Pic courtesy of: Fueled By Fire "We really believe that our music IS refreshing . We were hearing so many bands that would say they play our style of music "THRASH" and it wouldn't even be anything close to it...and we were tired of it all!!! We decided we would play it the way it should be played, with the aggression, speed, and pure raw kick ass riffs!!!"

CR: Hey man terribly sorry for the long ass delay on the interview, I think I first contacted you guys back in August…well hope you are still enthusiastic about answering some of my questions!
Carlos Gutierrez: Hey Carlos, How's it going? Thank You for your interest in us and Thanks for this interview.

CR: Why don’t you start by introducing the band, because I was reading some of your bio and there has been a few changes since the band began?
Carlos Gutierrez: We have had a few lineup changes, as for this current lineup and hopefully the last lineup. It's myself, my Name is also Carlos my last name is Gutierrez, I play the drums, Rick Rangel on Vocals/Lead Guitar, Anthony Vasquez on Bass and the NEW KID! well? not so new he has been with us for one year now, His name is Chris Monroy Lead Guitar! And There You Have It...FUELED BY FIRE!!!

CR: You guys are currently signed to Metal Blade if I’m not mistaken, do they just distribute your material or do you have a certain amount of albums you have to put out for this label?
Carlos Gutierrez: So far we have only the first album with Metal Blade, we are currently in negotiations for the second album, if we cannot come to terms for this next album then we will be looking elsewhere. Or we will do another self-release.

CR: Thanks to Metal Blade FBF has had the chance to play alongside some pretty respectable bands, which of this bands has personally inspired you the most and which ones has surprised you the most?
Carlos Gutierrez: Actually, The thanks goes to our camp, We do thank Metal Blade for helping us get our album to a wider audience with whatever promotions they did for the re-release. But as for all those great bands we have played with that credit stays with us and our manager's. Even before we were on the Metal Blade Label we released and distributed the "SPREAD THE FIRE" album ourselves. Our album was already all over the U.S. Europe, Germany, U.K., Japan, Canada, and South America. Metal Blade hasn't really been a great support of helping us get any shows. Whoever we have had the opportunity to play with is all our own efforts.
We totally look up to all the great bands we have had the honor to play with Starting with Exodus, Agent Steel, M.O.D, Toxic Holocaust, Heathen, Hallows Eve, Municipal Waste, The "KEEP IT TRUE FEST" and many more... all these shows really KICKED ASS!!

CR: Some compare the sound of FBF to what Exodus used to sound like in their earlier days, do you agree with this? Do you think comparisons like this are more positive than negative to a young band like FBF?
Carlos Gutierrez: I do agree, Exodus was our main influence on the "SPREAD THE FIRE" album. I see it as a positive thing, because that is the style we alike and want to play, And there are people out there that say it isn't original, WELL-NO SHIT!!! ...Playing Old School Style Thrash if it was original it wouldn't be old school! But I feel we add things into it that the old school bands didn't back then...riff wise I mean. We hated all that Nu Metal, RapMetal, Hardcore Metal Bullshit...That Crap was taking over! Well not anymore!!! We wanted to bring back True Metal the way it should be played! And getting people away from that NUshit Metal!!

CR: Can you see a scenario where by comparing you guys with Exodus some may call you “copycats”?
Carlos Gutierrez: Like I said in my last answer, We can care less if people call us copy cats, This is what we like! and this is what we play! Those people can FUCK OFF!!!

CR: Is there any aspect of your music that you will “qualify” as groundbreaking; or perhaps refreshing to what metal fans are used to?
Carlos Gutierrez: We really believe that our music IS refreshing . We were hearing so many bands that would say they play our style of music "THRASH" and it wouldn't even be anything close to it...and we were tired of it all!!! We decided we would play it the way it should be played, with the aggression, speed, and pure raw kick ass riffs!!! that grab you and don't let go! and now, we hear it all the time from people that listen to us for the first time...They say stuff like "Now! That's real thrash"!!! With Thrash Metal... speed and aggression is KEY, and we feel we deliver!!!

CR: What would you say is the most important factor about thrash metal, what makes thrash metal… well thrash metal?
Carlos Gutierrez: Like I said before... The speed and aggression, the lyrics and energy!!! There's nothing like it!!! And nothing like a thrash show!!! In the words of "Exodus" it's all good friendly, violent fun!!" and that's for sure, non stop stage diving, circle pits, banging your fucking head! ALL THE ENERGY IS THERE!!! IT CAN'T BE BEAT!!!

	Pic courtesy of: Fueled By Fire "Posers are basically people who pose as something they are not! as in dressing a certain way just to be a part of the crowd cause they think it looks kinda cool or cause its a trend. They have no idea why they dress the way they do they just do it because they're fuckin poser's!!! That ruins things that are sacred to someone else."

CR: Thrash was pretty much “develop” thanks to the influence of the NWOBHM and Hardcore punk, which of this two schools would you say is responsible for the “look” that bands and fans develop in the early 80’s; and which one is responsible for the aggression, yet at times “social” issues that many songs tend to deal with… you know Nuclear disasters, war, etc?
Carlos Gutierrez: Well I would say NWOBHM is responsible for the look, with the denim and leather, spikes and chains...But punk brought the aggression to the table. As for the lyrical content? That comes from each bands likes and dis-likes... We like our lyrics to show the most violent, crazy shit we can think of, things that have to do with Nuclear Assault, Disaster, War, Murder and the Dark Side of Life, Evilness and beyond!!!

CR: You guys have a pretty “basic” and direct song on your debut album “Thrash is back”… when do you think exactly did the thrash metal movement began to pick up new strength and started to get kids enthusiastic about it one more time?
Rick Rangel: Well I think it started to pick up here in the West Coast around the time us (FBF) and a few other Thrash bands got together and started playing shows, everyone felt the same as us, we were just tired of the new trendy shit they played and still play on the radio and on t.v. most of the kids were hungry for something pure, and they found it in Thrash metal.

CR: If I’m not mistaken on your album cover…on “Spread the Fire” you have a thrasher, choking what looks to me like an EMO kid…What does this album cover mean to you?
Rick Rangel: To some of us it means we hate emos! haha it just seems that they are a bunch of cry babies that complain about stupid shit in their lives, we feel that they are the posers of our generation such as the glam hair metal bands where the posers the generation before us, they over dress themselves, have stupid haircuts and their choice of music is pathetic!
For the rest of us the emo kid represents all that fucking bullshit faggot music they call metal, and the thrasher represents real metal taking over!!!

CR: For an upcoming album, who would you like to have producing your record… or would you approach it as you did on this “Spread the Fire”?
Rick Rangel: We have had many producers in mind for our next album. The producer we would like to work with is the legendary Bill Metoyer, we had the privilege to do some rough mix recordings with him and we feel he is great to work with. We definitely feel that having a producer like Bill will help us grow as a band we learned a lot from him.

CR: What was this THRASHO DE MAYO III event that guys attended to?
Rick Rangel: Thrasho De Mayo was founded by Us (FBF) and Merciless Death we held the first Thrasho De Mayo in 2006 at the legendary WHISKEY A GOGO in Hollywood Ca. That first show was a great success and sold out. There was a big demand for us to do another Thrasho De Mayo, and that one was sold out and over capacity by 200+ raging maniacs, now it has become a tradition here in Los Angeles and every year it gets bigger, every year it sells out. And every year we try to make it better than before with some great Thrash Bands some form the old school and of course the new school. We are already planning "Thrasho De Mayo IV" To=2 0us it is the best thrash show there is to go to in all of the U.S. the bands that play it are all pure respectable thrash bands from all over! even if just underground, only the best of the best bands play Thrasho De Mayo!

CR: Many old school thrash bands are coming back, it seems that this thrash revival is not just providing us with great new bands like FBF but bands like At War, Forbidden, Assassin are getting back together and planning on delivering new albums… which old school band are you excited about them releasing some new material?
Rick Rangel: The band Devastation from Texas has to be the band we're most excited about! We never thought that most of these bands would ever play again and here they are doing it all over again! it's awesome!!

CR: Reading some reviews, I found out that as ironic as it may sound one of the main criticism towards the album is the overused of thrash metal references, you know paraphernalia, lyrics, logos and images on Spread the Fire; do you think that the whole thrash metal movement needs of all of this “accessories” to really make its presence be felt by the fans and the media? When does too much thrash references, attitudes and images become too much, and becomes just an obvious effort to let people know you are thrash and not posers?
Rick Rangel: I agree that at some point it becomes ridiculous to over use these "references" but for us when we wrote that album it was and still is a way of life, "SPREAD THE FIRE" is all about the scene in L.A. the shows, the fans, and the obstacles we were facing at that time and still do to this day. We had fun doing it! and we make no apologies for the way we dress!!! or the lyrical content of "Spread The Fire"!!! We're proud of that album!!!

CR: What is your definition of a “poser”?
Rick Rangel: To us there are different meanings; posers are basically people who pose as something they are not! as in dressing a certain way just to be a part of the crowd cause they think it looks kinda cool or cause its a trend. They have no idea why they dress the way they do they just do it because they're fucking poser's!!! That ruins things that are sacred to someone else.

		Pic courtesy of: Fueled By Fire "There are people out there that say it isn't original, WELL-NO SHIT!!! ...Playing Old School Style Thrash if it was original it wouldn't be old school! But I feel we add things into it that the old school bands didn't back then...riff wise I mean"

CR: What do you think made the Bay area in the early 80’s such a centerpiece for the development of thrash metal, and can you see that “magic” is still lurking in the local clubs and among the fans or much have changed since those glorious days for American thrash metal?
Rick Rangel: In the 80's there where so many amazingly creative musicians in the Bay Area that have created this music! Whatever they know it or not they left some kind of magic that is still felt to this day! just knowing how they created an entire movement just by playing what they wanted with no limits and such aggression, gives inspiration to our generation to do what they did.

CR: Seen the lineup on Fueled by Fire I can see some Latin roots in there, where all you guys borne in the US or your families come from different parts of Latin American?
Rick Rangel: We were all born here in the U.S. we are all Mexican/American and we are very proud of our roots!

CR: Just watching the main stream news shows… CNN, FOX, NBC one can deduct that the situation for Latinos in the US has become increasingly difficult; do you see or feel any of those “negative” effects when FBF gets ready for shows or when you simply walk the streets?
Rick Rangel: No! we have never felt any negativity at all. Where we are from here in California, Latinos make up the MAJORITY of the population; it would be wise NOT to fuck with us!

CR: You guys have been on tour all this year right? What are your plans for 2009?
Rick Rangel: We plan on releasing our second album as soon as possible and tour as much as possible! I'm sure that we will be going to places we have never been before, as of right now we are planning a massive European tour for mid 2009. And hopefully we come up with some dates in South America. I think many of our fans will love what we have lined up for the future.

CR: Well man again terribly sorry for the long delay on these questions, but thanks for the opportunity, if you would like to say something to all the thrashers in Costa Rica please feel free to do so…
Rick Rangel: Thank you all very much for your support! Thank you for reading this interview and keep supporting your scene!! Hope to hang out and have a beer with you all someday! And remember to spread the fire! and keep banging your fucking heads!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carlos Gutierrez: Lastly I would like to say thank you to our fans for all your support and thanks to Leviathan Metal Magazine!!! ALWAYS READY TO FUCK SHIT UP!!!