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INTERVIEW | MORE INTERVIEWS | SUBMIT MATERIALInterview with Five Finger Death Punch | VIEW COMMENTS [0 Comments] | ADD COMMENTS |  Posted on 13 December 2009 | Interviewer Simon Douglass Five Finger Death Punch have just finished their first headlining UK tour, Planet Loud caught up with founding member Zoltan Bathory just before the final gig in Norwich. Planet Loud - Afternoon. Thanks for taking the time to do this. How are things today? Five Finger Death Punch - Pretty good man, it’s the last show of the UK run. Going home, the weather here is not so good for me. I live in Las Vegas for a reason, but actually they’ve been awesome shows, every single one has sold out, so really happy. Planet Loud - This is your first headline UK tour. How has it gone? Five Finger Death Punch - Really good, as I said every single show has sold out. Planet Loud - What can the UK fans expect from a 5FDP headline show? Five Finger Death Punch - Well the fans are pretty hardcore here, they’re going to sing every single lyric of every single song, and the most pits are totally out of control, even when there are signs saying no crowd surfing, they still do. Pretty brutal. Planet Loud - You’ve had to cancel some of the European dates at short notice. How disappointing is that? Five Finger Death Punch - Well I got, probably from the boat ride. We had a twelve-hour boat ride following at twelve-hour bus ride through the Norwegian mountains, and everyone got sorted of sea legs but I had the great idea of reading on the boat, there was nothing else to do, no Internet, nothing. I actually read Slash’s book, it’s a really good book, but I got Vertigo, still spinning a little bit, people pay big money for the way I feel right now. The first two days I couldn’t even stand up, it was the same feeling as if you were drunk, but it was much more violent. I still have it, have to be on solid ground for a few days to regain some sort of balance. Planet Loud - But you’ve recovered enough to carry on playing? Five Finger Death Punch - Well when I’m wind milling on stage sometimes I black out for a second. But I do it anyway; we were going to throw pillows in the pit in case I fell in but it wasn’t as bad. Planet Loud - Do you have any special planned, as it’s the last night of the tour? Five Finger Death Punch - We wanted to punk Shadows Fall in some way, we were thinking of getting a goat or a donkey from somewhere and pushing it on stage while there playing, but we couldn’t find one in time. Planet Loud - As I mentioned before this is the last night of the tour. Do you personally have any plans for when you get back home? Five Finger Death Punch - I’m thinking a nice comfortable beach chair next to the pool. Actually we have to fly out straight away to play a couple of shows in the US, but in December we’re going to have some time off, I’m going to target the Bahamas or some place warm. Planet Loud - Your debut album was released in the USA in 2007 and got a great reception and the band exploded from there. Was that something you were prepared for or was it a bit of a shock? Five Finger Death Punch - You can’t really predict these things. If there were a formula everyone would be doing it. The key is to do what you like to do so you don’t regret it, if it explodes, it explodes, and if it doesn’t you still have fun. I mean once we had the record done and people started to hear the song and a couple of things went on line we kind of knew because there was such a reaction. We didn’t have a record deal yet and people had tattoos all over them, so we kind of knew that the fan base was really dedicated and hardcore from day one. So from there we kind of got a projection that this might blow up, but you don’t really know. We were on the road for two and half, three years, never went home, just playing and playing and everywhere we went crowds double and quadruple, but it was no over night success. We’ve played like 900 shows in the last three years we are out on the road for like 340 days a year, so its hard work and it’s a lot of sacrifice and effort but that’s what it takes. Planet Loud - I’ve seen the bonus DVD on your latest album and the fans on it. It must be nice having a strong committed fans base like that? Five Finger Death Punch - I think one of the strengths of the band; funny to say it’s the strength of the band is fan power. You cant fuck with them, I don’t even know what would happen if a promoter would cut us short on a show, they would probably burn down the place. They are absolutely crazy; it’s like an army. I could organize an army out this they are that serious. Planet Loud - Still about a year ago the band was almost unheard of this side of the Atlantic. Are you surprised at how quickly this has changed? Five Finger Death Punch - It was an interesting thing because the first time we came over we had a couple of small warm up headline shows, and they were all sold out. But the crowd were extremely loud and knew every word and we were signing CDs and they were all imported from the US. I mean Metal is taking place in Europe unlike in the US. Having grown up in Europe I kinder knew that there would be a bunch of people who already know the band, because they are aware of what’s going on over in America. I guess when Metal Hammer put us on the Defenders of The Faith tour with Lamb Of God and Dimmu Borgir that was the first jump that we made, and after that we had a huge surge, people we like who is this band. From there we went to Download and played in front of over 40 thousand people at noon, They were chanting the name of the band even before we hit the stage, so it was a really fast rise. I mean the band was pummelling it for three years and you can tell when a band is on the road for a long time, they are like a machine. We came on stage and all these people had an experience of a band that plays 320 shows a year, that has power, not because it’s my band but any band whose doing that has power. People immediately recognise it, and now we’re coming over here and every show is sold out. But we’ve had a lot of help on the way, the press accepted us with open arms, Metal Hammer, Kerrang all the magazines, all the online magazines accepted the band, and that’s contributed. I mean we have a little bit of a European sound, I grew up here and as I write most of the music it’s going to have European traits, but at the same time the band is American. So it has the balance between the big fat American power grooves, but the thinking behind it is European. The way we structure songs and all the melodies is very European and people recognize that. I think that’s why people connect with the music because it has that Euro vibe. It’s pretty amazing how the press and the crowd have accepted us, and I think in 2010 you guys are going to see us a lot here. Planet Loud - You mentioned Download. How was it for you? Five Finger Death Punch - Imagine this, we hit the stage around noon, I figuring alright this is the second day, maybe it was the third actually, I figured we’re in England so chances are people were partying all night, so they’re going to be sleeping in their tents. So we were fairly early on the bill so didn’t really know what to expect. It could have been a fairly big crowd or it could have been 1000 people saying ‘what the fuck is this noise’. But we were walking towards the stage and heard ‘Death Punch’ ‘Death Punch’ and thought that sounds like a lot of people. From behind you can’t see, so walking up the stairs I looked out and as far as I saw there were people and I was like holy shit. It was clearly 30-40 thousand people so at noon and screaming ‘Death Punch’ we were like is this real? It was amazing, we ran out on stage did what we do the whole thing was insane. Planet Loud - How are the European festivals compared to the American ones? Five Finger Death Punch - Well if you can call Defenders of the Faith a festival, it’s more of a festival tour, I don’t know if you can call it a festival. That’s a smaller setting 2500 to 5000 people and Download was like a true festival and that was actually the only one we played in Europe so I can’t really compare. It was way more people, it’s pretty much one of the biggest festivals in the world. We played some festivals in Japan, which was pretty awesome, and surprising. But the same thing happened there; the fans knew all the words. I was expecting the crowd to be really nice, but they went fucking ape shit. There were like four five pits going at the same time. Maybe its prejudice to say you can’t expect that from the Japanese fans, but I kinder didn’t. I thought they would be much more reserved. These kids were beating the fuck out of each other expect they knew Karate, so it was much worse, so that was pretty surprising. In the US we did the Mayhem touring festival. So a touring festival setting is different because it’s like a travelling circus, a party that just moves on every day. You have like forty buses filled with crazy people and it goes town-to-town so crazy shit is going to happen. Here since it was a stationary festival, you know what maybe that’s the difference. European festivals are stationary; you have a big festival, which everyone comes to. Where as the American ones are usually travelling, like Family Values, Mayhem all these festivals, so you go town-to-town. But the nature of the stationary festivals it’s way more people. For Mayhem you have between 15-25 thousand people and then you hit Download and it can be any where from 50-100 thousand. So I think maybe that’s the difference. For us, because of our fans, where ever we go we get the same reception. You can tell they are Punch fans because they are loud and rowdy. Planet Loud - Many people see you as the leaders of a new generation of heavy metal bands. How do you react to that? Does it put more pressure on you? Five Finger Death Punch - Its good to hear people think that, but the only way to tell whether that’s true of false is in like three or four years from now. I see it all the time people comparing us from Slayer to Lamb Of God, Megadeth, and although technically we sell more records than these guys they have been around for years. Megadeth have probably sold around 10 million records worldwide so you can’t really compare a young band to them. Yes at the moment we sell more records, but those guys have a catalogue that if you add it up have sold way more. They are legends that have stood the test of time. So ‘the leaders of the new generation of metal’ would be valid if we survive five more years and we have a legacy. In America we do kick off some doors, I mean American radio doesn’t play heavy metal. I would say this, in Europe metal is so much more in focus. You have enough press that is taking metal seriously you have really good publications, we have maybe one or two magazines and that’s it. Metal is so much more accepted here, not necessarily mainstream, but closer to mainstream than in the US. In the US you turn on the radio and your going to here Nickelback and Shinedown, nothing wrong with that, great musician, but that’s what mainstream radio play. Then all of the sudden you have a metal band that’s heavy compared to those bands at least, I’m not claiming we’re super heavy, we’re somewhere between the commercial mainstream and the super heavy stuff and that’s what I like. I mean I grew up on Iron Maiden, and if you look at them, they’re not that heavy, you can’t compare them to the likes of Lamb Of God. So that’s what I grew up on and that’s what I like, but we have a more modern sound because it’s obviously 2010 almost now. So we sound like today but we have our roots in metal that today would probably be mainstream. However in American we got on the radio, and the first time we got on the radio it was not easy. First, a couple of stations started to play us, and then more and more picked it up and eventually, it took seven months, the first song became a top ten hit, which for a new band especially a metal band is unheard of. But once we became top ten, the stations were like wow maybe Americans ready for a little heavier shit, so lets try others, they put our next song on the radio, top ten in month, then they did the third same thing happened, and now I think it’s the fifth song that is on radio right now. So maybe in that sense I can accept that statement, American radio is looking at us and saying wow maybe something is changing, maybe we can play heavier stuff and if they play us it might open the door for other bands that are even heavier. We were kinder the icebreaker. Now a lot of people say I never really listened to this kind of music, but it is kinder cool. I think we’re heavy enough that people that like really heavy stuff are going to say they have cool riffs and it slams, and the people that don’t like the heavy metal say; we have good melodies so they like us. Maybe that’s how the band grew so big, but that’s what we like, that where we want to be. Again if some one has that stupid idea that it was engineered to sell, the there would be a lot of engineered bands. Doesn’t matter how much money you have, you cannot make people like your music, they even like it or they don’t. If it’s shit it’s not going to happen. It has to happen organically and yeah that’s where we are in the middle and that were I’m comfortable, I like melodies and I like heavy. Planet Loud - What does 2010 have in store for 5FDP? Five Finger Death Punch - Well if you look at the past, on the road for three straight years I assume it will be the same for this record. I already know our entire year is booked up, so out of 365 days I think 340 of them will be on the road. We can’t announce exactly what the schedule is yet, let the festivals and shows that are involved do the announcements. For sure we have a headline tour starting in January, again we are taking Shadows Fall with us, Throwdown and another band Two Cents, and that’s for two months. From there it’s pretty much booked up till December, we’re going to be in Europe several times, we’ll be over here, probably in Japan in the fall. So we’re going to be on the road for a solid year again. Planet Loud - Do you get a chance to write when you’re on the road? Five Finger Death Punch - When you’re on tour it’s fucking difficult to do anything, because of your schedule. You finish a show and leave that town around two, three in the morning to get to the next one, arrive there around ten, locate the dressing rooms, find some coffee and some food. Then you have interviews, sometimes photo shoots, and then you have a sound check. The only time you have little bit of time is between six and ten. It’s those four hours when we have kinder a playtime. By then the doors are open and a band is playing so can’t really do interviews because it’s too loud. So it’s rare that we wrote anything. I mean we did record our cover of Pantera, which is coming out on the next Metal Hammer CD. But it’s really difficult to do. I mean we got snowed in in one town, which meant we were late to the next town, where we had a studio booked and we couldn’t do the studio time, so that altered the schedule. In the end we recorded half of the vocals in a studio and half right here on the bus, so it’s very very difficult. So the short answer would be not really, the long answer would be the one I just gave. If I have a really great idea, then I would record it quick but working on a full song, that almost never happens. Planet Loud - So we’re looking at 2011 before a new album? Five Finger Death Punch - Yeah pretty much, but look this album we wrote and recorded in two months, and mixing was maybe another three weeks. So we didn’t have much time, and the label would have given us more time, but that way we couldn’t have put it out this year. Here in the UK or in Europe it would have been ok because the first record just came out, but in American the first one is 07 and you cant wait three years between records, so we had to put something out this year. Two years is acceptable. But at the same time when you play the same song for three years you’re kinder itching to do something new. Some of the songs that we play are three, four years old, but I think with this band we have enough creative juice for four, five, six more records it’s no problem for us. When 011 comes we’ll probably go into the studio in the beginning of the year, knock it out in time for it to be ready for the summer, we can work pretty fast. The only difference I would make this time is that we’re going to have to find a studio some where on a tropical island. Planet Loud - Thank you. Hope it all goes well. Five Finger Death Punch - Thank you Interact - http://www.myspace.com/ffdp Find more articles on Five Finger Death Punch Related Tags Five Finger Death Punch Shadows Fall Lamb Of God Machine Head USER COMMENTS - 0 Comments ADD COMMENT |
       
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