Zoltan Bathory shares Five Finger Death Punch’s backstory as well as the lowdown on ‘AfterLife’ Deluxe and his vision for DMX on ‘This Is The Way’
Zoltan Bathory recently caught up with June Archer of “The Winners Circle” podcast.
The interview covers the history of Five Finger Death Punch from how they got their name through to line-up changes through to the present day and recent ‘AfterLife: Deluxe’ album release.
In the interview Zoltan gives the lowdown on the bands new single with DMX ‘This Is The Way’ and shares how excited and trusting he was to see the finished video that was directed by Hype Williams.
Also covered, Zoltan shares a story on the coincidence, or not so coincidental, fact of the album being called ‘AfterLife’ in relation to DMX and the process of finally being able to release the song after a year – and why it is important to pay attention to the universe.
It’s well worth a watch (and listen) – especially if you’re keen to hear more about the early days of Five Finger Death Punch and how the band came together.
On where the name Five Finger Death Punch came from:
Basically, I’m a martial artist since I was a little kid. So all the Bruce Lee movies and all the martial arts movies were my favourites. I loved underground Hong Kong cinema, those old, old movies. And there was a movie of ‘Five Fingers Of Death’, so that was a a classic. And then when ‘Kill Bill’ came out, they had this five-finger exploding heart, whatever, technique.
And so we were sitting in movie theatre, I’m, like, ‘Man, that sounds so stupid, that should be a band name.’ And then pretty much here we go today. And, basically, we shortened this, because five-finger exploding lotus technique wouldn’t be a good-sounding name.
So I ended up picking Five Finger Death Punch. It’s sort of like an ode to kung fu and martial arts and this old-school Hong Kong martial arts cinema, basically.
On whether the band had other names in mind before settling with Five Finger Death Punch:
So, basically, I started this project. I mean, all of us in the band were in various bands before, so we had a musical history before this particular band. And I started this band in 2005, and I started to record the first material that became our first album. And when you work on a new project — everybody can do it their way, but I always thought that don’t name it yet because I think what you’re saying, the musical content and your lyrics and how the band or the artist looks like and all those things together has to be a complete picture.
So there [was] a list of names, and then this name, Five Finger Death Punch, got on this list. And as the band was developing, our sound was developing, this was probably the closest [to what we sounded like]. And all the other good names were already taken. So you have to look at the dot com, [if it’s] available. But you have to pick a name that sticks out, a name that when you say to somebody, people take a second and look, like, ‘What?’ If it’s too average or it’s too simple, it’s really difficult to remember.
The world is really, really noisy — a lot of information coming at you — so you have to have a band name that both makes sense with who you are, so the look, the message, whatever you’re saying fits this, and also it has to stick out somewhat. It has to make you feel some kind of a way.
On how Five Finger Death Punch started:
So basically I started it. Somebody has to start a band. When a group is coming together you can’t really approach it like ‘Well I have an idea’, you have to be able to show that idea. It was originally me with my little recording setup recording the songs, demoing and that. Then when I had a pretty solid idea, I had nine or ten songs already, that’s when I started to reach out to the rest of the guys that eventually became band members where ‘okay this is the direction I’m taking, this is where I am going.’
You look at the prospects for your project, be it a producer, be it band members, be it creative writers. It’s important you find people that are with you, that are going to walk the same direction. So that was right from the get go, the first conversation ‘Like, look either you love this and you join, or if you have reservations, or you want to do something else, then this is not the project for you. I don’t want to waste time.’
I don’t want to waste time with creative arguments. I had a very set idea, that’s why I did the original songs, so I could show that this is the direction, this is the vision and if you’re in, you’re in, if not, then it’s not it’s not the band for you. Like I really don’t want to waste time with creative differences. Eventually they develop anyway but, at least from the get go, you’ve got to have a shot and that means if… you have a nucleus, a creative group and everybody has the same dream. There’s a lot of will-power kind of honed in to this same group – everybody wants the same thing, we want the same thing creatively, we want the same thing emotionally and we have [the] same goal that has a lot of power.
That’s kind of how this started. I started a band and I started to recruit people that I thought were great as musicians but they had to be somebody who thought like this is the direction they want to go in as well.
On the vision for putting DMX on ‘AfterLife: Deluxe’:
If you look at hard rock and heavy metal, what we do basically, what that came from, that was always the music of the rebellion. It either goes against social standards or beliefs that society had as a whole, so hard rock, heavy metal was always a voice of rebellion. But so is hip-hop.
So when the whole hip-hop revolution started, this was also the voice on the street, this was also a voice of the rebellion. We also have the same attitude.
I have a lot of guys, rappers and guys in hip-hop that I really like but from all those, DMX to me, always felt like man he was the metal head of hip-hop, the dog bark, the delivery. Like he was just that rough, straight to the point guy, so we were a fan of him to begin with. Ivan [Moody], my singer and I, both love DMX. We all jam it in our cars and it’s the soundtrack that’s on in our dressing room. So this is something we listen to.
Maybe five or six years ago we had a conversation like ‘You know what would be really cool… DMX!’.
I thought man he’s a perfect voice, he’s a perfect voice for this, he’s already kind of heavy metal, to me at least, and when we put these two together, I mean you’ve heard the results, it fits perfectly.
On when he picked up the guitar:
I always wanted to be a guitar player. I was really interested and very young, but I was an air guitar player.
When I was about 12 years old, it’s a kind of funny story that I got a guitar that was a broken guitar, the neck was good and some of the hardware, but it was broken second hand and crap.
I grew up in a communist country so we didn’t have money. The average family makes about $100 a month so for me to buy a guitar was not optional so I had this second hand guitar. I took my parents coffee table and a jigsaw. like an actual saw, and I cut out a guitar shape and made a guitar. There was a BC Rich guitar called a Warlock, a very heavy metal looking guitar, so I copied that and I put this together. It was nearly unplayable but it was Metal! So I was playing that guitar. Eventually, a couple of years later, I was maybe 14 or 15 when I had an actual guitar that I’ve played since.
Watch the full interview with Zoltan Bathory and June Archer: