Project: Failing Flesh interview

Project: Failing Flesh counting three members, its notability is in their unique music, and in Eric Forrest‘s heart beats after Voivod, which consequence is a terrificly professional and complex thrash metal, full with suprising instrument using and self-expressing, and the experimenting outcomes are always astonishing…
First of all thanx for the opportunity, it took a long time, but I was working in England for a month, and I didn’t have the time nor the mood to connect to the internet, so now I would like to continue where we left things.. . What should we know about Project: Failing Flesh? (when was it born, why this name)

Thanks for doing it Zoli. The pleasure is ours. Project: Failing Flesh was started several years back like in 2001 or 02 or something. It was Kevin and I messing around writing heavy stuff for the fun of it. But at some point we got more serious and started a vocalist search. It was really hard to find someone who fit right in our area so we had the idea to contact some of our favorite vocalists and see if any would be willing to sing on the material we had. We were big fans of Eric’s work in Voivod so we contacted him and he said he’d be willing to take a listen to the tunes. He heard them and agreed and the rest has gone from there. We have released 2 albums –  A Beautiful Sickness and The Conjoined and are close to finishing a third. The band name we thought sounded cool and also has taken on the meaning of the failing of man.. physically, mentally, or socially or whatever. Which ties in with much of the subject matter the lyrics deal with.

The frontman is none less than Eric Forrest, who was the leading brain in Voivod between 1993-2002, why did he leave? What’s your opinion about the Voivod material made since, how is relationship between the two bands and what should we know about E-Force? The new album just came out after 5 years of silence with the title of Modified Poison. What did the fans say about it?


I don’t know every detail so Eric would be best to ask but will do my best. I don’t think he ever left Voivod. The band broke up for a period of time and then reformed with Snake and Jason Newsted. But I think that is all in the past. Eric seems grateful for his time spent with the band and is still on friendly terms with the guys. Just before we recorded The Conjoined he had travelled to Canada for Piggy’s funeral. Also… they’ve asked him to contribute some stuff to the next (final?) Voivod album. In the meantime his band E-Force is going strong and people are responding cool to it. Playing fests and releasing a couple albums. There was actually an album a couple years before Modified Poison called Evil Forces. As far as my personal opinion of the Voivod stuff since the Eric era I think it’s been pretty cool. Heaviest Voivod like Killing Technology, Dimension Hatross, Negatron, + Phobos are my favorites but those guys always forged their own path which I have nothing but respect for. They’ve never really made a weak album to me. They are one of my all time favorite bands!

Back to Project: Failing Flesh, when can we expect something new and what about the band? I mean who gets doing what and how the songs are born?

We are hoping to get something new out there in the first half of 2009. We’ve been working slow but steadily on a new one to be called Count Back From Ten. We are just a handful of studio sessions away from being ready for Eric to come over and lay down his vocals. Usually the songs are born from riffs we bring to the studio. Then Kev and I work them up from there until we feel they are ready. We both just do most of whatever instruments are needed in the studio. Then a friend named Loston Harris usually contributes any additional keyboards we feel the songs need. Then we send the ideas to Eric over in France and he works up vocal lines and ideas. Then when we all get together here in Virginia we work up lyrics together and finalize things and then Eric goes in and does his vocal thing.

Most of the media identifies your style as thrash metal, but I think it’s more in it. I either feel that it’s post thrash, or something very experimental thing, which is very colorful, and the use and type of musical instruments is also varied. Both LPs show a different side of the band, is there any favourite song, specialty about the two LPs that you would like to share with the readers?

Thanks, yeah, we like to think it’s more than thrash. But our backgrounds are definitely in the thrash genre so that is kind of the starting point for most things I guess. But we like to do things in a modern way and are open to all kinds of influences metal and otherwise so once all that makes it into the songs they end up like you say… post thrash or a bit experimental. Which are descriptions I like. It’s tough to direct people to just a couple songs to get the idea of what we’re about cause there is a lot of variation. But songwise some of my personal faves are 9mm Movie, Eve of Demise, Surface Noise, Synesthesia and A Beautiful Sickness.

What do you do in your everyday life?

We all range in age from late 30’s to early 40’s. Yes, we are old men and will soon be deaf and drooling in wheelchairs haha. Everyone still works day jobs. Probably Kevin has the most exciting one. He runs his own studio as an audio engineer/producer. He’s recorded tons of metal bands including Raven, Deceased, etc. In everyday life we are just normal mellow guys who like music, family, movies, pets, books, etc.

The band is from Virginia, but your Myspace site also says France. What about this?

Kevin and I are based here in Virginia. And Eric is based in France. So we have a great distance separating us but we seem to work around it pretty smoothly thus far.


 

What are the lyrics about, how do you get inspiration and what do you think about the capitalist-consumer cold war that blocks the world economics all the time these days?

The lyrics can vary widely anywhere from very personal to more global or social. Ideas are sparked from different sources. Consumerism + capitalism are out of hand these days but I’m just as guilty as anyone and I don’t see things changing for the better. The global picture is I guess everyone wants to protect their piece of pie There’s definitely social tradeoffs to me made when money becomes god. Like most things in life we just have to adapt and survive though I guess. For the record, and this is no original idea or will come as a shock to anyone, but politicians (far and wide) are the scum of the planet and have really fucked things up for everyday people just trying to get on with life.

What bands is/was inspiring you, and can you tell me a name which was your favourite in your childhood and is still one today?

So many bands inspire and have inspired it would be impossible to list them all. In childhood I was a big Kiss fan so I guess that is where the taste for rock and heavy music was born. Then got into like Sabbath, Priest, Motörhead, Maiden, and the NWOBHM kind of thing. Bands like The Rods, Raven, Tygers of Pan Tang, Def Leppard, Accept, etc. After that… it was tape trading and thrash… favorites included Slayer, Voivod, Venom, Celtic Frost, Hirax, Kreator, Destruction, etc. Then once the thrash era started to die out and there were many sound alike death metal bands we started to broaden our tastes and get into stuff from like Swans, Killing Joke, Joy Division, Mark of Cain, Head of David, Sisters of Mercy, Moonshake, Laika, Stereolab, etc etc. Even some pop music. There were still good heavy bands though like Emperor, Entombed, Godflesh, Fear Factory, etc. Nowadays we just listen to anything that is enjoyable from crazed noise metal to bubblegum pop. But bands that would consider personal all time faves are Swans, Voivod, Motörhead, Slayer, Frost, Killing Joke.

What do you think about today’s trendy metalcore things?

There’s not much of that stuff that I like. But more power to the people who like it and play it. As long as they are enjoying it. I do wish that it wouldn’t get lumped in with the real metal and heavy music scenes though as it really clogs up zines, comps, radio shows, video shows, and even live show rosters with a ton of music that I’m not interested in. It’s harder to seek out good bands cause there are so many out there.

Would you like to send a message to the readers of Fémforgács?

Just thanks for reading and if you seem interested in any Project: Failing Flesh stuff please check us out. Get and album or visit MySpace or download or torrent an album. More info at http://www.projectfailingflesh.com or http://www.myspace.com/projectfailingflesh Eric fans can also check out E-Force at http://www.myspace.com/eforceband

Something you’d like to say at the end?

Thanks again Zoli and Femfogacs for the interview and support. All the best with the zine and any other stuff you have going on. METAL!!!!

Thanks for the interview Tim and take care!

Akela, Jó’vana Akela, Jó’vana
április 05.