Dragonforce

If you’ve been playing Guitar Hero, you’ve probably been pissed at Dragonforce–the band’s track ‘Through The Fire And Flames’ is the hardest song to perform. Beyond just providing the soundtrack to a popular video game, Dragonforce are major overlords in the metal scene. Consisting of guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, singer ZP Theart, keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov, drummer Dave Mackintosh and bass player Frédéric Leclercq, Dragonforce have a new album out called Ultra Beatdown. We had our own verbal smackdown with keyboardist Vadim.

What regiment do you have to keep your hair looking good?
I don’t do anything!

We saw some posts online that you’re the best-looking guy in Dragonforce. How does it feel to be the hottest one of the lot?
What? I don’t know what sites you’ve been reading. No, man, I certainly don’t think I’m the best-looking and this isn’t about looks anyway.

But people start bands to get chicks, right? How is Dragonforce’s pick-up rate with the ladies?
It’s been good! We have our ladies who come up to our bus after shows, but I’m still young and things are going really well for us right now so I’m not going to start looking for any serious relationship.

Your new album is called Ultra Beatdown. Why the angst?
No angst. It’s really just the mindset of how we want to give our fans’ ears a good, solid pummelling. The album isn’t too different from what we’ve done in the past. The main thing is that I really think we’ve improved as a band. We write better melodies and we are better at what we do. I know a lot of bands like to say their new album is their best, but I really believe that about ours. I’ve been listening to this album a lot since we finished; I know the other guys have been doing the same too.

You guys spend so much time together; is that difficult?
We realise we really need to give each other space since we travel so much together. At the end of a tour, I get so sick of all of them that I’m glad I won’t be seeing them for a while. But that’s a good thing because after some time I start to miss them, and when we get back together to do the band again it feels good.

Dragonforce are also known for having special contraptions on your mic stands to hold your beer. How did you guys come up with that?
A Dragonforce show is like a party for us, our friends and the fans, so we want to have drinks with them too. We wanted everybody to have fun at our shows, so we decided to have those drink holders because of that. Some of the guys in the band can really drink–you should see Sam. I can’t really drink; I get wasted after four beers.

Dragonforce at Download 2007:

Words Adlin
www.dragonforce.com