Fear Factory
Demanufacture (Roadrunner)
An interview with guitarist Dino Cazares
by Scott Hefflon
This is a concept album. Without knowing that, Demanufacture is merely massive cybermetal with cool lyrics. The record chronicles the progression of a character (insert yourself here) who has rejected society at its ugliest, most fundamental level. What follows is a story of searching for self, the dangers – both internal and external – of throwing away established ideas and man-made laws, the pros and cons of aligning oneself with similar rebels, and, in general, a story of personal/societal evolution. A pro-individual, technology-embracing society that knows how to dish out violence as well as accept it as fact. Demanufacture is about revolution.
Are you going to do a remix album for Demanufacture?
Definitely. It’s going to be called Remanufactured. It’s going to touch on certain things we didn’t touch on for the record. It’ll probably be more danceable. We’re a band who can go those directions.
And still be heavy as fuck.
Exactly. Some of the songs were written to have remixes, like “New Breed.” Most metal people don’t understand the concept of remixes. They think “Can’t you get it right the first time?”
Do you think of yourselves as metal, industrial, cyber, or what?
We’re very hyper-surreal cyberesque. The music’s very high-tech, very futuristic, very cinematic.
Where do the song concepts come from? Sci-fi movies?
A lot of it is influenced by day-to-day experiences you go through as a human being. A lot of the inspiration came from movies, too: Bladerunner, Terminator, Falling Down. A lot of those were filmed in Los Angeles. That’s where we’re from. You see a lot of things: Riots, the O.J. trials, glamorization of gangs – you get tired of the Beavis and Butthead generation.
Tell me the concept behind Demanufacture.
It’s a movie-esque sequencing. It’s got a central concept and a character. Each song is a story or a moment in the life of this character. The character has become what his society was – hate and violence. It’s what he knew best. He can’t feel anymore. Desensitized. When he goes to Demanufacture, when he’s tired of all the lies, he snaps. Like in Falling Down. He has weak points and he has strengths – he becomes the leader of the New Breed. It’s a realistic view of how technology plays an important part in society. The technology is the conformity. The character is trying to show people the importance of individuality. He’s trying to show how important one’s humanity is. Not against technology, because the character has embraced technology. But he uses technology as a tool, not as a means of control, and not letting technology get the best of him or enslave him. He sees manual labor, the factories, becoming museums of how people used to work before technology took over. He doesn’t want that. He still wants the touch and the feeling. He wants the physical world back, almost barbaric, but still a very technologically-advanced world. That’s why we put so much thought into this record. Fear Factory is definitely a band that’s progressing into something else. When we first started, we wrote about what we saw in this town. The fear factory used to be LA, but now the world is a giant fear factory.
