Black Moth’s Harriet Hyde: “I’m a Lover, Not a Hater”

Harriet Hyde talks Anatomical Venus, women in rock, the next album, Nicholas Cage and therapy for Donald Trump

Before their November 3rd gig at Cardiff University’s Great Hall, The Metal Report caught up with Black Moth’s Harriet Hyde to discuss touring with Corrosion of Conformity, Orange Goblin and Fireball Ministry, the label of “female fronted”, Nicholas Cage, Donald Trump, the delay of Anatomical Venus and writing a new album.

How has the tour been so far?

It’s been really fun. It’s a good bunch of people, all the bands have been really lovely to each other and it’s a really good line up.

Has there been friendly competition in trying to be the best band of the night?

I don’t know, the challenge for us is to hold our own with such epic bands coming on after us. It’s a couple of tough acts to be opening for but we’re stepping up to it.

Anatomical Venus was recorded but took over a year to be released, what was the delay?

We changed record labels and wanting to do it justice cause we put a lot of love and time into it.

Is there going to be another 4 year wait for the next album?

Possibly. We started writing some bits and pieces but generally as a band we tend to believe that we’d rather take longer to do something that we really believe in and have our heart and soul in rather than just churning stuff out. I’m not sure how the rest of the world feels about that but personally I couldn’t put my name to something, especially lyrically, that I didn’t feel my heart was completely in. It will take as long as it takes but hopefully not too long.

What are your plans for 2019?

We’re playing Hammerfest in March, Doom vs Stoner in Sheffield and playing here and there but mainly focusing on writing.

Is it time for the end of “female fronted”, “woman in rock” labels? 

I don’t know. It almost feels like it’s the beginning of a new phase with that. I changed my attitude last year from thinking, “I don’t want to being a woman in rock music, it shouldn’t be a big deal” to thinking, “It is what I am and it is what (Black Moth guitarist) Federica is and our experiences differ for that”.  It irritates me more when we get compared to bands with other women in as opposed to the music.

It almost seems condescending when women have been in rock for 50 years.

Totally true but if you look at it proportionally there are way less women involved than there are men so that does bear talking about, so I’m not totally shut off to talking about it.

You’re also training to be a psychotherapist, how much fun is it to be on tour and analysing everyone?

You do take your work home with you to some extent especially when you’re in training but I try not to apply it to people as it seems a bit invasive.  Training in psychotherapy requires you to be in a very raw authentic space like a crab without a shell because it’s such deeply connected work whereas in the band I’m involved in performing and that involves a lot of resilience and entertainment.

It must be helpful for the band having a therapist on hand.

Like Metallica with Some Kind of Monster (laughs). I’m always here listening for anyone who’s struggling.

After your answer in our What’s Your Favourite Scary Movie? article, how much do you hate Nicholas Cage for ruining The Wicker Man?

(Laughs) He’s a funny little one isn’t he? He’s had his moments and his not so good moments. We can never forget “the bees” though can we? It wasn’t his finest acting performance but that image is etched into my heart forever.

What’s your favourite film that isn’t a horror?

Giving one answer is really tough, one film that comes to mind is The Elephant Man by David Lynch. It’s a beautiful film and a beautiful story.

Black Moth – The Movie. Who plays the band?

Alice Lowe. She wrote the film Prevenge which came out last year or the year before. Bloody brilliant black British comedy, she starred in it as well so I’d love her to play me. Dave would be Michael Douglas. Brad Pitt would play Dom our drummer, Jim can be Ryan Gosling and Federica can have Penelope Cruz.

If you were in a horror film and could kill any real life people, who would you kill?

Donald Trump is an easy target. I’m a lover not a hater, I’d probably rather have a therapy session with him than kill him. If he could hire me as his therapist I’d go to town on him; death by love (laughs).

You can buy Anatomical Venus by Black Moth on Amazon.