[Cazares] and I will sit down together and discuss, “Where do we want to go with this? Where’s the concept going? Where’s the sound going? What do we want to experiment with”? It takes maturity and experience to understand this. But it is difficult, and we’ve failed a couple of times. Digimortal was a classic example of bending down to what the label wanted and what the management wanted. After the Obsolete record, our sound was big and huge and it was quite unique. At that moment, so many new but younger bands were coming out – bands like Papa Roach and Linkin Park for instance. The label and the management, seeing the success of that, they wanted Fear Factory to be that. The odd thing was that those bands, Papa Roach and Linkin Park, were watered down versions of Fear Factory. So what the label and management wanted was Fear Factory to be “watered down Fear Factory”, which was never going to work, and that’s what Digimortal ended up being. Great songs but the production became really tame. If you ask a band who’s only been around for maybe 5 or 6 years, 10 years maybe, it would never have this experience. But a band who’s been around for 25 years… like Fear Factory and Slayer and Black Sabbath and stuff like that, we’ve been there. We’ve experienced this. You know what works. You know what doesn’t work. And it’s through trial and error that we’ve learned this. We know how to retain our sound. So to go back to your question, “How do you do this”? You technically have to research yourself… introspection. You go and say, “Okay, what made these songs great? What made these albums so popular with the fans that it connected with them”? You have to go back and introspect and look inside. It’s this rhythm. There’s these melodies. It’s this and this. Then you have to go to the drawing board and create something new.

What you’ve essentially done, you’ve essentially talked about the punk rock genre. Do hear me out on this… Punk rock, if you were to look at say, bands like Sex Pistols, they weren’t clean cut. But obviously they didn’t get anywhere near the kind of success of say, Offspring or Green Day…

No. Different time period though…

That is true. But then you look at bands like AFI who were a hardcore band, and now they’ve become almost a pop band where they’ve had to forsake their hardcore credentials in order to get that mainstream success. Do you think… after talking about what you said about how you previously ended up alienating your fan base, but that watered down “pop metal” bands such as Linkin Park or Papa Roach got way more success than you did. Dino Cazares talked about this at your London O2 Forum show where he said that pretty much every single vocalist in the nu-metal genre owes their existence and success to you, and whilst it’s nice to be regarded as being a pioneer, do you sometimes feel cheated and that maybe you were robbed?

You know, I can’t think that way. That just causes too much stress. I look at it at a different way where Fear Factory is a band that inspired a bunch of other artists to create their own music, to go forward and create. To me, that is such a positive aspect of life where you’re able to inspire another artist. To me, that’s the best thing you can do. That’s success on its own. They can attribute Fear Factory to be a part of their sound, fine. Their success, that’s great. But those bands who were popular, where are they now? Fear Factory has been relevant for 25 years. Our agent said “You’re becoming an iconic band. You can do whatever the f— you want”. But can Papa Roach do that, or can Linkin Park do that? Are they iconic? No. They were popular. But when it comes to genres though, punk rock… the time periods were so different. First, the Sex Pistols… John Lydon [aka: Johnny Rotten], he was the one that changed everything because their manager Malcolm McLaren had no idea what was going to happen. Malcolm McLaren was trying to create a pop band, but he didn’t expect John Lydon’s attitude, and John Lydon was truly punk rock. Malcolm McLaren was just trying to capitalize on fashion, but John Lydon pretty much saw the light and was like, “F— you! This is bullshit. You’re trying to capitalize on this stuff. I’m trying to do this for real”. That was when punk rock was viscous. He was truly legit. After that, punk rock lost its ferocity. There was no more of that.

Okay, last question… Given the fact that you guys have been going for 25 years, what’s the biggest lesson that you’ve learned as a band and as a frontman?

Being in a band is fun, and when you start a band it’s fun. It’s great. You’re in a band with your brothers and your friends. You’re creating music. You’re having a great time. But as soon as you make your first dollar, you need to realize it’s not fun anymore. It can be fun, but it’s a business, and you need to be smart about it. You need to be smart about your future. Do not give anything away for free.

Thank you.