FEAR FACTORY’s DINO CAZARES On Advancement Of A.I.: ‘I Hope I’m Alive Long Enough To See Androids Alongside Us’
In a new interview with Graspop Metal Meeting, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares spoke about how A.I. (artificial intelligence) has changed the way we work and improved our lives by making it easier to do business. “Well, we kind of knew that things like that were gonna eventually change,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “And I hope that I’m alive long enough to actually see androids alongside us and to see how that works. Because we’ve been using technology forever to better our lives. I think the next thing would be these little nanobots that they would actually inject into your blood and they would be able to fight cancer and help you clean your liver and things like that. That, I think, would be the next breakthrough that would be really helpful for us humans. But how A.I. and how that’s changing a lot of stuff, it could get really scary. There’s gonna be a lot of changes coming up and people need to be prepared for it.”
Last year, Dino said that the next FEAR FACTORY studio album — which will mark the band’s debut release with singer Milo Silvestro, whose addition to FEAR FACTORY was officially announced in February 2023 — “will continue the theme of what FEAR FACTORY is about: the relationship between man and technology and where that’s gonna take us. ‘Cause now we have a whole new influx of A.I. and how much A.I. is effecting change in our day-to-day life. I mean, you [saw] all the strikes over here in Los Angeles — the writers’ strike… So it’s gonna get crazy because A.I. is definitely changing where we are headed as people.”
He continued: “Ever since our ‘Obsolete’ record, we’ve always been talking about change, we’ve always been talking about how certain things, because of technology, is gonna become obsolete. So it’s very interesting to see what’s gonna happen with the movie industry and the video game industry, to see where that’s gonna go. And that’s kind of what we’re gonna be singing about in our new record — just where AI is gonna take us and how it’s gonna affect us in our day-to-day lives. So, we’ll see. We’ll see where this goes.”
At this month’s Download festival in the United Kingdom, Cazares spoke to Primordial Radio about how things are going with FEAR FACTORY‘s current lineup, also featuring Silvestro, Tony Campos on bass, and Pete Webber on drums. He said: “ At the moment, smooth sailing. And it’s been great. Everybody’s on point. Pete Webber‘s on drums. He’s sick. He came from a thrash metal band called HAVOK. Killer drummer. We call him Pete The Feet. Milo Silvestro — new kid on the block. He came straight from Rome, Italy. He sounds like a young Burton [C. Bell, original FEAR FACTORY singer], you know what I mean? [He sounds like Burton did] back in the day. He sounds amazing. He’s probably the most musically talented in the band. And then Tony Campos, my old friend. He’s been with the band since, like, 2015. He comes from a band called STATIC-X. He’s been my mate for 30-plus years, and it’s always good to play with him, and I’m glad he’s with us.”
Dino continued: “It’s a great place right now. We are trying to avoid any of that drama. And luckily we have for the past year and a half since we came back.”
Asked what is left for FEAR FACTORY to do, Dino said: “New record with Milo Silvestro. That’s what we’re gonna do next. New record. And then conquer the world again.”
FEAR FACTORY played its first headlining concert with Silvestro and Webber on May 5, 2023 at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California.
Earlier last year, FEAR FACTORY completed the “Rise Of The Machine” U.S. tour as the support act for STATIC-X marked the Cazares-led outfit’s first run of shows with Silvestro and Webber.
Webber had been filling in for FEAR FACTORY‘s longtime drummer Mike Heller who was unable to play with the band due to “scheduling conflicts.”