Dragonforce's Herman Li

Room Thirteen caught up with metal's 'best shredder', guitarist Herman Li on the second date of Dragonforce's headline UK tour in Cardiff's Solus.

R13: Hello. I talked with some 'guys in a metal band' friends last night and asked them to try and help think up questions, unfortunately the only thing they could come up with was...Why aren't you German? (I think they were going along the lines of the whole Euro-metal sound.)
HL: I don't think we even sound German anymore because the whole thing has progressed. Bands from the UK just sound like the old bands from the UK and that's not moving forward. There's so much influence now. You've got great Swedish bands, Swedish sound, German sound, American sound. We are in a way combining all these sounds from around the world from Iron Maiden to computer game music. Black metal, death metal, whatever, maybe not black metal but the blast beat of metal.

R13: So who are Dragonforce then?
HL: Sam [Totman] writes a lot of the songs, he's on guitar. Vadim [Pruzhonor] on the keyboards, he's a bit mad actually. Adrian [Lambert] on the bass. Dave [Mackintosh] on the drums. Dave used to play in a band called Bal-Sagoth that was kind of a black metal band, that's why, because of the speed and stuff...we couldn't really get a power metal drummer because they won't understand all the other stuff. ZP [Theart] on vocals of course, and me. I was playing in a band, it was a mixture of black, death and power metal, I don't know what you would call it back then and we really wanted to do something that was more singing. So when that band finished that's why we got together and ZP was looking for a band. Then we had some member change. Vadim joined us after he saw us tour. He actually played guitar but we forced him to play keyboard.

R13: There seems to be so many sub-genres of metal, but what is the difference between speed metal and power metal, they appear to be pretty similar?
HL: It's not the same but I can't really describe it. Power metal is slow I think, most bands play kinda mid-tempo and we play much faster than anybody. We're speed metal but we're not, because speed metal doesn't really do blast beats. We're a beefed up version and we try to combine a lot of styles. Some bands shouldn't really be called power metal that are labelled that, everything's sort of lumped together.

R13: This is the second night of the tour, how did last night go [Wolverhampton]?
HL: Last night was good. I mean we haven't rehearsed at all for this tour, we couldn't because we're recording the new album at the moment. Monday we were still recording the guitars and so we didn't have time to rehearse any songs. But it was good anyway and we played for quite a long time.
R13: You have Mendeed as support...
HL: Mendeed are cool. They played with us once in Scotland on our last UK tour and we heard some of their stuff. They're a young band as well, it's always good to give the younger UK bands a chance. They have similarities, like the guitar solos and stuff.
R13: Is there any advice you've been able to pass on to them?
HL: We really don't talk about those things. Just getting pissed. We haven't met each other sober yet!!
R13: Any dates you're looking forward to playing? Homecoming to London?
HL: London show is special-ish, because usually we play a much bigger place but we're going for a 200-capacity place and playing it three times. I think it's sold out so it's going to be a warzone. We've got a different set each night...well with a bit of practise.

R13: Wacken Festival was a big success for you. Were there any moments that particularly stood out for you?
HL: It was a mudbath! The rain, I've never played in the rain before and when we started I was missing things and completely messing up.
R13: Was that because your fret board was too slippy?
HL: Slippery is cool for us because we can play faster but I was getting stuck on the frets, I was laughing and like "Shit!". We were kinda running away from the rain. The stage was soaked and there were people pushing the water off. Then I realised it was actually quite cool. So I ended up standing there going "Come on!" playing completely in the rain, getting wet and the wind is blowing. We lasted two songs only, but it was cool and then the sun came back.

R13 was then accosted by two burly security guards and was nearly kicked out the venue as they demanded everyone without a backstage pass out of the area. Luckily due to some quick talking from Herman we were allowed to stay and do the rest of the interview. Thank you Herman and to the nice security guard that let us finish the interview.

R13: So were there any bands that you saw at Wacken that you would recommend other people go see?
HL: I didn't see that many bands this year it was so muddy. I was afraid of losing my shoes when I was walking around, I'm not very tough. I think I only saw Hammerfall.

R13: There's been a lot of guest appearances at gig's recently, notably Rob Flynn at the Trivium gig at London Barfly. Which famous axe wielding person of rock would you be honoured to share your stage with?
HL: The one I'd really like would blow me away! Steve Vai, playing one of our songs, he'd learn it in two seconds.
R13: Really, can he learn songs that fast?
HL: He's my hero so I expect he's got super-powers.

R13: I heard Dave totalled his Porsche recently, is he OK?
HL: Yeah, he's cool but he should get a crap car like us instead of driving a Porsche, what a bastard!

R13: The new material's being recorded then?
HL: New album comes out in the first week of January, so we're still doing it now. The songs don't even have names yet. We have to go back after the tour to finish it.
R13: I heard recording isn't one of your favourite pastimes?!
HL: It's just so much hardwork. You're really critical of yourself and think you can do better so you do another take and realise that ten takes ago was better. Or you do a hundred takes and you don't know which is better. It's stressful, we've been doing the album for six months.

R13: You were voted 'Best Shredder' (tribute to the late Dimebag Darrell) at this year's Golden Gods, was it an honour?
HL: Yeah, yeah I paid a lot of money for that you know!!!! It was cool, I didn't expect to win it.
R13: Who were you up against?
HL: Shadows Fall, Lamb of God. I listened to a Lamb of God song but there wasn't any solos, I don't even know them. I saw Unearth and thought they were pretty cool, catchy.
R13: So what advice would you pass on to budding 'shredders'?
HL: Don't get a girlfriend! That usually helps or you get loads of hassle. Seriously...
R13: The best equipment?
HL:Equipment doesn't do anything. I've played a crap amplifier for four years so I don't think equipment matters. My main guitar is a cheap guitar. One tip I can give you; when I was learning guitar I used to put the CD on, switch out the lights so I couldn't see the guitar and I'd practise that way, so I can play without looking at the guitar. In a way looking at the guitar will help you, but it won't because that's visual but you need to play with your ear.