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Interview
by SashaS
10-6-2004
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| Fear Factory: 'Achetype' setting control |
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Archetypal present
Fear Factory: post-cybernetic Hi-def state
Reset the clock to December 2001, dressing room of the London’s Astoria Theatre loft where our interview with Burton C. Bell, Fear Factory's vocalist/lyricist/theorist, is not happening as the man is refusing to talk, claiming to be too tired and needing a nap before the eve’s explosive show. Drummer Raymond Herrera agrees to sub for the singer who spends his time resting over three chairs nearby.
Bassist Christian Olde Wolbers comes in and out of the room but guitarist Dino Casares is nowhere in sight.
“I apologise, I wasn’t trying to be rude,” BCB recalls the occasion, “but I couldn’t bring myself to talk about it because I felt that, if I started, I’d lose my mind. Christian and Raymond decided not to work with Dino either and the band was more-of-less over. But, our record company (Roadrunner) put us on ‘suspension’, which meant the band members were still together, contractually, on individual bases.”
Some six months later the band announced the split and, although we weren’t surprised after that episode, we were saddened beyond the curative power of blues. The most powerful, passionate and thought-provoking band was hanging up the instruments and leaving us with the bunch of much lesser outfits, from Korn to Marilyn Manson to Linkin Park.
Where could we find the darkly enchanting world that is heavy-but-cerebral? Tough titty, buddy until fate, in her infinite wisdom, dealt the right hand and Fear Factory regrouped, minus Cazares - Wolbers is on guitar his bassing duties taken over by Byron Stroud [ex-Strapping Young Lad], a longtime friend - that canned the new ‘Archetype’ disc.
“Last August I moved to New York City,” Burton C. Bell starts the update on his life in a West London hotel lobby, “and it was part of needing to change, I lived in Los Angeles for 14 years and having had been raised in Houston, Texas, for most of my life, the two cities are very alike and I got tired of it. And, I met a new woman who lives in NYC. I find it exciting, there is something going on all the time, everything goes through there, restaurant, galleries - I am an art enthusiast - and you can never get bored.”
How much has this physical separation reflected on the album, you’d adjudge?
“Officially I moved to NYC last August,” BCB explains details, “but I spent most of the past two years on the East Coast. After I left the band in 2002, I left my apartment there and started working on new projects… I needed to get away to be able to think clearly, to be able to step outside and see everything for what it is. My feelings and emotions were just blowing, like a stream of consciousness at times…”
“NYC is more real, LA is very unrealistic…I’ve been down on LA for a while but I still like visiting. The rest of the band still leave there.”
It might be a bit tricky working that way, despite all the technology?
“To them, it was my happiness that was the most important and they can see how much I love it, how much I enjoy it, that I’m making it work, so there are no problems, at all.”
NY changing chamber
Ch-ch-changes appears to be the theme of this album which deals in topics that have interested him most of his life: industrialisation of souls, automation of feelings, therapy for humans-indoctrinated-into-shoppaholics and politically pre-conditioned to an android-vision… [America, we salute your peoples! - Taken-his-leave Ed.]
‘Archetype’ is Fear Factory at their most ferocious, powerful and intriguing: there is intellect at work here, it is not only brawn/volume operating in this theatre of mind but the visions it provides will keep anyone enthralled for eons and a day.
“Doing this album was a breeze,” Bell smiles after wiping cappuccino off his lips, “it was no conflict, we were focused, everything was deliberate, and there is sense of maturity to this album. It’s like mature brutality, it is not just chaotic, emotional… The last two years have been an emotional rollercoaster for all of us, us three: we felt free but had to deal with lots and stuck together. The three of us together - good components, good friends.”
Can we have a synopsis of the split and the re-birth, please?
“It wasn’t an overnight thing, it was brewing for sometime,” Bell sighs heavy. “I‘m a patient individual but I had as much as I could take… ‘Digimortal’ was a very difficult record to do because Dino is a very impressive person. The way he wanted to get there is by being very stubborn, physically oppressive and wouldn’t listen to anybody. It really got worse on the last album and he thought it was his band, nobody else’s. There were additional factors that piled up on top, internally and externally, like dealing with business.”
“It wasn’t until I stepped away from the band that I learnt the extent of shady dealings. By the end of the tour I felt dead inside… I had to get away and it led me even into a therapy; at one moment I felt I needed some help… I re-started painting again, taking photographs, working on ideas; I had an incredible amount of creative freedom like never in my life. This is a cathartic record, I was angry and had every right to be, every song is an honest and accurate sight of what we were going through, the way we were feeling and dealing with it.”
“Because of our contractual situation, Raymond and Christian had this crazy idea we should do a demo and I stipulated that if did it, no Dino could be involved. They sent me four tracks, just music, all title-less but, the moment I heard them, I named them, ‘Slave Labor’, ‘Corporate Cloning’, ‘Bite the Hand That Bleeds’ and ‘Undercurrent’. That was it but there was the whole deal with legality, contracts, a whole lot more things of shady dealings.”
Devil's tower
Bonus track on the album is Nirvana’s ‘School’; a tribute to the tenth anniversary of Cobain‘s ending his life?
“We’ve always done covers,” Burton reminds us, “and I thought it should be Nirvana’s song. I used to love that band and remember hearing ‘Bleach’ for the first time and it really got to me, really moved me and inspired me. I used to go all their early shows in LA and you can actually see me around Nirvana a few times: I was on the cover of that 7’’ single, and, in ‘Teen Spirit’ video also, I’m visible few times. I used to be a really big fan of the band. Sad, and tragic life.”
“I also felt the song being important nowadays. It also points to the education having taken backseat in our lives.”
Lyrically depicting a dysfunctional reality and a dark, cyber-night of spirituality, are you privately as pessimistic?
“I’m an optimist actually,” Bell surprisingly states although we’d bet on fatalism-cum-nihilism, “I believe that we’ll overcome the problems and rise above the destruction we are inflicting upon ourselves and the planet.”
Fear Factory have never taken us inside the TV-realm but beyond the matrix we all know so well, to the edge of the world reality where the white worm burrows. Fast in thought and swift in action, like a flash of lightning, the swoop of the eagle, the flight of the arrow, the Stealth bomber… All things that move with speed are with them. Fuelled by lust for life. And, the truth. Justice and… All things ‘Superman’ embodied.
“This record was meant to be archetypal, it describes us as the band, lyrically and musically, we have defined our archetype,” are his parting words.
No truer word spoken, bro. And, ‘Alchemy’ is a cautionary tale: all thee who are to follow, gotta up your hardest ante!
Tour dates [after the USA with Slipknot on this year's Jagermeister tour]:
21 June - Astoria, London
22 June - Academy, Manchester
23 June - QMU, Glasgow
[Originally published 24 April 2004]
SashaS
10-6-2004
Fear Factory album ‘Archetype’ is released 19 April 2004 by Roadrunner
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