"A Word" With Christian Olde Wolbers from Fear Factory and Arkaea !

Christian Olde Wolbers ... is the guitarist and ex-bassit for industrial death metal legends Fear Factory and lately he has been working on his latest project Arkaea with fellow Fear Factory band mate Reymond Herrera (Drums) and Jon Howard (Vocals) from Canadian metal band Threat Signal. Together they are planning on releasing their debut album in April of next year.

I've been a fan of Fear Factory for years now, songs like "Martyr", "Scapegoat", "Zero Signal", "Replica", "Linchpin", "Self-Bias Resistor", their cover for Gary Numan's "Cars" and the list goes on, became classics to listen to over the years.

I'm also a very big fan of Christian Olde Wolber's material. Christian produced Bleed The Sky's "Murder The Dance", Mnemic's "Passenger" and Threat Signal's "Under Reprisal".

Christian is also a "Remixer" and "Beat Maker" and goes under the moniker "The Edgecrusher" which is actually one of his favorite Fear Factory songs.

I got the chance to ask Christian about his new V2 Archetype and RS412XLT100BC cabinet from Randall Amplifiers, what is he mainly focusing on producing through his new gear, which he designed and Randall Amps developed. I also asked him about his new band Arkaea, whats going on with Fear Factory, what's he currently listening to and alot more.

Here's how it went:

TMR: First of all I'd like to say that I'm a big fan of Fear Factory and your material in general, Bleed The Sky's "Murder The Dance" is an awesome album!

Christian: Thanks brother. Bleed the sky was done for basically no money. It came out good. Just wish they would've turned the kick drums down a little in the mix lol.

I had a lot of fun working with BTS and we became all brothers.



TMR: You worked with Randall Amplifiers on your new V2 Archetype and RS412XLT100BC cabinet, you designed the gear and Randall Amps developed it, how was the experience?


Christian: It was awesome. I have to give a shout out to Jody Dankberg and Doug Reynolds for helping me get my vision out there. Randall is a great company with plenty of history. I knew they had the crunch thing under control. They make great amps and cabinets. Very solid gear. So I was very interested in their Solid State Technology, so we have a 3-channel amp with the tube channel, solid-state channel, and a clean channel.



TMR: What is the main thing you focused on producing through your new gear (sound-wise)?


Christian: Having my main tone of course and I have been using the Randall RM4 for cleaner sounds and low gain sounds also. And I have been working with Digi Tech and I am using the new GSP 1101 guitar processor. With the GSP 1101, I have an unlimited arsenal of stomp boxes and effects. I love this unit and recommend it to everyone if you like to have all the Digi and other Stompboxes in one box. This thing is amazing. I switched up and I am running all my effects in Stereo now. And my main tone mono.



TMR: How’s everything coming along with Arkaea?

Christian: Great. I just finished guitars and we are recording bass guitar right now. And I’m editing guitars right now as I am typing this up. We are looking for an April release on KOCH records.



TMR: Can you describe the band's sound?

Christian: Well…it’s definitely Raymond Herrera and my sound we had in Fear Factory but we expanded and I felt freer to try different things. I wanted things to sound bigger so I have been playing a little more open and using more chords in some songs. And I have really been experimenting with dissonant chords. I think I made some up along the way. I got some 6 and 7 fret stretches going on lol.

Jon is a great singer with an awesome range so I have been staying in 7-string standard tuning on this one.


It’s definitely a mix of FF and Threat Signal. But one person I always give credit to is Stephen Carpenter from Deftones. He’s one of my best friends and playing with him since 2001 has rubbed off on me. It’s funny how we both influenced each other. He loves to play FF style picking and I like playing open chords like he does in Deftones.



TMR: Fear Factory is on hiatus due to you all being busy with other projects; when can we expect you guys to join forces and release another album?

Christian: Not sure. We don't have a record label right now and Arkaea does so we are delivering the Arkaea record early next year and we will see when FF sits at the table to discuss the new album.



TMR: You worked with some of the biggest names in the music scene, is there someone you would like to work with but still didn’t get the chance to?

Christian: Of course there is. Always wanted to work with Dave Grohl. I think I wanna ask him to sing on the Arkaea album. Haha. Always wanted to work with Mike Patton. I can name like 50 artists I wanna work with...



TMR: Which bands have you been listening to lately?

Christian: I love the latest DevilDriver album. Really killer disk. I like Gojira. Lamb of God is a great band. Queens of the Stone Age. I always listen to Deftones.



TMR: Have you been playing any new video games lately?

Christian: No but the guys are playing the new Gears of War. I still love Halo. Online with 50 people. It’s the shit... just lynch everyone!



TMR: What advice would you give to a young musician trying to make it in today's metal scene?

Christian: Don’t give up. Analyze records. Play 80 hours a week. And puzzle and piece your music together and learn how to write parts to flow together and write 100 songs. Keep doing it and live music…



TMR: Would you like to add anything?

Christian: I have a new Olde Wolbers guitar pedal on the market thru Pro Tone Pedals called the Small Tone. Go check it on www.Protonepedals.com. Yeah check out our MySpace: www.myspace.com/arkaeamusic. And if you have any questions you can write me on my personal page www.myspace.com/christianoldewolbers

Thank you for this interview and stay heavy!



TMR: I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and for this opportunity. Can’t wait to check out Arkaea's debut album!

Christian: Thank you man. This Arkaea record is gonna smoke the last 3 FF albums...


I'd also like to thank Courtney Seliga at Forty Three PR for setting up this interview.


Make sure to check out Christian Olde Wolber's signature gear from Randall Amplifiers, and his upcoming release with his new band Arkaea who will be releasing their debut album in April.

check out Christian's:
V2 Archetype and RS412XLT100BC cabinet from Randall Amplifiers
"Small Tone" Guitar Pedal from Pro Tone Pedals

And his, Myspace

Also:

Arkaea on Myspace
Fear Factory on Myspace


Here's a video for Fear Factory's "Archetype".