"We have to try to make it to Bulgaria again, however with a different promoter."

Fear Factory were supposed to perform their first ever show in Bulgaria on August 11, 2006. Unfortunately, less than aВ day before the concert it turned out it won't happen... So Tangra Mega Rock immediately got in touch with the quartet's drummer, Raymond Herrera, to find out more about the reasons for the cancellation.

Vassil Varbanov: Hello Raymond, how are you doing?

Raymond Herrera: I'm doing very well.

V. V.: Where are you at the moment?

R. H.: I am in Budapest.

V. V.: So you're getting ready for your appearance at the Sziget Festival, which is supposed to be tomorrow, right?

R. H.: Yes.

V. V.: The reason for putting you live on the radio now is that we're getting thousands of angry messages from Bulgarian Fear Factory fans, because you were supposed to play in Sofia tonight, but you won't come. What happened?

R. H.: Well, we did everything we were supposed to do, but a few days ago we could not get hold of the local promoter (New Music Agency). He wouldn't return neither our calls, nor our manager's and booking agency's calls, and then we started to hear from other sources that the guy had not planned to do the show anyway, because he didn't promote it. His excuse was there was a lack of ticket sales, but in reality he didn't spend any money on doing anything. On top of that, he never got back to us and never paid us anything. Half of the payment was supposed to be done about three weeks ago, but we never got that, and ever since then we've not been able to get hold of him. There's no show, because this guy didn't do his part of the deal.

V. V.: What's worse is that this is the second Fear Factory show in Bulgaria cancelled during just one summer (FF were also supposed to play at the fake Monsters of Rock festival). Does it mean you guys already have some animosity towards our country?

R. H.: No, not at all! We know this is isolated to just a promoter and has nothing to do with the fans. We have to try to make it out there again, however with a different promoter.

V. V.: How has your tour been so far?

R. H.: Oh, it's been great! We've done a few festivals and some of our own shows, and the reception towards our new songs has been really, really good. So far, so good, but we've got another ten days in Europe before going back to the USA and South America.

V. V.: Tell us please something more about the new songs and your upcoming studio album.

R. H.: Well, we still have to tour up until the end of the year - South America, then home again, then New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan, then back home for three weeks, and finally a US tour that will take us up to the end of 2006. We've started writing music, but we haven't really concentrated on it too much until maybe the next couple of months.

V. V.: Last question: Do you know the famous US TV series called "Everybody Loves Raymond"?

R. H.: Ha-ha-ha, yes!

V. V.: Does everybody in Fear Factory love you, Raymond?

R. H.: Maybe, he-he!

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock