Albums of Purgatory interview Dragonforce's Herman Li

Albums of Purgatory: Firstly, how's the new album coming along? How does it compare to the EP?

Herman Li: The album is coming along great, although we had delays due to the change of studios from Denmark back to England but this gave us the possibility to make it sound even better. We recorded all the drums at Jailhouse studio in Denmark with Tommy Hansen but then we decided it would be much better to finish the rest of the album in England with Karl Groom of Threshold at Thin Ice Studios and at my home studio instead of going back to Jailhouse. We are still in the studio recording at the moment and it should be complete by the end of September. The release date has now been pushed back to January 2003.
The EP you mentioned was actually our first demo although most people taken it as an EP ,probably because it was 33 minutes long. I am sure people who heard the demo, when they listen to the album will go WOW and notice the huge differences straight away. The demo was recorded in 7 days and so far we have been recording for over a month. Everything is better in a long way.

AoP: How would you describe the Dragonforce sound?

HL: Very catchy songs, a mix of speed metal, power metal with over the top guitars and very melodic. We try to push the boundaries a bit and play the music the way we like to hear it.
I guess you can call it 'Catchy extreme speed power metal'.
Not the typical power metal with 3-4 minutes songs, mostly mid tempo pace. Also no crap songs in the middle of the album to fill it up. I think everyone is fed up with that.

AoP: How did the band begin in '99?

HL: Sam and I basically got bored of playing in bands with brutal vocals all the time and wanted to do something with clean vocals. We always wanted to do that but never found a singer who could sing. We found ZP from an ad in a rehearsing studio and it started off from that.

AoP: Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?

HL: Yeah I even have it on video. In London, 30 minutes opening set in a really small venue playing in front of almost just friends! It was ok, just to see how we got on together.
You might think ok, what's the big deal? But back then, no underground bands from England played this style of metal at all and there are still aren't. It was the most unpopular style and we were the only one doing it. Then, I had lots of trouble finding gigs, no one would put us on until after Halford and Stratovarius.

AoP: What was it like and what did you learn from touring with Stratovarius and Halford?

HL: Our 3rd ever gig was with Halford, the first show was quite scary. The venue was packed and the call came out of nowhere. We only had 2 days to prepare for it to replace Overkill. We did a couple shows, the last show in London was sold out and went great, quite an experience and dream come true. A couple days later we played with Stratovarius. It was sold out as well but we were really relaxed, so we just enjoyed it. The responses were excellent. Everything moved really fast for us back in 2000, it was unbelievable.

AoP: What are your favourite Dragonforce tracks?

HL: I don't have a favourite. I really like Valley of the Damned and Evening Star from the album.

AoP: What are your favourite all time songs?

HL: Don't have one. Hey, isn't this one of those questions your friend ask you when you are 15 in school? hahahaha! :)

AoP: What was the first record you bought?

HL: Not sure, maybe it was Madonna?? Bon Jovi? I know I was 11yrs old then.

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

HL: Don't have one, but I know quite a few nightmare lineups. I am in a few of them too!

AoP: What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

HL: It depends on the country really. I don't pay much attention to popular music culture. One thing I know, metal will never die.

AoP: Do you have any funny stories about the band you can share with us?

HL: There are too many, mainly from Sam. He is a fucking lunatic.
We were at Sanctuary Records signing the deal. You must have heard the expression 'Sign on the dotted line' right? Well, we all did except Sam signed under the line on the recording contract! I went ape shit and he just said 'Fuck off, you didn't tell me to sign on the line!'
Metal or what?

AoP: and finally, what do you see in the future for Dragonforce?

HL: Main thing now is finish recording the album and get on a good tour next year.
We do all this hard work just for the purpose of going on tour hehe! The truth is, recording in the studio is hard work and pretty fucking boring really. The real shit kicks off live!
We don't wanna sit here pumping out 1 album every 10 months and do about 3 shows in England, that's lame. DragonForce is a real band started from nothing working our way up, not those super groups of that guy from that band and all that. We are not those project bands, we are real.