Milwaukee, 13:30 local time. Ears still buzzing from last night’s decibels, while the stomach is still complaining for the excesses, and the head is on the verge of breaking due to the inevitable hangover. Despite all that, Jay James, bassist of Bullet For My Valentine is on Yiannis Dolas’ other side of the line talking about “Fever”, the new album, the band’s awards, and of course the upcoming show, the first ever on Greek soil.

Rockpages.gr: How is the tour going?

Jay James: It’s going awesome! The album is out now in America, so everything is cool, and the shows are going amazing!

Rockpages.gr: The album sounds pretty dark. What inspired you?

Jay: Well, we tried to pick it up where we left off with “Poison”, which did really good. Basically we tried to make a cross between our two albums. We took some time off and we tried to write the best album we could, and try to hit home on the “Poison” feel. We went back to the old places where we did some writing for the “Poison” album, some of the old studios, trying to get the same feelings we got back then, and out came “Fever”. It was quite hard to do it. It took us two times in writing the album, because the first one didn’t work out. The second time we’d done all the music again, and after three, or four months it turned out great.

Rockpages.gr: What did the title come from?

Jay: “Fever” is one of the track names. It’s one of the coolest titles that we got, it’s nice, short and sweet, so we thought using it as the title of the album as well.

Rockpages.gr: “Poison” debuted at No.138 in the US charts, “Scream Aim Fire” at No.4, and “Fever” at No.3. Does that create any kind of pressure in the band?

Jay: To be honest with you it really takes us all over the moon! We are really happy, and proud. I must say that the album charted beyond anyone’s expectations. We thought it was going to do good all over the world, but it did even better than we expected. We started to get a bigger fanbase, a bigger following. So… pressure? Ahmm, I don’t think that there is any more pressure, because we still play the shows that we play, and I hope that we will be moving up now to bigger venues, and arenas because of this. So, we have to make the next album bigger, and better than the last one. We must try and make it No.1 next time, but also to be at No.3 at the moment is amazing!

Rockpages.gr: You said that there weren’t going to be any ballads on the album, but still there is a couple…

Jay: Well, when we try and write an album we don’t try to like make it all this, or all that… nothing is planned. We just try to put together the best songs that we can. Plus, I wouldn’t call those songs ballads, they are kind of slow, and dark songs. If people want to call these ballads, that’s fine with us, we just write whatever song sounds like Bullet For My Valentine , and that goes on the album.

Rockpages.gr: OK, I you have a point there for “A Place Where You Belong”, and “Bittersweet Memories”, you wouldn’t call them “ballads” in the classic meaning of the term but why do you think that rock, and metal bands usually write the best ballads?

Jay: (Laughs) I don’t know! Maybe it’s the passion!  The passion of the music, the imagination, or the feeling when it comes writing a song…

Rockpages.gr: You won the Kerrang! award for “Best British Band” two years in a row, in 2008, and 2009. How does that make you feel, coming from an area that gave birth to some of the most important bands in rock, and metal?

Jay: Yeah, it was amazing to be from the UK, and to be voted the best band from the UK. This is such an achievement for us coming from such a small town in Wales, to be like growing up listening to our peers like Iron Maiden, Ozzy, and all those great bands. We had the opportunity to tour with them, our album does well, and we got this award for “Best British Band” … that is a dream coming true for us! We are so proud that we can go out and play all these shows, it’s like all those bands from the past taught us well…

Rockpages.gr: Would you say that Bullet For My Valentine has been influential for other bands?

Jay: Ahhm, yeah! On the road now during these shows I see the fans getting excited, lining up to get their tickets, wait outside to come to our shows, and a lot of them say “we are in a band because of you”, “we cover your songs”, or “I started playing bass, or guitar because of you”, so yeah I think we do influence a lot of people. It’s a cool thing!

Rockpages.gr: What are your expectations, and what are your ambitions from Bullet For My Valentine?

Jay: Well, it’s going to be the same, as it’s always been. We’ve always been hungry to be the best  at what e do, and the best band that we can. One night, one fan of ours told us that he thinks that one day we will be the biggest band in the world! To be honest with you this doesn’t make any difference to us, we keep doing what we do, we keep raising the bar, going a step at the time. We started from No.138 with our first album, and the next two albums went to No.4, and No.3. We will keep on making albums, and tours and hope we can reach the same level with the greatest bands like Metallica, and Iron Maiden…

Rockpages.gr: Talking about Metallica you will be playing in Greece soon, on the same show with Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax. How do you feel about that?

Jay: That’s going to be amazing! Such a cool show to do! It’s amazing to step on the same stage as all those great bands, even play on the same bill with them. It’s a great honor for us, and it was a dream coming reality for us the first time we played opening for those huge bands!

Rockpages.gr: And what should the fans expect from Bullet For My Valentine’s first show in Greece ever?