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Ok, we’re ready, is this one shooting? Is your’s shooting ? Are we audio recording ? Ok, we are...
Well, Frederic, hello, can I call you Fred ?
Well then, I’ll call you Fred, it will be easier.
- Could you give me some fresh news about DragonForce?
- Could you give me some fresh news about DragonForce? - No.
We are on tour, I left home on September 6th to promote the last album «The Power Within» released in April,
I can’t remember the exact date so, yeah… and so now we are on tour,
we went to South America with Trivium, then we went to England,
we were with 3 opening bands called Alestorm, The Defiled, and Cavorts,
and now are with Huntress and Kissing Dynamite, who are playing right now,
we did a gig in Japan, we finsih in Europe, we go to Eastern Europe and then we end the tour in Russia,
I go back home on December 9th and I’m extremely exhausted.That’s it.
Ok. You've been the bass player of DragonForce for a some time,
can you tell me about the band’s concept or spirit ?
The spirit of the band, well there isn’t really any concept, we just play the music that we like,
we have good times on stage, and we try to share that with the public,
so it’s cool to listen to the albums because we take the time to do things right,
but it’s especially on stage that things happen, there is a bunch of people that I know who told me afterwards
that they don’t like the music on the albums but when they come see us live,
then something happens because we don’t take ourselves seriously.
So anyway we move a lot on stage, so that’s the spirit of the band if there is any,
it would be partying while on stage and enjoying ourselves.
Tours are really important for your band and I guess that a french tour must be something particular for you...
Yes, that’s what I was telling you before, I eat bread, cheese and I drink wine, so it’s already cool.
And anyway it’s nice to play in France, obviously I’m really happy,
I see a lot of people that I know, and,well I want it to be cool,
and when the audience is excellent then I turn to the others to tell them:
«Yeah, that’s my homeland! ». I’m very glad when we play in France, of course.
Ok. So you’re a bass player, but is there any instrument you'd have liked to play but that you never tried?
Well...Saxophone. I’d love to play saxophone.
I guess that everybody's gonna answer "saxophone" , right?
Really? Yeah but I think it’s beautiful, I’ve got a violin at home too but I can’t play it properly...at all.
Otherwise,I already play drums, piano, bass guitar,guitar and I don’t sing well.
But yeah saxophone, I’d like to play saxophone, in fact I’d like to know how to play every instruments,
harp for instance, I'd love it if I just could take any instrument and play a few notes,
most of the time I’m doin’ it but it isn’t great. But a saxophone, well …
What’s your best tour or gig memory?
There are many of them, I’ve been doin’ it for a while now... I loved every time we went to Japan,
it’s awesome, the public is awesome and I love that country.
So this, globally, concerts in Japan, I find it really great.
I’ve had the opportunity to play on stage with Machine Head,
to play a song with them several times because the guitar player, Phil, had lost his dad,
so everybody was a bit like...
And so I played with them on stage, and that was also a bit of a teenage dream,
because those bands - well, now they’re friends of ours - but yeah, we made so many things together,
I got to meet so many bands, play in many places,
so it’s not easy to single out one particular memory, there are a lot of them.
Your worst memory ?
Recently i played in Florence,
I got smashed the day before
and I went to sleep at 6 in the morning before throwing up in the bathroom of the hotel,
there was red wine spilled everywhere and I started to clean it up
but I ended like « No, I’m giving up,there’s to much of it ».
I woke up, still drunk, and thought it was a good idea to keep on drinking
and I kept drinking all afternoon long,
I fell asleep on the floor at 8 PM, I got woken up at 9/30
« Fred, Fred, we’re going on stage »,
and I went on stage, I played, I didn’t understand a single thing, it was atrocious.
There’s that, and, in 2006, we were on the OzzFest tour, the moving festival on the US ,
and a few hours before jumping on stage, I was at the catering,
I ate something with peanut,
I’ll spare you the details, but I’m allergic to peanut
and I had a beautiful allergic reaction, threw up five times,
i was throwing up blood,
so, well, there are always vomit storys about me.
There was blood, I was really feeling bad
so I went to bed for 30 minutes, then I was on stage, under the burning sun
I couldn’t get jack.
That's my worst memory ...
Nice, indeed.
So I’ve got a question about one of your sleeves,
I’d like you to explain to me the sleeve of Ultra Beatdown. What happened there ?
Don’t ask me ...
we had a lot of options,
and then it’s a dude that made jackets for Nintendo DS, it was a designer.
I get it now.
and so actually he offered this to us and then we thought that it was a bit video-games like,
it’s not really my type of sleeve, but actually it’s not that bad,
when I see it now I’m like « Oh yeah, it’s cool actually ! »
there’s people that weren’t fond of it, it’s not the most beautiful sleeve in the world
but I think it’s quite ok,
but yeah, that’s why, it’s a dude that usually does video game’s sleeve that did ours.
We get it now.
So it’s clear that DragonForce is inspired by video games.
So would you, the whole band, would you like to do the soundtrack for a video game ?
Well yeah, I think that doing music to support other media,
well I meanmaking soundtrack for movies or video games it’s something that I, personally, would love to do ,
and I think that the others as well, it’s just that it has never been offered to us so far,
but yeah, I’d love to do the soundtrack for a video game,
I grew up with video games, so yeah, obviously.
So you play ?
Video games ? yeah yeah yeah !
Have you tried « Through the fire and flames » on Guitar Hero ?
I’ve heard this question the day before yesterday ...
Uh no, yeah uh ... so they still gave us the game that’s nice.
I stopped after 30 minutes of playing, I was fed up with it, because it really isn’t like…
I mean yeah you just have to watch the colours and press the button at the right time,
so I did’nt manage to get to our song,
but on the other hand we made a sort of tv show, an interwiew, in Australia I guess,
and we had to play, they had prepared the whole thing, and then we started playing and it was really tough,
so I can’t do it, that’s all.
Because if I get this thing in my hands, I want to play guitar, see ?
But it actually has nothing to do with guitar,
so no, I don’t think I’m the only one in the band (who failed),
we don’t play guitar hero, we can’t play our song in expert mode…
Well I don’t know if you’ve seen, but there’s a new game that’s come out called Rock Smith
where you can play with the bass and the guitar ?
I’ve heard about it, but I didn’t get to try it,
I ‘ve got a real guitar at home, so I don’t need it, but it’s cool !
It’s better than just pressing some coloured squared buttons.
Ok so it’a bit of a Dumb Question ...
but do you think that someone on the earth is able to play faster and with more notes than you do ?
Oh Yes. They are a lot of them who can do that.
You listen Alan Holdsworth, it's jazz fusion.
Ithink he’s got a fantastic level
and he puts fifty times as much in his songs whenever he wants to, whenever he feels like it.
So no, there’s a bunch of people that play music this way,
so I don’t know why people would think that we are the fastest band in the world.
Perhaps because all of you guys play fast ?
Allan Holdsworth plays fast on his own.
Besides I wanted to say in front of the camera that we asked him for his interwiew and that he declined
Uh no, yeah uh ... so they still gave us the game that’s nice.
Anyhow, I love his music, then about the fact that he declined the interwiew, well…
But no, there are many musicians who play faster than we do, so well, it’s not a race anyway.
So to answer your question ... Yes it is possible.
So, one of the last questions ...
We usually ask people to say something in French, since you’re French it’s not funny ...
so could you tell us something in a language of your choice ? Anything.
Unshi.
It means "poop" in Japanese.
Great ! Really, thanks a lot for that.
They’re the little poops, those with arms who farts.
There, Unshi.
I have a T shirt, well, I haven’t got it here
but that was my word of the day : Unshi
Well thanks a lot.
And to finish, you’ve got 15 seconds to do the promotion of whatever goes through your mind, whatever you want.
Go ahead.
Thanks for watchin this interview,
listen to our new album, it is very very good. Actually I got to compose a song and I think it’s the best.
Also listen to Black Bomb A, the singer is over there.
And so, keep on supporting metal, go to concerts, buy T shirts ...
and help me fund my home.
Thanks a lot for the support and pay me a drink whenever you see me. Good bye
Well thanks. I think we’ve got it all, right ?
The wine ain’t great but well…
Yeah. I think it must be stated that the kitchen room at La Cigale, really…
Looks great, right ? I’m not making fun, right ?
Because we either had the dressing rooms but it was occupied so I chose this instead. We got colour, it echoes, real classy.
- Careful what you say, you emptied two bottles already -
Have I got any stains on my mouth ?
No it’s alright.
Well since you’re about to go on stage, we’re gonna leave you to it.
Did you cut yet ?
You ain’t got no sound ?
What are you saying ?
come on.
Ok I don’t know.
Well there’s no sound, let’s cut. It’s over, that’s all.
Thanks a lot
Well that was nice.