Five Finger Death Punch Lose Sleep on Tour Thanks to Frontman Ivan Moody
The one thing that sucks about being in Five Finger Death Punch is you don't get much sleep. See, on tour, the band's wild frontman Ivan "Ghost" Moody ensures no one catches any Zs, thanks to his inconvenient sleep schedule.
"He lives in an alternate universe somehow," explains guitarist Zoltan Bathory. "He never sleeps before 7AM, so that means when everybody else is trying to sleep at 5AM, chances are he's on the bus, blasting Pantera at full volume. He's usually jumping around, screaming to Pantera as we're rolling down the highway at 70 miles an hour."
This fall, the band releases its second album, 'War Is the Answer,' which means they'll be touring a ton, both here and abroad. After a quick trip to Japan, the boys will be heading to Australia to test out some of the new tracks. Then, its back here for two video shoots, all before the band heads out for an eight-week run of shows that's supposed to get underway September 19, three days before the album lands in stores.
Bathory says they're still working out which bands will end up opening for them on this fall's U.S. headliner, but that negotiations with several well-known acts are ongoing.
Five Finger Death Punch tracked the disc over a two-month period in Las Vegas, Nev., with producer Kevin Churko. The various parts for each song, Bathory says, were tracked simultaneously, in separate areas of the studio. "We were cranking in three different work stations at a time...it was like an assembly line," he says. "Once the songs were written, we knew what parts needed to be done, so we were running three work stations."
Bathory says the songs aren't weird, or unconventional. In many ways, the new stuff is very traditional. The songs aren't terribly long, and they're not experimental.
"Diversity is important, but I think there is a way to write a song that has the most impact," he explains. "There are only a couple of structures you can use where it won't sound weird to other people. I have all the respect in the world for bands that are kind of out there and they put material out that's 'really different,' but writing something weird is easier than writing something that will resonate with millions and millions of people. It's not a science. If it were, everybody would write hit songs. But its difficult to write a song that will connect with lots of people.
"When someone is trying to write a hit song, it doesn't mean they can," he continues. "If someone approaches music saying, 'I want to write a hit song,' then you've already started on the wrong foot. You just have to try to write a good song. The audience will decide that it's a hit song or not. It's not up to you. You're job is to write a good song. We write what we write...it's not about selling out."
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