Fear Factory has to be one of our very favourite Metal bands at The Rockpit, and it’s always a pleasure to see them coming back to our shores: with new music on the way 2015 is looking very heavy indeed…
Andrew: How is the new album coming along?
Dino: We are just in the process of doing pre-production. We wanna have it done this year and hopefully have it out sometime hopefully by Soundwave or right after or before or at the same time. Keep our fingers crossed that all goes as planned but yeah we are in the process of doing pre-production. We are almost done so we should be in the studio sometime by October.
Andrew: Do you have any idea what kind of songs are coming out like is it anything like the last album or anything you have done before?
Dino: Oh it’s a little too soon for that isn’t it haha!
Andrew: Haha so you haven’t really written much of the songs yet?
Dino: Na we wrote but like I said we are in pre-production and we are almost done. So yes obviously we have a few songs but I think it’s a little too early to start talking about that.
Andrew: So obviously you are coming back to Australia for Soundwave, what can we expect on this tour?
Dino: Well obviously as you know we are season veterans of going to Australia. I mean Australia was one of the first countries that we got a gold record in so we are very happy about that and coming back is always a pleasure. We always love coming back there, there’s great fans there and we are just really ecstatic that AJ was cool enough to invite us down to next year’s Soundwave festival. You can expect a lot of the classics! We are gonna play a lot of the classic songs. We were there I think earlier this year or last year and we played Demanufacture in it’s entirety so this time it’s gonna be a collection of all the classics and obviously there will be a lot of the Demanufacture songs but we’ll do a greatest hits of Fear Factory.
Andrew: Yeah I caught you guys on the Demanufacture tour last year. That was an amazing tour, how was it for you guys?
Dino: Oh we loved it! Like I said Australia was the first country that Demanufacture went gold in so it was great that we took it there first. Because obviously Australians really got into the record and we were very happy to do an entirety. It felt really good! Some of those songs I hadn’t played like “A Therapy For Pain” we had never played it live, never played that song live! So it felt really good to play it live. There’s a couple of other songs that we don’t do much at all like “New Breed” we hardly ever do, “Pisschrist” every once in a while. The main ones we always do are obviously “Replica”, “Zero Signal”, “Self Bias Resistor” and “Demanufacture”, those are the top 4 songs that we always play. The other songs kinda get neglected so it felt really good to do all the songs.
Andrew: Did that inspire you in any way to maybe start bring out other songs that are a bit more obscure or that you had never played before?
Dino: Yeah we did do a lot of stuff off the first record. We done tours where we did songs like “Leechmaster” that we haven’t done, “Self Immolation” we hadn’t done in a very long time, “Scrumgrief”, “Big God”. So it definitely inspired us to bring back some of the old catalogue, songs that people hadn’t heard since they bought the CD in 1992. So unless they saw us play in 1993, that was the last time we played a lot of those songs. But it was cool to have a flashback of a lot of the old stuff that we started and a good part of the crowds knew those songs but some of the songs are so old, there’s a whole generation of kids who have never heard “Scrumgrief” or “Leechmaster” and we noticed it.
Andrew: So for the Soundwave festival dates, is there any plans to do shows inbetween those dates?
Dino: They are definitely planned and being worked out. I don’t know exactly which cities but there definitely will be some sidewave shows.
Andrew: Obviously you guys have played a lot of festivals over the years. What do you think are the main differences for you guys between festival shows and club shows?
Dino: Obviously the club shows are a little more intimate, you can kinda feel the crowd more. Festivals are sometimes gigantic and so far away and it might take a moment for you to get into the crowd. It’s always great when you see everybody jumping up and down or see like 4 or 5 moshpits going at the same time. I like both, I prefer both. Festivals are always fun, you get to see all the different bands. A lot of times we walk around the park and we go watch other bands from the side of the stage or out in the crowd and we just mingle. We’ve done some other festivals like the Big Day Out where it has all different techno tents and DJ tents so I always like to go wandering off and checking out those tents, maybe go on a ferris wheel or something. I love festivals, I try to get into it cause you know the person that’s out there watching so I try to get into it as well.
Andrew: Yeah obviously festivals are a completely different vibe than the club shows but I do personally think that you guys are probably better suited to club shows? It seems to be the vibe musically I think.
Dino: I’m not sure. I mean I’ve seen some bands that they could probably do one festival and the sound is shitty or something is not that great and then all of a sudden the next festival they sound fucking amazing. Sometimes it can be a hit and a miss at a festival. But I like both.
Andrew: Are you guys still playing a lot of stuff from “The Industrialist” or have you kinda shied away a bit from that album now?
Dino: No definitely not. 3 songs that we normally play is “The Industrialist”, we play “Recharger” and we play “New Messiah”. Those are the 3 songs that we play, we kinda rotate them at different times.
Andrew: So how hard is it these days to pick a setlist to cater for both you and the fans?
Dino: Jesus Christ man it’s so hard! Because we have so many songs and it’s not enough time for all the other songs we want to play.
Andrew: Yeah definitely! So aside from the new album, what’s next? Do you have any tour dates before you come to Australia?
Dino: We are actually going to be doing a bunch of shows prior to that. We are going to China, we are going to India, we are going to South America. We are going to be extremely busy. Trying to finish this record and then doing all this touring inbetween, it’s pretty hectic. And then obviously going to Australia then a European tour and US tour. It’s kind of a back and forth thing with us between the US and Europe and then next summer we will be doing all the festivals over in Europe so should be fun!
Andrew: OK cool. So I got a couple of questions that we try to ask everyone that we interview. If you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any classic album in history what would it be?
Dino: I would be a fly on the wall for one of my favorite records, it’s something completely different than metal. It would be U2 – The Joshua Tree. The layers of stuff that’s on that record, I would love to see all that.
Andrew: Have you ever considered recording a cover song from that album at all?
Dino: Ah yeah! Haha But I personally haven’t done it. I know that some of the other guys have done it but I haven’t done it.
Andrew: And for you, what is the meaning of life?
Dino: Happiness. If you’re not happy, then nothing is going to be good! Happiness, whatever makes you happy. Music, family, friends, beer! Haha if it makes you happy! It doesn’t necessarily have to be about money, it’s whatever makes you happy. It could be about money but whatever makes you happy!
Andrew: Yep it’s different for everyone.
Dino: Exactly. Everyone is going to have a different outlook on life and that’s fine.
Andrew: That’s right! Well we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and we look forward to seeing you at Soundwave next year!
Dino: Hey well thank you for taking the time to give me the opportunity to talk to you!
