Articles / Interviews

Burton C. Bell On Life, The Universe And Anything You Want

I was given the task of interviewing Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory and I must say I jumped at the chance to speak to one of the leading metal bands in the world today. The phone rang through to Iowa and behold I was speaking to Burton who was sounding quite relaxed.

Burton, you've just done the Dynamo Festival in Europe. How was it?
"Incredible, we played in front of 160,000 kids plus and it was just beyond words."

But you're touring with Megadeth now, how's that?
"Well we're first on the bill, then Flotsam and Jetsam, Korn, then Megadeth - and it's a good tour for us. There's a lot of kids getting there early just to see us which is a really good sign."

Where have your CD's had the best response?
"Europe for sure. Probably Germany I'd say, they've got a big metal market."

On your first album Soul Of A New Machine the line in Martyr is "I've got to get away", what was it you felt you had to get away from?
"I wrote that on a metro bus, in Los Angeles and I just wanted to get away from the lifestyle I was leading, I was bored with what I was doing. And the record I was really into at the time was Nevermind by Nirvana and there's a song off that record that went (starts to sing) "Gotta find a way, a better way, a better way" and I'd been singing it for like a week straight, and for some reason I was singing it wrong, I was like (sings again) "I gotta get away", and it fitted this song we were doing at the time so I put "I've got to get away", you know just changed it around."

I've read somewhere that you like New Model Army. Do you like any other bands in this vein?
"Yeah I like New Model Army and my favourite band of all time was, is, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds."

I noticed you've got a new tattoo on your stomach, do you have any more tatts?
"The one on my stomach is the last one I got but I plan on getting another one very soon on my back, I've got a couple of ideas, kinda like an abstract bat symbol, not Batman though. You ever heard of the comic Faust? Well it's the symbol for this bat-like thing (from the comic) and I want to get it done as a back piece."

Well does Mr. Bell have any other pastimes apart from getting tatts?
"I collect comic books and toys of my favourite comics like Godzilla stuff, stuff from Spawn, Star Wars stuff and I also collect heavy metal, as in the sense of iron, steel, rusty pieces of metal that I'll find, I'll take 'em home."

When did Christian join the band?
"Early in '94, right after the Australian tour. We kicked Andy out because he was an asshole. We came to LA to write this new album and at that point we thought we should just go ahead and record. After that we got ourselves a tour throughout the states so we had to find a new bass player and we ended up with Christian, through Biohazard. He's from Belgium and he happened to be in LA at the time. We'd tried out a lot of bass players, then we tried Christian and he fit perfectly."

At the bottom of your CD it says "Fear Factory proudly wear Bronze Age Clothing" who's this?
"Oh we're endorsed by a clothing company, so we get clothes for free. We wear a lot of their clothes."

What bands were you in before Fear Factory?
"The only band I was in before Fear Factory was a local LA band called Hateface. It was pretty different for what was in LA at the time. That was about 1990. It was totally noisy like early Helmet, White Zombie. It was fuckin' noisy as shit. You know I've just done a side project with Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath. He's got a new band and I'm the singer. There's the Fear Factory element in there but I'm doing a lot more different things. There's a couple of samples but there's no keyboards on the album. There's four of us in the band - Geezer, myself, Dean Castronova who plays drums for Ozzy, and a guy named Petro Howse who's been a friend of Geezer's for a long time."

I've looked at the album (Demanufacture) and it seems to be based around stripping down society's laws, government, servitors, religion and death...
"That's exactly right."

What was it that prompted this, because I read that you guys were just standing around, the riots had just passed, then an earthquake hit and you and Dino, from this, came up with the idea for this album?
"Yeah, it's something we visioned on. We were really affected by our environment and everything it, so thinkin' about how the environment affects people and all the causes of it and how socially the environment can affect you all these things came into play when writing this record."

Can you, yourself, see any hope or future for this world in it's present state?
"Ohhhhh (thinks long and hard), not really. There is a hopeful future but it's going to take a long time. And at this rate, I think technology's moving faster than people can handle and people are letting technology take over their lives and that's where Demanufacture comes into play. 'Cause Demanufacture is about the machine taking control. The idea is to take control of machines and use them to your advantage."

Not meaning to sound like a psychopath but I've listened to your album nearly every day.
"That's cool. I like listening to it myself, which says a lot because I didn't really listen to Soul Of A New Machine or Fear Is The Mindkiller that much. But I'm really proud of this record 'cause we worked very hard and even if I weren't in the band I'd probably buy the record."

Is it right that you're doing tunes for Mortal Kombat?
"Oh no, we didn't get that. They decided to go in some other direction. We did tunes, but they took two tunes from Fear Is The Mindkiller for a film called "Hideaway". It's about a serial killer who comes back and takes possession of someone's body. The movie kinda sucked. Have you heard of "Johnny Mnemonic. It's got Keanu Reeves. It's a total cyber-punk movie. We have Scumgrief (Deep Dub Trauma) in the Japanese version of this movie. But this movie kinda sucked too."

Your first line out of the song Demanufacture is "Desensitised by the values of life" - have you been desensitised to certain things?
"I think so. Yeah, I've been desensitised to a lot of different things. Like America in general, people like the homeless, I don't look at it, I've been desensitised. So yeah, I can be accused of being desensitised to a few things."

The gun sample in the song Demanufacture, is that real?
"No it's only a sample, none of us own guns. I've thought about it, definitely but I don't think I could ever get around to buying one. I got jumped by these four guys once, but it was a long time ago and I felt like killing them afterwards, but I didn't (laughs). It's definitely something to think about but I think I could take care of myself without one."

Last time I spoke to Dino he said that Scapegoat had been something that had happened to him personally. What was this?
"One night we were all having fun together at a party. Some people were outside and some property got damaged and Dino got the blame for it even though he wasn't around. He fit the description, a long haired Mexican, got dragged through the whole judicial system and got fucked. He was charged, got a record and a fine then had to spend a night in jail, that's pretty fucked."

Are you and Dino close friends?
"Yeah we've been friends for years."

Even before you started Fear Factory?
"Yeah. I lived with him in a big house. I was in a band already and we were friends before we were in this band together."

What sort of music was Dino listening to back then?
"He was right into death metal. He introduced death metal to me and I introduced Godflesh to him, bands like that."

You guys cover a song by Head Of David, are you right into this band?
"Totally, I've got everything they've done, I love Head Of David. They have like four or five records out."

And what is Dog Day Sunrise off?
"It's off an album called Dustbowl. It was done in 86/87. The record was way ahead of it's time. We did a good version of it. It's a little bit cleaner and a little faster, a bit more orchestrated. The harmonies come out a lot more on our version."

The song Pisschrist, did you get that from a painting?
"sure, it's a photograph taken by Andres Serrano, it's a very controversial piece because initially he got a government grant to fund a project and he came back with this picture of a crucifix in a jar of piss. He got a lot of flak from the moral majority and religious groups, they all came down on him and that was what the song was about. The song is questioning the power of religion."

You seem to write a lot of songs about this. Do you question to power of religion?
"Totally."

So you're a non-believer?
"I'm agnostic really. I have no belief. I believe in personal spirituality, but letting a group of people tell you how you should worship or what your spirituality is, is wrong. The Catholic Church is the biggest fear factory of all. They instil fear in people to have these thoughts so they will follow."

I myself always believed that you should believe in yourself first.
"That's right, the power from within."

And that's what this new album's all about?
"That's right. That's exactly right."

Do you believe in UFO's, aliens, things of this nature?
"Sure do, sure do." (Laughs).

Have you ever seen one?
"I think I have. I think I've seen a couple."

Where were you?
"I was in Houston, Texas, once, a long time ago and I was watching this red light go across the sky, really way up high but I couldn't tell how far, it was just a singular red light flying across the sky and I was just watching it and it just, pfft, disappeared. I don't know where it went, it was a clear night, not a cloud in sight."

Well you can't tell there's not another planet out there with life on it.
"That's right. With more intelligence."

Definitely. Imagine their version of Fear Factory.
"Dude. That would be amazing wouldn't it." (Laughs).

- Machine Of Hate