City of Fire's debut is out in late August- until then, Fear Factory hits Harpo's on July 21st.
Burton Bell is having quite the 2010 so far. Not only has the reunion with Fear Factory founder Dino Cazares yielded a stellar return-to-form album (Mechanize), but Burton is gearing up to release another project called City of Fire. City of Fire was the brainchild of current Fear Factory member Bryon Stroud, who joined forces with Bell for this new project during a break in Vancouver a couple years ago.
City of Fire promises to be a bit different than Fear Factory, as well as the material Burton has done with his Ascension of the Watchers project. This in all makes Bell a very busy, sought after man these days.
I had a chance to catch up with Bell before a Fear Factory show while fighting crowd noise at a Detroit Tigers game (damn fans couldn’t shut up for 15 minutes), but everything went fine. We discussed how he manages to keep all the projects in order and how the City of Fire project varies from his other bands. Here’s my interview with Burton Bell:
MCB: How did the City of Fire project first come about?
BB: All of it happened pretty quickly. When Byron (Stroud) joined Fear Factory, we shared the same managers and we got to hang out a lot. We were into the same sort of music and always seemed to have a good time when playing together, so we decided to start this up. We invited a friend of ours, (guitarist) Terry Murray and Byron sent me some demos he had been working on. I liked the hard rock groove and grungy sound the songs we had. The energy was good and we went from there.
MCB: What are the major differences in your mind between City of Fire, Fear Factory and Ascension of the Watchers?
BB: They are all definitely different, my voice is the only thing that is the constant throughout the three different groups. With Fear Factory, it keeps that industrial sound, that heavy and aggressive style to it. With Ascension of the Watchers, it is my labor of love. It’s far more introspective, spiritual and probably has my most personal lyrics and material on it. With City of Fire, it comes from more of a hard rock, 70s’ish type of groove on it. It has a vibe that’s far different than the other bands and gets a lot into losing someone, lost love- far more universal themes that everyone can relate to. It brings the sex back into rock and roll (laughs).
MCB: How much different will the finished City of Fire album sound versus the early songs that are on places like You Tube?
BB: When we worked on those early demos, some were in 2008, some in 2009- and they were still very raw. The riffs have been refined and polished a bit more. There was some definite tweaking of my vocals and the lyrics. But once it’s out August 24th, you’ll see just how different the finished product is versus the demos from back then.
MCB: With all of these bands going on, how do you keep them all in line?
BB: You have to balance it properly and you always have to have a schedule and keep everything separate. But over time, I realized that just having one band just doesn’t cut it anymore. You have to have different outlets for your music, and I think the three projects I’m doing definitely satisfy my needs. You look at guys like Corey Taylor, Josh Homme, Dave Grohl- people like that also have the need to explore their creativity through multiple ways.
MCB: For the Ascension of the Watchers album, how did you initially hook up with Al Jourgenson (of Ministry fame)?
BB: Back in 2007, I had heard through someone that Al was planning on recording the last Ministry album. I was completely surprised, but I knew I had to get on that record and be a part of it. So, they put us in touch and I ended up doing a song called “End Of Days” and worked on a song with Tommy Victor as well. While I was doing the first Ascension album, I got to work with Al again and I wanted to work and learn as much from him as I could.
MCB: When will we see City of Fire out on the road?
BB: We are doing to pull double duty for Fear Factory on a few shows on this tour. But we have a fall tour planned with Soulfly and plan on doing some dates overseas later in the year. Right now, we’re doing the Fear Factory tour and expect a good time, lots of classic and new tracks. We really put a lot of effort into Mechanize and we’re ready to show people.
Fear Factory plays Harpo’s on Wednesday, July 21st. Tickets are $17 and are available at www.etix.com. Additional Fear Factory band info and tour dates can be found at www.fearfactorymusic.com. City Of Fire’s self titled debut is due out August 24th on Candelight Records. For additional band info, check out www.cityoffire.com for more details.
