So, first, how is this new tour ? You were in Nancy yesterday...
It's cool! It's not really a tour... It's basically just weekend shows, with long weekends from Thursday 'til Sunday or Monday, because we need to write the new record, and we need time to do that. It's not going on very quickly but it's been going very well. I mean we're playing shows in Germany, in France, in Holland, in Belgium, it looks like a small European tour. And then in a couple of weeks, we're going to eastern Europe and to Italy so that's a lot of stuff happening right now, that's cool! I like it!

Born From Pain always been a metal/hardcore or a new school hardcore band...
... yeah we're not really a metal band ! (Laugh)

... how would you define " In Love With The End " compare to the other records ?
If you compare " In Love With The End " to the previous one, "Sands Of Time" it's really different, because "Sands Of Time" was way more spot on and a faster record and more hardcore base record. This record, " In Love With The End " is more of a grooving sort of metal influence records which you can compare to the first full length we put out called "Reclaiming The Crown". So basically it's like an evolution again like back and forth, but it's pretty much groovy, hard as fuck, hardcore with a big metal influence to it. If you compare it to the other one that's the basic differences between the records.

Born From Pain was a lot compared to Hatebreed. It seems that with " In Love With The End " you really wanted to mark your difference, with stuff like the guitar solo at the begining of "Judgement"... Well, are you fed up to be always compared with Hatebreed ?
Humm yeah maybe a bit 'cause what sounds like Hatebreed is of course the heavy breakdowns within the songs, and my vocals sounds is also like Jamey's as well but that's the mainly the only things we have in common with Hatebreed. It's not like when we wrote " In Love With The End " we were like "We don't wanna be compared anymore with this or that band !". We just wrote the stuff we like and I mean it doesn't sound like Hatebreed at all. It's not like we did it on purpose. We always write what we wanna write and how we feel, so now it's more like a groovy kind of record and it sounds like we wanted to go that direction. There wasn't really a direction to somewhere.

Your guitar player Stefan was supposed to quit the band...
Yes he's quitting the band. He's only doing this weekend I think and the last week in February and then he's out of the band basically.

He will be replaced by Dominik from Zero Mentality...
Yeah!

Is he going to play in both bands or does he leave definatly Zero mentality for Born From Pain?
Yes he's living Zero Mentality for Born From Pain. He's been filling in for Stefan because Stefan has a different life than we all have, he's got a wife, he's got a kid and for Dominik we needed someone that feet the band and we knew that he could play the songs and solos as well. So we asked Dominik. He did the Madball tour in 2002 I think, the year we played the Fury Fest, it was 2003. He's been helping us out for a long time now on a regular basis as well. So we knew that he would feet the band really well. So that's why we asked him to join Born From Pain. And he did, he's quitting Zero Mentality for that.

So, are you still friend with Zero Mentality? (Laugh)
Yeah yeah! They already saw that comin'. It's obvious I mean. Well not obvious, but when you get chance to play in a band that has a basis already, in certain areas, in certain countries where Zero Mentality still has to go somewhere and to build up the bases and we already have the bases so... But they knew it was comin', they had the feeling, but we're still good friends!

That's cool!
Yeah that's cool! I love Dominik, he's a good guy and a good guitarist as well ! He looks hard on stage while he plays guitar... I love it!

For " In Love With The End " you've changed your label, GSR to Metalblade which is a bigger label. What were the reasons of this change?
Basically we wanted to reach more people and Metalblade is a label that has been going for... I don't know how many years but I think 20 years or something, and I mean 10 years in Europe alone. We knew that their way working was wilder and bigger than GSR and Gangstyle, especially with the distribution of the CD which is a lot better than that was GSR so... A few other labels were interested in us like Nuclear Blast for instance, they wanted to sign us as well. We always want to make sure that we make the best decisions as possible. And that combines the head together with the heart. Its not like we solely trusted what we thought but also what we felt so when we talked to the dudes with Metalblade it was just cool because they end to have the same visions we had, that's basically why went for Metalblade, try to reach a bigger audience, going to a different level...

Do you think you have sold more records of "In Love With The End" than "Sands Of Time"?
I don't know! No clue, no clue! But I don't want to know! (Laugh) I don't want to be disappointed and I don't want to be arrogant about it, so that's why it's better for me not to know! For my own safety! (Laugh)

For this new record you worked again with Tue Madsen, how was it compared to the recording of " Sands Of time " ?
Well obviously he knew how we sounded like, because he did a live sound a couple of time, and he did the "Sands Of Time" record. So he knew what our sound was, and how we work as a band. That made it a lot easier for us cause he knows what we could do and what our barriers were, so what we couldn't do. So all that help the process of recording, plus he has a couple of really good ideas that made some of the songs a lot better than how they were before. So he's an amazing dude to work with. For the next CD we're going to Tue Madsen's Antfarm Studio again because why change a winning team? Why to try something else, and not be sure that gonna work out ?!

But would you be interesting in working with Zeuss or an American producer?
Humm, I don't know! No! I think the best producers, the best mixers and the best masters are come from Denmark and Sweden... like the In Flames or the last Caliban album, the sound is great!

For " Sands Of time " you toured the US with Terror, how was it?
It was cool of course! Scott Vogel, the singer for Terror knows Rob for 12 years now and I've known Scott since the first time he came over from Despair so we knew the dudes already! Terror came on tour the first time just when "Sands Of Time" came out, we played a release party and a couple of shows in Germany together, so we knew the band already. Back then a little people thought Terror was much bigger than they actually were, of course they're pretty big in California, the shows in L.A was really good, San Diego, San Francisco... But as soon as we go outside California, they weren't that well known and they weren't so many kids at those shows but I mean it's just great for us as a European band going to the states in a market that's already full with American bands and those kids still liked us. That tour was different from Europe. European kids don't dance or don't move to the first bands on the bill and in the Sates they all move, have fun and start to dance, it's weird but it was a really good experience to go there and to do something with friends like Terror and Shattered Love.

Are you going to go there again?
I don't know if that's gonna be still for "In Love With The End" or for the new record. We're still working out on some stuff but I think the main priority right now is writing the new record and then maybe going to the US for the next CD.

When do you want to release this new record?
We're looking for November this year if that works out still on Metlbalde as we sign for 3 CDs. I wouldn't want to be on any other label right now, for me, Metalblade is the best option for us. Like I said, Nuclear Blast wanted to sign us as well and other bigger labels as well but we just didn't have the right feeling. And I'm still happy with Metalblade, plus they pay good money! (Laugh)

BFP get recognition by the whole hardcore scene, we can consider the band as the leader of the European scene… what do you think about that ?
I would say "thank you!", and I'm asking myself if it's true or not! I'd like to believe that we're like the leading hardcore band in Europe but I think there's bands that do better that we do. I think I'm gonna go with third place right now if you consider Caliban or Heaven Shall Burn as hardcore. If not I think we're on top of hardcore, yeah. I would say that we're probably one of the leading bands here in Europe right now.

There's a DVD with " In Love With The End " with some footage from the With Full Force festival. Do you plan to release a bigger DVD?
No plans yet! Not really. I think we didn't brings any cameras with us on tour. I think we're just the most boring band in the world (Laugh). I never bought it, I don't even bring a photo camera, that I don't what footage is gonna be on the DVD cause there's no footage of us, nothing at all! (Laugh) Only what's on the DVD which come with the CD, that's the only thing! So, no, we're not working on something yet! Like I said we're not a funny band, there's no entertainment for people to see us sitting on the van, reading a book, listening to bad music, we don't make jokes...

That would be a great DVD, different from the other bands'... (Laugh)
Yeah, it's gonna be original as well! I don't think it's gonna sell that much, people would say "They're really boring!" It's like the film that a dude made called "Sleep" or something where this dude falls asleep like for 4 hours, that's how our DVD is gonna be... yeah that's gonna be us on tour, not funny! (Laugh)

You mix metal & hardcore for a long time now, what's your feeling about this new metalcore scene or NWOAHM? Which is obviously different than your style...
It's a good thing you say that! I don't consider those bands as hardcore bands, they're like a new wave of metal that mix hardcore within metal and not like we do metal within hardcore. When I first get into hardcore and those bands are still the main influences to Born from Pain, bands like Merauder, All Out War, Stigmata, Earth Crisis, that kind of bands metal within hardcore and not hardcore within metal. I don't think that those bands, music wise, have a lot influence on me as far as the writing process goes, even if I love Killswitch Engage or Chimaira. Like I said, Merauder, All Out War and Hatebreed are way more important to me, because those bands were there when I started listening to hardcore, all those American like New York kind of hardcore bands with a metal edge, even the Cro-Mags and Killing Time stuff really amazed me. Those bands like Killswitch and Chimaira sounds more clinical and that just not our sound with Born From Pain. I think we sound a bit dirtier, still more hardcore than all those bands. And that's why I love l'Esprit Du Clan as well, we played with them yesterday and they still have like the Merauder feel to it which I adore, I love it! But I love that new wave of metal and metalcore people call, but it just have no influence on me, and on Born From Pain. We just keep on do what we're doin' now, make it perfect and just write another hard as fuck record which we like and not because the public likes. There's not gonna be any songs with pretty singing, it's gonna be me barking into the fucking microphone, and hard riffs and good breakdowns. That's it!

Some personal questions now. What are you listening to actually ?
I listen to Black Label Society, a lot of Brand New Sin stuffs, they just put out an album out on Century Media, I listen to a lot of Crowbar, Corrosion Of Conformity, Black Sabbath, well that kind of stuff right now, there's always changing. Danzig is one of my favourite bands if you can talk of a band (Laugh) It's basically not much hard stuff right now, more like rockier kind of stuff.

Aside from rock do you listen to other styles?
I like some hip hop stuff, I like The Game for instance, it's produced by Dr Dre, I like those stuff that's pretty easy to listen to, that's basically kind of stuff I listen to. I listen to pop stuff as well, Madonna is really good, the last record is amazing, Tori Amos is one of my favourite acts ever cause of her all of her emotions and her pretty vocal lines, Sabia, Muse...

And what are your all time fave bands?
It's a hard question: Black Sabbath, Faith No More, Merauder, Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Cro-Mags, Danzig, Crowbar, Corrosion Of Conformity...

Do you have some bands to advice us from the Netherlands ?
Yeah! You know Gangstyle Records right? They gonna put out 2 CDs of some amazing bands, pretty much a Machine Head influence like 37 Stabwounds, really grooving metal with kind of hardcore stuff, and Blind Sight which is really awesome as well. Please check it out, you won't be disappointed, it's awesome stuff, with really good singers, really good musicians, really good songs. And then of course The Set Up from Antwerp I think, they're awesome check that stuff out, they got a CD on GSR as well!

I heard that you all work besides BFP. What are you doing exactly?
Yeah we all work except for the English dude (Karl).
Karl : I'm Lazy! (Laugh)
(Ché continues) Our drummer works for DHL, Dominik builds stages, Rob our bassist is a teacher, he gives Microsoft course to people and organisations, Karl is unemployed at the moment, and I'm working in a call centre with people call other people, as a supervisor so I'm basically the boss when I'm there, 60 people are working there. And our merch guy is a call centre agent so I'm twice his boss (Laugh). I'm his boss here, and I'm his boss there, and I think I fired him twice a week and he still coming back like a girl (Laugh).
That's what we do, we all work part time cause it's impossible to be in this band and work full time.

(The guy who organize the show is coming and ask us in French, if everything's all right)
(Ché answered in French) Yeah, that's cool ! That's ok ! (Laugh)

If you want next time we'll do an interview in French...
(Still in French) Yeah whenever you want! (Laugh)
No! (laugh)
I've learnt French when I was 18, I'm 28 now, and I don't speak French on regular bases. French is not really a hard language, it just that we don't speak French that very often, that's why it's hard you know. And there' not so many shows here... I don't know why.

Hardcore music is not very popular here in France. It's difficult to make people go to hardcore shows...
That's weird because when we played Fury Fest in 2004, we started playing and the all place blow up. There were like 3500 kids in a place where only 2500 could feet in. So that's weird! On festivals it's good and on solo shows it's "bad", I don't know...

What are your plans for the next month? Writing the new record...
Yeah, writing the new record, record it in august... and try to release it in november.

That's a short time between the 2 records!
Yeah! (laugh)

But I think that's better than waiting 3 or 4 years between 2 records.
Yeah, there's was 3 years between "Reclaiming The Crown" and "Sands of Time". It's rather short this time! (Laugh)

A big thanks to Che for his time, and all the organization team !


Interview Manu & O.S.
Traduction Manu