DragonForce’s two lead guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman discuss the new album Maximum Overload, their musical beginnings and influences, video gaming and recreating the sounds, and what’s new on the just released LP!
British-based power metal band DragonForce released new album Maximum Overload on August 19th from Metal Blade Records offering that trademark DragonForce sound in 10 tracks, with an extra five bonus tracks in the special edition (includes DVD). Added bonus Matt Heafy of Trivium guest sings on “The Game”, “No More” and “Defenders”. Also they introduce their first ever recorded cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”. Maximum Overload is the first album produced by Jens Bogren which set in motion a more dynamic album faster, heavier and thrashier, since his presence allowed the musicians to focus on their instruments. Previous five studio recordings were all produced by the band members themselves. DragonForce’s latest LP Maximum Overload is “all about diversity… evolution, not revolution”.
How did you come up with the album title Maximum Overload?
[HERMAN] When we work on an album, we usually have a notebook to write some notes on. So, I had some schoolbooks where I used to do my homework, math or whatever! We use these old notebooks when we record an album. In the past we wrote down the cool words that we thought would work for an album title, so we took one of these books, and Fred the bass player points to the front (one of the drawings) and says, “What is this?” It said “Maximum Overload” and I said, “Oh that was a band from when I was in high school. It was the first band I started.” And Fred thought right away, “Why don’t we use that as an album title?” So there you go…
I understand you are playing even FASTER than you have on previous albums. Why do you want to play faster? Does it come from within?
[SAM] Well, the simple answer is we just enjoy it! We’ve been playing fast music for such a long time now, but we’re still not sick of it. We try a lot of different things and styles, especially on this new record, but as far as the song “The Game” goes, we just said, “Let’s try and do something faster than we ever did, and if it sounds stupid we won’t bother, and if it’s ok, well at least that will make that song a bit different than our standard 200 BPM tempo!” So yeah, we aren’t trying to go faster just for the sake of it. It’s just about doing what we like but changing things up a bit here and there!
How long did it take to record?
[HERMAN] The period to record was in a 6-month period on and off here and there. We did some recordings in the UK. I did a few recordings in L.A., on a yacht, which was fun! I did it with Zoltan Bathory from Five Finger Death Punch. The solo to “The Game” and “City of God” are the two recordings on a yacht off the coast of L.A. We were wondering, “Who has done this in a band before?” We couldn’t think of anyone. Maybe some cool amazing rock stars from the 80’s probably did it, but I don’t remember hearing about it. So maybe we get to be the first ones to do it?
Did you shoot a video of you playing on the yacht?
[HERMAN] Yeah, yeah, there was some footage. We are going to edit it out and put it on the internet soon.
Awesome! Here it is:
DragonForce Recording with Five Finger Death Punch on a Yacht
[embedplusvideo height=”300″ width=”600″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1otBpMV” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LIT-EqMxke4?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=LIT-EqMxke4&width=600&height=300&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep6206″ /]
Tell how it was working with your new producer Jens Bogren?
[HERMAN] I like the guy; he was cool. We had a similar personality so that’s always cool. The easiest we’ve made so far. It was because we got to concentrate on playing our guitar and playing our instruments, instead of thinking about the recording, all the process and the stuff you do after the recording to make sure the sound is right. In the past with previous albums we didn’t have to do it, so this was the easiest to make. It was fun.
How is the writing done?
[SAM] They pretty much all start off with me in my bedroom or wherever else with a drum machine, a guitar, and a computer. Obviously, technology has changed a bit since we started, but that’s how it usually goes. The first two albums I was doing it with a 4-track and writing notes of paper, but since Inhuman Rampage (2006) I just put it all together on Pro Tools which is way easier. In the past, I’ve pretty much done most of the writing on my own, and I’ll get the demos to the point where they have the drums, chords, vocal lines, some lead guitars all figured out in a basic structure. After the demos are done, I send them to the other guys, they have a listen, and then we start recording the proper version, and everyone adds their own touches to it. On this last album I actually teamed up with Fred, the bass player, to write all the songs. So it was a joint effort this time, but the way we went about it was still the same, such as, doing demos with a drum machine, etc.
What’s your favorite track?
[SAM ] That changes, but the two I’m most happy with overall are “Three Hammers” and “Tomorrow’s Kings”. I think they came out really well. When you write a demo, you don’t quite know how the final result is going to sound. Sometimes you think it’s going to come out really well and sometimes the ones you think are going to come out ok are the ones that come out really good.
[HERMAN] No personal favorites for me really. I have been learning the songs. The one I like the most at the moment is probably the song that has been the easiest to learn, so that would be “Three Hammers”.
What was the inspiration for the album artwork?
[SAM ] It’s pretty much referring to the world and society today, and how we have so much information being 
thrown at us on our computers and phones that it’s like we don’t really need it all and maybe that’s a good thing in some ways but in others it’s not. I know from my own experience and looking at other friends it seems like there is so much entertainment or other information out there we don’t really take the time to appreciate things as much as we used to.
Who were your influences? Who inspired you?
[SAM ] I first started playing guitar because my parents said I had to. I didn’t really want to but they were like, “You have to play sports or learn an instrument”. I was too lazy to run around. An instrument would be easier, I suppose. I chose guitar. I liked it a bit, but I still preferred video games or TV. Every once a week they would send me off to this lady who taught me how to play the guitar that was when I was 10 years old and I went until I was 15 that is when I discovered metal music, and I discovered, “Now I want to play like that!” I was thankful for that because most people got into metal and they’d go, “Oh, I want to play the guitar!”, and they’d have to start at zero. I was already playing, so it was kinda cool. And then every single band I ever listened to gives some kind of influence in some way. Everything that goes into your head comes out.
Who were your favorite bands back in your school days?
[HERMAN] Dream Theater, Megadeth, Metallica. You know, when you’re a kid you draw on your school books.
Part of your presentation in DragonForce is the re-creation of video arcade sounds. Did you create any new video game noises for the new album Maximum Overload?
[HERMAN] On the song “Extraction Zone” we basically did a full-on video/character jumping around, a kinda scratchy, weird rhythm thing on that song with the guitar noises. In the first song “The Game”, the first thing you hear on that song is a snare drum and a video game noise on it.
I understand as a child you were an avid arcade “gamer”, you had an ATARI 2600 game console and you spent a good part of your time playing that and a handheld Nintendo portable game. Then you stopped playing video games altogether and started playing guitar. What inspired you to incorporate this into your music?
[HERMAN] Yes. The idea of all this came from when I first started playing guitar. I got into Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and all those guitar heroes that got famous in the 80’s. They were doing really cool sounds on their guitar. So I was learning to play guitar, and I was trying to do something similar, but I ended up doing something different because every time I made these kinds of weird noises that those guys didn’t do, I would relate it to video games. You know like, “This kinda sounds like the video game ‘Ghouls and Ghosts’ at that level when you get that enemy” or “That sounds like the Pac-man noise.”
So when you play these sounds, you have no problem playing them live on stage?
[HERMAN] No they are pretty straight forward. I just need to make sure I have the stuff, like the extra little whammy bar in my back pocket so I can get it out and do the noises or put on a metal ring so I can scratch over the pick-ups and strings and things like that.
Is that what is known as a Hot Hand?
[HERMAN] That’s another different kind of noise with the wah-wah really, really fast. Not with your feet but with your hand making the motion you can make a laser gun kind of sound.
I saw your video on YouTube, and I thought that was cool that you showed your techniques on your YouTube.
[HERMAN] Yeah, I think they forced me to do that one! (laughs). I had this really bad practice amp and they said, “We know you can make video game noises. Can we film you doing a few?” I said, “I guess so.” A lot of people thought that was a really cool video, so that’s cool.
See it HERE:
[embedplusvideo height=”300″ width=”600″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1otBzUq” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/PG7m_QI8XT0?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=PG7m_QI8XT0&width=600&height=300&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep3426″ /]
So at 16, you decided to just pick up the guitar and learn it?
[HERMAN] At that time videogames started shifting to 3D and the graphics got better but the games got worse. I realized I wasn’t into video games anymore and I needed a new hobby, and I was bored of playing sports. So I thought I could give the guitar a go. I always liked rock music when I first discovered it which was the hard rock stuff before the grunge stuff and there you go. I never had a PlayStation 1; that era of videogames didn’t exist to me, because I was playing the guitar.
So you started playing guitar at age 16. When did DragonForce form?
[HERMAN] It started when I was 21-22 years old, around there.
How did you meet?
[SAM] Well, actually, it was my old band. We went down to England; we got Herman and he joined that band. The reason why we got him in the meantime was so we can carry on getting drunk (on stage).
[HERMAN] I was answering an ad for a band that was looking for a guitar player. It wasn’t DragonForce, it was the previous band, and Sam was the guitar player in that band. They decided they needed another guitar player so Sam can continue to get drunk on stage, and someone else can play the songs. We were young, and that was what happened. I met Sam, and I thought he was a total loser, and he thought I was a total nerd. And that’s how it kind of happened. Guess what! Since then we have been still playing together, and that was in ’98 or something.
Are you playing a 7-string Ibanez on this?
[HERMAN] On a few songs I play the Ibanez 7-string. The main instrument is the 6-string because the 6-string got a better feel for the tension with the whammy bar bridge. The 6-string just generally feels better. On some of the songs we use the 7-string, which is a heavier sound, but my hands are quite small, so I’m more comfortable with a 6-string anyway. I have a 7-string model which is a copy of my 6-string model Ibanez, but only it’s a 7-string version. On “The Game”, the first video, that’s a 7-string.
What’s new to the rig and rack?
[HERMAN] The BOSS-GT 100 replaces my massive rig [which is] the size of a fridge. It’s like a fridge above a freezer. I’ve actually scaled it down on this trip because I have this new gear. Sometimes it’s better to have less equipment powered up. There is less chance of noise from the ground, the electricity of the venue causing problems, things like that. So I decided to scale it down. I found the right equipment which is BOSS GT 100 Pedal Board. I use it as my main effect and sound. It has a lot of the sounds, harmonizer, all kinds of things. I spend a lot of time programming it and doing weird things to it: calculating hexadecimals, converting back to decimal to do hexadecimal to program this thing. I really have to do a lot of math! (laughs) But anyway… So that’s through a Mesa Boogie Power amp and a PD cabinet. YEP! Instead of your basic setup along with whammy pedal, wah-wah pedal to make the funny noises and stuff like that. And the Hot Hand of course!
Of course! Will this be your touring rig as well?
[HERMAN] Yeah, that’s right. This will be the touring rig. It will be much smaller size this time. So I’m going for the technical approach instead of thrash hammer approach.
You’ll be touring Europe and Japan until January. When will DragonForce tour in the U.S.?
[HERMAN] I can’t tell you right now, but we should be coming to the U. S. after the European tour.
