Cradle Of Filth’s Dani Filth on collaboration with Ed Sheeran: "It’s a bit about self-affirmation"

During a recent interview on The Downbeat Podcast, Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth shared more details on the band's collaborative track with Ed Sheeran. According to him, the single is "a bit about self-affirmation."

Filth said the following:

The Ed Sheeran [collaborative song] is done and dusted. We did it like two years ago. It was weird, because we were planning to do it for about a year and a half.

He continued when asked about the origins of the collaboration:

I don't know. I think our managers got in touch with each other somehow. His manager, Stuart [Camp], used to listen to Coal Chamber [the band featuring Cradle Of Filth manager Dez Fafara] when he was growing up. Ed [played a vampire in the music video for his single 'Bad Habits'], and I think one day he got asked questions somewhere where it was, like, 'Are you into heavy metal?' I don't know why. And he said, 'Yeah, I was really into Slipknot and Cradle Of Filth.' … So apparently [our managers] talked, and the chat came around, we should do a collab, it'd be hilarious. And he was right up for it.

He also talked about the recording process:

When [Ed] was eventually free and we were free, he just comes to the studio by himself. He didn't even ask, like, 'Are you gonna be there with your mums and everything?' So we were very respectful. It was just me, the producer and him in our little countryside studio, probably 15 miles away as a crow flies from where he lives. he turns up in his wife's secret mini, the one he can get out of the house, on his own, [wearing a] Cradle hoodie, guitar on his back. That was it. We spent the afternoon recording. He was telling us loads of funny stories, really cool. And then when we finished, we were, like, 'Do you wanna go for a pint?' He said, 'Well, I'm bit peckish.' So we went to local pub, at which point everybody in the pub, and it's like a very, very rustic old country pub, suddenly everybody, all these old dears and that, all knew his mum and they were flocking over. And he'd be, like, 'I have no idea who that is.' But it was really cool.

Filth then addressed the lengthy wait for the single:

We didn't wanna release it back then because we were busy with other things. Then he couldn't release it because he was doing a bunch of stuff. So it's just gonna come out when it does. We didn't wanna put it on the album.

He added:

It's a brand new Cradle Of Filth song featuring Ed Sheeran, and a lot of it sounds like Ed Sheeran. He's playing acoustic guitar, he's singing Ed Sheeran, but a lot of it sounds like us. There's a blast beat, scream. Ed really pushes himself in it as well. He does rock vocals. It's about affirmation. It's a bit about self-affirmation. It's a really good song. Only about a handful of people [have heard it]. My mum hasn't even heard it.

[via Blabbermouth]