I had a chance to sit down and
talk with Will Francis of William Control on the UK leg of his New Faith to tour
to talk about his new album, his tour and his future plans.
So how's the tour going so
far?
It's been going alright. The
weather's been really mixed. At the start of the tour it was kind of unbearably
hot but it's been nice since.
Yeah, we had a four day heatwave
where it was absolute Hell.
Yeah, it was fucking Hell.
And over here of course we're
more used to the cold.
Nothing is built with air
conditioning or ventilation, so it's just so bad.
How was Download, you were
playing one day weren't you?
Yeah, we were playing on the
Sunday. It was alright considering we were playing during Black Sabbath and Rise
Against. There was more people there than I thought there'd be. We seemed to
have missed all the mud. It was pretty shitty on Friday.
You're managing this tour
yourself, how difficult is that on top of everything else?
You know it's not really that hard
to do a tour manager's job. It's hard because I'm tired and I don't really want
to do anything, but it's not really that big a deal.
How do you prepare for a live
performance? Do you have any rituals?
Smoke a lot of cigarettes. That's
pretty much it.
How's the reaction been to the
new album, Silentium Amori, which you released in April?
It's been good. Yeah, all the fans
who have listened to the previous albums have really loved it. You know doing
the album by myself with no record label I'm really marketing to my own fans and
I haven't had any complaints about it.
The title is an Oscar Wilde poem,
I was wondering how much the album was influenced by his work and his
life?
I think that Silent Love, which is
what it translates to from Latin to English is a pretty dead on title for the
album which is sort of about a character who is searching for love but can't
find it.
How much would you say poetry has
an influence on your work compared to other music?
I think literature has a lot more
influence on my music than anything else. I really only listen to a few artists
on vinyl at home. I don't have an ipod that I walk around with or anything. I'm
not on Facebook discovering new bands. I'm at a point in my life where I just
don't give a shit any more.
You've contributed songs to the
last two Underworld soundtracks, how did that come about and what do you get out
of doing soundtracks?
It's just publicity. There's not a
lot of money in soundtracks. It's really just exciting because I'm a fan of the
movies, a big fan of the Underworld series. It came about because our old press
girl, Monica from Victory had a relationship with Lakeshore and the guy, Eric,
who works at Lakeshore was like 'We need a band that's this sort of band to do
this soundtrack' and Monica like 'Duh, Aiden'. We've actually been on three of
them, Aiden on the second and then William Control is on the third and
fourth.
You've said there be a new Aiden
album out next year, will you be concentrating on that more or try to split your
time between both projects?
I don't really know what I'm going
to do actually. I know that I'm working on some new Aiden shit, but I don't
really do William Control full time, you know, I just do a tour every time I put
out an album but that's about it. So yeah. Keep on keeping on.
How much time do you spend
recording albums? I've heard you recorded one in four days?
It's different with William
Control than with Aiden. I think that this last album I just did, Silentium
Amoris, was recorded over quite a period, I've worked a long time on it but with
Aiden I really like to capture that live energy, that live feeling, that punk
rock mentality so I think I'll continue to do Aiden albums like that. With
William Control I'll just...I don't know man. I don't have a plan.
You've also said you're writing a
book about the early years of your life, I was wondering what the thinking was
behind that?
I think it's just a story worth
telling. I went through some pretty terrible things in my adolescence and was
able to make it out alive. And so I've decided to start writing down my thoughts
over things that happened in my youth. I have about 20,000 words so far which
isn't a lot but...it's kind of a lot. It's a good start.
Finally do you have anything
you'd like to say to your British fans?
I just want to say thanks for
continually supporting my art and my projects and everything that I've done in
the last ten years. It's been a great ride.
Thanks very much for talking to
us.
