to interpretation. It can be one of the seven deadly sins. It can be something that you have a guilty secret about. Or it can be a story of something that happened.
I ended up in a coke orgy in Sydney on my birthday. Is that a sin? That sounds like a good time.
Was it a good time?
It was. Actually the hotel was looking out over the Sydney Opera House too, so these were very posh people. I showed up at their hotel and the guy just comes downstairs. I just thought I was going to hang out at some party, to be honest. And he comes downstairs – no shirt – and he goes, “Listen, come upstairs. You’re not allowed to put your dick in my girlfriend.” I was like, “I won’t even – I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I got up there, there’s naked chicks on the floor, full of coke on their tits and it sounds – it’s ridiculous even to me, saying it – but that was my life then. I had to take it in. I was just sitting at the window, just smoking a cigarette going, ‘Wow, like yeah. It’s your birthday and two bitches are sucking on your dick.’ I guess that was… So that’s my sin.
That is – you know what – you win. The Defiled win. Well done AvD. I knew you would not disappoint me.
I don’t know. That’s the story. It’s a story.
It’s a good story, whether it’s true or not.
It’s fucking true. I have to pinch myself sometimes when I’m in these situations.
You must have thought, ‘What the fuck is going on?’
I do all the time. People think I’m some kind of lunatic that expects this shit but I’m there just like the next guy going, ‘What the fuck is going on, man?’ “Do you want a line?” “Yeah, I want a fucking line.”
Of course I want a line. Do I want it off that girl’s tits? Hell yeah.
Like you’re going to say no.
Yeah. That’s pretty fucking cool, man. I like that. The Defiled definitely win. Thank you.
If you missed it first time around please check out our review of The Defiled’s performance (along with our coverage of the first day of Sonisphere) right here. The AvD and the rest of The Defiled are back on tour across the UK (as well as mainland Europe) next month (November 2014) on a headline tour with special guests Avatar which continues through most of the rest of 2014. Full details of the tour can be found at The Defiled’s official website on the tour section – https://thedefiled.net/tour/.
