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Patrick: Where you at today? Christian: I’m in Los Angeles. Patrick: Cool. How have things been going lately? Christian: Good. Just finished up mastering. Got that out of the way, so seems like the record is finished now. That’s pretty much it. Getting ready to do the art work, finish that up, then we’re actually rehearsing right now in preparation for the tour, but nothing really hectic. Patrick: Is that what you were doing in Vancouver last month? Christian: No we were mixing in Vancouver. We recorded the record in L.A. and mixed it in Vancouver. Remastered it anyway. Patrick: You guys are hitting the road later this month to tour Australia right? Christian: Yeah. Patrick: How is it touring in places like that? Christian: It’s dope. Like, especially playing in Australia is really nice. Actually we’re gonna go to Korea before. Yeah, it’s a really nice place. In fact it’s summer out there, in Australia. So it’s like full blown summer and we get to play there. There are big fan bases out there. Australia is pretty huge for us. We do really well. Patrick: Do you ever get to see the sights or do a lot of tourist stuff when you guys play in places like that? Christian: I was never a tourist to begin with. I never traveled when I was younger. I only traveled … I used to skateboard and play soccer so that was the only time I would travel, for sports. I would never just travel. My family never really went on vacation. They were very hard working, blue collar people. They never really had the time for vacation. They were always working. So, I never really seen that growing up. I never knew what vacation was. Actually, you just go to the hotel room cause you’re tired from the flight. Then you try to get everything straight for the show, then you do the show. Sometimes you get a couple days off, but it happens that we go go-cart riding or do something fun like that on a day off. Or somebody that knows somebody, hey you can get in there for free. I’m definitely not very touristy like. Patrick: Do you prefer to play overseas or in the states? Christian: Um. That depends where it is overseas (laughs). If it’s Russia and Eastern Europe and places like that, great crowds but, I’d rather play the states. Cause I know I can go to Denny’s or something or Iron Skillet after the show. You can’t even get that in Europe. Your fucked. After seven o’clock you’re starving. Then you got, they put like tuna on your pizza or something. But the crowds are great. They’re living different over there. Americans are spoiled. One ice cube and shit in a glass of water (laughs). We gotta take the recipe for ice over there (laughs). I like touring the states, man. It’s a harder market. I think it’s more of a challenge. Patrick: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be? Christian: Um. The biggest thing I think is the downloading issue. We gotta figure something out. It’s great to research and get a hold of a band or music. But in the end it hurts. The whole downloading thing, I think has really hurt the whole music industry. I remember when you used to get a CD like two months or three months in advance to do write-ups on. You can’t do that anymore. The way things are, it’s totally different these days. There’s a lot of things to deal with. It kind of pisses you off and ‘this is fucked!’ Can’t even leave your emails open. Or people will enter them and take over everything. Checking out your life. Like what happened to the drummer with Korn. They went to the hard drive and took the Korn record off of there. That’s why they had to push it a week earlier. Patrick: I heard about the leak but I didn’t know how it happened. Christian: It’s fucked up huh? There’s a lot of issues to deal with, copyright protection and all of that. The music industry … one other thing I would change is radio programming. They need to bring like Headbanger’s Ball back. They brought it back, but they didn’t really bring it back I think. Not really like … they just kind of put an hour and thirty minutes together and play a couple bands, but they should have something more. Like in Los Angeles you can’t even turn on a radio station and listen to good metal. The radio programming all over the U.S. kind of sucks. A lot of politics involved. A lot of money. Big companies and big sponsors and all this and all that. It kind of sucks. Ten years ago it was a lot more fun making music. Like the early 90’s were amazing. Old Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Helmet, Metallica. Metal was really cool. Patrick: I live in Montana and still can’t get away from crappy radio. They have a station here that’s run by Clearchannel. Christian: Yeah, it’s definitely Clearchannel. They’re buying everything up (laughs). They’re one big corporation. Patrick: What are you most proud of when you look at your accomplishments? Like, if you picture yourself telling your grandkids about your career, what’s the first thing you say? Christian: Probably be “Obsolete,” cause it went gold after awhile. That’s the one you’d be hanging on the wall, so that’s one we’re most proud of. We toured really hard on that record too. There’s a lot of I’m proud of. I’m still continuing and not giving up and doing something I like to do. Better than flipping burgers. Patrick: Or making ice. Christian: Exactly. Patrick: The new album, is it pronounced (arch-type) or (arki-type)? Christian: (arki-type). Patrick: Describe the overall feel of “Archetype” for fans of the band. Christian: Um it definitely has … I would say it has a lot of fire and aggression. It’s the type of record where Burt had to get a lot of shit off his chest. It’s that kind of album. I would say it starts off like a typical Fear Factory record. It’s very typical Fear Factory in some ways but in other ways it does sound different. I’m playing guitar now and I’m definitely not the same person as I was before. But it’s still Fear Factory and it sounds a little different. One thing that really sticks out for me that’s different is the energy. A lot of the energy behind the songs. We wrote the songs very, in a punk rock kind of way. Like just slapped ‘em together. Just sat with it for a couple hours and yeah, that feels good. Go with it. I didn’t sit there and try to pick everything apart. Like, it has to be like this … that’s something we did in the past and I think it’s one of the downfalls of this band. Like another record that would be better than its predecessor. I think a lot of the vibe and the anger and the hunger was gone. Cause you were picking everything apart for like twelve months before you go into the studio. It sucks. It’s just terrible. We just slapped it together basically. Like, this is it. This is how we wrote it. I’m not gonna change it. I live with it. That felt normal. There’s no songs at all like 2:50, 3:10, 3:20, formatted for radio. Everything’s pretty much between four and five minutes. Another thing that strikes me about this record is, it’s very in your face. It has a lot of punch to it. A lot more midrange. Like when you hear an Andy Wallace production? I think for the people that don’t even know us, and never really heard of Fear Factory, this is gonna be the first time listening to Fear Factory, or lets say we get into a commercial market, people that would pick up this record would think it’s more appealing to those people, even though it’s really heavy for a lot of people. Probably too heavy for most people. But I think they understand it … It’s easier to understand than one of our old records. EQ wise and the way the record sounds, cause all the records are … I would say … you know how you hear Master of Puppets or And Justice for All, it sounds very scooped in a way. It just flows in high end, no mid. This record is more in your face, all the frequencies are there. Brings in a lot of different overtones and harmonies that were never really apparent in our music. That’s kind of like analyzing it a little bit. That’s the way I perceive it. You always like to put the record next to all the other records and see how it sounds in comparison. Patrick: You said you play guitar on this one. Christian: Yep. I play guitar on this one, and bass. Patrick: How was that? Christian: It was definitely different. It was a lot of stress cause I had to do both things, and write the record arrangement. So we were in the studio and you know how it is in the studio, you’re pressed for time and money, you’re in the studio, you gotta perform. If you don’t really feel good right then, when you happen to that track, you have to feel good. There’s no way around it. It’s not like you can go home, ‘ah, I’ll do it tomorrow, I think I’ll feel better in the morning.’ That’s one thing that feels like a challenge is to strive under pressure. If you can perform under the stress and pressure, that’s probably the hardest thing. Cause anybody can perform, but then when you … anybody can sing, but when you put them in a studio behind a mic, you get that pressure. That’s something I kinda had a feeling from this record. I was under so much pressure, I wanted to get the bass done real quick, so Burt could start vocals. So Burt has enough time to really sit down and do his vocals. Vocals, you have to let the vocal person heal. If you do like five days, banging it, you’ll have a couple days. You don’t have like a week and a half left to do vocals. You only have enough time to let your vocals heal. It can effect the way the record sounds. So those type of things, I really like, something I really try to change on the next one. I’m gonna like, try to cut the stress factor out and just build a studio in my house. I already have a studio. I really want to build one so I can do guitar tracks and do vocal tracks. If we can do all the vocal demo stuff at the house … I have a decent mic, but not something we’d get in the studio. Not a $10-12,000 mic. The next record is gonna be closer to those things. I’m gonna try to do the next record stress free. Not on the spot, but really stress free. Like when you first write the song or when you first play it or demo it, you have this amazing energy and vibe and hunger and you’re curious how it’s gonna turn out. A lot of times, ten months after that, you already know the songs, you’re playing them to death, then you have to re-record them again. For me arrangements and stuff, it’s no big deal. But, for a singer, to try to recreate a certain vibe you had ten months ago on a demo, is sometimes really hard. So, I’m gonna attempt to try to catch that on our next record. One way, the way a record sounds one way or the other way, the EQ and different masters, it’s sounds like this and like that. That sounds dandy, but in the end what the kids are gonna look for is the energy. When you turn on a record, if that record makes you like, ‘ah yeah’ if it makes you get that feeling in your stomach. There’s a lot of guys that just analyze everything to death on their record. I would say this record mainly is like, when you’re mad at your parents and they tell you to turn your music down, you turn it way up (laughs). That’s kind of how it is. Patrick: Where do you place Fear Factory in today’s mix of metal? Christian: Um. I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. Never really worried about it. I’m kind of, where do we stand after the last album. That’s kind of what it’s like to me. There’s nothing really out there that I really like besides Deftones, and actually, I must say the DevilDriver record is pretty good. It’s not something I’d listen to everyday, but it’s a pretty good record. I don’t know. I just hope that when we do play with all these bands at these festivals and Ozzfest that we’re still as powerful as we used to be. When we come out people know it’s Fear Factory. I don’t think there’s a lot of bands that really do sound like us. It’s not like people are like ‘ah Fear Factory aint interesting anymore cause I have Meshuggah,’ There’s a couple bands that are very Fear Factory like but they’re different. Everybody’s a little different. I think we’ll see when this record hits and we start playing the songs, where we stand. I never really analyze that shit. I’m just glad we go to these shows and get to play with bands like Korn. Patrick: Are there any bands you’d like to tour with that you haven’t yet? Christian: Metallica. Deftones. Well we did an Ozzfest with the Deftones, but we never did like an us-opening for them kind of thing. Maybe like an Audioslave or something. But then again, I like going out with bands that are large, but when we go on in front of them, it’s so heavy that the crowd is really warmed up by the time the main act goes on. We did tours with Slayer before and that was a good tour. I wouldn’t mind doing a Slayer tour again. We might be doing a Slipknot tour, we’re talking to ‘em. That’d be a good tour. Any tour where the headlining band is gonna be a monster, I’m down with. There’s a lot of bands I want to tour with actually. Patrick: I’m going to name off a few bands and I want you to tell me what you think of them, good bad or indifferent. Okay? Christian: Okay. Patrick: Static-X. Christian: Static-X? To me they’re like a new version of Ministry. I like ‘em. They’re a good band. I like the guys of course. We actually rehearse right next door to them. Actually we’re gonna be doing some shows with them. They always struck me as a cool bunch of guys. We actually took them out way back in the day, when the first record was just about to come out. I actually look forward to playing with those guys. That’ll be cool. Patrick: KMFDM. Christian: I was never really that big a fan of them, but I know they definitely … a lot of the more industrial side of the industry, music. I was never into the way the guys looked, but some of the music was really cool (laughs). I’m never really down with pony tails on the top of your head. I more like from the hard core school, skateboarding, hard core music. Patrick: Pearl Jam. Christian: They wrote some good songs, but I was never really moved by their music. Actually, that Jeremy song was really cool. But, I was never really … great musicians. Like when I’d see something in guitar magazine, the guitar collections that they have are way more interesting than the songs they wrote (laughs). Patrick: Elvis. Christian: Oh shit. Elvis, man. That’s like, for me definitely started something way back in the day when I used to go through my Mom’s records. When I figured out what a record was and put it on the player and put the needle on and heard the magic, I think it was an Elvis record or a Platters record. He’s like a god of music basically to the world. It’s hard to explain. There’s only a few. Even the Beatles are so huge and did so much. Like when you picture Elvis and the Beatles, Elvis is like the icon for the music business, like Martin Luther King was for the black society and their revolution in the 60’s. Elvis music is like the ultimate icon. Patrick: Let’s go to the Beatles. Christian: I liked the Beatles and I thought they had some great songs, but to me, I don’t know they never really … I just think they were too … all the songs sound kind of a little kindergardenish. Like you know what I mean, it was like the pop music in those days cause it was really more simple. I like songs like “It’s Been a Hard Days Night,” I like songs like that. I like the Who a lot better cause they had a lot more energy. That was something I missed in the Beatles was energy. I like groups that have a certain type of energy. Like Rolling Stones, Beatles, they started in the late sixties, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, I was more into the groups that were more rebellious I would say. I guess that’s why I made more heavier music. You know like AC/DC, even though I never grew up with any of those groups either. You know even Ozzy or Black Sabbath, I never grew up those groups. When I heard them back in the day, something attracted me to it. I was kind of like, I can’t listen to that, my Mom’s gonna freak out. (laughs). To me, my all time favorite group is definitely the Police. They had rock, reggae, soul, they had everything the music … those records those songs, when I put one of those records on, it kind of sinks back in time and sort of hypnotizes you. That’d be the one group. Patrick: Suicidal Tendancies. Christian: Shhh. I think that’s, to me that’s the Bible of heavy music. That’s why I got into it in the first place. I grew up skateboarding and Sucidal Tendancies and skateboarding went hand-in-hand. That’s the whole thing I really admired back in the day was Dogtown, which was a Venice-based skateboard team. Suicidal was really like a part of Dogtown. It was like a whole scene, a culture. Suicidal Tendancies, man. That was like a Bible to me. That first record was awesome. Patrick: Fear Factory. Christian: (laughs). Not as classic as Suicidal. It’s hard to talk about your own band. As long as we feel good about what we do, we’re on the right path. Feel like we accomplished something. And we go out and do shows and there’s interest. Whatever we put into our record, we better be prepared. People see us out there and they see we’re hungry and the energy’s there. I’m not gonna try to analyze it too much. Like we did in the past. We used to analyze everything, we’re just gonna put that shit up and play and knock somebody over the head with my guitar and we’ll be fine (laughs). Patrick: If you could share the stage with any bands past or present who would they be? Your ultimate fantasy show. Christian: Fuck. Okay. Of course we’re gonna be on the bill. But headlining will be the Police. It’d be a festival. Picture this it’s gonna be a festival in Europe somewhere, it’s huge, like lets say it could be in like Portugal or Spain or Greece or, you know one of those tropical hot countries. It’s one of the biggest festivals and the Police are headlining, reunion, original lineup. The Police are headlining. Actually Faith No More is gonna be on the bill too I heard. I heard the Deftones are on the bill. I heard Rage Against the Machine are on that bill. Let me think. Shit. I’d be happy with those actually. The Police would definitely be the headliner. It’s like when Page and Plant started playing, they were headlining across the U.S. You know every band that played that day, five stages, everybody’s just watching at the end of the day when they go on. It’s pretty classic. Patrick: Thanks for getting it together Christian. Christian: Thanks man. Patrick: Sorry for the mixup. Christian: That’s allright. I’ll get on our people and make sure, they gotta think about that. I’ll talk to you soon bro |