Wolbers: Burton C. Bell 'hijacked' Fear Factory name and tried to run with it
Charlie Steffens of Knac.Com recently conducted an interview with Fear Factory/Arkaea guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers. An excerpt from the chat follows below. Knac.Com: You and Ray [Fear Factory/Arkaea drummer Raymond Herrera] still have the Fear Factory name, right?
Wolbers: We are both equal shareholders of the Fear Factory name. I'm just trying to see what's going on with that.
Knac.Com: The reformation of the original Fear Factory could still happen?
Wolbers: Yeah, you're hoping as much as I am. (laughs)
Knac.Com: It's well-reported that Burton [C. Bell, Fear Factory singer] and Dino [Cazares, Fear Factory guitarist] have mended fences, so to speak.
Wolbers: It's good that they're friends again. I can't say anything bad about that. They were originally the two that had the issue and that's why Fear Factory had to continue with the lineup that we know today. That they're good friends again and that they want to get Fear Factory going again, it's up to them, but obviously there's a lot of other intentions going on from their camp, so that's why we ended up in a huge lawsuit and a legal battle. Until all that gets resolved, then nobody's going on tour with anything.
Knac.Com: What happened that made the band break?
Wolbers: Burton was doing his own side project, his own solo thing, and being a family man as well. After a while we were writing songs and we just felt - me and Raymond could tell - that we weren't going to be making a Fear Factory record anytime soon. And then there were all these demands. Burton came back with these different demands of what he wanted, and Ray and I were definitely not seeing eye to eye with him on a lot of issues and business issues. Ray and I wanted what was best for the business and what he [Burton] was trying to change wasn't really good for the business. It was only bad for the business, so that's why he went into that whole phase of hijacking the name and trying to run with it. (laughs)
Knac.Com: So, right now Fear Factory is defunct until further notice, with the four of you as equal shareholders, split into two bands. That's the way it's going to stay for a while.
Wolbers: Until everything legally gets resolved on who can do what with the name and tour under what entity we have no idea until our lawyers come to an agreement.
Read the entire interview from Knac.Com.
Arkaea (featuring Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera):
Pictured below is Fear Factory's 2009 lineup (left to right): Burton C. Bell (vocals), Gene Hoglan (drums), Byron Stroud (bass) and Dino Cazares (guitar)
