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An an exclusive interview with Fear Factory's
Raymond Herrera
By: Anthony Roldan
 Fear Factory Interview:
AR - How has Dino not being in Fear Factory influenced you guys for this record?
RH
- Well, him not being in the band is not going to influence us because we (the
band) have always sounded the way we sound. Obviously, this record proves it isn’t
just because of one person. It was a combination of all putting together to create
the sound of the band. If anything, I am writing more with Christian rather then
with Dino. Things worked out really good.
AR - Has it always been like that? Writing more with him?
RH
- Over the years, not so much that Christian didn’t have to do with records,
because he did. I just got used to it because when I first started playing, I jammed
a lot with guitar players. Early on, I wanted to jam with guitar players to
understand how everyone jams and writes differently. I was interested in writing
music with the guitar sound. Therefore, I acquired a lot of stuff with Dino. So with
Christian, it was easier. Naturally when we started writing for Archetype, it was
easy. We wanted the purest form that we could touch upon. Clean vocals and heavy
stuff with heavy vocals. I think we achieved it on this record.
AR - Did you prefer being a less well-known band before you blew up with Obsolete?
RH - Less popular is kind of good; you don’t get as many people talking shit. But
more popular, the more negative you get to the band because there’s more people that
aren’t going to like what you are doing. I guess there are pros/cons to both but the
goal of the band is to be bigger-bigger-bigger. At the end of the day, every band
wants to reach the goal. Rather be bigger then smaller, but you have to start small.
We worked at trying to become a popular band. At the same time, you don’t want to
sound not the way you originally want to sound. A band should always grow.
AR - Do you feel you can relate to the Fear Factory lyrics, or do you just play for
the love of the music?
RH - I think I can relate to FF lyrics more on this record then any of the others.
Only because the stuff we wrote about on this album was stuff we were actually going
thru. Before, most of the records had a science fictional theme. The stuff talked
about on this record was stuff we were going thru these past two years. With getting
off of Roadrunner and the break up thing. Continuing on without our original guitar
player and the backlash from other bands. A lot of different stuff. It means a lot
more to me and Christian, the lyrics; because of stuff we were going thru.
AR -
What bands would you tour with in your own ‘picture perfect’ tour?
RH
- We have actually toured with a lot of bands that I would want to tour with. I
would love to tour with Damageplan. Slipknot, except we are touring with them now.
Maybe with Machine Head again. Tool would be interesting, and Metallica and Korn.
AR
- What’s the first word that comes to mind for Archetype?
RH - Archetype. The word, the first thing I would think about is originality. Because
the word means the finished prototype. To create the final, as in final for
production. So I guess original model. And that worked very well with this record.
From where the band began, it’s a very fitting name.
AR - How has the Jagermeister tour been?
RH - Awesome man, this is the tour. I don’t think people would have ever thought we’d
be on the same bill as Slipknot. And people are really excited about it. It’s so
amazing. The fans love it. People are freaking over Chimaira. Chimaira, they are a
really good band too man. People just freaking out.
AR - What would you say is the best city so far?
RH
- Rochester, NY. It was fucking sick. We played this hockey arena and it was like
5000 people. The whole ground, since it was a hockey rink, it was a giant pit. It
was fucking stupid. The pit must have held 2000 people. It was just fucking awesome.
I saw from the side while Slipknot was on and you could see all the people. Fucking
amazing. They loved it.
AR - How was Archetype affected by the technology of what record companies have now?
RH
- All the technology from 1994/95, everything is stepped up. Just because of the
amount of technology out there doesn’t mean we are changing our music. We have our
sound and we are accustomed to it and we are happy with it. We continue to write
what we think. On this record, we didn’t use any cutting edge studio stuff. We used
what we know. If anything, we went 2 steps backwards because we used less
electronics on this record then in the past.
AR - What do you do on tour while you’re not playing?
RH
- This tour we have done a lot of press. I have been playing a lot of video games.
Actually been playing games with the Chimaira guys. We have X-Box and we play Halo
on tour. We linked our bus to their bus. So we play against them on our bus. It’s
fucking hilarious, so funny.
AR - Do you like X-Box the most?
RH - I have to say I like X-Box better then GameCube or PS2, only because it’s so
much more powerful. But for the games themselves, I like X-Box a little more. PS2
has good games, so you need both. GameCube I just don’t like it.
AR
- What would you say changed the most for this album?
RH - The biggest change of all is the fact that we were able to write songs on this
record as blueprints, you know, not as finished songs. Then we would give them to
Burt. Depending what Burt did with the songs, that would determine what we would
keep and what we wouldn’t keep. We would re-write songs again. Add to them and take
from them and send them back to Burt. It allowed Burt to have a lot more time to
write lyrics and to come up with better vocals and melodies. By the time we went
into record, the entire album was pretty much written. We really wrote around stuff
Burt came up with. I think that was smart. When most people listen to music, they
listen to the vocals first. They connect with vocals.
AR - Did the new bassist have anything to do with the writing?
RH - Christian wrote all the bass and guitars. He recorded all bass and all guitars.
AR
- Looking back now, is there anything you would have changed from FF’s past?
RH
- I wish we would have written this way years ago. I can imagine how much better,
had we had this much time to prepare as we did for Archetype.
AR - Was all the concept stuff from
Obsolete all Burt?
RH
- Yeah. Burt wrote all of that. When we were doing
Obsolete, he would have a story
in his mind. We would keep making the stories better. Dino, Christian, and myself
would try to come up with a story for the concept. We don’t know what order the
songs are going to be in the album, so if they don’t fit with the concept, then the
story will not make sense. So I don’t know how the fuck he did it. When it was said
and done, I was like holy fuck, he did it.
AR - So how much longer do you think FF will go on for?
RH - We will keep doing this until fans don’t want it anymore. I am not that old, I
am 31 years old. I think our best is yet to come. I think this record gives people a
really good idea of what this band is capable of doing, minus 1 member. We gotta
take what we do to the next level and make it better. Step it up.
AR - How do the US crowds compare to the
Australian ones?
RH - The
Australian fans, it was kind of a surprise that we were out there. That is
probably our biggest market in the world. People were fucking freaking out. The
American fans, I think, are a little more excited.
AR
- In metal days now, most bands have that 1 song that gets the crowd going crazy.
What would you say yours is?
RH
- I would have to go with a couple tracks. Edgecrusher and Replica. Replica has
always been a really good closure for us. People really love Replica. The band is
known for being fast, technical, and tight. Replica is a very open and simple song.
Those are the 2 that I notice the most.
AR - What do you do to keep energized on tour? Do you practice a lot?
RH - I just kind of hang out with friends and do interviews. Play video games. I
don’t really need help with being energized, I keep in shape. I enjoy it so much
that I don’t need a vice to keep me in the mode.
AR - Why doesn’t FF have a keyboardist? And not just a live keyboardist?
RH - The main reason is because the song writing for the band comes from the guitar
and drums. It’s always been more of just a metal band. Keyboards we add on top. They
just are not a main part of the band. We look at them as the cherry on top. We are
primarily guitars and drums, and we start from there.
AR
- Have you ever played any other instruments?
RH
- I had a bass before I had a drum kit. I didn’t really like it. There was just
something about the drums. So I choose that over a car. But I think I made the right
decision.
AR - Have you taken drum lessons?
RH
- My lessons kind of came from listening to music. I was influenced by metal
bands. Metal music got me to want to play drums. But a lot of different music
influenced the way I play now. Like the band Depeche Mode.
AR - How did Depeche Mode influence you?
RH
- They are so fucking amazing. From a drummer perspective, I would listen to
Depeche Mode and I would be like man if I can make my fucking drums sound like this,
it would be the best ever. When I was growing up, there were few bands out there
that had drums that sounded really good. So if I could sound like Depeche Mode, but
be fast like Slayer, I think I might be onto something. I think we were, as a band,
very ahead of our time. Now kids that are younger and learning drums will listen to
me and take what I do to the next level. It’s just a natural evolution.
AR
- Who would you say is the best drummer right now?
RH - That’s hard to say, but there’s a few really sick drummers out there right now.
I don’t know the guys name, but he plays for a band called Panzer Christ. And Nick
Barker, and Gene Ogman is still one of the best out there.
AR - What would you consider a hardcore FF fan to be like?
RH - God, I’ve seen a lot of them this whole tour. What I have noticed more so then
before is a lot of the fans that we got that were just fans 1 ½ years ago, they
can’t believe we are coming back. The newer fans are really amazed and very excited.
They meet us and they are shaking as they meet us. It is an amazing feeling. They
are huge fans and its pretty cool.
AR - I’ve seen all the tattoos on the website.
RH - Oh my God! The tattoos! There was one fan in Australia who came out, she
couldn’t believe it. That day she bought the FF shirt with the new logo. After the
show that day, she went and got the tattoo on her back and came the next day and
showed it to us. I couldn’t fucking believe it. I was so blown away. If this is the
sign of things to come, this is gonna be pretty exciting. I am not into tattoos, but
you really have to be into something to have to put something that permanent on your
body. It’s a real trip.
AR - Is there any new bands that you have been listening to?
 RH - Actually, yeah. I have been listening to this band called Unjust. Which we just
signed. I have a record label with a friend of mine Billy Gould. He used to be a
bass player, now we have a label called kool arrow. They are really good and I’m not
just saying that to plug them. Just a really good fucking band. They sound like
Deftones, but with really clean, catchy vocals. That and
Panzer Christ. They are so
fucking sick dude.
Mnemic, actually listening to that for a while. I got that CD from
my boys at Nuclear Blast. We want to take Opeth on tour for sure.
AR
- Is there anything you would like to say?
RH - We will be coming back, shit, we ain’t going away.
AR - Thank you for doing this interview for Prog4you.com
: : Visit the artist web site : :
http://www.fearfactory.com/
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