Matt Tuck spills the beans on going to war with producer, Don Gilmore.

Matt Tuck has revealed that he had furious bust-ups with Linkin Park, Good Charlotte and Hollywood Undead producer, Don Gilmore, whilst working on Bullet For My Valentine’s new album.

Why the choice to work with Don Gilmore?

Matt Tuck: “Before we always worked with Colin Richardson and he let me do what I wanted – which is fine – but I think we got to a stage in our career where if we didn’t try something with a real producer, we’d never know who good it could be. It would never be terrible because it’s just us anyway. So we decided to go with a producer who’s not metal, not rock, not anything really. He’s done Duran Duran, Good Charlotte, Linkin Park and some hiphop things. We wanted someone who had a broader take on music, not just a metal guy. I had a meeting with him in LA and we just talked about stuff. He said he loved the band and described where he thought we went wrong on both albums, how it could have been better.”

What did he say?

Matt: “He just said his favourite of the two albums was ‘The Poison’ for many reasons, one of them being that he said it was very natural sounding; the vocals, the melodies, the lyrics seemed to fall into place. ‘Scream Aim Fire’ felt like more of a stray away, there were a couple of songs on there that shouldn’t be on there. And probably not the ones you’d guess: he said the mellow ones, the ballady ones should never have been on there. He was just telling me what I already knew, but it was nice to be told it by an outside party who’d I’d never met before.”

How was it to have someone tell you what to do?

Matt: “It was nice, and it’s been so awful at the same time. We’ve got into so many fights and so many walk outs of studios, but… for all good reasons. It’s been pretty hardcore.”

What makes it happen?

Matt: “Just decision making and giving up your creative juice. You spend a lot of time doing something that you think is great, and you’ve put time, effort and passion into it, and they say, ‘no, it’s bad, it shouldn’t be like that, it should be like this.’ It’s like, fuck!”

Was that hard to take?

Matt: “It’s taken me a good few months to get past this problem of criticism because I’m never told no. I’ve never been told no since this bands started. It’s always been ‘Yes Matt, whatever you want’. I think it’s about time I got a kick in the nuts, you know. But it’s been good: the result of these discussions and fights is mind-blowing. I can’t wait for people to hear it now! It’s pissing me off, I just want to get it out there!”

Bullet For My Valentine are expected to release their 3rd album in the first half of 2010.