What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
The band comes from the city of Ostrava. This town is called “the steel heart” of the Czech Republic, there are a huge number of industrial companies in the region, engaged in the production of iron and steel. Many historically important metal bands of the Czech scene come from here. Some of us have civilian jobs related to the production of metals. We grew up in close to ironworks in our town, we listen to metal all our lives and we want to follow this link. Everything makes sense.
We are influenced by successful modern metal bands (Battle Beast, Primal Fear, Beast in Black, Sabaton, Amaranthe and many more). But we are also inspired by the classic rock and metal bands we grew up with and their music will be here forever (Judas Priest, Pretty Maids, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, Queen, Van Halen … we could name all these stars!).
How do you approach songwriting?
We write mainly about serious topics and we want it to stay that way as well. Many compositions did not necessarily need to study the material for their creation, but especially in the case of references to historical events, it is necessary to stay on your feet. And have a good knowledge of history. An example is the opening track of our debut album (Defeat All) called Never Again – the composition draws on historical events and the policy of appeasement before the World War II. in Europe. We would like to follow up similar themes on new songs on another album, because it seems that “Never Again” is quite valued among music critics.
Why do you write the songs that you do?
The first thing is because the whole band feels that way. We think that similar music was lacking in our region and may have at least some potential. We have quite a few quality power / heavy / melodic metal bands in the Czech Republic, and we want to be at least among them. It is sad that bands of this genre are often imported to greatest Czech rock festivals mainly from abroad. But it is largely the fault of the organizers and the bands themselves, who are often willing to even pay for their own performances. This is something terrible. This bothers us and we want to make music that entertains, fills us and also fills our listeners and fans. And they will surely get us to those festivals one day – the voice of the people is the voice of God (laugh). We don’t want to look conceited, but even though the Metal Factory is a new project, we are not naive newcomers. That is why we say these words.
How do you decide what to perform live?
We have only (officially released) our debut album at the moment, so we are ready to play all the songs and, if necessary, we will simply remove some from the playlist. Preparing songs for live performances is easy – practice, practice, practice. We have regular rehearsals and sound rehearsals too – we bring our own sound engineer and stage technician to the gigs. In more complex songs (and especially in the case of a band with two lead singers) it is almost an obligation. Partly we are accompanied by samples (intros, outros, symphonic and keyboard lines etc.) and, of course, we play with the metronome. Each of us also tries to train individually, the singers often also together (for example in the form of karaoke of our songs) between the rehearsals of the whole band.
What plans do you have for the future?
We want to record a new CD, raise it to the maximum possible level and, of course, to perform at the most interesting events at home and abroad. We would like the new CD to be released by some of the quality worldwide labels. But we will definitely not overtake, we want to present the current debut CD live and get as much attention as possible.
We want to get under the skin of the fans. We adore our listeners and fans and we will do what we can for them. We want to play concerts, make new music – everything.