Cradle of Filth Guitarists Richard Shaw and Marek ‘Ashok’ Šmerda have spoken out about Billie Eilish wearing their band merch.
During an interview with Ultimate Guitar, the pair were asked how they feel about mainstream pop acts like Billie Eilish wearing metal t-shirts, including their Cradle of Filth clothing.
“I do not see any problem here. Maybe they just like Cradle of Filth music,” Ashok replied.
“I do love a lot of different music genres myself, sometimes surprise even my close mates as they would not expect metalhead to be open-minded at such level.”
Shaw took the same stance as Ashok, saying the exposure is “amazing” regardless of whether people like Eilish actually love the band.
“Anything that gets the word of the band out into the mainstream, I’m all for it,” he said.
“It’s great that Cradle’s name is synonymous with controversy after all these years.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, the duo was asked to share the advice they would give to young metal musicians today.
“Work hard, repeatedly and systematically. Do not be discouraged if it sometimes feels harder than the previous day,” said Ashok.
He continued: “Each day is different and all the stuff we face and experience are affecting us both mentally and physically.”
“And find a good guitar teacher as soon as possible. He is going to save a lot of your time by taking away the bad habits from your playing.”
“Same thing I tell a lot of my guitar students: keep doing what you love and do it every day,” Shaw added.
“You will constantly improve as long as you keep going and be consistent in your work ethic. Do it for the purest of reasons and genuinely love what you do.”
For more on this topic, check out the Metal and Pop Observers.
Check out ‘Crawling King Chaos’ by Cradle of Filth:
