Interview - Burton - Fear Factory

7/16/10

Home | Interviews | Live Pictures | Reviews | News | Tourdates | Message Board | Links | Search | CD Store | Trade Index | Mailing List | Deconstructing some of the ideas behind Mechanize Sam: Is the track "Mechanize" a view on current human domestication and civilization, and sort of an ever increasingly lazy lifestyle? Burton: "Well I wouldn't say lazy, but it's describing how humanity is just becoming...parts of a bigger agenda, everyone believes..there's a false sense of individuality. However there is truly no individuality when you're working for someone else, you're making someone else money, everyone's separated within their own macro chasm, inside their little cubicle, sitting by themselves in their car, having their little false pretense of individuality of facebook or myspace and it's just all a sham, so yeah it's a comment on society". Sam: On "Fear Campaign" it seems like you're talking about use control of information by the government and religions to control civilization through misinformation, fear and intimidation... Burton: "Yeah, well, mostly through fear and intimidation and misinformation is part of that. It's misinformation that causes the fear, half-truths, lies, and you know they do it through the media, they do it through exploitation and it's something that we've been seeing for centuries and it's even more true in this day and age, you know, the war on terror is a fear campaign". Sam: Yeah, the fear for oil campaign... Burton: "Yeah, something like that. You know it's a pretense to "oh it's the terrorists we've gotta be afraid of" but there's an undercurrent agenda within their system where it's all about going and and taking the people out so they can get to the oil". Sam: And they don't mention anything about foreign policy when there actually is a terrorist attack... Burton: "No....they never do". Sam: You ever see that Twilight Zone episode where they cut the power to all these houses and the people start freakin' out and blaming one another and then they start accusing each other of being aliens? Burton: "Yeah, that's a good one...it's ahhh..the monsters come to Maple Street or something like that. Sam: Yeah, yeah something like that...it seems like that's us but in a larger experiment. Editor's note: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street Burton: "Yeah, well at the end of the show it was a larger experiment, you know starting a rumor ended the rumor that..it was an experiment on how the rumor drove society to kill itself." Sam: I thought of that when I was listening to the song because it seemed to relate a little... Burton: "Yeah, it's very familiar to that..." Sam: Which 9/11 conspiracy theories were you referring to in "Controlled Demolition"? Burton: "Um, well let's see, the theory that the buildings were in a controlled demolition, and all I have to make people think about is building 7. Building 7 was blocked away and for some reason it caught on fire and it fell down shortly after both buildings fell. Funny thing that every building standing right next to the trade centers were untouched, never caught on fire even though they were next to it, and no damage was done. So why did building 7 fall in a controlled demolition fashion? The World Trade Centers were built to withstand a 737 flying into it. You know, and the fact that..dude when you look at video you see explosions beneath, going down as it falls up high. That's controlled demolition, that's totally controlled demolition, you look at any video archive of buildings falling and that's exactly how they fall. And then there's the thermite cuts into the steel of the foundation, that's cut directly how a building should fall you know? It's fact, it's not a just theory, I'm looking just at the facts." Sam: I was listening to "Final Exit" and wanted to ask you, what you think of Jack Kevorkian? Burton: "I think he is helping people in need. People come to him asking for his assistance in their self deliverance, they're living though pain, they're suffering daily. You know if the medical community and insurance corporations will not find a cure, they only keep people alive so they can keep them on the drugs. There's no money in a cure, there's money in stabilizing their pain, and then they're still in pain so...you know he's trying to help people end their lives with dignity instead of living with pain and going into debt doing do." Sam: Why do you think the right to life people don't give a shit about your right to die? Burton: "Well, you know it's funny cause it's...is it right to life a choice to have life or die?" Sam: Seems like it's all about controlling other people. Burton: "Oh it is, it's all about control and if your choice is not to have life, that's is your right to life, not to have it. It's all control and scare tactics to keep people alive so they can make more money. It's the irony, it's like christian extremists who blow up abortion clinics and kill doctors because they're 'killing babies', it's like 'what?". Sam: You've been all over the world, have you spoken with anyone in other cultures that view life and death differently, what do they think about what we're doing here? Burton: "No one has really come to me about that, but they're just telling me their own personal story about death. Someone who...someone close to them like a grandmother or mother that had just passed through pain, and they listen to the song and they're thankful that someone is noticing it and recognizing it." Sam: How many projects do you have going on right now? There's the City Of Fire thing, the current Fear Factory line up, Ascension Of The Watchers is there anything else you're doing? Burton: "Actually there might be...starting next February or March, starting next March actually, there might be something new. It's kinda hush, hush, it's not really put together yet but I was approached by someone who I've worked with before to do a new project. So, until it's uh...I'm just gonna not really say who it is, but I have been approached for one more project and it should be pretty sick." Sam: Are you guys going to go back into the studio or are there more tour dates in the works? Burton: "Oh yeah more tour dates, um, the record just came out this year and I'd like to tour for at least a year and then go into the studio sometime next year to start writing a new album. But City Of Fire is going to start doing some tours in the next few months and over the next year as well so I'm going to be pretty busy...And I'm planning some Watchers gigs in the States and Europe."