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Interviews : “Are you going to be a machine or a human?” – An Interview With Burton C Bell (Fear Factory)

By on May 30, 2016

Fear-Factory

Burton C. Bell – Fear Factory

Fear Factory are one of the most dedicated bands in the world that truly bring something powerful with the music they create. The band will be making it’s way Down Under for yet another Australian tour bringing their undeniably incredible live shows to our metal masses with their massive discography of heavy music, especially with gems off their latest release ‘Genexus’. Metal Obsession had the opportunity to catch up with Fear Factory’s vocalist and one of the founders, Burton, always a lovely person to talk to. He had much to say about touring Australia and why they love it, their latest offering to the world ‘Genexus’, their live performances and a lot more. 

Burton is very excited to be returning to our shores for a headline tour especially after the whole Soundwave fiasco. “I’m good thanks Prat, and things have been pretty exciting for us since we released the new album. It’s been getting a lot of responses, mostly positive but you cant please everybody – It’s easy for people to have negative when they’re invisible on the internet but would they say that about Iron Maiden or the Scorpions? Nope! It’s like people are hypocrites but you just have to do what you feel is right.” The band absolutely love our country and Burton pointed out why it’s always a pleasure for the band to come back. “It’s been very positive and the new songs have been a great very set all around and  going back to Australia is going to be good because it is very very familiar. I’m excited to see how our fans respond to the new material live and  I guess, that’s what the best thing is; that the fans are absolutely receptive and they love the songs. Every time we’ve played there they’ve always had a great time at the shows and  always appreciate us coming down there.”

On mentioning Soundwave, Burton had something to say which does hold moral value, “Well its a good thing that we’re not holding it against Australia because the person who ran Soundwave – he pretty much ripped everybody off and has been for a number of years but we love the country too much so we didn’t let it stop us from coming down there.”

Genexus is definitely one of Fear Factory’s strongest albums and he talked about what the writing and recording process was like this time around. “Some of it was spontaneous to an extent but some of it we had to really work towards and sometimes change the process of how we did things. Retaining our identity but moving forward with experimentation is pretty difficult so we have to take the right steps or we might alienate ourselves from our audience in general. We analyse every step of the way and make sure that we’ve got things as perfect as we want them to be. We  wrote in the studio recorded  -we kept arranging, rearranging, modifying and reproducing the tracks and this is the first time we’ve ever had a guy come in to help us with arrangements with vocals in the sense coming up with different ideas that would move it forward. The voice is always me so I’m always going to have the same idea. But this young fellow came in (I keep forgetting his name) but he helped us out on a few songs which made a huge difference – having a different perspective was important.”

Fear Factory are veterans and every album seems to come to life with a personality of it’s own. he shared his thoughts on what he thinks makes Genexus stand out. ” It’s the way each song is crafted and structured – every song on this album sort of sticks in your head and stays with you. They get to the point real quick and don’t drag on to a point where they get repetitive. Each one will leave a pretty solid impact and a big impression on the listener.”

Burton also gave us further insight into what the album is all about. “Well the concept  is about how in the future that the about Ray Kerzweil’s Theory of Singularity, where man and machine mold together and where bio-mechanics and machines becomes a normal thing. For example, technology at some point is going to take over the world (if it already hasn’t) – are you going to be a machine or human? So the whole statement we’re trying to make is that there’s going to be a Genexus generation in which  the next generation of humanity is full of nanotechnology. There is nothing wrong with this but it is just looking at the nanotechnology that makes you the perfect human.” This answer led me to ask Burt where the band gets its inspiration from or what leads them towards writing music about something so intense. “Honestly, the answer to that would be the need for survival. Another factor would be, just everything around us – religion, politics, education, public media – all of the lies that are being thrown out and about which used to piss me off and still does. Social injustice is just something I cannot take and I think it’s this that reflects in our music to a large extent.”

So what can one expect from a Fear Factory performance? ” Well, it’s going to be loud that’s for sure. We bring a lot of energy, it’s not going to sound like it is on the record. It’ll be precise like a well-oiled machine but we’ll be right in front of you so prepare yourselves!” 

Burton had one last message to Australia ahead of their tour next week. “Please support Fear Factory Australia, and please continue supporting live music because, really, this is the only way bands can survive in this day and age.  So please come out and support the bands that you love and definitely come to our shows because we are travelling a long way and hope to make it worth your while. Looking forward to it!”

Catch these industrial metal monsters on the following dates!

Tuesday, 2 June
The Tivoli, Brisbane (18+)
Tickets: Ticketmaster

Friday, 3 June
Roundhouse, Sydney (18+)
Tickets: Ticketek

Saturday, 4 June – SOLD OUT!!
Prince of Wales, Melbourne (18+)
Tickets: Destroy All Lines (SOLD OUT!)

Sunday, 5 June

Prince of Wales, Melbourne (18+)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Tuesday, 7 June
HQ, Adelaide (18+)
Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Wednesday, 8 June
Metropolis, Fremantle (18+)
Tickets: Destroy All Lines

fear factory aus tour 2016

About

Prarthana is a vegan, Indo-Aussie, heavy music addict, fluent in sarcasm and metal. Traveling is an obsession as she enjoys taking in the history of various countries and following her favorite bands. She's either eating, teaching grammar or learning an instrument, when not occupied with windmilling in the faces of other humans.