Matt Tuck Reflects On The Success Of The Poison And Scream Aim Fire: “It Was Life-Changing”

In a new career and life-spanning interview with Kerrang!, Bullet For My Valentine frontman Matt Tuck has reflected on the success the Welsh metallers experienced following 2005 debut album The Poison and its 2008 follow-up Scream Aim Fire.

“It was life-changing,” Matt says. “To achieve things like that was never really on the wish list. Those two albums set the tone for when [2010 album] Fever came out, which hit number three on the U.S. Billboard. It was just a crazy time, going from being massively in debt and working shitty jobs to being able to buy a decent car or put the deposit down on your first apartment. We were just doing what we wanted to do and for all the right reasons, so it felt good that we had done things our way, on our terms and we were getting success.”

Up until that point, though, Matt was unsure if success would ever reach Bullet.

“When I was getting into my 20s and it was like, ‘Fuck! I’ve been in a band for six years and there’s still no real reward at all.’ It was scary," he tells Kerrang!. "I was doing everything from factory work to temping, trying to get by day-to-day. My family were supportive, but even some of them were starting to go, ‘So, is this it?’ Thankfully, by the time I was 24 we were up and running, but I would be in a very different situation now if it hadn’t happened for us. Looking back on it all, it was a bit stupid to put all my eggs in one basket, but I was pretty stubborn.”

When asked if he felt the need to try and be bigger and louder than everyone else, though, Matt simply puts Bullet's continued success down to his ambitious nature.

“I’ve just always been open about where I think we could go with hard work and I think we proved that a lot then, when we got to an arena level," the frontman continues. "A lot of people don’t see the blood, the sweat and the tears that go into achieving that kind of dream, and it was never given to us. We worked our arses off and tried to be the best band we could. I think it was an amazing accomplishment to get to that point, especially considering who we were and where we were from.”

Pick up the new issue of Kerrang! right here to read the full interview.

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