On the new album 'Off The Face Of The Earth’ Fuelblooded does not only come up with a convincing piece melodic death / thrash, but the five demonstrates a convincing growth compared to their previous album. A good time to submit the band a bunch of questions. Vocalist Peter Brinkman and guitarist Michiel Rutten were happy to pay attention to them.
Congratulations on ‘Off The Face Of The Earth’; I think it is another typical Fuelblooded album full of brutal and aggressive thrash/death songs, but also with some minor differences compared to your previous release ‘Inflict The Inevitable’. How do you see that? Please respond… Peter: Thanks a lot Patrick. I think you are on the spot with your remark. We think that Fuelblooded has grown over the years. The songs are more compact I guess, without necessarily being shorter in length. Furthermore I replaced the old singer Vital Welten, so also vocal wise there was quite a change.
Michiel: I think the new album shows Fuelblooded a little closer to what we actually want it to be. ‘Inflict the Inevitable’ was written over a much longer period of time then ‘Off the Face of the Earth’, but I think it is safe to say that we still managed to improve ourselves on this new album. I remember we did everything we could to make ‘Inflict..’ the best possible album, but we raised the bar with this one and it is very cool to see that your band is still developing. Personally, I think we did a little better in every aspect. The playing, the vocals, the songs and the production: everything improved. But definitely still Fuelblooded. With extra Fuel!
Listening to ‘Off The Face Of The Earth’ comparisons with acts such as Darkane, Sanctity, Trivium are easily made. Nevertheless you have a fresh sound and avoided sounding cliché. How did you avoid the trap of sounding too similar to those bands? Peter: Actually we did this by being ourselves and by not listening too much to what the rest is doing. Of course I listen to some of the bands that you refer to, but I can honestly say that we are sailing our own course. There will always be comparisons, because one needs to be able to say something about bands in order to categorize them in a certain league, but somehow I find it difficult to talk about my own band from that perspective. So I guess I’ll leave that to you.
Michiel: I guess ‘not sounding cliché’ is not a criterion we use to evaluate our songs. If you try too hard not to sound cliché you might end up sounding cliché. We’re just really doing our own thing, build the songs just the way we like them without thinking about what resemblance there might to other bands. If we stole a riff somewhere, it wasn’t on purpose haha.
How long in the studio did it take to produce and press this album to your liking and looking back in retrospect, would there have been anything that you or the band would have changed now that it’s completed? Michiel: It took ages actually. I think we started recording in the beginning of 2008. We recorded guitars and bass ourselves, and did drums and vocals in the studio. Everything was done at the end of April. Then we sent the stuff to Jonas Kjellgren, he prepared everything for the mixing session...
Peter: … then Michiel and I went to Sweden for the first part of the mixing and mastering process, for just three days. This was the time during which we needed to interact with Jonas and bring the wishes of the bands across. However, after that we felt we needed to let it go. That’s what you have to do with producers like Jonas. These guys know what they’re doing and we chose him because we trust him in giving us a special ‘signature’ sound. It works refreshing to let it go after months of recording and being on top of things. After these three days Jonas continued to work on it for a week or so and then we received the final version, which of course was a memorable moment.
Who is responsible for the lyrics, what subjects are included and what do you want to bring across with them? Are they written from a personal point or view or out of the perspective of others? Peter: Actually Michiel and I wrote all the lyrics for this album, with here and then some help of the rest of the band. We didn’t really write the lyrics with a concept in mind, to find out in the end that there actually is a red chord in the lyrical concepts on the album. The title “Off the Face of the Earth” turns out to be a perfect summary for the other lyrics. I think they actually contain personal stuff of the concerning writers, but surely the rest of band can find themselves in the content as well. I hope people will take the time to get into the lyrics as there’s enough to think about!
Michiel: I would say that the lyrics are written from several different points of view; some are more observing, others are more from a personal perspective. We also mix reality, or what we think reality is, and fiction a lot. Naturally, our own way of thinking is also part of the lyrics. I don’t think we really take a stand about certain issues, but you can read our personal ideas between the lines.
In Peter Brinkman Fuelblooded have, compared to ‘Inflict The Inevitable’, a new vocalist. What made him the perfect addition for Fuelblooded? What new elements has he brought to the band? Michiel: Well, he’s brought a lot of new energy to the band for one. He’s also very musical: he is a decent drummer and an experienced guitar player which is a good addition in the song writing process. But the most important thing is that he’s a great singer for every part of our music. He can grunt, scream, sing, shout – you name it. So Peter made us a better band. Besides that, he is a helluvacool dude!
‘The Wrath Of A’ath’ is an instrumental track; was it written as an instrumental one, as opener of the album, was it difficult to write lyrics for it, or … ? Peter: ‘The Wrath of A’ath’ was intended exactly the way you find it on the album, as an instrumental part that gives you a pause to breathe before ‘The Cult Of Ego’ kicks in. Who needs vocals on a song when there’s a lead on it like Danny plays there? I still get goosebumps all over when I hear it!
‘Off The Face Of The Earth’ has been produced by Jonas Kjellgren (Scar Symmetry, The Absence, Carnal Forge). In which elements can you hear his influence as producer? How did you end up with Jonas as producer; do the contacts hail from the two shows you played with Scar Symmetry in May 2009 or are the contacts even from way earlier? Michiel: When we started the recording process back in 2008, we started looking for a producer straight away. Because when you finished recording, you don’t really wanna wait too long too start the mixing and mastering. So we talked to a couple of people and we agreed on asking Jonas to do the job pretty fast. We all think his producer work is great and we felt that his ‘sound’ would fit Fuelblooded too. I wouldn’t call Jonas our producer, since we recorded the album ourselves basically, with some engineering assistance. His influence is just the sound of the end product. We made sure that we all liked the sound that he build for us in every aspect, made sure that we mentioned all the details that needed special attention, like effects. And then we let him do his magic, sit back and relax. He works really fast too, so we didn’t have to wait for the final product very long.
You have recorded a video for the song ‘The End Starts Here’. How important is having a video for Fuelblooded? Peter: Time will tell how important this is for Fuelblooded, but I certainly hope it will give us that extra exposure that we’re looking for. It can be a great introduction for fans of the genre. We want to reach out to every potential fan out there and how can you do this more effectively than showing them who we are and what we do?
Michiel: We thought it was a great idea, especially if we could make it a lot more professional than the ‘Constructive Destruction’ video – we did that one ourselves and that is cool, but it’s more like a bootleg thing. We had the opportunity to shoot a video under the right circumstances: great camera, good crew and location, and a whole bunch of friends that came to fill up the venue for the crowd participation. It turned out really cool, and people seem to like it. Within a week it’s been viewed way more than all of our other videos combined I think. Everybody in the world can watch that vid now. I hope it spreads like a virus haha.
How important is the internet, and especially sites such as MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, for an act as Fuelblooded? Peter: It’s half the job when it comes to showing people that you actually exist. These platforms are popular and we would be stupid if we didn’t try to connect with people that way. Internet changed everything. Now, you don’t need to stick to your own underground scene - the rest of the world is your scene, as long as you’re ‘aggressive’ enough to keep spamming the metal hordes with any news on your band. And that’s just what we do. Especially Michel, our bassplayer. He’s the most annoying spammer there is. If you haven’t received Fuelblooded spam yet, count your blessings, because he’s going to find you eventually! J
Your previous album was released through Copro Records, where your new album is released through My Kingdom Music. What made you decide to sign with this specific company? For how many albums did you sign a contract? Michiel: Ha, it is real easy. Our first album didn’t do too much. We got some great reviews, we did a lot of cool shows, but in the end there was no good reason to keep walking the ‘Copro path’. So we sent the new album around to labels all over the world and finally, at the end of last year, we signed with My Kingdom Music for the release of ‘Off the Face…’. So just for this album. Francesco, the label owner, was really excited about our music and he’s doing a great job with everything so far, so right now we’re happy. We feel we made a good decision.
Do you have perspective on new tours? Will they mainly be restricted to the Netherlands or has the time come for Fuelblooded come to go into (and conquer) Europe? Peter: It’s silent right now when it comes to performing live. We put all our effort in the video lately, and also in designing new merchandise and other business related stuff. We hope it’s the calm before the storm though. The cd is out, reviews are starting to appear and we hope this will give us the kick-off we are looking for to start playing regular shows again, or a tour. One thing is for certain, we definitely want bring our music across the borders. Playing in the Netherlands is cool, but it would be nice to broaden our horizons. But since it is really hard for us to do the booking ourselves, we’re looking for a good booking agency. Hopefully, the new album can spark some interest in that area too.
Are there any other happenings or things going on with the band or you personally that you would like me to let people know about? Do you have anything to say or add for closure? Peter: No personal issues here that I want to bother you with. Just say hi to Horst from me and thanks a lot for your interest in Fuelblooded. And to all the readers: get a copy of our album! You’re in for a treat! This album will first grow on you and finally grab you by the throat! Buy it, download it, or get hold of it in any way you feel appropriate. Just make sure you get it! Cheers!
Michiel: Yeah, we’ve started working on a new album. A couple of songs are in the works already and hopefully we’ll be ready to record a new album by the end of the year. It’s gonna be a lot of work to make that happen, since we’re not a fast band when it comes to writing songs. But I’m sure our next album will be another step up, cause we won’t settle for less! To all readers: c u on stage someplace sometime and get ready to be blown ‘Off the Face of the Earth’!
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