Q&A: Herman Li

The PALM Expo last month saw a couple of big names in metal make their way to India, prompting comparisons with California’s NAMM. Among them was power metal band DragonForce’s Herman Li, in town to do an Ibanez guitar clinic as part of three shows in the country. But the guitarist says he’s been playing hooky from work. “To be really honest, I’m not technically supposed to do this [clinic tour], but I had to take the time to do it, because we’ve never been here. We’re actually making an album at the moment. Technically, I should be in a studio, recording.”

Your fifth album is scheduled for release in September”¦

That’s what people think, but it’s nowhere near finished. So it definitely won’t be out in September.

Tell me a little bit about the process, about what’s going on with the album.

I mean, it’s been ongoing, I kinda just lost track of time. We started”¦ what year are we in? We’re in 2011 now, right? Well, we started early last year, after Twilight Dementia. Originally we thought we were going to finish it in April. I was going through some videos I shot on the phone and on my camera, documenting the making of the album. I’m sitting in the South of France, by the beach and telling Sam [Totman, DragonForce guitarist], “By the time you see this is April, we’ll have finished the album.” And I’m sitting here in June, nowhere near finished. So that’s what’s been going on at the moment, we’re making sure everything is perfect

What musical direction do you see yourself going in, on this record?

I think it’s definitely a more diverse album, it’s not just fast. We’ve got songs that are faster than anything we’ve ever done ”“ I don’t even know how we’re going to play it properly. It’s been hard recording that song for example, our hands were hurting afterwards. And there are songs that are slightly slower, not ballads but kinda more heavy and mid-tempo and some seven-string guitar songs. I think it shows the evolution of the band ”“ we’re getting better, we’re improving. So we try a lot of different things actually on this album, not just songwriting-wise, even the production because we’re producing it ourselves.

You also have a new vocalist now, Marc Hudson. How’s it been working with him?

It’s actually been really interesting because I’ve never really worked that way before. Let’s say we’ve taken a guy who’s really talented but who’s never really done anything. And he has to go from here [pointing down] to here [pointing up], in how many months, until his first show kicks off which is Iron Maiden, and we’re here to prepare him at the same time, using our experience from the last 10 years, help a young guy who’s just learning. It’s definitely been very good, he’s a fast learner, but no one’s gonna just walk into the band and be amazing straightaway. You have to work together and grow together. But so far what he’s recorded sounds really really good. It will be interesting to see him on stage; we’ve never played together on stage yet.

Iron Maiden for the first show? So there’s no club show, breaking him in gently kinda thing?

Nothing confirmed yet, you know. We try to help him out as much as possible to get it there. It’s hard for me to imagine it, because for me it was a slow growing process. We did Iron Maiden tours in 2005 but before that we’d done tours in Japan, smaller shows, different bands. And he has to go from, playing in front of 20 people to 20-30,000, so good luck to him [laughs]. No pressure.

Will we ever see DragonForce in India, do you think?

We’ve been working on that for a while. We were trying to come here on the last tour but we haven’t been able to schedule things in time. But I know our manager has been trying to get a show here. So hopefully we get to go down to some places we haven’t played before, which for us has always been the fun part of tour and seeing different places. That’s the reason why the band started: It was to have some fun, to go on tour, maybe somewhere in Europe because it’s close, and we’re happy. Obviously now, it’s different.