Dino Cazares - Fear Factory (27/10/2014)
Ahead of their appearances at Soundwave Festival 2015, The 59th Sound chats with Fear Factory guitarist, Dino Cazares.
I’m Cassie from The 59th Sound just doing a quick interview for you, in a lead up to Soundwave
Sure, what are you calling from? What part of Australia?
I’m from Melbourne
Melbourneeee
Yeah
First off, one of my, well one of my favorite cities.
Yeah, you guys have been here a bit, I mean, it’s very different here in Australia. So is Melbourne your favorite part?
One of my favorite parts, I mean, I pretty much love all Australia, but yeah, I seem to have more friends in Melbourne, than anywhere else.
That’s because we’re "the best city”
*laughs*
Now Fear Factory are a band that were born in LA, the city of dreams, id you see that as inspiring or was it more of a challenge?
Definitely inspiring, no, definitely inspiring to me when I first got here on my 18th, just before my 18th birthday I was like, I came here with the intentions of being in a heavy metal band and well, within two and half years of being in Los Angeles I was in a heavy metal band. So definitely an inspiration coming here, there’s more opportunities here you've got a lot of other musicians here, you know record companies here and stuff like that more places to play and I think just there’s more places to get exposure you know what I mean.
I actually just returned from LA two weeks ago and it’s such an inspiring city and it does make you feel like you can do anything, but there is also a lot of poverty there and I do see a lot of hardship within that city. Was that ever a possibility for you? Were you ever in times of need?
Ah, you know it’s also called the city of broken dreams. You know what I mean? A lot of people come in with the intention that they are going to, think, they are going to be something and sometimes its not that easy, you know what I mean? And me being in the music industry is nothing easy. I was looking up to make this my career, and you know, and still be somewhat successful at it and make a living out of it, but you know its difficult. I’ve definitely gone through ups and downs you know, pretty much being penniless to you know being able to afford you know, for me an apartment and cars, is successful.
Absolutely, and especially in the music industry these days
When I first got here I was um, sleeping under the freeway. *Laughs* It wasn't exactly working out right away.
And tell me, about that process of realising that dream, it’s obviously a long time ago now but was that thing where you were reading the music magazines and looking up notice to get that, to find that network of people to make a band with?
Well, you know, not just going to clubs, going to shows you meet a lot of people a lot of musicians and that’s kind of like how it was, one of the things that really helped me as that I actually worked in a record store, and it was right in the heart of Hollywood, on Hollywood boulevard, so I would meet everybody and I was able to meet a lot of musicians, and that’s how I was able to form different bands.
And Fear Factory were at the forefront of a genre you really shaped the industrial sound, and the industrial scene, I guess being on the forefront of something new it is exciting and a lot of the time you never know you're part of it, so being in most in a new city, how did you then go to forge something so new and exciting?
Well you know at the time we first started, it was a lot about a lot of the heavy metal bands were still going, and a lot of the clubs didn’t really allow a band like Fear Factory to play so what we did is we really concentrated a lot on recording and making a lot of demos. we would, we actually had recorded three demos before we actually played live. I mean that was a little bit of an exaggeration but we did record a lot before we actually played live. Mainly what we wanted to do was to get our tape out to various record companies that we knew that would like that kind of music and luckily we got discovered. We got discovered by Michael Calivera, he heard our demo and was like really flawed by and telling people to buy our record. That’s how we got hired, sorry that’s how we got signed. In like, 1991 and we so got really lucky. We got straight on that and nowadays you do a demo you got social media, you got different advocators to get your music heard, then compared to when I first started.
I guess you really did have the formula down pat, back in 1991 as to how musicians would have been going to make it in 2001, you know and in 2011 because that’s exactly what you do now.
Correct, we were also lucky to have met up with this man Ross Robertson, I don't know if you know who that is, he plays in a lot of bands, he really believed in the band and a girl named, ah, what was it, Laura Porter who passed away unfortunately, she was our first manager and she really helped the band, she helped us find a lawyer, got us meeting with record labels, it just really helped, and now she can inspire real life.
I guess that’s it being in a city that is filled with all these people who are looking for opportunity and creating opportunity, you’re replace your family with this network and do you feel like that’s why you've had such solid relationships with these people at the beginning of your career?
Yeah, defiantly, and some of those people are still around and some of those people are still working in the record industry or what’s left of it. You know they are still working, it’s really cool to see that its doing that and vice versa. They think the same thing of me I'm glad its still a band he's in the band blah blah blah, um, but yeah you know you build relationships and they come and go unfortunately in the music industry that’s just how it is and I've been lucky that I'm still here and they are still here and were still going.
Now the band did disband and have a break a bit in the early thousands I'm sure it was not only hard for you, but for your fans so tell me about getting back together?
*laughs* It was slow, it was a slow process. Burton approached me in 2008 I believe it was and you know and it took months and months of shimmy shimmy and talking before we even considered playing with each other again. So yeah, it wasn’t something that I was ready to jump into right away, and it wasn’t something that he wanted to jump into right away either, but a few months later we worked something out and it was very good and we made two records, so obviously that’s a good sign, and we're working on a third record now and things are going well.
That’s it. I guess you had that time or that opportunity to start again.
Definitely, definitely. How do you wanna call it, resurrection a reset. It was an odd experience, it was an opportunity to be able to do it again.
Did you miss it in that time off?
At times yes I did miss it but sometimes, I was really busy doing my other band and I enjoyed, actually there was a period for a few years where I enjoyed my freedom, because obviously when I was in Fear Factory it took a lot of my time. I was gone on the road so much, I didn't even have a girlfriend, you know what I mean? I didn’t have a Girlfriend. Being out of fear Factory, was like, "wow, I get to see my nephew grow up,I get to see my family, I get to hang out with my dad, I get to hang out and see my sister and my brothers and I got a life." It sounds funny, I was able to reestablish myself. I was like I’m free now I have time to live a little bit, Fear Factory was just a huge machine; you have lawyers, you have accountants, you have managers, and you have all these people working for you and it was like, it was such a big machine, it can be stressful sometimes, you're constantly on tour, in a tour bus which was full of bands, you name it they’re there, we were everywhere around the world and when all that was gone, of course it was a sad for a little while but at he same time I consider it as happiness because I was able to discover new things, and home and be free and all that pressure was gone.
Yeah
I really enjoy that.
Moving forward I guess you take those things into the new installment of Fear Factory and you make time for your nephew and your family and to have time for yourself which makes a much better you, which makes for a much better musician.
Well you know what it is, when you're on the road so much, you know you eventually, you get tired of little things of people, like little things and they drive you crazy. Traveling around the world in the tube, an airplane or a bus you know when you're in such a small quarters, small area with each other you drive each other crazy once in awhile, so you know what we do is we just you know we tour a lot but we don't, we give ourselves breaks in between. That’s important.
Saying that, you're in the studio right now and then your hitting the road and coming out here for Soundwave, how do you fit everything in?
Everything is fitting together perfectly. I couldn't ask for anything else I mean, I'm glad, I'm very very happy the first shows that are gonna happen are the Soundwave shows. AJ the promoter, was the guy who believed in us way back, he was our promoter, when we were doing our first Fear Factory tour and it’s really cool, that, he actually bought us back about a year ago, and now he's bringing us back again. It’s really cool to be working with him again and he always treats us very well and we’re excited for the chance to play Soundwave, ‘cause they tried to bring us out a few times. We’ve done Big Day Out four or five times and this is our first time doing Soundwave, so I like that. Soundwave is like the Big Day Out and as much as I love it, it’s a great festival. Sometimes we played with some of the oddest bands so we were the only heavy band on the whole Big Day Out.
This is a festival where you guys fit in, you guys are the cool guys of the festival.
*Laughs* Exactly. We've always wanted to play Soundwave Festival don't get me wrong, Big Day Out is basically how Fear Factory launched our career in Australia, and Australia was the first country we had a gold record in and we were just like "wow!" Australia loves us and we cant wait to go back. We always feel the same way every time we go back we can't wait to go back. It’s so lovely there that my wife wants to come over with me now. The last three times I've gone there, my wife's come with me. And she's going come with me again in February with Soundwave, and she's excited as much as I am to go back.
Excellent! It’s good for her, as she gets to have a holiday as well as getting to spend time with you.
Yeah, of course, I mean again, we have a lot of friends there and she has a lot of friends actually in Melbourne, and I have a lot of friends all through Australia and you know she works for a school called SAE Sound Audio engineering school, a school of audio engineer and it’s a company that started in Australia so, she's excited she's going to go hang out there with the company people and all that stuff.
Will we be getting a previews of the new album here in Australia when you play Soundwave?
Possibly, there is a big possibility that might happen
Excellent.
Hopefully by the time we hit there, at least a single or the album will be out.
Well I'm going to let you now get back to it but it was nice, great talking to you, Dino.
Thanks you very much, I appreciate the opportunity.
Cassie Walker
SOUNDWAVE 2015
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - ADELAIDE
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - MELBOURNE
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH - SYDNEY
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH – BRISBANE
I’m Cassie from The 59th Sound just doing a quick interview for you, in a lead up to Soundwave
Sure, what are you calling from? What part of Australia?
I’m from Melbourne
Melbourneeee
Yeah
First off, one of my, well one of my favorite cities.
Yeah, you guys have been here a bit, I mean, it’s very different here in Australia. So is Melbourne your favorite part?
One of my favorite parts, I mean, I pretty much love all Australia, but yeah, I seem to have more friends in Melbourne, than anywhere else.
That’s because we’re "the best city”
*laughs*
Now Fear Factory are a band that were born in LA, the city of dreams, id you see that as inspiring or was it more of a challenge?
Definitely inspiring, no, definitely inspiring to me when I first got here on my 18th, just before my 18th birthday I was like, I came here with the intentions of being in a heavy metal band and well, within two and half years of being in Los Angeles I was in a heavy metal band. So definitely an inspiration coming here, there’s more opportunities here you've got a lot of other musicians here, you know record companies here and stuff like that more places to play and I think just there’s more places to get exposure you know what I mean.
I actually just returned from LA two weeks ago and it’s such an inspiring city and it does make you feel like you can do anything, but there is also a lot of poverty there and I do see a lot of hardship within that city. Was that ever a possibility for you? Were you ever in times of need?
Ah, you know it’s also called the city of broken dreams. You know what I mean? A lot of people come in with the intention that they are going to, think, they are going to be something and sometimes its not that easy, you know what I mean? And me being in the music industry is nothing easy. I was looking up to make this my career, and you know, and still be somewhat successful at it and make a living out of it, but you know its difficult. I’ve definitely gone through ups and downs you know, pretty much being penniless to you know being able to afford you know, for me an apartment and cars, is successful.
Absolutely, and especially in the music industry these days
When I first got here I was um, sleeping under the freeway. *Laughs* It wasn't exactly working out right away.
And tell me, about that process of realising that dream, it’s obviously a long time ago now but was that thing where you were reading the music magazines and looking up notice to get that, to find that network of people to make a band with?
Well, you know, not just going to clubs, going to shows you meet a lot of people a lot of musicians and that’s kind of like how it was, one of the things that really helped me as that I actually worked in a record store, and it was right in the heart of Hollywood, on Hollywood boulevard, so I would meet everybody and I was able to meet a lot of musicians, and that’s how I was able to form different bands.
And Fear Factory were at the forefront of a genre you really shaped the industrial sound, and the industrial scene, I guess being on the forefront of something new it is exciting and a lot of the time you never know you're part of it, so being in most in a new city, how did you then go to forge something so new and exciting?
Well you know at the time we first started, it was a lot about a lot of the heavy metal bands were still going, and a lot of the clubs didn’t really allow a band like Fear Factory to play so what we did is we really concentrated a lot on recording and making a lot of demos. we would, we actually had recorded three demos before we actually played live. I mean that was a little bit of an exaggeration but we did record a lot before we actually played live. Mainly what we wanted to do was to get our tape out to various record companies that we knew that would like that kind of music and luckily we got discovered. We got discovered by Michael Calivera, he heard our demo and was like really flawed by and telling people to buy our record. That’s how we got hired, sorry that’s how we got signed. In like, 1991 and we so got really lucky. We got straight on that and nowadays you do a demo you got social media, you got different advocators to get your music heard, then compared to when I first started.
I guess you really did have the formula down pat, back in 1991 as to how musicians would have been going to make it in 2001, you know and in 2011 because that’s exactly what you do now.
Correct, we were also lucky to have met up with this man Ross Robertson, I don't know if you know who that is, he plays in a lot of bands, he really believed in the band and a girl named, ah, what was it, Laura Porter who passed away unfortunately, she was our first manager and she really helped the band, she helped us find a lawyer, got us meeting with record labels, it just really helped, and now she can inspire real life.
I guess that’s it being in a city that is filled with all these people who are looking for opportunity and creating opportunity, you’re replace your family with this network and do you feel like that’s why you've had such solid relationships with these people at the beginning of your career?
Yeah, defiantly, and some of those people are still around and some of those people are still working in the record industry or what’s left of it. You know they are still working, it’s really cool to see that its doing that and vice versa. They think the same thing of me I'm glad its still a band he's in the band blah blah blah, um, but yeah you know you build relationships and they come and go unfortunately in the music industry that’s just how it is and I've been lucky that I'm still here and they are still here and were still going.
Now the band did disband and have a break a bit in the early thousands I'm sure it was not only hard for you, but for your fans so tell me about getting back together?
*laughs* It was slow, it was a slow process. Burton approached me in 2008 I believe it was and you know and it took months and months of shimmy shimmy and talking before we even considered playing with each other again. So yeah, it wasn’t something that I was ready to jump into right away, and it wasn’t something that he wanted to jump into right away either, but a few months later we worked something out and it was very good and we made two records, so obviously that’s a good sign, and we're working on a third record now and things are going well.
That’s it. I guess you had that time or that opportunity to start again.
Definitely, definitely. How do you wanna call it, resurrection a reset. It was an odd experience, it was an opportunity to be able to do it again.
Did you miss it in that time off?
At times yes I did miss it but sometimes, I was really busy doing my other band and I enjoyed, actually there was a period for a few years where I enjoyed my freedom, because obviously when I was in Fear Factory it took a lot of my time. I was gone on the road so much, I didn't even have a girlfriend, you know what I mean? I didn’t have a Girlfriend. Being out of fear Factory, was like, "wow, I get to see my nephew grow up,I get to see my family, I get to hang out with my dad, I get to hang out and see my sister and my brothers and I got a life." It sounds funny, I was able to reestablish myself. I was like I’m free now I have time to live a little bit, Fear Factory was just a huge machine; you have lawyers, you have accountants, you have managers, and you have all these people working for you and it was like, it was such a big machine, it can be stressful sometimes, you're constantly on tour, in a tour bus which was full of bands, you name it they’re there, we were everywhere around the world and when all that was gone, of course it was a sad for a little while but at he same time I consider it as happiness because I was able to discover new things, and home and be free and all that pressure was gone.
Yeah
I really enjoy that.
Moving forward I guess you take those things into the new installment of Fear Factory and you make time for your nephew and your family and to have time for yourself which makes a much better you, which makes for a much better musician.
Well you know what it is, when you're on the road so much, you know you eventually, you get tired of little things of people, like little things and they drive you crazy. Traveling around the world in the tube, an airplane or a bus you know when you're in such a small quarters, small area with each other you drive each other crazy once in awhile, so you know what we do is we just you know we tour a lot but we don't, we give ourselves breaks in between. That’s important.
Saying that, you're in the studio right now and then your hitting the road and coming out here for Soundwave, how do you fit everything in?
Everything is fitting together perfectly. I couldn't ask for anything else I mean, I'm glad, I'm very very happy the first shows that are gonna happen are the Soundwave shows. AJ the promoter, was the guy who believed in us way back, he was our promoter, when we were doing our first Fear Factory tour and it’s really cool, that, he actually bought us back about a year ago, and now he's bringing us back again. It’s really cool to be working with him again and he always treats us very well and we’re excited for the chance to play Soundwave, ‘cause they tried to bring us out a few times. We’ve done Big Day Out four or five times and this is our first time doing Soundwave, so I like that. Soundwave is like the Big Day Out and as much as I love it, it’s a great festival. Sometimes we played with some of the oddest bands so we were the only heavy band on the whole Big Day Out.
This is a festival where you guys fit in, you guys are the cool guys of the festival.
*Laughs* Exactly. We've always wanted to play Soundwave Festival don't get me wrong, Big Day Out is basically how Fear Factory launched our career in Australia, and Australia was the first country we had a gold record in and we were just like "wow!" Australia loves us and we cant wait to go back. We always feel the same way every time we go back we can't wait to go back. It’s so lovely there that my wife wants to come over with me now. The last three times I've gone there, my wife's come with me. And she's going come with me again in February with Soundwave, and she's excited as much as I am to go back.
Excellent! It’s good for her, as she gets to have a holiday as well as getting to spend time with you.
Yeah, of course, I mean again, we have a lot of friends there and she has a lot of friends actually in Melbourne, and I have a lot of friends all through Australia and you know she works for a school called SAE Sound Audio engineering school, a school of audio engineer and it’s a company that started in Australia so, she's excited she's going to go hang out there with the company people and all that stuff.
Will we be getting a previews of the new album here in Australia when you play Soundwave?
Possibly, there is a big possibility that might happen
Excellent.
Hopefully by the time we hit there, at least a single or the album will be out.
Well I'm going to let you now get back to it but it was nice, great talking to you, Dino.
Thanks you very much, I appreciate the opportunity.
Cassie Walker
SOUNDWAVE 2015
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - ADELAIDE
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - MELBOURNE
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH - SYDNEY
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH – BRISBANE