Fear Factory - Damn those annoying laptop's!
When the clock at work told me that it was time to go I jumped in my car and headed to Buzzin Hornet to pick him up. And as usual I couldn’t find his home in that irritating small village he lives, but finally I had made it!!! When he opened the door I saw that Blackrain was also there and he was talking to the mother of BH so I decided to wait a few minutes, but after 10 minutes they where still babbling a lot of nonsense, so BH and I grabbed his legs and dragged him out of the house. After driving over the extremely dull gray concrete road for over an hour we finally arrived in Utrecht. After waiting for about a half an hour Raymond was back from his sound check. When we finally started the interview, the most irritating thing happened; the laptop of the tour manager was restarted and while it loaded windows it had some kind of theme song from a comic book cartoon, Raymond tried to turn it off but the thing wouldn’t shut up and the song lasted for more than three minutes, and couldn’t be shut off… AAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCHHHH!!!
Hey how are you doing?
Good, very good.
Have you played a show last night?
No show yesterday and the day before.
Well everyone has heard about the tragic death of Dimebag Darrell and the others last week, in what way did last weeks horror affect you guys?
Fuck I don’t even know man; he was a very good friend of ours and we were good friends with everyone in Pantera but I don’t really know all the guys from Damageplan to well other than Dimebag and Vinnie.
But what’s it going to change, I have no idea, I don’t know what this is going to change other bands touring The States, and we are not even in the US. The only thing we do know is what we have been told by our friends who work with them, but outside of that, it’s hard to say.
When did you hear it?
The morning of, it happened there at nighttime so we heard it in the morning. We were in England when it happened, I couldn’t fucking believe it, it’s like some hiphop shit and it’s not even supposed to happen there, it’s ridiculous. Apparently it was a fan that… yeah I don’t know fuck it.
Well now about the FF album, I have listened it over and over again and I have the feeling that this would be the best album ever because the influence of all previous albums can clearly be heard, what is your opinion about this?
Well as a musician you always think your last album is the best ever, because that’s just your own opinion. But we did go back to the basics, we took what the people loved about the band and wrote a record around that, so a lot of people like the record. People tell us like “that’s the best comeback ever”. So yeah it felt great being back on the level where we were. And we're already working on the next record.
Due to the change in the band with Dino leaving and Byron joining the team it didn’t do a lot with the FF sound, does Byron just fit perfect in the band or did you have to give him instructions about the FF sound?
Well Christian did al the bass and guitar so Byron didn’t actually write anything for the record. Byron came in like a touring member.
And now he is with FF?
He is still working with SYL so he is doing both bands; I think he’s going on tour with SYL pretty soon.
Well Christian and I already started writing the new record so we will see how it goes, and I don’t know if Byron will have any input on the new record, we’ll see.
What was the reason to name this album Archetype, instead of the fact that it means that it is the actual model from which everything else is copied?
Well Digimortal was supposed to be called Archetype but in the end we ended up calling it Digimortal. And it’s just the perfect name because of all the problems that had gone in the band, so after the breakup and everything, a comeback with an album like that is really cool. I thought it was really cool because it kind of sums up all that was going on and this is the real deal you know.
The last song of the album is a cover, why did you choose this song?
Well one of Burton’s favourite bands is Nirvana and we wanted to do a cover song but we didn’t know which one and Burton said ‘hey let’s do 'School'', and so we recorded the song.
The first FF album, Soul of a New Machine, has been re-released. Do you consider it a classic metal album?
Well Roadrunner is doing a re-mastering series from their whole catalog from the records that came out like 10 years ago. They redid Soulfly, Sepultura, they redid ours. So they redid their entire catalog and they call it the re-master collection series or something like that. So they approached us about it and we where like; hey that’s not a bad idea, and they wanted to throw in the Fear Is The Mindkiller CD so we said all right why not? So we got that mastered and gave them all the artworks and they put it together and put it out, and I think that it’s a great idea.
I saw a remix from Archetype with the anime clip, for a computer game I believe? What got you guys with such a remix and clip?
Yeah that would have been for Golarians, we did a couple of remixes before Archetype came out and we submitted one of them for a movie called Golarians (a cartoon, anime) and they liked it so much that they wanted to use it in their movie as a video and the scene they used in it could have been a video so, they took that and made a video of it.
We did that and we have a couple of other remixes that are out there like in video games and so.
I also heard about a Drum ‘n Bass remix album “Mischief Invasion”, can you tell us something about that?
Well I am the one who put that out, I have a production company called Hererra Productions and my company does music, voice-overs and sound effects for video games. And I started to do DVD soundtracks. So I got in touch with the guys from a company called Academics and they do these Mischief Invasions videos and they needed a bunch of songs, so they gave me the rights to the soundtrack and I provided them with the music and put the album out.
Is it a passion of FF to do remixes for movies and games?
Well I started doing all the video games stuff and we have been doing that ever since 1996 and for the remixes, yeah we have been doing remixes for a long time.
I read the following on the net a few days ago:
"We can make a Fear Factory movie, a Fear Factory video game...it's time we build the Fear Factory Empire. We can have our own Fear Factory rental car place..."
I was wondering if there ever would be a FF movie, something like COF did with Cradle Of Fear? Something like Enter The Fear Factory?
Hahaha we have talked about it but we never really went after it trying doing anything like that because we were either touring, writing or recording a new record. Will we ever do one? That’s kind of hard to say, maybe, but we haven’t got anything planned but you never know, we might do something like that or even a game. We talked to Sony a few years ago but we didn’t really do it because we had to do a bunch of other stuff.
Hey how are you doing?
Good, very good.
Have you played a show last night?
No show yesterday and the day before.
Well everyone has heard about the tragic death of Dimebag Darrell and the others last week, in what way did last weeks horror affect you guys?
Fuck I don’t even know man; he was a very good friend of ours and we were good friends with everyone in Pantera but I don’t really know all the guys from Damageplan to well other than Dimebag and Vinnie.
But what’s it going to change, I have no idea, I don’t know what this is going to change other bands touring The States, and we are not even in the US. The only thing we do know is what we have been told by our friends who work with them, but outside of that, it’s hard to say.
When did you hear it?
The morning of, it happened there at nighttime so we heard it in the morning. We were in England when it happened, I couldn’t fucking believe it, it’s like some hiphop shit and it’s not even supposed to happen there, it’s ridiculous. Apparently it was a fan that… yeah I don’t know fuck it.
Well now about the FF album, I have listened it over and over again and I have the feeling that this would be the best album ever because the influence of all previous albums can clearly be heard, what is your opinion about this?
Well as a musician you always think your last album is the best ever, because that’s just your own opinion. But we did go back to the basics, we took what the people loved about the band and wrote a record around that, so a lot of people like the record. People tell us like “that’s the best comeback ever”. So yeah it felt great being back on the level where we were. And we're already working on the next record.
Due to the change in the band with Dino leaving and Byron joining the team it didn’t do a lot with the FF sound, does Byron just fit perfect in the band or did you have to give him instructions about the FF sound?
Well Christian did al the bass and guitar so Byron didn’t actually write anything for the record. Byron came in like a touring member.
And now he is with FF?
He is still working with SYL so he is doing both bands; I think he’s going on tour with SYL pretty soon.
Well Christian and I already started writing the new record so we will see how it goes, and I don’t know if Byron will have any input on the new record, we’ll see.
What was the reason to name this album Archetype, instead of the fact that it means that it is the actual model from which everything else is copied?
Well Digimortal was supposed to be called Archetype but in the end we ended up calling it Digimortal. And it’s just the perfect name because of all the problems that had gone in the band, so after the breakup and everything, a comeback with an album like that is really cool. I thought it was really cool because it kind of sums up all that was going on and this is the real deal you know.
The last song of the album is a cover, why did you choose this song?
Well one of Burton’s favourite bands is Nirvana and we wanted to do a cover song but we didn’t know which one and Burton said ‘hey let’s do 'School'', and so we recorded the song.
The first FF album, Soul of a New Machine, has been re-released. Do you consider it a classic metal album?
Well Roadrunner is doing a re-mastering series from their whole catalog from the records that came out like 10 years ago. They redid Soulfly, Sepultura, they redid ours. So they redid their entire catalog and they call it the re-master collection series or something like that. So they approached us about it and we where like; hey that’s not a bad idea, and they wanted to throw in the Fear Is The Mindkiller CD so we said all right why not? So we got that mastered and gave them all the artworks and they put it together and put it out, and I think that it’s a great idea.
I saw a remix from Archetype with the anime clip, for a computer game I believe? What got you guys with such a remix and clip?
Yeah that would have been for Golarians, we did a couple of remixes before Archetype came out and we submitted one of them for a movie called Golarians (a cartoon, anime) and they liked it so much that they wanted to use it in their movie as a video and the scene they used in it could have been a video so, they took that and made a video of it.
We did that and we have a couple of other remixes that are out there like in video games and so.
I also heard about a Drum ‘n Bass remix album “Mischief Invasion”, can you tell us something about that?
Well I am the one who put that out, I have a production company called Hererra Productions and my company does music, voice-overs and sound effects for video games. And I started to do DVD soundtracks. So I got in touch with the guys from a company called Academics and they do these Mischief Invasions videos and they needed a bunch of songs, so they gave me the rights to the soundtrack and I provided them with the music and put the album out.
Is it a passion of FF to do remixes for movies and games?
Well I started doing all the video games stuff and we have been doing that ever since 1996 and for the remixes, yeah we have been doing remixes for a long time.
I read the following on the net a few days ago:
"We can make a Fear Factory movie, a Fear Factory video game...it's time we build the Fear Factory Empire. We can have our own Fear Factory rental car place..."
I was wondering if there ever would be a FF movie, something like COF did with Cradle Of Fear? Something like Enter The Fear Factory?
Hahaha we have talked about it but we never really went after it trying doing anything like that because we were either touring, writing or recording a new record. Will we ever do one? That’s kind of hard to say, maybe, but we haven’t got anything planned but you never know, we might do something like that or even a game. We talked to Sony a few years ago but we didn’t really do it because we had to do a bunch of other stuff.
What kind of game would it be?
The idea of the game was that every member of the band had different characteristics and abilities that the others didn’t have so it would be kind of like an action game or adventure. That was the basic idea but we didn’t get really through that.
Your drumming has gone from strong double bass to great fills and variations, can you describe this progress?
Christian wanted to add more toms, he wanted to write more stuff that was on the metal side and less industrial side and I said yeah why not? So we did it. I never didn’t play toms in the past, not because I couldn’t play them but it’s the way our songs were, we don’t really need toms. Most metal bands, I think, use too much toms but that’s just my opinion. It’s the different way I write music but if I had to do it, I would.
Because the rumor was that you couldn’t play toms and only double bass.
Well there you go…
When you guys splitted up for a moment Hatefiles appeared, what is the story behind that?
Hatefiles is a bunch of music that were never on standard releases, like when we released a limited edition digipack from Obsolete it had a couple of songs from the Hatefiles, so it’s basically all the random B-sides, extra remixes and videogame stuff which came out on our actual releases, that the label put together.
Yeah, because you broke up.
Yeah but the label has the rights to those masters, so anything that we have done within the time we were with the label that was outside the records that we did, the label has the right to release it, we still get paid but they have the rights to release it without our approval.
Was it the same with Concrete?
Concrete was actually between Dino and the label, Christian, Burton and I didn’t want it to be released because that were demo versions of Soul Of A New Machine basically. So we didn’t see the point of releasing it. But I guess Dino and the label did, so they did it.
Because we spoke to Dino like two months before you broke up and nothing seemed to be wrong, so it was a big shock for us.
Yeah I know, it was for a lot of people, I got a lot of email from people that couldn’t believe it like; I can't believe you broke up, you’re my favorite band, stuff like that you know. It was kind of weird that you don’t really think about it that way until it happens, because you’re on tour and not thinking about those things, because it’s a huge thing.
Well we are glad you're back.
It feels good to be back, everyone’s really, happy it’s great.
And you have been touring constantly.
Well we have been on tour pretty much the whole year, we started the 20th of January and we have been pretty much on tour the whole year, I mean we spend maybe a month at home.
Well that’s good in a way.
Yeah it’s good! You know, there‘s a need for the band and there are still a lot of people who want to see us.
What do you expect of the Dutch crowd tonight?
We have played here before and that was pretty crazy last time so we’ll see.
We always had fun here so…
Well we want to thank you for you time.
No problem, thank YOU guys.
The idea of the game was that every member of the band had different characteristics and abilities that the others didn’t have so it would be kind of like an action game or adventure. That was the basic idea but we didn’t get really through that.
Your drumming has gone from strong double bass to great fills and variations, can you describe this progress?
Christian wanted to add more toms, he wanted to write more stuff that was on the metal side and less industrial side and I said yeah why not? So we did it. I never didn’t play toms in the past, not because I couldn’t play them but it’s the way our songs were, we don’t really need toms. Most metal bands, I think, use too much toms but that’s just my opinion. It’s the different way I write music but if I had to do it, I would.
Because the rumor was that you couldn’t play toms and only double bass.
Well there you go…
When you guys splitted up for a moment Hatefiles appeared, what is the story behind that?
Hatefiles is a bunch of music that were never on standard releases, like when we released a limited edition digipack from Obsolete it had a couple of songs from the Hatefiles, so it’s basically all the random B-sides, extra remixes and videogame stuff which came out on our actual releases, that the label put together.
Yeah, because you broke up.
Yeah but the label has the rights to those masters, so anything that we have done within the time we were with the label that was outside the records that we did, the label has the right to release it, we still get paid but they have the rights to release it without our approval.
Was it the same with Concrete?
Concrete was actually between Dino and the label, Christian, Burton and I didn’t want it to be released because that were demo versions of Soul Of A New Machine basically. So we didn’t see the point of releasing it. But I guess Dino and the label did, so they did it.
Because we spoke to Dino like two months before you broke up and nothing seemed to be wrong, so it was a big shock for us.
Yeah I know, it was for a lot of people, I got a lot of email from people that couldn’t believe it like; I can't believe you broke up, you’re my favorite band, stuff like that you know. It was kind of weird that you don’t really think about it that way until it happens, because you’re on tour and not thinking about those things, because it’s a huge thing.
Well we are glad you're back.
It feels good to be back, everyone’s really, happy it’s great.
And you have been touring constantly.
Well we have been on tour pretty much the whole year, we started the 20th of January and we have been pretty much on tour the whole year, I mean we spend maybe a month at home.
Well that’s good in a way.
Yeah it’s good! You know, there‘s a need for the band and there are still a lot of people who want to see us.
What do you expect of the Dutch crowd tonight?
We have played here before and that was pretty crazy last time so we’ll see.
We always had fun here so…
Well we want to thank you for you time.
No problem, thank YOU guys.
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