A conversation with Greg Moffitt (Damien Gregori) ex- Cradle of Filth
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2021
- Back in February of 2021, I had a conversation with former Cradle of Filth keyboard player, Greg Moffitt. Greg used the pseudonym 'Damien' which he told me was then co-opted as 'Damien Gregori' for a press release. The band never sanctioned 'Gregori'.
Greg recorded the keys on the album that broke the band worldwide, Dusk and Her Embrace. In this chat, Greg shares his thoughts on working alongside the members of the band, recording Dusk and offers his thoughts on the reasons behind his dismissal. These days Greg hosts the Legalise Freedom show (highly recommended!) and you can check it out here: / legalisefreedom1
An important point to consider prior to listening: I do not conduct interviews, I have conversations.
For anyone who wants to know, yes, it is my intention to chat with all of the tenured members of Cradle of Filth from the album The Principle of Evil Made Flesh (1994) right up to and including the From the Cradle to Enslave EP in 1999. So I've yet to chat with Andrea Haugen, the Ryan brothers, Robin Eaglestone, John Piras, Les Smith, Sarah Jezebel Deva, Was Sarginson, Adrian Erlandsson, and maybe Dave Hirschheimer. Dave gets a nod as he was in the From the Cradle to Enslave video.
For many more conversations conducted for the Scars and Guitars podcast with members and ex-members of Cradle of Filth, check out these links:
Nick Barker: player.whooshkaa.com/episode?...
Dani Filth: player.whooshkaa.com/episode?...
Paul Allender: player.whooshkaa.com/episode?...
Stuart Anstis: player.whooshkaa.com/episode?...
Richard Shaw: player.whooshkaa.com/episode?...
Lindsay Schoolcraft: player.whooshkaa.com/episode?...
A book is planned covering the band's epoch from the mid-late 90s. Watch this space!
Check out well over 550 conversations with musicians who appear on the podcast: www.scarsandguitars.net/podcasts
♠️ Support independent podcasts! ♠️ You can help by hitting that Like/ Subscribe and Share icon, but even better PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT ♠️ Tell everyone what you thought of the chat ☠︎ - Hudba
These interviews are the most under the radar detective work of some of the best metal albums of all time. What you are doing by contacting these guys is amazing and extremely important. I don't know if Dani wanted to sweep these guys under the rug, but these dudes all finally talking is massive because what they contributed to metal was colossal. Good work for continually advocating for Stuart because Cradle never had a songwriter like him after he left. Writing riffs and writing songs are two very different things and sadly their music was riffs thrown together with some keyboards over the top after key members left. its clear that Stu, Nick and even Les were writing in a room and knew when to come in/out for the best outcome of the song. Cradle before 2000 had MAGIC in it. Damien's contributions were definitely great though. Thanks Damien
I think you’ve nailed it. Thx for the support mate 🙌
Dusk and Her Embrace is my favorite record of all time. I remember exactly where I was when I heard it for the first time.
I've never really been onto listening to the "pod cast interviews". But I am really enjoying yours. C.O.F. was a very influential band on myself, in the mid and late 90s. Just finished the Stuart interview (R.I.P.), and now starting on this. Keep up the great work!
Legend. Thanks for this man! Dusk and her embrace was top notch.
Dude thank you so much for these CoF Interviews!!! These are priceless, CoF is a huge part of my life specially growing up. Being in my teen yrs in the 90s jumping from Metallica, GnR, Pantera and Sepultura to Cannibal Corpse, Obituary and Napalm Death and then I Run into Emperor, Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth was an amazing experience. Specially when i herd CoF for the first time I was Blown away!!. Till this day i still listen to Stuarts CoF albums every week religiously lol!! Spent yrs lookn for info of why CoF legendary lineup was broken and now o find these interviews and it brings back memories! Thx to u so i wanna thank u for this! 🤘🏽. I hope CoF can bring back this line up once again. Dusk and her Embrace and Cruelty and the Beast were way ahead of there time.
Thx Feliciano! Fingers crossed I can chat with Les and Robin eventually 🤞
Great interviews, thanks for doing this for cradle's fans .. I wonder if you are interviewing Martin Powell any soon, I think he was an important member and composer
Thanks for these Cradle podcasts, really cool to hear this much detail from the Vempire > Cruelty golden-era
Damien (I'm gonna call you that because I "grew up with you" as Damien! The best nostalgia reasons basically, ahah) if you ever read this, thank you very much for the great music you did and play with COF! Wish you the best!
As for you Mr. Mckaysmith, a big big thank you, is short for what you accomplished with these conversations with the key members of one of my favorites bands ever (at least during their time in the band).
Greg seems to be such a nice guy with no single bad bone in him.
I hope you can "get" the rest of the "gang" (especially from Dusk and Cruelty albuns). As a bassist myself, I would love to hear Robin take on how things went. Because although I love Barker as a drummer (one of my favorites drummer ever, btw), I also thought he was a bit harsh on Robin talent and contribution to the band. Even more, after hearing Stuart speaking good things about him.
I mean, his playing speak for himself (from great bass lines, tone and playability).
Anyway....
Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for these gems! You are doing a public service, believe me!
I hope you get the success that you deserve and wish all good things to you and your family.
Cheers from Portugal.
Thx so much for the kind words André. They mean a lot. I'll keep going in my quest to chat with all the members of CoF from 'Dusk' and 'CatB', I'd love to write a book about these two albums too. Thx again mate!
Great insight. So glad to read comments of like minded people
I fully agree, and yes, Robin to me was an essential part of the sound, a lot of things changed (for the worse) after his departure.
@@laporte1625 And I agree with you. Robin was great!
Hola cómo me puedrie contactarme con Damien.
Amazing interview i love 90's Cradle
A brilliant interview
Superb musician and a great interview.
spat blood in my face this guy ' best gig ever
Wow, what a great interview! It appears here that Damien gives a very unbiased take on the happenings of the time. I know Stuart and Nick get a lot of credit, and rightfully so, but the atmosphere Damien brought to the mix is virtually irreplaceable.
great interview, very interesting details, I have to praise you again 😉
One more thing, you mentioned that you made a conversation with Dany, so where can i find it, thanks
Very kind my friend, thanks! Here's the link to the chat with Dani player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=134486
All these names Greg is mentioning bring back a lot of memories especially when he mentioned Soltice - new dark age. I had a great time having a drink with the lads (esp big Hamish glen Cross) on that tour when they played in my neck of the woods back in the day, even supported them with the band I was in at the time. Also had a great laugh with Gain from COF at a gig on the Midian tour while the roadies were setting up and a bit of sound checking was going on we had many a bong and discussed the finer points of David Eddings The Belgariad Series as he was reading Pawn of Prophecy at the time . Have to say any of the band I had the chance to speak with that time were all really dead on. Was a golden era for underground metal
Very interesting stuff man!
Looking forward to the book you're planning!
I did an interview with Martin Powell a couple of years back for my music blog, really nice bloke I may say :)
Thanks mate. Gosh, if you knew how to get in touch with Martin I'd appreciate it if you could share. He's not on LinkedIn or Facebook as far as I can see.
@@ScarsandGuitarspodcast Think the word you were looking for 'thank-you' ;)
I met Greg last month when I videoed him doing a talk at the Mysterious Earth Conference in St Annes on Sea in Lancashire England and he was a very nice bloke. I never knew he was in Cradle and I really enjoyed your interview with him
Thx Kevin. I saw Greg promoting his role at the festival, it all looked very enlightening
Such a shame the video didn't work properly! I re-recorded the talk later: czcams.com/video/DAvQtuQUsZs/video.html
After I first heard the rehash of Cruelty I touched base with him and said he should have been more highly praised on that remake. He replied and was very pleased to here this and gave me his opinion on it.
"You guys looked like the archetypal black metal band - you had the looks...."
In the beginning, primarily, they were pretty goth when it comes to looks: The banquet table, biting half-naked ladies, the fangs, etc etc. After Cruelty & The Beast, Dani plucked the rotten fruits of his bad judgements regarding sacking the best musicians in "his" band: Gregg, Robin, Stuart and Nick.
Ah well. I do appreaciate your work as a journalist! This is actually quite valuable to me since I've also started listening to black/goth/extreme metal in the early/mid nineties and CoF took up a solid chunk of my invaluable attention ;-)
Cheers man. Take care.
Please do get Lindsey on here it would b awesome to hear what the real reason she left cradle. I asked her once why she left and she wouldn't tell me. Cheers
Great interview/conversation! Damiens keyboard playing helped create the soundtrack to my youth. Sad that the band didn’t stick together and turned into a joke
Thx mate
@@ScarsandGuitarspodcast No thank you! So good to get all this info after all this time, well done!
Oof, bold interview technique to jump in with "Why do you think you were fired?" 😁
Having real trouble finding the interview you mentioned Greg had done on a prior podcast. Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction for that interview?
Thanks in advance!
I can’t find it either. And I can’t recall if it was on CZcams, Apple podcasts or Spotify that I listened to it. I recall it was easily found so I’d say it’s been taken down unless an internet sleuth can tell us otherwise.
@@ScarsandGuitarspodcast No worries, it’ll likely turn up somewhere, somehow.
Looking forward to your future interviews with the 90’s CoF members, and any other you’re loading into the chamber. Have really appreciated the sleuthing you’ve done so far on the former, and will stick around for the latter.
@@MisterMeanor It was on the Metal Ireland podcast which has ceased. Not sure if the archive is still available.
@@LegaliseFreedom1 Thank you for taking the time to clear this up! I appreciate your time!
it would be really cool if you could do an interview with Sarah Jezebel Deva too!
I’d love to, but she’s told me she’s not interested 😞
Have you spoken to James Mcilroy, Charles Hedger, Dave Pybus and Martin Powell ?
Martin sounds like he’s got a fascinating story, and I think he joined in 99, so he’s on the list; as for the others, I tuned out of the group after I heard Midian. I’ve barely listened to the albums post Stuart.
@@ScarsandGuitarspodcast To me, there are no albuns after Midian. Maybe the one with the Theatre of Tragedy girl, good stuff.
@@headbangersballvivazweimet1996 actually recent albums are good/very good and richards playing is clearly inspired by that cof golden era
Allegedly Greg did not play the keys on V Empire...
No, I did. It was freezing in the studio, there was no hot water to wash in (we lived there) and I stayed right up until Xmas to get it finished.
@@LegaliseFreedom1 Allegedly "...all keyboard duties on V Empire were handled by Keith Appleton". Is this entirely false?
@@Baboonfromdatoon Keith added some stuff after I had to leave at Xmas. I had a ferry booked to go back to Ireland. I wouldn't have spent weeks freezing my balls off if I wasn't actually recording anything! For anyone interested, I can talk them through how I did various parts and what synths I used etc.
@@LegaliseFreedom1 I think a lot of people would be interested in hearing about that Greg.
@@LegaliseFreedom1 I would love to know what synths were used on Dusk. Would you be willing to share that with us?
strange unnecessary underlying drama vibe comes from those interviews
it's interesting