Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares has defended the band’s decision to record their latest album ‘The Industrialist’ entirely with a drum-machine. The full video-interview can be found below.
Speaking with ReGen Magazine, Cazares said that utilizing modern technology has always been what Fear Factory has been about. “Obviously, a band like Fear Factory has always embraced the technology from the beginning — we’ve always been open about it, we’ve always talked about it. We’ve always talked about guys like [producer] Rhys Fulber helping us out, ever since ‘Fear Is The Mindkiller,’ which was after ‘Soul Of A New Machine’. We’ve embraced all that.”
Cazares added that despite the drum-machines presence, so far, the album’s reception had been favorable. “Most people are saying, ‘Them using drum programming is no different. It doesn’t really sound any different.’ You know what I mean?! They can expect it from a band like Fear Factory.”
Cazares appended that the first-ever recorded Fear Factory song was done using a drum-machine. “When me and Burt first did our first demo back in 1990, it was with a drum machine. . . So it’s nothing new for us. We started that way. . . And then it wasn’t until we met Rhys Fulber when we did the remix album, ‘Fear Is The Mindkiller,’ which was in 1992…At the time, back in 1992, it was not really well-known in metal to do that kind of [stuff]…We embraced it and that has kind of always been our concept.”
As well as being an accepted part of Fear Factory’s sound, Cazares said that using a drum-machine was a more viable financial option. “It’s very cost effective. The way music is going today; a lot of people don’t make much money anymore, unless you’re a big radio band or something like that. But for metal bands like us, we make most of our money just on touring and selling merchandise. And the record company is not giving much advances anymore. So you have to find ways to cut corners, financially, to try and save money.”
Meanwhile, Fear Factory recently signed on former Chimaira guitarist Matt DeVries as the band’s new bass player and recruited Mike Heller (Malignancy, System Divide) as their touring drummer.