Frontman Ivan Moody’s throat problems forced Five Finger Death Punch off the road for a couple months in early 2008, but not even that could stop the band’s momentum. Their debut album, The Way of the Fist, is selling better than ever, re-entering the Billboard Top 200 and climbing close to the top of the Heatseekers chart, while the first single, “The Bleeding,” has become a rock radio staple. This summer will find Five Finger Death Punch as part of what looks to be the hottest ticket in heavy music, the inaugural Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival headlined by Slipknot and Disturbed. Drummer Jeremy Spencer recently checked in from Los Angeles with Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki to discuss how the band has spent its break from the road, its soon-to-resume touring schedule and more.
Live-Metal.net: Hey, Jeremy. How ya doing?
Jeremy Spencer: Hey. Good. How are ya?
Pretty good. To start off, last night I was in D.C. for the All That Remains show there and I don’t have to tell you that you guys originally were gonna be on that tour. How is Ivan doing these days?
He’s pretty much recovered. He’s healthy. His voice is sounding really good. We’ve been recording some material, so things are good. We’re looking forward to getting back out and touring our butts off all year.
The new material, what is that for?
We’re not really sure, maybe for soundtracks. You just need more material. So maybe for bonus tracks. We have the Japanese release of Way of the Fist coming out, so we may put some bonus tracks on that. So we just recorded a few more songs and we’ll see where they end up being placed. But not really for sure, exactly.
What else have you been doing with some unexpected time off the road?
Always writing songs and doing some rehearsing, getting ready to get into pre-production for the tour. We basically just focused on coming up with new material. That’s what we wanted to take the time to do because it’s kind of hard to do when you’re on tour.
I saw you have a couple radio shows on the schedule for next month. Is there going to be a full tour around that time?
I think we start a full tour at the end of next month. It’s not confirmed, so I can’t really mention who it’s with yet. I will be able to probably within the next week.
Is it supporting or headlining?
It’s supporting.
During the past couple months, the album and the single, “The Bleeding,” have really taken off.
It’s really funny, man. We’re really excited about it. The single, “The Bleeding,” has been in the top 10 for, like, the past four weeks in a row.
There’s a radio station we get here in Maryland, WZBH. I was just on their web site today and it’s the number one song on that station right now.
Excellent. That’s great to hear. It’s funny because it seems like they play it everywhere else in the world except Los Angeles .
[laughter]
I don’t know why that it is. Hopefully, maybe in the future we’ll get some airplay out here, as well.
Are you surprised that rock radio has taken to a heavier band like Five Finger Death Punch?
Anytime you have a heavy band, it’s really tough to get on the radio. But we kind of felt with that song there might be a shot, like there was just something special about it to where it clicks with people and they gravitate toward it. So, yeah, I’m surprised, but I’m also kind of not because that’s the one that pokes out off the record as being a potential radio song if you’re gonna have one.
You said “The Way of the Fist” is gonna be the next single, is that right?
You know what, that’s up in the air. We were gonna make a video for that and things change day to day. We’re not really for sure. We were gonna make a video almost just to get it straight to Headbangers Ball because that song’s really not the next radio move. That song’s brutal, man, but I love the track. I don’t know what the exact details are for the next single yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I can.
Right from the beginning, long before you guys even had an album out, you had such a rabid fanbase, and you guys in the band interact with the fans as much as any band I’ve ever seen. How important is that to you and the rest of the band?
It’s everything because if you don’t have a fanbase, you can’t really do what you do anymore because nobody’s listening. Basically, we recorded the record before we had a label. We did it all ourselves and then we had it mixed and mastered; we went to work and made it happen. And then we threw up some songs on MySpace and that’s really when people started discovering us and coming to the party and enjoying what they’re hearing. We were like, “Wow,” you know? It really started to create a buzz on its own and take off through MySpace, and that caught the attention of The Firm.
What is it like being with The Firm, where the record label and the management are the same people?
Well, it speeds up the process to get things done because they’re all in the same room. [laughs] It’s great. I mean, we could’ve signed maybe with somebody else and been 37th on the priority list, but at The Firm we’re first, which is awesome. So everyone’s on the same team and going to bat to accomplish the same things, which is great.
They obviously know what they’re doing. They’ve been around a long time and they got you on some pretty big tours last year with Family Values and then Korn after that. How did those two tours go for you?
They were excellent. It really opened the door for us and exposed us to a lot of people that may not have heard of us if we weren’t given that opportunity. It was awesome. Korn was great. We did Family Values and we did an arena tour. We made a whole lot of new fans from that, man. And coinciding with the radio single, it’s just been great.
I’ve seen video, I guess from the Korn arena tour. You guys were an opening band, but it looks like the place is packed and people are singing along.
It’s weird, yeah, ‘cause I’m the first guy out on stage. We have this big intro and I would walk out and stick my arm up in the air and the crowd would go, “Yeeeeaaaaahhhh!” I was like, “You don’t even know who I am, but this is awesome.”
[laughter]
Sometimes they’d be singing the lyrics to our songs louder than we were playing. It was really strange, man. Awesome.
This summer you’ve got the big tour, the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. Looking forward to that?
Oh, it’s gonna be insane. Yeah, I think it’s gonna be the tour of the year. I’m excited. Great bands on that. I’m a fan of a lot of bands on that tour.
Which ones are you really looking forward to either seeing play or just hanging out with?
Slipknot, obviously. I really like Machine Head a lot. DragonForce is entertaining. That’s a sight to see. Those guitar players are awesome.
One of the first Five Finger Death Punch shows was with them, wasn’t it?
That was our first show, over here in Los Angeles . That was great.
Are you ready to get up and play shows in the afternoon in the 95-degree heat again, second summer in a row?
Oh yeah. This time we’re gonna make sure we have lots of water. It was pretty scarce last summer. [laughs] But yeah, we’re looking forward to it. We’re getting out of studio mode and we’re getting ready to switch back over into live mode, which will be fun.
Going back a little bit, what got you into music and drumming to begin with?
I think what got me into music, I saw a KISS album cover. I was absolutely enthralled, horrified, excited. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. So as soon as I heard Peter Criss, that was it. My grandma bought me a Sears drum kit for like 80 bucks. And as far as I was concerned, I was in KISS from then on.
[laughter]
Then who were some of the bands that got you into the heavier stuff?
Metallica, Slayer, Testament. I was a fan of bands that had double bass. That was a whole new world to me because there really wasn’t a lot of that until they came out. And then I was like, “That’s insane. That’s a whole different style of drumming. I must do that.” I just focused all my energy on being a double-bass guy. But yeah, certainly Metallica, Slayer, Testament, those bands for sure.
How much time do you spend these days just practicing?
It’s great to be able to practice again because when you’re on tour you can’t. You basically deteriorate when you’re on tour. When you get home, you get back in the rehearsal room and get your chops back. It’s great to rediscover what it’s all about. You’re like, “Ah, this is familiar. I really like this.” I try to practice as much as I can, but even now we’re in the studio, so I’m not able to practice as much. But I’m about ready to switch back over and get back on it, which will be fun.
Since your band has kind of a unique arrangement with the label and management, where do you see—You guys are doing well right now, but CDs in general are dying out. Where do you see the industry heading? Is that something you think about?
Yeah, you know, it does look pretty grim, man, because there’s about four record stores left on the planet. All you can really do is just make music you want to make and hopefully there will be an avenue for it to be heard. Luckily, a lot of people are into the band now, so hopefully they’ll be on board for whatever we do in the future.
So do you plan on touring for most of this year once you get back out there again?
Oh yeah. We’re gonna be touring probably till the end of the year once we get rolling again, so we’re looking forward to it.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I just want to thank the fans for buying the record and supporting us and calling the radio stations and requesting “The Bleeding.” It’s been great and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone out on tour in ’08.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing you guys again. The only time I’ve gotten to see you was at Family Values last year.
Yeah, just as exciting this year, maybe even more mayhem going on.
