Burton C. Bell to Relive His Fear Factory Days During His Live Shows with ‘Deep Cuts’
Former Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell may have quit the band roughly four years ago, but that doesn’t mean he wants to completely forget his time there. In fact, he’s for sure going to be performing some “deep cuts” from his former band, along with his solo material.
Bell reiterated his intention to relive some of the songs he wrote and performed with the industrial metal act during a recent appearance on Knotfest’s Nu Pod podcast. It wasn’t the first time he said he’d perform some old Fear Factory tunes, but it was his first time stating that after releasing his debut solo single “Anti-Droid.”
“I’m in the process of booking a show. It’s gonna be a showcase. It’s gonna be in L.A., and I have a band together. They’re already working on [the set]. It’s a retrospection, so I plan to play four new songs, some deep-cut Fear Factory, some [Ascension of the] Watchers, some G/Z/R, some City of Fire.
“My new music is an amalgamation of everything I’ve ever done, and I’m gonna basically put it all together into this package and just see what happens. And the live show, it’s gonna be heavy, it’s gonna be groovy. And I wanna create a vibe. I really do.”
According to Bell, he’s already got enough solo material to release a full album. And while he could easily just put everything out and tour on it, he said he’s trying the “hip-hop strategy” of periodically releasing new singles to keep attention high.
“I’m working on individual singles at a time. I do have a record’s worth of music. But I’m adopting the hip-hop strategy where instead of coming up, releasing a single and then the whole album comes out a couple of weeks later, and then a couple of weeks later, when that album is out, the momentum of the single and the whole record just kind of slows and becomes sluggish and just almost crashes. So I learned watching hip-hop artists and other artists as well, [where] they would just release a single at a time, keep that momentum, keep that spotlight on them and just release a single every few weeks and just keep that momentum going.”
Speaking of his next single, Bell had a handful of adjectives to describe its vibe, as well as tease the vocal cameos he says take place on the track.
“It’s more uptempo. It’s got more guitar in it. And it’s gonna be awesome. I’ve got a couple of guest artists on this next track that it’s gonna be sick. I recruited Paul Ferguson again, and I’ve also recruited Norman Westberg, guitar player from Swans. Swans is one of my favorite bands of all time and it’s a band that influenced not just me but Neurosis — a lot of bands — Godflesh.”
As of this time, there are no details about Bell’s solo album, but we’ll have those once they become available.
