– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with BORN FROM PAIN?

Hey, what’s up! This is Dominik from Born From Pain. We just got back from our tour the US and Mexico which was a fun trip to do. Lots of good shows with some old and new friends including Terror, Alpha and Omega, The Beautiful Ones, Take Offense and a whole lot more nice people we met along the road. In the meantime everybody in BFP is busy working and preparing for Christmas I guess. There’s not much time for that since we’re about to hit Spain and do our annual Change Or Die tour between Christmas Day and New Year’s.

– From December 20th to the 22nd you will be playing in Spain after five years without stopping by here. What are your expectations on these shows?

Yeah, it’s been a while we’ve toured Spain! If I remember correctly, 2009 was the last time we played over there, together with Terror, Trapped Under Ice and Stick To Your Guns. And besides that one more show in Vigo a few years back. I expect a crazy crowd in each city, lots of Cerveza and Tapas like anytime we’ve come to Spain. Our good friend David is taking care of us, so I’m sure we’ll have a good time!

 

– Some months ago you released your latest studio album, «The New Future». How was its feedback like? Did it fullfill your expectations?

Honestly, I never really have any expectations once we release a new album. Of course it makes me happy if people like it, but then again the reason Born From Pain is still here after 15 years is because we love what we do. However, the album was well received I guess. Some people like the more traditional sounds, some love the new elements we’ve thrown in, some don’t like it at all and some might say it’s our best album to date. After all, you can’t be everybody’s darling and that’s perfectly ok. It was a hard piece of work and within the BFP camp we love every single track, that’s what matters.

 

– «The New Future» is a superb album, you know how to mix your essence adapting yourself to the present days. Do you think the songs on this effort reflect the best the actual spirit of BORN FROM PAIN?

I definitely think so, yes. Like I said before, we took some effort to make this record what it is. About 3 years ago we had a lot of songs written already until we all sat down, listened to it and decided that it was too generic for yet another Born From Pain album. Together with our good friend René Natzel we analyzed what made the band so strong over the years and focused on stripping down a lot of things in our music we thought has been

too bulky or has been done too many times before. By ourselves, and also by a lot of other bands. We didn’t want yet another record with tracks we wouldn’t be 100% satisfied with. The result is The New Future, a record I love each and every track of, probably more than any other record I did with Born From Pain.

 

– I think this opus adds more Metal elements so to speak; was something you were striving for or did it just come out naturally?

I don’t know if it’s more Metal elements. It’ definitely more diverse than any other record we did. There’s always been a strong Metal influence in Born From Pain and there always will be. We love Metal ever since we’re young kids. But we also love hardcore, punk, Hip-Hop, 80ies pop, electronic music, Motown and so much more and I guess that’s all influences we use in our songs. After all, it’s still a heavy hardcore record and people may decide what influences they hear in our music the most.

 

– What do lyrics on this «The New Future» deal with? The album’s title is quite evocative for the period we are living in.

After In Love With The End, War and Survival we felt the urge to express more of a feeling of change and hope rather than just telling people what’s wrong with this world. Rob has always dedicated most of his lyrics trying to make people aware of certain aspects in today’s political and social disarrays. And we still think it’s most important to wake people up, make them see that our governments don’t work in our interests but in their very own, that globalization is a huge problem we have to face in everyday life, that multinational and corrupt corporations run huge parts of this world today, that fascism, racism, sexism and a whole lot of other -isms still divide us where we should be united.

The New Future is a call to change, to unite and to fight all of the above and destroy it where you see it. Now, we can’t just change the world in one day, but we can make an effort and start in our own communities by helping people in need, supporting local businesses, let people in power feel that we’re not ready to swallow their laws and ideas of a New World Order.

 

– All this about «The New Future» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?

Heavy. Diverse. Undisputed.

 

– You have always been through several line-up changes; does this renew your energies and help you moving forward stronger or does it also has its downs?

Usually it renews our energies, yes. Fresh blood in the band usually means new enthusiasm that gets us all. Right now we’re a five-piece again. Servé, who formed the band with Rob back in ´97, just joined the band again and we instantly figured that we were missing the second guitar over the last two years. It just wouldn’t feel right anymore, as much as we liked the 4-piece formation.

Of course it has it downs as well. Whenever people leave the band it can be a let-down on the personal side of things but also finding a new and dedicated replacement can be a pain in the ass, yes! Try-outs, rehearsals, getting into the groove in a live situation etc. But so far we managed pretty good I guess and usually we came out stronger than before.

 

– You are probably the best well-known European Hardcore act; does this make you feel some kind of pressure or does it just make you feel proud of knowing you have influenced a lot of younger bands?

Well, I don’t know if we’re the best known European Hardcore act. But I’m humbled if you say so haha. No, there’s no real pressure. We do what we do and I’m happy if younger bands get into heavy music because of us. It feels good if people appreciate what we do as a band.

 

– And talking about such; what newer bands into the style could you suggest? Do you think this scene has gotten worse throughout these years you’ve been around as a band?

Hmm, we get this question a lot. I don’t think this scene got worse, it just changed. It feels like there’s way more bands around than let’s say 10 years ago and some of it is really not my cup of tea to be honest, but is that a bad thing necessarily? When I was 16 and started out playing with my first bands, there were enough people around way older than me complaining about the «new scene» while glorifying the past. I never wanted to be that kinda guy. Love it or leave it I’d say. The day I feel too uncomfortable with what I’m doing I might as well quit, but so far I never felt that way. There’s still a lot of young kids coming to our shows and getting into what we’re doing which is great and also proves that from the old school to the new school there’s enough room for each and everybody to make this scene the great place it is.

Talking about newer bands to check out, there’s a few cool bands we’ve just played with and I can only recommend to check them out, they’re all

great at what they’re doing: Coldburn, Wolf X Down, Alpha & Omega, The Beautiful Ones, Take Offense, Nomads, Hammerfist, just to name a few!

 

– In fact this 2012 you have celebrated your 15th anniversary, I guess you didn’t expect being such successful when you started but my question is: do you have any regrets from these years?

No, not really, but I can only speak for myself. I started playing shows with Born From Pain in 2003, so that’s almost ten years from now. I can’t think of anything so grave that I would regret it. There’s always been a few things in the past that I would’ve done differently, maybe when I listen back to older records or think of tours that may have not been that successful as others, but in general there’s really nothing to regret, no.

At the end of the day, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

 

– During this time you’ve managed to accomplish several things, have toured a lot, with different bands, etc., but; which band would you like to play with you haven’t done it yet?

I think a tour package with Metallica, Iron Maiden, Kreator and Born From Pain sounds just about right.

 

– As 2012 is about to end; could you please tell us what are your 3 favourite albums of the year as well as the least favourite one?

I’ve got to be honest here. 2012 was really hectic for me and I hardly got any time to check out new music. The three records that stuck out the most would be: Kreator – Phantom Antichrist, Muse – The 2nd Law and Lana Del Rey – Born to Die. Mainstream pop couldn’t get any better haha. I guess I have to catch up on a lot of records in 2013…

 

– And finally; what are your near-future plans?

Right after Christmas we’ll head out for our annual Change Or Die tour with our good friends in Nasty and Look My Way. We’ll play a few more show in France with Do Or Die in January and probably do another headline-run in Europe in spring before the festival summer kicks in. Besides that we’ll start writing new music soon, so keep your eyes and ears open!

 

– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

Thanks for the interview! Barcelona, Murcia and Madrid get ready for a heavy weekend with us and meet us at the bar! Dom – BFP

 

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

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