On a delightful sunny afternoon (on Dino Cazares’ end in LA) I rang up the Fear Factory co-founder/guitarist/songwriter/inventor of the machinegun riff and drum syncopation, for a little chat before the band starts out their second leg of the World Industrialist Tour. We talked about touring, writing, music we enjoy, and…burritos. (Check my profile, you’ll figure it out).
Dino: Hello?
(((o))): Hey, is this Dino?
Dino: Sure is. Who’s this?
(((o))): I’m Ryan from Ech(((o)))es & Dust, how’s it going?
Dino: Good. How about you?
(((o))): Good. What are you up to?
Dino: Oh you know, just doing interviews and press, I’m all good.
(((o))): Good to hear. I suppose you’re doing press the next few days, aren’t you?
Dino: Oh yeah, we’ve got the tour coming up and we’re doing a lot of publicity for it. Trying to spread the word and get it out there.
(((o))): What day are you guys hitting the road?
Dino: We start on April 15th. You can find the dates on our site.
(((o))): So, you guys have been touring on The Industrialist for awhile now, haven’t you?
Dino: Yeah, we’ve been touring since March or April of last year. We actually started before the record came out in June.
(((o))): Yeah, I remember that, you guys went out early.
Dino: Yeah, now this is pretty much what we’re calling the second half of The Industrialist tour. We’re doing a few areas that we did on the first leg. We’re going to do the US and then parts of Canada. Then we’re going back to Australia, and then we’re headed back to Europe to do some of the summer festivals again. And then (laughs) we’re going to be doing South America again. So we’re pretty much just finishing off The Industrialist tour and then after that, we’re going to do a new record.
(((o))): Have you guys been doing any writing on the road at all?
Dino: Yeah we’ve never really been good at that, but this year we hope to buckle down and start writing on the road.
(((o))): I suppose nowadays it is a little easier to come up with stuff and just save it on a computer, at least.
Dino: Yeah, of course, that’s what we call… laptopcore. (laughs)
(((o))): Yeah, it’s a good thing to have now though. Even simple programs like Garage Bands, you can just write something and save it like that.
Dino: Yeah, that’s what we’ve tried to do and, yeah it’s more about being lazy. (laughs) Sometimes when you’re on the road you just get in tour mode and you’re busy, it’s a different vibe.
(((o))): So, one quick question I had: Where’s the best place to get a burrito?
Dino: (laugh) The best place to get a burrito! (laughs)
(((o))): Yeah, I live over in the Midwest, between Minneapolis and Chicago, so I was wondering if you knew anywhere around here to get a good burrito.
Dino: Chicago has plenty of places. I can’t tell you name off the top of my head, but whenever I’m there I have a good friend Shaun Glass. He’s in a band called Dirge Within and also Broken Hope. He picks me up and drives me to a lot of good places. There’s a lot of Hispanics in Chicago. But, Minneapolis….let me think. I know I’ve eaten great Mexican food there too; some friends have taken me to places. You know the good places like that are hard to find.
(((o))): Yeah, you always want to try and find the local places instead of chains.
Dino: Yeah, like no Chipotle, no Taco Bell (laughs). Always want to try and find the Mom & Pop places.
(((o))): Sorry, I just had to ask. I know you know good burritos. So, you guys are going out at doing this tour with Hate Eternal, which some people see as kind of an odd mixture. I don’t think so really, but so people were surprised when dates were released. You know the guys in Hate Eternal at all?
Dino: Yeah, oh yeah, I’ve know [Hate Eternal guitarist/vocalist/mastermind of evil] Erik Rutan for years. I mean, over the years we’ve played with many different bands. Who would people want to see us play with?
(((o))): Yeah, I know what you mean.
Dino: I mean over the years, when I wasn’t in the band, they toured with Suffocation, and they’re a total death metal band.
(((o))): I know what you’re saying. I follow both of the bands, so to me it’s not really an odd pairing, it’s a show I would want to go see.
Dino: See, to me, it’s definitely two different genres of metal but why can’t it be that way? Why does it have to be one? Then if we toured with a band that sounded like Fear Factory, people would be like “I’m over this.”
(((o))): Then people wouldn’t want to go because “it’s two bands that sound the same, why would I want to do that”.
Dino: Exactly, and we wanted to diversify it up a little bit. The opening band, Kobra and the Lotus, they’re kind of like Power Metal with high female vocals, so that’s different too.
(((o))): So it’s a fairly good mixture of metal.
Dino: Yeah, they’ve got a chick got a chick singer who’s all like (in a high voice) “Ahhhhhhh!”
(((o))): So I noticed you did some Asesino shows back in January. [Asesino is a band Dino started back in 2001. They play “Mexican Grind”].
Dino: Yeah we had a little down time in Fear Factory so Asesino did a handful of shows. We always try to squeeze what we can in when all of us have time. Tony [Campos] he’s the bassist and vocalist and he plays in Soulfly. And our drummer Emilio [Marquez] he’s in a band called Possessed [as in “Seven Churches” Possessed]. So that was the only time we had to really do some shows. It’s something we try to do when we can. But right now we’re in the process of trying to work on a new record, and I’m doing Fear Factory.
(((o))): Oh I can imagine.
Dino: And plus, I try to put some time in between, cause if you do records back to back, they start sounding similar. So I like to take my time so my Asesino riffs don’t sound like Fear Factory riffs.
(((o))): Yeha I know what you’re saying. I mean, your guitar playing is obviously somewhat distinctive because of your speed and riffing.
Dino: Yeah a lot of people say that but I think there’s a closer relation to Fear Factory and Divine Heresy [Dino started Divine Heresy after he left Fear Factory in 2002. They are still a band, but not as active as Dino focuses on Fear Factory] than there is to Asesino to Divine Heresy/Fear Factory.
(((o))): Oh yeah, I agree completely.
Dino: with Asesino I try to keep it brutal and simple. Over the top, kinda like Mexican Terrorizer or Slayer.
(((o))): Yeah, I like the masks you wear in Asesino. I won’t call it a gimmick, but I like the idea behind it.
Dino: Yeah it started back when I helped start Brujeria back in the day. We wore masks to not reveal ourselves.
(((o))): You’re not doing that [Brujeria] anymore, are you?
Dino: No, I’m not with them right now. No.
(((o))): So, how are Matt Devries [bass/also former guitarist in Chimaira] and Mike Heller [drums, also plays in Malignancy and System Divide] working out for you guys?
Dino: Matt and Mike are both excellent. Matt has actually been a friend of ours for a long time, I’ve known him from the Chimaira days. And he’s always been a really good musician; he was a great player for Chimaira. So when we found out he left the band, Burt [C. Bell. Vocals] and I were just like “Perfect!” He’s the kind of guy we didn’t have to audition you knows.
(((o))): Yeah I’ve seen him with Chimaira a few times, and he’s a great rhythm player.
Dino: Yeah, he really is. And Mike, he was a guy we actually auditioned. We had You Tube auditions, and then it came down to a handful of guys, and it was a hard decision. The last two guys it came down to were Sam “Samus” Paulicelli; he was a guy from Decrepit Birth, just a brutal player. And then Mike Heller, he played in a band called Malignancy. I really didn’t care what band they were in, as long as they could play our songs. That was my main concern, how they could groove and how mechanically they could play to the click track. They were both great, just excellent, and it really came down to us just flipping a coin. (laughs) I told them both, “You’re both really good but I’m just going to flip a coin.” And whoever picked heads won, that was Mike.
(((o))): Well that was a pretty democratic way to go about it at least.
Dino; Yeah, and I still talk to Sam, he’s a great guy. Mike’s been good and he’s doing excellent, excellent drummer.
(((o))): You guys used a different drummer on the album [The Industrialist] right?
Dino: John Sankey (Devolved), yeah John’s a fucking sick drummer. Unfortunately he’s from Australia, so his work visa ran out and it’s hard to have him going back and forth. But he’s working that stuff out. And he helped me write a lot of the beats for Fear Factory on the last two albums.
(((o))): And Gene (Hoglan ex/every band ever) he left and played drums in Testament I believe.
Dino: Yeah, he’s with Testament right now.
(((o))): He took over when Paul Bostaph left, I’m pretty sure. Gene’s a beast man; I’ve seen him with a lot of other bands, guys classic.
Dino: Absolutely, classic drummer that played on a lot of albums.
(((o))): What still inspires you to write the type of music you write? Are there any bands or is it just the mindset you’ve had for all these years to write these types of songs?
Dino: Definitely the mindset, I still have the passion for this kind of music. Once I found fucking heavy metal as a kid, I just never looked back. Metal was something that just became engrained in me. The minute I heard it, it became me. And that still inspires me. The minute I pick up a guitar, it’s just me. I’m not trying to change the wheel; I’m not trying to be the most sick intense guitar player. I am just who I am and I do what I do. Not to say I don’t push myself though.
(((o))): Yeah, I can see that from listening over the years.
Dino: Yeah, and actually when I left Fear Factory, I was able to explore other things. I did Divine Heresy. And obviously you’d never heard me do a guitar solo, which is much more intricate guitar playing than Fear Factory then. So I was able to branch out a bit. Then when I came back to Fear Factory I was able to bring in what I had learned. You know, I do believe I do have a distinctive style, and that’s hard to create now these days. It’s hard to be original; it’s hard to be someone that people automatically recognize when they hear it. Like “That’s fucking Dino.” You know what I’m saying. It’s hard to find that originality today. And I’m lucky that I was able to create that.
(((o))): You guys came around at a good time when you released “Demanufacture” you pushed a lot of limits and you made a lot of your own rules and paved your own path with that album.
Dino: I think we came at a right time, metal music needed a change. But, unfortunately when “Demanufacture” came out, nu-metal broke out. And it kind of overshadowed that record.
(((o))): I think it kind of depends on the person. I know there are a lot of connections between you and those bands like Deftones, Soulfly and even Sepultura. But for me, I personally didn’t lump you guys in that genre.
Dino: Good, good. I’m not saying we were lumped in that genre. I’m saying it somewhat overshadowed that album in America. We blew up over in Europe big time. We blew up everywhere big time, outside of America.
(((o))): Isn’t that weird how that always happens? I know you guys are pretty big in Australia too, right
Dino: Yeah and in Europe. And the thing about it was, because nu-metal broke later in Europe. It was more in America at first. It wasn’t until “Obsolete” came out, that took Fear Factory to another level.
(((o))): I loved that album too. See, “Digimortal” was probably the first album of yours I had heard; I’m a bit younger, so I then worked my way backwards and really enjoyed all the older records.
Dino: Yeah, “Digimortal” was still actually a big record for us; it sold a lot of copies and whatnot. At the time, the bass player we had wanted to put some hip-hop type tracks on the album, and that didn’t exactly go over well with the fans. So, a lot of people were kind of turned off by that. There were a couple other things on that album as well. The bass player was a DJ at the time, and he wanted to put like, scratching, on some songs. And it just didn’t go over right. But for the most part, out of the 10 songs on the record there’s a solid seven songs. ‘What Will Become?’, obviously ‘Linchpin’ was a big song for us, ‘No One’, ‘Damaged’ you know those songs are great.
(((o))): Yeah I liked those songs a lot. Do you play any of those songs live now?
Dino: We do, and we have. We do ‘What Will Become?’ and we do ‘Linchpin’ and we do ‘Acres of Skin’ as well.
(((o))): So how many “The Industrialist” tracks are you guys playing on your set?
Dino: About two or three.
(((o))): So you guys are playing a really good mix of stuff then.
Dino: Yeah, we have to. (laughs) We do songs except from the ones I wasn’t on. [While Dino left for a few years, Fear Factory continued and released “Archetype” & “Transgression”].
(((o))): Has anybody ever asked you to play any of those songs you didn’t play on?
Dino: Rare, very rare people ask me, maybe one person every 15 shows. Like in one month of shows maybe once or twice somebody will ask. Burton says the same thing, once or twice a month people will ask him. Generally most people don’t really ask, “Transgression” isn’t a record people really want to hear.
(((o))): Yeah, I’ve followed Fear Factory all the way through, and no disrespect to the albums you weren’t on, but “Transgression” just wasn’t the greatest.
Dino: Usually when people ask, it’s for a song from “Archetype”. And there was one point when I actually wanted to play songs off of it, but Burton said no.
(((o))):Burton said no?
Dino: Yeah. At first I said no, I’m not going to play anything off those records. Then it came up again and I said ok, maybe one. Then Burton said no. That’s it. Burton said no. I didn’t have a problem with him saying no. (laughs)
(((o))): Yeah, obviously. (both laugh)
Dino: And now, we have so many songs to pick from to play. And the records I was on, people just ask to hear weird songs I mean out of left field like “Whoa!” I mean we haven’t played some of those songs for 20 years. Like stuff off “Soul of a New Machine”. You know from “Soul…” we’ll put in ‘Scumgrief’, ‘Self-Immolation’, ‘Martyr’ of course, ‘Scapegoat’, ‘Big God’. We put in those songs.
(((o))): Do they go over pretty well?
Dino: Yes and no. Some places yes and some places no. Most of the kids that come see us don’t know stuff off the first album. So when we do those songs some people don’t really now them. ‘Crash-Test’ is another song that we do. There’s about six or seven songs we’ll mix in now and then. When we go to Europe, we play all the song from the older stuff.
(((o))): I suppose it’s like throwing darts to pick songs now; you have such a wide catalog to pick from.
Dino: Yeah pretty much. You know, we kind of stick to the classics and the hits and the ones that people know and they seem to like it. We usually do about an hour, hour and fifteen minutes when we play. And there are so many songs to play, like I said. And with the next album we’ll have even more songs to play.
(((o))): I suppose you guys will have to start playing longer sets.
Dino: Yeah, 2 hour sets! (laugh)
(((o))): Have you guys ever played that long, or what’s the longest set you’ve played?
Dino: The longest set we’ve played has been about an hour and forty minutes.
(((o))): You guys must have to throw in a couple slower tracks just so you don’t burn out the fans right away.
Dino: We’ve done ‘Decent’ that’s a slower track, ‘Cars’, ‘Resurrection’, obviously. We just mix songs that are a bit mellow. Usually what we do is save the songs from “Demanufacture” for last when we come back out at the end. We’re also doing that album in its entirety later in the year. We’re doing it in Australia and on the boat, the 70,000 Tons of Metal next year.
(((o))): I saw that mentioned the other day.
Dino: Yeah, we’re not going to do that on the US tour.
[We hit our two minutes left mark, so I got to ask Dino the question I had been saving for the end, thankfully].(((o))): So are you still a Godflesh fan?
Dino: Fuck yeah!!
(((o))): You’ve heard all about the reunion then right?
Dino: Oh yeah. They’ve been playing quite a few shows in Europe.
(((o))): Have you had a chance to see them?
Dino: A couple songs. We were actually playing at the same time on different stages. Right after we got done, Burt and I ran over there and caught the last few songs of the set. I’m hoping that with Justin [K. Broadrick] will do a tour with it. He’s not really interested in touring with it though; just playing festivals.
(((o))): That’d be a badass fucking tour if he did though man.
Dino: I think it’d be amazing if he did. That’d be awesome.
(((o))): How do you feel about the album they’re working on?
Dino: I’m sure its going to be great no matter what he does.
(((o))): Well it was good talking to you Dino, and I’ll see you at the show in St. Paul.
Dino: You too brother, thanks a lot. Later man.
I would like to thank Dino for his time and good conversation. Make sure you go see them on the road when they come to your town. – Ryan Stephenson (((o)))
Thanks for the guys over at Earsplit PR for arranging this interview.
