Manic Street Preachers: Press
Bible Bashers (Kerrang!)
Bible Bashers (Kerrang!)
James Dean Bradfield and bassist Nicky Wire reveal details of the new Manics album, "The Holy Bible", to Paul Rees!
On August 30, the Manic Street Preachers release their strongest and most provocative album to date, "The Holy Bible". The full, self-explanatory tracklisting is: "Yes", "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart", "Of Walking Abortion", "She Is Suffering", "Archives Of Pain", "Revol", "4st 7lb", "Mausoleum", "Faster", "This Is Yesterday", "Die In The Summertime", "Intense" (sic), "PCP".
"I think it's the gutsiest thing we've ever done," opines James Dean Bradfield. "I mean, for us to go into a 16-track studio which was no bigger than this hotel room... Bands on Sony don't work in places like that any more.
"We hardly had any of the songs rehearsed before we started, cos we wanted to pull them together in the studio. It only took just over four weeks to record. There was no producer, but I didn't care if some of the engineering was going to be off-kilter."
You're almost starting to sound like a serious musician!
"Oh, sorry!"
"The Holy Bible" also features a set of genuinely graphic and disturbing lyrics. "4st 7lb", for instance, is a particularly harrowing study of the slimming disease, anorexia.
"Richey was on the edge of anorexia himself," reveals Bradfield, "and that was probably the song I tried hardest to interpret properly."
"Richey and I have always split the lyrics 50/50," interjects Wire, "but for the first time on this album, they're probably 70 per cent Richey's. He'd give me these lyrics, and although they were quite frightening, they just seemed so perfect that I didn't want to change them."
"I wanted it to be a record that stood up as a whole body of work, whatever that means," Bradfield offers. "And something that sounded like it was made by a band on a roll.""It's the first time that we've felt completely happy and justified with an album," Wire sums up. "There's been no concessions to anything. I don't care if it's played on MTV or the radio or not, cos it's a strong enough statement in itself. "And there's less widdly guitar solos on there, which is what I'm really fucking happy about!"