Vallenfyre Interview

The Gauntlet: How did your new project Vallenfyre come about?

Vallenfyre: We all came together at the end of 2010. We ended up recording it at the beginning of 2011. So it is all brand new really. I began writing stuff in early 2010. It all started in kind of a roundabout way. I never intended to form a band. At the end of 2009 my dad died. I went to grief counseling with my brothers and they told us to write stuff down. I started to do that and it naturally turned into lyrics. I started going back to my old demo and vinyl collection and decided that it was that music style that went with what I wrote. It became a musical therapy so I decided to turn it into something a bit more and got some friends involved and turned it into a band.

The Gauntlet: There are so many other ways people deal with grief and usually don’t have a positive outcome.

Vallenfyre: Yeah, that is so true. Unbeknownst to me, my brother was doing the same thing and working on a graphic novel that was just published. It was kind of neat that we basically did the same thing with the same subject using a different outlet. It turned out to be something positive and fun. What started out as therapy turned into more of a tribute on both accounts. It is both positive and negative.

The Gauntlet: You stated this started out as therapy and the lyrics are basically your feelings and emotions you were going through following the loss of your father. Is it hard basically putting your diary out there for the world to see?

Vallenfyre: I thought it would be, but no. It has now turned into more of a tribute. I find it quite bizarre in metal music that it is fine to sing about imaginary death like ripping the entrails from a corpse. As soon as you start to talk about real death, people get a bit scared. It is weird. It is something that we would rather have out than hold up inside. Death happens to everyone so why not talk about it. I don’t see any stigma about death now that I did at one time. It is part of life really.

The Gauntlet: Did you have an entire album of lyrics from your journal or did you have to go back and write some more down when it came time for the band to form?

Vallenfyre: I had sixty or seventy percent of the lyrics written. I already wrote it as it was part of the grieving process. When the others got involved I decided to incorporate some other topics in their like religion, society and prejudice.

The Gauntlet: The new album “The Fragile King” will be released on Nov 1 via Century Media?

Gregor: Yes. It will be released on Halloween in Europe. American’s take Halloween so seriously. I don’t understand it.

The Gauntlet: You don’t take it seriously?

Gregor: Not as seriously as Americans. My wife is from Philadelphia. When I am over there, I see people spending the week before blowing up huge inflatable pumpkins and stuff like that. We don’t do that. It is crazy that this nation founded on Christianity takes all these ancient pagan holidays and celebrates them. It is cool. The rest of the world falls into place behind you guys.

The Gauntlet: I think we just needed another holiday to drink on. Columbus Day was too early in the month and we needed something at the end of October also.

Gregor: There is nothing wrong with that. Being an Englishman I understand the need for that.

The Gauntlet: Have you tried pumpkin beer yet?

Gregor: I have never had that. I have had various beers including strawberry beer. It sounds awful.

The Gauntlet: It is one of those things you have to try, and you never drink again.

Gregor: I don’t see the appeal.

The Gauntlet: when you first started thinking about putting your therapy to a band, were different sounds coming to you?

The Gauntlet: What about touring the U.S.?

Gregor: If people want to see us then we will. The plan is to play some club shows next year over here and do some Summer festivals. Then we’d like to do a support tour over in the U.S. Even though this is very European sounding metal, over time their will be a market for us.


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Tags:  Vallenfyre  , Gregor Mackintosh, interviews

Jason Fisher    October 13, 2011