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On 5 July 2025, British doom metal legends MY DYING BRIDE finally performed in Slovakia for the very first time, as part of the Pit of Metal festival. On this special occasion, I sat down for a chat with two of the band's members – guitarist Andrew Craighan and violinist/keyboardist Shaun MacGowan. We talked about the band’s history, recent challenges, and what it means for them to share their music with Slovak fans at last. If you're curious to find out more, just read the full interview below.

Your latest album "A Mortal Binding" was released just over a year ago. How would you reflect on this period? Was it special in any way?
Andy: Certain parts of it have been special. I guess, the actual recording and writing was not special in a different magical type of way, but it was special in the sense of the effort that the band collectively put in – the musicians particularly – the amount of time that we put in. We don't normally rehearse and write at this concentrated level. We've been going for many years now, so when it comes to writing and recording, we kind of know what we need to do, so we stick to tried and tested formulas. Obviously there's been some testing times, so the shine of the new release was somewhat subdued. The actual recording and writing of it was hard work but it was still good fun.

Shaun: I think it sounds like a much more aggressive album just because we wrote it in the rehearsal room as well. Almost like songs how we would play it live instead of being constructed at home. I think it shows a big difference compared to the album before.

Last year, you cancelled most of your planned shows. This year you’re finally back — playing a number of festival shows with a guest vocalist, Mikko Kotamäki. How did this collaboration come about?
Despite all the problems the band was willing and ready to perform the remaining shows in 2024, but unfortunately, there was no willing singer. The band only discovered this at the very last minute, which led to the cancellation. Given that the album had just been released, the band was not prepared to be sidelined. As a result, a meeting was organised to discuss the possibility of a replacement. Mikko was the unanimous first choice.

Tonight you will play your very first show in Slovakia. This might be a silly question, and I know it was probably beyond your control, but: why only now?
Andy: We genuinely don't know the answer to that. We don't have any recollection of ever turning down a show from Slovakia. No one come up with a reason why we haven't played here before. We can apologize but we genuinely don't know the answer. We have very recently changed our booking agent and then immediately got a show in Slovakia. Maybe our old agent was focused in different areas and didn't have a contact out here. The reasons are absolutely beyond the band.
But we're here now and we're having small panic attacks – some of our equipment didn't work, but it's working now. This is a great place, the festival's great. The whole event has been excellent, we've been very well looked after. The town is beautiful, we're going to tell everybody how great it is here. So we're having a great time and the show – it sounds pretty good down there. We're sorry we haven't been here before. Hopefully we can be back – not every thirty years.

Shaun: We're making the most of the time while we're here, having fun. I like coming to new countries just to tick them off the list of places we've been. I'm glad we're here.

Our readers are probably most keen to know about the current situation with MY DYING BRIDE and vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe. Also, could you please tell me if Aaron will be involved in the band's future plans?
As Aaron has, in truth, distanced himself from the band, we are only aware of his activities through social media and online interviews. The band contacted him in March 2025 to enquire about his intentions with MY DYING BRIDE, but he has not responded. We first learned through social media that he was on a hiatus from MDB. Although he states online that he is still part of the band, he has not engaged with us since April 2024. So, in response to your question, the band does not know what his plans with MDB are.
 

For almost your entire career, you released your records through Peaceville. What led to the switch to the giant Nuclear Blast in 2015?
Andy: A couple of reasons. Peaceville who we love dearly and we're very close to them still, they kind of changed focus. The absolute underground feel of them is still a little bit there, but not quite in the way we liked. Then we had a few opportunities in the past to change label but never did and this time, we didn't rush it. It was at the end of the contract and we got another offer from Peaceville of course, and we got some offers from various other labels. It was just simple that Nuclear Blast was the best one, and probably will be.
We were nervous but also excited about changing label and we just thought it was the right time. From my opinion it felt natural to me. In fact, I'm still in contact with Peaceville all the time because we've been with them forever. So we're still working with them very closely. I'm writing some stuff, not music, just some sort of words about how we came about some of the older songs, which is hard to remember when we wrote them 30 years ago, but Peaceville don't seem to care about that – they want to know what you think.

You've had a long career. Which period do you consider to have been the turning point, and when did you realise that MY DYING BRIDE had truly become an internationally known band?
Andy: If I was to admit any of that, it would have to be, believe it or not, after "The Light at the End of the World". And now that might sound strange considering we toured with IRON MAIDEN in '95–'96 and we toured with DIO in '97 in the US, but we were still (in our understanding of the band) very much an underground band – trying to not be an underground band. We didn't really want to be rock 'n' roll, we wanted to be a death metal band still, so there's limitations to that. I think after we released "The Light", we recognized that the support we received was phenomenal and we were shocked, pleasantly shocked. It began to dawn on us. We really did mean something. I know that sounds strange considering we'd done "The Angel and the Dark River" by now, we'd already done "Like Gods of the Sun" and all sorts of so-called classics, but for us as a band, it really started to sort… Yeah, there's something to this, but it was much later than I think most people may think. Maybe then we realized that we have a global attraction to doom metal crowd that likes this style of music. What were you thinking?

I thought it was in 1995 when you were touring as the opening act for IRON MAIDEN.
Andy: Well, the IRON MAIDEN crowd hated us. It feels very demoralizing to be shouted at the way the MAIDEN crowd shouts at the support band. It makes your skin very thick. It was still a great time, don't get me wrong, we learned so much on how to behave (even though we were very naughty sometimes, but we won't go into that now). MAIDEN operation is so professional and we were like: „Oh, we wanna be like that in our little way.“ So we learned so much and the IRON MAIDEN guys were great to us, they really were. And the same with DIO as well – we were charmed to tour with such iconic bands and we learned a lot. Our music is trapped in these darker corners of the musical world, which is fine by mine – I don't mind that.

Have you experienced any low points in your career when it seemed like the band might not continue?
Andy: Yes, there's been a few. A notable one that we can speak about is probably after we released "34.788%…Complete". We'd had a number of line-up changes that were very swift. People leave for different reasons – you can't force people to stay in the band. It makes life a little difficult and at that point we did think that it may be finished. And I think that's possibly why "The Light at the End of the World" is so relevant, because we decided not to finish. „We soldiered on“ (as we say in England), we wrote "The Light" and started to rebuild the band, but it did look like it was finished then.

If you compare the European (doom) metal scene of the '90s with today, do you see any major differences or perhaps some striking similarities?
Andy: I think the doom scene now is broad musically and in the '90s it was really so small to almost not be. It's recognizable now when you look back. People can see the tried and tested, they can see who was doing what – all the bands survived anyway. From a musical point of view, I think it's probably much, much better now. Bands like MY DYING BRIDE, NOVEMBERS DOOM and all host of other bands that are still around but still small, people like PARADISE LOST for example – even though they're not strict doom – prove that even though it's an obscure style of music, it has longevity. People are definitely clearly still interested in this style of music.
I think the real difference is probably not necessarily the scene itself, but when you get older, you see things very differently. The '90s were magical, wonderful, no one knew what was coming next. And now I think it's probably matured to the point now. It's not stagnating and I don't mean this predictable, but someone with a broad experience can see what's really happening. Still great fun, but some of the mystery and some of the essence of what might be next is lost a little bit, but that's not necessarily because of lack of interest, lack of talent or lack of fans at all. We have a broad plattery of music now and it's hard to be new. I think it's probably worse for the new bands than it is for older bands. Whereas we could do anything and no one knew what we were doing. Now you go: „Oh, it sounds like PALLBEARER, it sounds like PARADISE LOST, it sounds like MY DYING BRIDE…“ It's difficult for the new bands. We had it easy, I think.

Shaun: As someone who was too young to see the bands in the 90s, I'm glad that a lot of them are still going. I can still go to see CANDLEMASS, they're still going. For me that's great.
 

If you think back and compare yourself now with Andrew at the very start of the band, what has changed?
Andy: I think that's just a difference. It's not just me as Andrew from the band, it's just me as Andrew who gets older. When we started the band, I was twenty years old which I'm no longer, so things get very different very quickly. I think when you get old you get cynical and it gets hard to join some of the things. On the sort of positive side: What I'm doing now is I can recognize people like Shaun and the rest of the guys; the value of them. Whereas before we were just… not necessarily mindless children, just playing and being a band. We now and I now understand and appreciate it much more.
It's like this when we come out to this festival and meet people like you. It's precious, it means something. Whereas before… I don't think I ever was properly arrogant, but maybe not quite as understanding what this all actually means to metal fans. I'm meeting the people out there who clearly love MY DYING BRIDE. So it is very humbling when you get older, you're recognizing, it really meant something to some of these people. They're telling me, just now even, that I've changed their lives. It's serious, it has its ups and downs, but I wouldn't change anything.

Imagine a situation that music would not exist. How else would you express your creativity? What else is close to your heart besides composing and playing music?
Shaun: I can't draw, paint or write lyrics, so for me it's just photography. It's like the opposite to music, so If I wasn't doing music, I would be doing photography, I think.

Andy: I'm similar to Shaun. I can't draw. Well, in fact I've never tried to draw, so I don't know. But I think if music didn't exist and there was an element that had to come out, I think i would paint. I don't know why, cause I like the ideas of the colors contrast. If you have an ayahuasca trip (DMT – dimethyltryptamine, it's a mind-altering drug that you take in the Amazon. I have not done this, but I have done similar DMTs.). Once you have it, you have a very vivid experience. And the colours – I would probably paint them; it's quite abstract. So if music was not a concept, I reckon I would paint.

So, those activities would still be related to art.
Andy: Yes, because if you don't do that, you'd just destroy something. You'd end up taking things apart.

What kind of music do you usually listen to in your free time? I would guess it isn’t just doom metal.
Shaun: For me, being a violinist, a lot of classical music. Also a lot of doom metal, death metal, black metal. I don't mind a little bit of pop music but only 3 or 4 songs and then I have to change the radio.

Andy: I listen to a lot of black metal, but I'm very particular about the types of black metal. Also I'm still a massive fan of, let's say, the classic new wave of British heavy metal, so IRON MAIDEN, SAXON, JUDAS PRIEST. Some of the classics like the earlier OZZY OSBOURNE records: "Diary of a Madman", "Blizzard of Ozz" – fucking love those and some of the later ones too. Mostly this week I've been listening to DIO. Just start at the beginning and just let it run. Old-school heavy metal and SLAYER, CELTIC FROST, MORBID ANGEL and DEICIDE, because I grew up in death metal world. If you were to ask me next week, you'd probably get a different list, but it would have been more or less…
When I'm moving out of normal rock mode, it's black metal. I listen to a little bit more classical music than I thought I would, but I don't really know much about it. I just know that there are select parts that I kind of enjoy. And I'm not a big fan of pop music, there isn't much that I like.