Raymond answers questions from GameSpyDaily Drummer Raymond Herrera of the industrial metal band Fear Factory discusses doing music for such games as Cool Borders 2001 and Messiah, and how sometimes games go bye-bye: By Paul Semel GameSpyDaily: So I understand that you were late for our interview, young man, because you had a bunch of games stolen? Raymond Herrera: Yeah, everything’s gone, everything. We flew out of L.A. yesterday, and got here [Philadelphia] around 1:30 in the morning, but my bag never showed up. So I went and make a claim, and they said it was probably on the red eye. Well, the next day, when my bag finally arrived at my hotel, I opened it up and found that my notebook full of games was gone. I had about 220 games in there: 80 or 90 for PlayStation 2, and the rest for Dreamcast. And most of them were new games I’d just put in there to play on this tour – I just got Crazy Taxi 2 – though there was some old favorites like Tekken in there as well. So I was late because I had to go to the store. GameSpyDaily: Not to be your mom or anything, but why did you have so many games with you? Raymond Herrera: Well, I spend a lot of time on tour. And that’s not all my stuff, I have hundreds of PlayStation games at home. I just didn’t bring them because I only have my PS2 and Dreamcast with me. GameSpyDaily: How did you first get into video games? Raymond Herrera: I’ve just always been fascinated by arcades. So when I was nine or ten, and there was this commercial for the Atari 2600, I was like, "Great, I can get this stuff at home." And about a month later, my parents got me one. So obviously I had to be a good kid for the next year. GameSpyDaily: What was the first game you got really hooked on? Raymond Herrera: Combat. I liked Donkey Kong in the arcade, but I really got into Combat because I had it at home. GameSpyDaily: So how did you get your first song in a game? Raymond Herrera: I went to E3 in ’95, and just started talking to people and giving out CDs, trying to sell the idea of having our music on a game. And that’s when I met this guy Saxs at Shiny. Turns out he’s a huge fan of Fear Factory, so he was totally into the idea of having some of our music on a game they were just starting to work on, which wound up being Messiah. And it just took off from there. GameSpyDaily: The songs in Cool Borders 2001 all come from the albums Remanufacture and Obsolete, not your new one, Digimortal. And yet, you wrote a new song for Messiah. How do you decide what games get a new song, a remix, or an older tune? Raymond Herrera: It really comes down to the budget. If they have the money, they’ll ask us to write a song, but if there isn’t much money, then we’ll give them something older. But, at the same time, if the game is one that I think is really good or really works for us, we’ll give them a break. GameSpyDaily: What, in your opinion, is the best game you’ve done a song for? Raymond Herrera: I’d have to say Test Drive 5 and Messiah, those are probably the best ones. GameSpyDaily: Are there any upcoming games that you’ll be featured in? Raymond Herrera: We were just back home, writing music for a game called Frequency, which is a PS2 music game where you get to remix songs. We’re also going to be on F1, a new formula one game for PS2, we’re probably going to write music for ATV 2, we’re probably going to be on SSX 2…I think that’s pretty much it for the near future. We were going to be on Gran Tourismo 3, but they wanted a new song, and seven months ago when they asked us, we didn’t have one. GameSpyDaily: A few years ago you mentioned that you were working on doing your own game with Psygnosis. What’s the status of that? Raymond Herrera: They got bought out by Sony, so all my Psygnosis boys now work for Sony and have a huge fleet of games they’re working on, so they don’t have the time. But it is something we still want to do. GameSpyDaily: Are you still running your gaming website, www.gamershaven.com? Raymond Herrera: Oh yeah. In fact, I’m getting ready to sign a deal with this distribution company who will handle my shipping, and I’m going to be buying my games from them as well. GameSpyDaily: And lastly, you’ve also done some game testing for Test Drive 5 and Test Drive Off-Road 2. Have you ever caught a really, really bad bug in a game? Raymond Herrera: Yeah, I’ve caught a few (laughs). But my whole thing is that games have to be good in this order: control, graphics, control, storyline, control, good ending, control. Gameplay is the biggest problem. I play games that look like shit, but they’re fun to play. So that’s what I do testing for, the gameplay. Because if the gameplay is really fucked up, you better fix it. Thanks to Raymond, Paul Semel and GameSpy for the insightful interview. We look forward to Fear Factory's future endeavors in the gaming scene. and be sure to check out their new album, Digimortal.