Guitarist CHRISTIAN OLDE WOLBERS On FEAR FACTORY: 'We're Just Taking A Break'

Lisa Sharken of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with FEAR FACTORY/ARKAEA guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

KNAC.COM: You and Raymond [Herrera; FEAR FACTORY drummer] have started a new band, and many people think that means FEAR FACTORY has broken up. Let's set the record straight. What's happening with FEAR FACTORY at this time? Are the rumors of a breakup completely untrue?

Olde Wolbers: We're just waiting until everyone comes together and then we're going to figure out where we're going to take FEAR FACTORY as a whole. There are rumors going around, but there's no breakup. We're just taking a break.

KNAC.COM: Tell us about forming ARKAEA. Why did you select Jon [Howard; vocals] and Pat [Kavanaugh; bass] for ARKAEA?

Olde Wolbers: I had produced the first album for their band, THREAT SIGNAL. Jon was living in my house when we were making the album and we became good buddies. I think Jon is very talented and I really like his range. After FEAR FACTORY's last tour in 2006, we all went our separate ways to chill and relax for a while. Burt [Bell; FEAR FACTORY vocalist] had a child on the way and he's got a second baby now, so he's a father of two kids. He also has a new project that he's been working on called ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS, as well as touring with MINISTRY, so he's been busy with that while we wait to see what happens in the near future. Next year we might do something with FEAR FACTORY. But I had written all this music and I wasn't going to let it go to waste and just sit around for a couple of years while we figure out what we're doing with FEAR FACTORY. So I told Ray we should use the music that we've been writing and I think I have the perfect singer for it. That's when we called Jon. He was in right away, and that's when we started working. He came out here and did some demos with us. That's what you can hear online right now on our MySpace page. Raymond and I wrote it, then we sent it to Jon. Jon put a microphone in his laptop computer and sang on the tracks, then he sent it back to us by email. Once I heard it, I said to Ray that I think this is going to work. Then we finished writing the entire record.

KNAC.COM: So when you and Ray initially wrote these songs, they were intended for FEAR FACTORY?

Olde Wolbers: Yes, actually they were intended for FEAR FACTORY, and there are still some songs sitting around that I didn't record because they were very FEAR FACTORY. FEAR FACTORY's music has very mechanical rhythms, and some of those songs just didn't work for this band. In this band I actually have the freedom to do different things on guitar. I can do something different sonically or dynamically that I normally wouldn't try for FEAR FACTORY. When Jon came into the picture, I was able to play more rather than to stick between two lines, which is how I work when I'm in FEAR FACTORY mode. I realized that if I'm going to take these songs and make them work for a different project, I should be more open to the structures and the riffs. I might play something really simple that I normally would be bored with, but if it sounds really good with the vocals, then I'll let the vocals take the main part rather than try to write a guitar riff that's going to be really intricate and conflict with the vocals. Intricate riffs are not really the perfect platform for a vocalist to stand on. So I took a different approach on the riffs that we wrote and some of the stuff is very simple. The songs were created from good hooks and melodies that kept ringing in my head, and it kind of made me push to playing guitar with a different approach than I normally do. I'm actually playing less guitar tracks, but I'm doing more overdubs that work sonically, which I never really did in FEAR FACTORY. I never really did a lot of overdubs with FEAR FACTORY. This time around, I'm experimenting a lot with different sounds and more effects, and I'm trying to step out of the metal thing and be open creatively to using a lot of different sounds. Usually, I'm very involved in the entire process of making the record. I start recording bass first and then work on recording the guitars. I'm also very involved in the songwriting, so sometimes I just don't spend enough time on adding guitar lines with these extra elements I'm adding now because that's all I would be concentrating on. I usually have a lot of other things on my plate, so I feel like on this record, with Jon and Pat being very involved musically, I am able to be more creative with the guitar parts. Pat is a great bass player. He comes in and he knows the parts, then he starts writing around them. Since I don't have to worry about the bass as much, I can really concentrate on playing guitar and doing what I should do for the band, and what's best to support the vocals for ARKAEA. I'm trying to push my boundaries a bit guitar-wise because I feel that naturally, that's the next step I need to take. With Jon, I felt that I had that opportunity because it's a new group and nobody can categorize me or point fingers saying, "You went out of the box!" Well, that's what I'm trying to do. This is a new band and I should be stepping out of the box. People expect something that's a little different from FEAR FACTORY. But with part of the rhythm section from FEAR FACTORY, they're also expecting to hear some of those elements. I think we manage to do both. The music is different, but there are still some elements that are similar to FEAR FACTORY.

KNAC.COM: The vocals really change things dramatically, and in the way it's put together, it sounds much different from FEAR FACTORY.

Olde Wolbers: The vocals add that color on top, which makes it different. You can listen to a lot of metal bands out now, and a lot of them sound the same. I think it's the way that you approach it with the vocals that makes it stand apart. That's the icing on the cake.

KNAC.COM: Jon came onboard shortly after you and Ray started on this project, but it took some time before you chose Pat as your bassist. How difficult was it to find a bass player?

Olde Wolbers: It wasn't easy. First, we were talking to Sam Rivers from LIMP BIZKIT and he was really interested. He really liked the project and wanted to be involved, but he lives in Florida and has his hands full with a million other things. We were in touch for a whole month, and then we kind of lost contact. That's when I realized he was just very busy. Everything is cool though. He would have definitely been a cool bass player to work with. He comes from a major band and it's usually it's tougher to keep things going with someone like that because everybody else has got a lot going on. Then Ryan Martinie from MUDVAYNE started calling me and said he would like to try out and be involved, but he didn't know if he could tour. I told him that if he's going to be playing on the record, there's no one who's going to be able to play his bass lines. It's going to be hard. So we figured that wasn't going to work. I had already been considering Pat because Jon kept telling me about him and he lives down the street. He could come over to work with Jon and he had nothing else going on. His band with Jon, THREAT SIGNAL, is just waiting for us to be done with this project. So I started looking at a THREAT SIGNAL video for one of the songs from the first album they recorded, which I produced. The way Pat looked in the video just stood out. I thought he looked really good and he had a lot in common with the way I play live. His stance looked a lot like the way I play, and I could just see it all gel for ARKAEA. I like the fact that he is young and was not from a big name band because I figured out that was not the way to go. Pat is a good player and Jon kept telling me that he would fit. I trusted Jon's opinion, and when Pat came out here, he picked the songs up in no time and he was adding his own flavor. I really liked that, and you can just tell that he's a really talented musician. When he came out here, I could tell right away that we made the right choice. Even though it would be really nice to have a big-name guy, we just need someone who can really play well and who can be here. I want to be able to go on tour with the same lineup. It's always disappointing when a new band comes out and they sound great, and then they go on tour and it's all different members in the live band from who played on the album.

Read the entire interview from KNAC.COM.

ARKAEA will make its live debut on January 15, 2009 at Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood, California with GOD FORBID.

ARKAEA will release its debut album on March 10, 2009 via Koch Records. Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "Break The Silence", "Blackened Sky", "Beneath The Shades Of Grey" and "Awakening", "Years In The Darkness", "Lucid Dream" and "Gone Tomorrow". The album was recorded at Temple Studios in Chatsworth, California, owned by Raymond Herrera and has Christian Olde Wolbers at the helm of production with engineer Jeremy Blair (GUNS N' ROSES, FEAR FACTORY).

Video footage from the studio is available below. Also available is an ARKAEA widget.

You can preview new music at www.myspace.com/arkaeamusic.