Pic courtesy of: Torture Garden " I do the lyrics, and Matt does the music. He can hear a thousand instruments in his head all at once, and I can hear a thousand meanings for each line. It works very well I think. I have an idea for a melody for a future song though; we’ll see what he thinks of that!"

Hail K.: Hello Torture Garden. You’re from the UK, would you mind looking out the window and describe the weather there for us? Many thanks.
Adam: Quite boring really, not a lot going on. A slight breeze, that’s about it. Nice question though!
Matt: It's dark, so it's kinda hard to tell (we're each answering these questions in different places and at different times). I believe there's an eclipse of some sort happening tonight though, so I'll be looking out for that.

Hail K.: It’s just the two of you in the group right? Do you employ any session musicians during shows?
Adam: It’s the two of us so far, but we are in the middle of recruiting other members, and then there will hopefully be some great shows. Because the kind of music we want to make is a bit niche, we’ve recording one and a bit demos before looking for other musicians seriously. We’re doing it in reverse, but never mind. Better this way than get musical differences before we record one note.
Matt: Yes, there are only two of us officially, but we are currently recruiting other musicians, and we hope to start gigging as soon as possible. We'll probably make a big 'official' announcement about our full line-up when the time comes.

Hail K.: Being brothers, what sets Matt and Adam apart?
Adam: Well Matt says he’s the sad one and I’m the angry one. It’s not quite as simple as that though. I think we’re actually very similar people really. I’m taller; he’s got better cheekbones.
Matt: It's true that generally, Adam will tend to be angry about things, where I will just be sad. But it's a good mix to have in a doom metal band! We've already had some musical disagreements as a result of this difference though. Adam wants to scream his nuts off and sometimes I'd rather he went for a more subtle approach, but either way, it always turns out great.

Hail K.: Who is the band’s main composer/songwriter?
Adam: I do the lyrics, and Matt does the music. He can hear a thousand instruments in his head all at once, and I can hear a thousand meanings for each line. It works very well I think. I have an idea for a melody for a future song though; we’ll see what he thinks of that!
Matt: I've written all the music so far, but I'm open to the idea of others contributing if they have any ideas. Adam writes the lyrics, and it's probably best that way. They're amazing.

Hail K.: Is your music absolutely depressive?
Adam: In a way it is, but I hope it inspires people as well. The lyric writing normally comes when I’m in a black mood and have something I need to sort out in my head, and then performing vocals is a kind of catharsis. But with S.O.S. for instance, it’s about perhaps the loneliest moment of my life so far. If people around the world relate to that moment in some way, then we’re not really alone after all, are we? Certain ‘depressing’ bands have pulled me out of some of my worst times in life.
Matt: We don't aim to depress, but we're miserable bastards, so it makes sense that our music should come out that way. I wouldn't want our music to be totally depressing, although I would consider it a compliment if someone said it was. There is both darkness and light in this world, and so it's rare that you'll see a genuine piece of art which is entirely one and not the other. Depending on my mood, I can certainly hear positive elements to our songs, even though the atmosphere is at times overwhelmingly bleak and tortured. If other people can hear those elements too, then that's great. It's very important to have a balance.

Hail K.: Do you write your lyrics on a secret notebook or will any printable surface do?
Adam: I have a little red book for my ideas, and I normally type them straight up into Microsoft Word these days. It’s not very doom, but there you go.

Hail K.: Can you explain the mind set, or ideology if you will, that your songs reflect and express?
Adam: I see dying people, wracked by guilt on slick machines. Flesh riddled with religion: disease of enfeebled dreams. A police pig in every head, stands guard over stifled screams. Our demons will never pardon; Eden was born a torture garden.
Matt: What he said.

Hail K.: Where both of you really born in a warzone?
Adam: Everywhere is a warzone. Everywhere organisms are struggling for resources, be it humans after oil in the Middle East or plants after sunlight and water in a garden. So yes! When we were born, working class people on Merseyside were being fucked over by Margaret Thatcher’s government, in a process that continues to this day under Gordon Brown. This obviously had a massive influence on the kind of people we’ve grown up into being. The important thing is to recognise you’re in a war, and analyse your position, or you’ll make tactical errors.
Matt: Not literally, no. Most of Merseyside resembles one, though. Life itself is one big war, and eventually everyone loses it. Even pacifists are fighting constantly, if not in a physical sense. If you're not fighting, you won't last very long. So yes, in that sense at least, we were born in a warzone.

Hail K.: Do Torture Garden songs ever tell stories (kinda like Iron Maiden or Savatage) or form pat of a common theme across an entire album (think Dreamtheatre)?
Adam: A bit of both. Like with Friday On Hope Street, it’s based on a sequential series of images that came into my head one day when I was walking down Liverpool’s Hope Street, which is perhaps unique in having a cathedral at either end. But there’s a definite concept for the demo we’re working on at the moment, Dead Romantic. At the time I was writing those lyrics, a few years back, I was reading Romantic poets like William Blake, Percy Shelley, and Byron. I was struck by the difference between the times they were writing that poetry, when revolution seemed just around the corner, and what people think of ‘romantic’ behaviour today, which is stupid individualistic things you only really see in Hollywood films. And that’s actually a dead end in real life. So I was bringing my poetic heroes into this cold new millennium. Oh, and I was having woman trouble!
Matt: Yes and yes. Likewise, I try to make the songs tell a story musically too. Most of our songs consist of several sections, with changes of tempo, time signature, key and general mood. It's almost like classical music in that sense. It keeps things interesting, as our songs can be a bit lengthy.

	Pic courtesy of: Torture Garden "We don't aim to depress, but we're miserable bastards, so it makes sense that our music should come out that way. I wouldn't want our music to be totally depressing, although I would consider it a compliment if someone said it was"

Hail K.:  Are all the instruments I hear on your songs done by either one of you?
Matt: Apart from Adam's vocals, it's all been done by me, so far. That will hopefully change when we bring the new guys in.

Hail K.:  Which musical instruments does Matt know how to play?
Matt: Guitar, mandolin, ukelele, bass, violin, drums and various percussion, keys, harmonica and proably other things too. I have tons of instruments. Oh, and how could I forget my kazoo?!

Hail K.: When did Torture Garden’s musical journey start for the two of you? How long did it take for two metalheads to become musicians and then start creating their own music?
Matt: Well, I first started playing the guitar in 1997, and I instantly wanted to be in band. Adam and I have been writing songs on and off for years, and we've long talked about starting a band, but it wasn't until about 18 months ago that we started taking things more seriously. Also, Adam had a talent with words from a young age, so I guess you could say he started writing lyrics when he was a kid, although those earlier ones would be referred to by the general populus as 'poems'.

Hail K.: You released an album with a lamb’s severed head on the cover in 2007. Did you butcher it yourself? What do you intend to inflict on the listener with such a record?
Matt: I certainly didn't kill the animal, and I would have had no interest in doing so. The head isn't actually severed, it's just that you can't see the rest of the body. The story behind this is that I happened to be enjoying a break in the Lake District in the north of England, and I discovered the dead animal just lying there. There was no indication as to how it had died. The stench was almost unbearable and there were flies and maggots all over it, in its eye sockets, and eating its insides. I went back a couple of days later with my camera and took several pictures, some of which showed other parts of the sheep, but I think the one we chose was the best. I knew that we had to use it for the cover of the demo. It was perfect. The demo is called 'Rotisserie Of Pain', and I think that one of its main themes is how people feed off the pain of others, in the same way that the flies feasted on the dead sheep. It's the life cycle. Every great success in life comes with a failure for someone else. If you experience joy, someone is experiencing pain for the same reason, but sometimes you have to destroy others - literally or symbolically - so that you can survive. This is a bold statement to make, so it needed a hard-hitting image to reflect it. Also, I mean it's a dead sheep. That's really fucking metal.

Hail K.: Does Torture Garden do shows frequently? Where do you perform most often?
Matt: Not yet, no. Again, we intend to play shows frequently and regularly when we've got the other members fully on board.

Hail K.: What’s can a member of the audience expect from a Torture Garden performance?
Adam: I think when one finally happens we’ll be made up and put everything into it, so it should be a great show. Like being put through a horribly beautiful depression machine, I should hope. It’ll be nasty, but if you like the music then you’re clearly a massive pervert anyway, so it’ll be enjoyable.
Matt: They can expect a proper metal show. Diversity. Intensity. No silly fringes. Loads of genuine aggression and emotion. Ugliness and beauty in equal measure. That last bit was about the music only, by the way.

Hail K.: Would you care to put Torture Garden in a specific genre or would falling under the shadow of gothic metal suit you chaps just fine?
Adam: Gothic metal is fine by me. I don’t like the labels game really, because I think to a large extent labels are for tins of beans, not people. We seem to be called ‘experimental’ a lot, so maybe we’re experimental. Label us however you like, or not at all.
Matt: Call us what you want! We don't strive to sound like anything in particular. Everyone seems to have their own take on it. We're definitely diverse and experimental, but that's about all I can say. We're definitely metal though, and we lean slightly towards doom, but I incorporate various genres and sub-genres - metal and otherwise - into our music.

Hail K.: Which one of you bears a closer resemblance to Jesus?
Adam: Well we both get called Jesus all the time, but I reckon Matt looks like him more, because of his darker hair. I’m like a Scots/Irish Jesus maybe. But then Jesus is supposed to be black, so that rules us both out!
Matt: I don't know what Jesus looked like. But it's me.

Hail K.: Can we talk about Nevermore a bit? I read you guys were big fans. Would you agree 2005’s ‘This Godless Endeavor’ was their masterpiece?
Adam: I like ‘Dreaming Neon Black’ better actually. I had it on practically non-stop around the time I was writing the ‘Dead Romantic’ lyrics. That, Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ and My Dying Bride’s ‘The Angel And The Dark River’. But all their albums are amazing, the guitar work is always phenomenal, and Warrel Dane is quite a lyrical inspiration for me. Every one of his lyrics is like an explosion of ideas, and I love the way he’s not afraid to say things like ‘If you cannot linguistically differentiate a person from a computer/Could the computer be internally conscious?’ in a metal song, because he knows there’ll be flesh machines out there who’ll be ready to download, process and analyse that question!
Matt: It is a masterpiece, but I don't think it's their only one. ‘The Politics Of Ecstacy' and 'Dreaming Neon Black' are also amazing. The others are great too. We do both happen to be big fans. Their music is very diverse and ver powerful. The guitars are awesome, and Warrel Dane is probably the best metal vocalist today. He goes completely mad when he gets pissed off, and he can also sing in a very lilting way. I love the way that he layers his vocal harmonies, too. Sanctuary were great too!

		Pic courtesy of: Torture Garden "Call us what you want! We don't strive to sound like anything in particular. Everyone seems to have their own take on it. We're definitely diverse and experimental, but that's about all I can say"

Hail K.: Did the song Sentient 6 from that album perfectly suite Torture Garden’s musical tastes?
Matt: It doesn't perfectly suite us, but it certainly wouldn't have been out of place as a Torture Garden song. The acoustic parts and the general melodicism are quite redolent of 'Everything Is Grey' I suppose. There's piano in there as well, and we like to make use of instruments not typically associated with metal. That song also has quite a dramatic power, which we definitely go for. "I long to be more than a machine".

Hail K.: I can’t wait for their next album, it’s coming out this year already and when it does, it’ll be on top of my want list. Are you guys excited as well?
Matt: I certainly am. I'm sure it will be brilliant, just like all their others. I know that Warrel Dane is releasing a solo album first though, which should be interesting. I can't wait to hear his Sisters Of Mercy cover!

Hail K.: Honestly now, is Torture Garden working on their big break or is the band expecting it any time soon?
Adam: We’re working on it; we’ll see how ready the world is for us when we start gigging. I think it could well be ready.
Matt: We're continually working on it, however I don't think we're 'expecting' it. The best we can do is that we put our all into every aspect of the band, and if we can do that, then we should be at least moderately successful, which would be great. However, money has never been my main driving force. As long as I'm enjoying playing in the band, I'll keep doing it.

Hail K.: Cheers to the both of you and I hope you enjoyed our little tete-a-tete. If I ever visit your hometown, where’s the best place where I can grab a pint?
Adam: I certainly have enjoyed it; you’ve come up with some refreshingly different questions. If you ever visit Liverpool, don’t whatever you do go to The Cavern, unless you want to be overrun by people who still think it’s the swinging sixties. Go to The Swan on Wood Street, for a great metal jukebox and a very decent selection of drinks. Just watch out for the fascists.
Matt: Yeah, it's been fun. I can't add much to what Adam said, really. You must go to The Swan. You can visit The Krazyhouse, also on Wood Street, for a good night out. Then there's Roadkill on Hope Street - I've seen some great bands there, and the drinks are OK too.