| Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory Interview by Sam Bello The Factory reopens for business Fear Factory has been one of Roadrunner Records� driving forces in hard and heavy rock for several years before it all came to an end and the Factory ceased operations. But little did we know that the end was only going to lead to the beginning of something great as Fear Factory makes a slight personnel change in its metal music assembly line and celebrates a grand reopening with the release of their new album Archetype through Liquid 8 Records. RockRage managed to get a hold of �dry lung vocal martyr� Burton C. Bell to discuss much of what has happened with the band over the past couple of years, being let go from Roadrunner yet still are involved, why he split instead of firing Dino, the new album, being kicked out of their video shoot, and the band�s return to a lethal and brutal Fear Factory ready for mass production. RR: First off, I just want to say congrats on the new album because it kicks all sorts of ass Bell: Thanks man. That�s really cool. RR: But I wanted to ask you about it because, if I�m not mistaken, Roadrunner is actually carrying the album overseas. Bell: They�re distributing it overseas. RR: But not here in the States. Bell: No, not here in the States. We�re on Liquid 8 Records over here, which is very independent, and distributed through Navarre over here, but Roadrunner offered to [Bell gives a quiet laughter], you know, they dropped us but they still want to distribute us. So it�s pretty funny. It works out because they have great distribution in Europe and Australia and the teams they have over there just really know how to push everything. So it�s kind of cool that we�re still working with those people. RR: So who�s Liquid 8 then? I�ve never heard of them. Bell: They�re just an independent label. We�re the only contemporary and heavy band they have. They have people like Hall & Oates and Smokey Robinson and a lot of Gospel recordings. RR: And then here�s Fear Factory. Bell: Exactly. We were actually talking to D3 originally when Roadrunner let us go and we were looking for another deal. D3 approached us, so we were talking to them and going over contracts and during that time I guess they had some dealings with Liquid 8 and apparently Liquid 8 bought out D3. So when Liquid 8 was looking at what D3 had on the plate, they saw Fear Factory and the owner of the company is like �well, you know, I kind of heard of Fear Factory, but let me ask my son.� And his son is like 15-years-old and he asked his son about Fear Factory and his son is like �yeah, I love those guys.� RR: Perfect. So it all worked out. Bell: Totally. RR: Any limitations to working with them since they are a smaller, independent label? Bell: No, not at all. We get a lot of attention. They�re really hyped about this record. It�s something new for them. They�ve never really done anything like this so they�re really jazzed and we�re getting a lot of attention being that we�re the only contemporary band and we�re very hands on. So we deal with it a lot. So they�re really excited. It�s attention we haven�t really seen in a long time. I remember when we first signed to Roadrunner we kind of had that attention in the beginning, but as they grew larger and the roster became just so massive that it just kind of got lost in the shuffle. RR: So you�ve become top priority again. Bell: Exactly, it�s fucking genius. RR: You guys shot a video for �Cyberwaste� and I was flipping through the [Fear Factory] site and you had images from the video shoot and I noticed Christian had a bag of ice to his head. Is that right? Bell: Yeah, it was just hot (chuckles). RR: Was it? I�m like what the hell happened? I didn�t hear anything. Bell: Oh no, it was just hot. It was summertime down there and it was hot and we were in this abandoned factory on the ocean, but going over the song it was just fucking hot and he was just trying to keep cool. He had no concussion or anything like that caused by some maniacal fanatic. RR: Where was it filmed? Bell: It was filmed in South Fremantle, which is like a beach community of Perth, Australia and it�s basically on the edge of the world. It�s on the Indian Ocean. We just scouted out for a couple days and found it. It�s like an abandoned power station. It�s very art deco. It was built like in the 1920�s and it was just derelict and just falling apart, completely empty, high broken out windows. It was amazing. RR: So it was perfect. Bell: It was perfect and we invited about 400 fans down and they all showed up and they surrounded us in the pit and it was a lot of fun. It was kind of done punk rock style actually, because the video director said he got permission to go in there but technically, he broke in. RR: Oh, nice (chuckling). Bell: So he didn�t tell any of us that until six hours later the cops finally showed up and kicked us out. RR: And here you guys are marking the ground with spray paint with your logo and stuff. Bell: Yeah, I did a good job on that one. That was the first time I ever did that logo in spray paint. It came out really cool. RR: It came out almost perfect. You couldn�t tell. The symmetry and everything was just perfect. Bell: Yeah, I really surprised myself. RR: You�re an artist in all forms. Bell: Yeah, truly. RR: I understand that �Cyberwaste isn�t the �official� single. Bell: Yeah, it�s the unofficial first single. It�s the song we wanted to highlight. There�s been a lot of change in this band over the [past] couple years and this is basically for our loyal, our hardcore fans out there to show �em �Look, we�re still Fear Factory. If there�s any doubt in your mind, check this shit out.� And it�s highly energetic and it�s one of my favorite tracks on the record. It�s just got a lot of energy. It�s cool. RR: So if this isn�t the first single that would be going to radio or anything like that then what would be or is that still being decided? Bell: Ah, I guess it depends on the radio station. I�ve heard a lot of radio stations have been picking �Act of God.� Um, if I was to like send one out the one I would send out would be the title track �Archetype� �cause that�s like the quintessential Fear Factory song right there. RR: Going back to how things have changed over the past couple years. You actually had to quit the band for things to happen. Bell: In some ways it kind of inadvertently worked out that way. At the beginning, I hadn�t even thought about the future plans. I just had enough. I had to walk away; you know, personal relationship had collapsed within the band and the working relationship was affected because of it. So I left. Time goes by and looking into the Fear Factory from the outside and being able to see what was going on, so many things came into perspective. The irony is it�s because of Roadrunner that this band got back; started up again, because our goal as we found out that we were individually signed as well as signed as a band to Roadrunner. We were contractually obligated even as the band was dissolved. So for us to get off the label, we had to do a demo for the label as Fear Factory. So months go by and Raymond and Christian propose that idea to me and I said �Well, let me hear the music.� So they sent me four tracks and I was very convinced. I could hear the vision and the potential in the music. I figured, �I�ll tell you, we�ll do this.� Once we started working together again, just me, Raymond and Christian, it just worked out so well and just kind of snowballed. RR: So they already had the music going. Bell: Well, only when they had this plan together and they called me up about it and they just patiently came up with songs in a week. The first four tracks ended up being �Slave Labor,� �Corporate Cloning,� �Bite the Hand That Bleeds,� and �Archetype.� RR: And the rest just fell into place. Bell: Yeah, you know, it all kind of fell into place. It�s hard to explain how it all happened. Fate is a very strange thing. It was all as if it was written to be this way. It was kind of weird. RR: Okay, because I wanted to ask you if things weren�t going well in the band with the way, I guess, things were going down with Dino, why couldn�t you just let him go and continue on? Bell: Initially, I just didn�t want to deal with that. I just had enough. In my mind the only thing that I could do was just walk away. RR: Did it come naturally for Christian, and knowing that he initially was a guitarist, to fill in that spot or did you guys audition other guitarists and then realized �No, let�s move Christian into there?� Bell: No, we did not audition anybody. When it all started Christian was already playing guitar�his own stuff and him and Raymond jam out. But Christian just decided, �I�ll do the guitars on the demo.� And once the demo was done and they were writing some more songs, we were just kind of sittin� there - it was almost so obvious and logical that we didn�t see it. Christian�s like, �Who are we going to get play guitar?� And it just kind of stumped me. I was like, �Who are we going to get to play guitar?� After a while thinking, Raymond and I were like, �Well, why don�t you play guitar? �Cause you�re doing it already.� And that actually kind of took a lot of stress off because it was easy to find a bass player. We didn�t want to hold an open audition. We just wanted to find a friend that we liked and who was also a great bass player. We could only think of three people and Byron Stroud was the guy. RR: But Byron didn�t actually lay down any tracks on the album did he? Bell: No, we asked like a month before we went into the studio so he didn�t have time to learn all the tracks. Plus, he was still on tour with Strapping [Young Lad]. RR: You guys pretty much have a fifth member of the band with John [Bechdel] doing the keyboards and the programming. Bell: That�s correct. RR: Even though he�s not an official member of the band, does he still have any involvement when you guys write material? Bell: Yes, he was with us during like the recording session and he has involvement. He was coming up with stuff. RR: You guys have this �Golden Ticket� promotion thing going on when the album comes out. Bell: Yeah, apparently. RR: What do you know about it? Basically, just buy the album? Bell: Buy the album, if there�s a golden ticket in it you get to go see Fear Factory on the road somewhere. RR: A Willy Wonka kind of thing. Bell: Yeah, something like that. Sounds kind of fun. RR: Go see the Factory. Bell: Yeah, the Fear Factory not the chocolate factory. RR: Regardless, even without that golden ticket the album itself � I feel really strongly �should sell on its own. Bell: Yeah, I�m very pleased on the outcome of this album. We were very focused. We didn�t have any stress or burden with time. We were able to just be creative and it was a very focused and direct approach that we had and it definitely reflects in the album. RR: Do you think this would be kind of like redemption for those more hardcore Fear Factory fans who were a little disappointed with Digimortal? Bell: Ah, I think hardcore fans will definitely be pleased with this album. Digimortal wasn�t a bad album. RR: No, no. Bell: There was a lot to it. A lot of outside influence and opinion that kind of affected a lot that album and there was a lot of internal issues going on that affected the album as well and I think it definitely reflected in the album. But everything is fine now. The dynamics are working and I think the hardcore and the loyal fans will definitely see this and I hope they understand and respect it. RR: And I definitely think for those who are not into Fear Factory yet this might be a turning put where they might get into you guys now. Bell: Well, we hope to when a bunch of fans over. We�re doing this Slipknot tour starting next week and there�s still a lot of people who had never heard of Fear Factory and we hope to change that very soon. RR: I was actually talking to both Chris� � Chris [Fehn] from Slipknot and Chris [Spicuzza] from Chimaira � yesterday. Bell: Oh, really? RR: We were talking about the Jagermeister tour and Chris from Chimaira actually said that they were going to �throw it down� and make you guys work a little bit harder. Bell: [Burton gives a hollow chuckle]. RR: But is it going to be one of those tours � I mean because all three bands are intense in their own rights � is it going to be one of those tours where you guys are going to try to outdo each other or just go out and let it fucking rip regardless? Bell: Well, I think we�re definitely going to go out and let it rip. I think there�s going to be some friendly competition. Everyone always wants to do their best. I think when you got three bands together of this caliber it�s like you got to do you�re best. Everybody�s fucking great, you know. I think Chimaira they put on a great live show and they fucking do throw it down, and Slipknot, my God. We got to definitely strive to be our best and just have a great show and just have a great time at it. It�ll be a lot of camaraderie and a lot of support from all the bands and I�m looking forward to it. We know we got to throw it down, but we know we can and we�re ready. |
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