- 2 days ago
Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory linked back up with Abe Kanan recently for an Audacy Check In, discussing the band’s upcoming world tour, and the mission while making new music.
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00:00I never follow that, like how I supposed to look like.
00:03In fact, I think they're getting a little bit of a hate for that
00:06because people have this idea of how a Mammal Ben should look like.
00:10Ivan doesn't dress like that, I don't dress like that.
00:12It's like, what's the point of being a black sheep amongst black sheep anyway?
00:17I like, look, look at this. Dress comfortable.
00:19Look at this, I'm very, like, here you go.
00:23Yeah, yoga pants, so now you know, second time they prove that I have pants on, right?
00:27Yeah, I don't give a shit.
00:31All right, it's Abe Cannon, it's an Odyssey check-in, Zoltan from Five Figure Death Punch.
00:35Very exciting time, Five Figure Death Punch, massive tour.
00:38Love the new song, Eye of the Storm.
00:40Like, hearing that song makes me very excited for the new album.
00:44Can you tell us anything?
00:45I know the new album is coming out this year.
00:48Can you tell us anything? Because Eye of the Storm is awesome.
00:51Right, so we picked that song because that was one of the first one that was ready from the batch.
00:56Ivan is actually in the studio right now, still recording vocals.
01:00So from the first batch, that was kind of the song that we thought that would represent the upcoming album
01:08the best, right?
01:09So this is kind of a song in the middle.
01:11We have heavier stuff and we have a little bit lighter stuff.
01:14So that was right in the middle.
01:15And that's kind of like the idea there.
01:18Okay, let's pick this one because, you know, it is a pretty good indicator of what's coming.
01:25And it seems like everybody was super excited about it.
01:27It's a little bit, you know, a little bit heavier, a little bit more guitar, you know,
01:30guitar heavy than let's say the previous two, three albums.
01:34You know, we kind of dipping back into the beginnings, the first two, three records.
01:39Of course, it, you know, has a similar thing.
01:41Of course, you have to always progress.
01:43So we're not going to go back and repeat that.
01:45But there is a little bit of that first, you know, three records aggression in this one.
01:51Now, are you?
01:51This is a different backdrop.
01:53Are you at the castle right now?
01:54Are you somewhere?
01:54Yes, yes, yes, yes.
01:56Like, look, there you go.
01:58Ah, there it is.
01:59Okay.
01:59You know, this is the so-called cigar room.
02:03I'll show you around.
02:04Oh, nice.
02:06You have the most, I talked about every time I talked to you, I have to say, you have the
02:09greatest house of all time.
02:11And I know you were considering selling it.
02:14Thank God you didn't.
02:15Why would you ever?
02:16Well, okay.
02:16So, because, because basically, you know, I'll tell you what, building it was really fun,
02:21you know, because, because I, I, when I got the house, it was kind of like, yeah,
02:25from outside, it was okay.
02:27But the inside was kind of, you know, not my style.
02:31And by building it and importing all these crazy material, you know, three, four, 500
02:36years old artifacts and building it in was really fun.
02:39And then it kind of, you know, I kind of missed that part, right?
02:44The architectural improvisation, so to speak, you know, like when you, when you're building
02:48stuff.
02:49And so, so the idea was like, you know what, I want to, I want to keep doing this, right?
02:53I'm going to grab maybe a couple of European castles and, you know, there are a ton of them
02:58and then renovate them, sort of do this resto mod kind of thing where super modern, you know,
03:05meets old world.
03:06Like this house, like we look, it looks old, but you know, there's an AI runs the whole house.
03:11So the house has its own AI system that runs it.
03:15Yeah.
03:15You told me that last time.
03:16And so is Ivan at the house right now?
03:18Because I know your recording studio is in the house.
03:20Is he there recording right now?
03:22No, he's in Los Angeles.
03:24We are, you know, we are recording with Drew Falk in LA.
03:26And so he's in LA.
03:28I just got home yesterday.
03:29So yeah, he's, he's in LA recording right now.
03:32So when you have a recording studio in your house, like, is that where you write most of
03:36your stuff or do you, is it easier for you when you're with the band?
03:38Yes.
03:39I, I, I generally, you know, you know, use the home studio to write and you know, it's
03:44kind of always like you're playing guitar, you're, you know, playing around, you always have
03:47moments of like, Ooh, that's cool.
03:49And then you just record it, you grab your phone, whatever, record the riff, and then it goes
03:52into the vault.
03:53And when it, it's time to make a new record, then you look at the vault, what we have.
03:58There are a ton of songs that, you know, we wrote earlier, but didn't make the record.
04:04And, you know, it's kind of like one of those things like, look, uh, Rome Side of Heaven,
04:07one of our biggest songs.
04:08I had that riff for, I don't know, 15 years before, you know, before actually made it into
04:13a song, you know, the, the bleeding or first hit on the first record.
04:17But I had that lick for probably 50, same thing, 15, 20 years, right?
04:22And so it's kind of like the thing where, where you have to look at the album and look
04:26at it as one piece of work.
04:27What fits on this record?
04:28It's like a, like a puzzle, right?
04:30Correct.
04:30And what's, what fits on this?
04:32So we always have this idea that it has to be balanced.
04:34You know, if I give you an album that just heavy, to me, that would be boring.
04:38If I give you an album that, okay, this is going to be just hits, you know, ballads and,
04:44you know, a big arena style hit song, right?
04:47Also, it would be boring.
04:48It has to kind of have like the ups and downs.
04:51It has to have the super heavy stuff and it has to have a couple of balance.
04:55So that's always been the thing.
04:57And sometimes it just simply, you know, okay, we have already two, three slow songs on this
05:01record.
05:01We have, you know, five more, but I can't put it on the same record because it's too much.
05:06Right?
05:06So that's how it works.
05:07It's always, you know, things are coming out of the vault.
05:10There are some new things.
05:11And then we look at what we have and then assemble the record that we think is
05:16the right one for the times.
05:19I feel like a few years ago, every rock band fell in love with bell it after bell it after
05:24bell it.
05:24And you're right.
05:25You have to put out the bangers with like a bell.
05:28It is only awesome.
05:29After you just rip my face off at a five-figure death punch show.
05:33I can't breathe.
05:34I'm on my knees.
05:35I'm like, oh, and then I hear this beautiful bell and it gets me.
05:38Oh, good.
05:38I have time to rest now.
05:40Yes.
05:40Can you hit me in the face again?
05:42That's right.
05:42And you know, that's the thing when you assemble your set list, right?
05:45Or the live set list.
05:46That's when for us, it's kind of difficult.
05:49You know, we have about 30 top 10 hit singles.
05:54And so those are the songs that are familiar to the people, you know, they want to hear
05:58those songs.
05:59There's no way that I can put 30 of those songs on the same set list.
06:03Like simply, we just don't have the allocated time for that.
06:06Right.
06:07And it just happens so that if you look at, you know, radio and all the commercial channels,
06:12they're not going to play Slayer.
06:14They're not going to play the, you know what I mean?
06:16Like the super heavy bands and pick any heavy bands that are there, Meshuggah, whatever.
06:21Right. They're not going to play that.
06:23And it's not because they don't want to.
06:25It's just the audience is not the audience.
06:27Right.
06:28So even if they look at our records, what are the singles?
06:31You know, they're going to pick probably the lighter songs that, you know, that either lyrically,
06:36you know, if you dropped 100 F-bombs, then of course, you're not going to make it on the radio.
06:41So they're going to look at the rental record and say, OK, from this record,
06:45these three, four songs are inside that window that the commercial radio are willing to play.
06:51Generally, there are lighter songs.
06:53Right.
06:54So when people think about Fifey and Nat Punch, they have this idea of what this band is by,
06:59you know, by listening to the radio and listening to the popular song, not realizing like, man,
07:04we have 160 songs and you guys heard the 30 that are lighter than the rest. The rest is, you
07:12know,
07:12some of them are ridiculously heavy.
07:14Yeah.
07:14In fact, it happened to us that we, on the early days, we went to a radio festival,
07:19funny story for you. And, you know, we were invited because of our hit songs, obviously.
07:24I don't know that that particular station, because it was kind of a mixed bag,
07:29that particular festival really looked at us like what this band is. And so we were jammed in between,
07:34I think there was Snoop Doggy Dogg and something, you know what I mean? Like those kind of bands.
07:40And so, so I remember hitting the stage and it was mainly families, you know, on this festival.
07:48Like there's 30,000 people and families, kids, you know, parents and, you know, and maybe about 5,000
07:57metalheads in the 30,000 crowd. And we hit the stage. This is early times, first two records.
08:03We hit the stage and you can see the black shirts running down from there, you know, from the arena,
08:10jumping over the fence and coming into the pit. And it was pandemic, man. It was all hell broke loose.
08:18You know, the families are running out of the pit, you know, and you know, like you can see the
08:23leather
08:23jackets and the black shirts running into the pit. And there's a dust cloud and a festival
08:28organizers just looking at you. Oh my God, what is going on? So, you know, that can happen. So,
08:34you know, that was a funny, funny event. You guys should make a five finger death
08:38punch black t-shirt army t-shirt that you sell at all your shows. Right, right, right.
08:43That's how you identify it. So they're like, I, all I wear are black t-shirts. I'm one of those
08:47people.
08:47I have hundreds of black t-shirts. I should probably make, see, look how great you look. I should mix
08:51it up a little bit. Oh, you know what? It's like, to me, I never followed that. Like how I
08:56supposed to
08:57look like. In fact, I think we're getting a little bit of a hate for that because people have this
09:02idea of
09:02how a metal band should look like. Ivan doesn't dress like that. I don't dress like that. It's like,
09:07what's the point of being a black sheep amongst black sheep anyway? You know what I mean?
09:12Yeah. Okay. Like, all right. I'm another guy in a black t-shirt and, you know, whatever,
09:17crazy man, you know, whatever. Right. I never cared about that. We never, I don't give a
09:22shit. So I took, look at this dress comfortable. Look at this. I'm very like, here you go.
09:30Yeah. Yoga pants. So now, you know, second time they proved that I have pants on. Right.
09:35I don't give a shit. I want to be comfortable. And that's all where it stops.
09:40You know, it's awesome too. You just mentioned kids. You're at the point now,
09:43this is the 20 year anniversary of the band. You probably have three generations now of five
09:48finger death punch fans. You have a grandfather, the dad, and the son listening. Like I'm probably
09:52a young grandfather, but you have three generations now of five finger death punch listeners.
09:57You have no idea how true that is. It's actually pretty incredible. We always had these, you know,
10:05multi-generation thing going on. So even from the beginning, we had the grandfather, father, and
10:09the son. But sometimes it's pretty funny where, you know, some kid comes up to us and goes like,
10:15Hey man, when I was a kid, you know, I was like 10 years old. I was on stage with
10:20you guys,
10:21jumping up and down. And then, you know, like we used to bring kids on a, on, on stage,
10:25right. During heavier songs to kind of get them out of the mosh pit. And, uh, and, you know,
10:31I'm like looking at this kid. I'm like, dude, you're like 30 years old.
10:34Yeah. Oh yeah. You're around that long. Oh my God. So it happens. Like somebody says that they
10:38were 10 when they were on stage with us. And now they have two kids.
10:42This is probably, so it's, it starts July 20th in New Jersey. This is your biggest tour ever,
10:47right? Um, yeah, it's going to be probably the longest, I would say, because it's, it's going
10:52to be 20 years, 20th anniversary world tour. So we starting with a U S leg, the North American,
11:00like basically a couple of Canadian shows. So the North American leg has 50 shows. So there's 50
11:06going all the way to November. Right. Yeah. So it's going to be a, it's going to be a track,
11:10right? Hey, so I, I could watch, I could watch your house for you while you're gone.
11:14All right. I love, I love playing poker. So I'll just go to Vegas, play poker, go watch your house.
11:21You can, you know, cruise around, you can fish in the lake, you know, it's all good.
11:25So, yeah, so 50 dates. And then next year, early, we hit in Europe. And then we are in
11:31conversations about the rest of the world. Like, you know, obviously Brazil, we have so many
11:36Brazilian fans. We just have to go back there. So we have to do South America.
11:39America haven't been in Japan, haven't been in Australia for a long time. So, you know,
11:44so be talking about that right now, as we speak that South America crowd. There's nothing like
11:48it, right? Oh, man. You know, like the first time you went to South America, you went to Argentina
11:53first and Brazil, you can't, well, we went to Central America, we went to Mexico first, Mexico,
11:59then, then we went to Argentina and we went to Brazil. And I had no idea. There were probably
12:06like, I don't know, 50,000 people singing every word. I had no idea. Like, oh my God,
12:11not just your fans. They knew every freaking word to every song. That's crazy.
12:16I want to go there just to go to a concert because I've never seen, when I see these crowds,
12:22it's amazing. So you're, you're raising money or you're donating money to the U.S. judo team.
12:26And here's why I know you're a badass. Okay. You do jujitsu and judo. You have, you have beautiful
12:34ears. Your ears aren't all cauliflower. That means you're kicking everyone's ass.
12:40Most guys who do jujitsu that like I wrestled in high school, everyone, like, see, my ears are
12:45pretty good. Oh, don't want the feedback, but I have good ears because I didn't get destroyed too much.
12:51I can tell with all the judo and jujitsu you do that you're winning because you have beautiful ears.
12:58I mean, I do have a little cauliflower. It just didn't happen on the edge. It's kind of more on
13:03the inside. So, and I had to drain it. So basically what happens if, you know, if it feels up,
13:10what it
13:10is, is broken cartilage, you know? So when a cartilage breaks in your ear, then your body floods it with
13:16this gooey material to fix it, basically like, you know, liquid cartilage, whatever that is.
13:20And that's what fills up the whole thing. That's how you get cauliflower ears. Now you can drain
13:26it out, but it's extremely painful. It's, it's not as, you know, in fact, you, when you get
13:32cauliflower ears, you don't really feel it. You know, it's, it hurts a little bit, but it's not too
13:36bad, right? When you're trying to drain it is extremely painful. I mean, extremely painful.
13:41It's, it's, it's like tears are flying out of your eyes. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Even if you
13:45numb it, it's just very painful. And I was pretty lucky. I drained it a couple of times,
13:50but it was minimal, you know, I've been pretty lucky and I have to always do it because even
13:55a lot of people wear it as a badge of honor, sort of, right. To me, I have to put
13:59my in-ear
14:00monitors when I'm playing. Yeah. So, so every time, in fact, like just maybe a month ago,
14:05I had to change them because it started to get tickled a bit. So I have to get new ones.
14:09Otherwise it hurts. So yeah, I have a little bit and, uh, it's, I don't know. It's, you know,
14:15it's about people getting, you know, in MMA, getting punched in the ear in, in, in Jiu Jitsu
14:21wrestling, you're just getting squeezed, you know, and you got to escape those situations.
14:28You're the one doing the squeezing, but you are donating money to the U S judo team
14:32for every ticket sold. Right. Yes. Correct. So yeah. Interesting story. Right. So, um, you know,
14:39Olympics are coming up and Olympics going to be in Los Angeles, 2028. Right. And so, you know,
14:46we always involved in, in charities and you always look at it. Where do we, where, where can we have
14:52the most? Right. Basically. So obviously when there was a Middle East conflict, a dollar of guys coming
14:58back with PTSD, TBI, you know, um, and, and they had to reintegrate into civil society, sort of,
15:05you know, the regular workforce, so to speak. And so, you know, the love guys had PTSD and TBI,
15:09and that's where we were concentrating later on, you know, everybody turned on the police or whatever
15:14reason. Right. And, um, you know, don't want to really get into too deep, but you know, if you don't
15:19have police for three days, watch what happens. If they, if they decided to not to go to work for
15:25three
15:26days, man, it would be absolute mayhem and murder and everything you can imagine. So,
15:31you know, you like them or not, you need them. Right. And so when, when, when the society turned
15:35on them, then we were kind of, we also turned our attention that way. And we, we involved in
15:41charities that have their widows and, you know, fallen police officers and injured police officers.
15:47So it's always, always what's happening in the world. And right now this is happening. Olympics are
15:51coming up, you know, and, um, America is 250 years old this year. So all this, I mean,
15:58you know, it comes in the same kind of cluster. And I, we thought like, okay, we could actually
16:03make a difference here. Um, again, don't want to make it a long story, but when you look at American
16:09athletes, I live my life amongst them. I compete, you know, so I know a lot of these guys, right.
16:14And my own senseis and everybody that, you know, my circle, you know, um, high level guys,
16:19Olympians, world champions. Right. And I'm hearing their stories. And so when you hear
16:23things like somebody who's, you know, an Olympian and goes, Hey, I had to, you know, call my boss and
16:29ask them to, uh, you know, let me go for a month so I can train and participate in Olympics.
16:35I'm like,
16:35what? That just blew my mind. They get no money. They get no money. Hold on for a second. Like,
16:41what that you had to take off from work? Like you had a job while you were an Olympian.
16:46You know, so I started to dig into it and I realized that, Holy cow, the general public
16:51doesn't know this, but I think there are 39 Olympic sports we participate in. I could be
16:56wrong, but it's somewhere on there, 39, 40, somewhere like, and, um, all the, every single
17:01Olympic sport has an NGB national governing body who selects, who's going and, you know,
17:05kind of governs the whole sport in, in us, in, uh, in every country, basically it goes the same way.
17:11And, um, and see these NGBs are all nonprofits. So actually they're living off of donations
17:17because the government does not fund directly any of these NGBs. They cannot, right? So when an
17:25American athlete wins, it's not just wins a very difficult, complicated, hard to win competition,
17:32Olympics, that's the pinnacle of competitions, right? But one against all odds, because some of these,
17:40you know, some of these, uh, some of these, these NGBs and some of the other countries are fully
17:46funding, you know, their Olympic teams. At least for the major countries, only the United States
17:52doesn't, right? So our teams don't really have the money to go to camps and the training they need.
17:58So it's kind of crazy. And we thought like, okay, well, we would like to have all 39 or 40
18:04NGBs
18:05that are out there, but that would not make much of a difference. However, if you consider
18:09one or two that we can make a, absolutely can make a difference for them. Right. And I picked
18:14judo, obviously I'm a judoka. I grew up in judo since I was nine years old. That's kind of permeated
18:19my whole life. And, and Ivan was riding BMX. So he picked the bicycle team. Right. And then,
18:25you know, from these ticket sales, we, uh, our donation actually will make a difference for that.
18:29You know, that's awesome. Yeah. And, and, and, you know, it's like, it's, it's happening on a
18:34homeland. It's America. We're going to win, man. You know, we got to get some medals. Right. So,
18:39so all these things coincide and, and we, we, we thought this will not just help financially,
18:45but it also helps putting this on the radar of people, because I'm pretty sure this is new
18:51information to you as well. Right. People don't actually know that these Olympians are all
18:56living off of donation. They can't, you know, I, I did know because I know a lot of people,
19:01not everyone looks at like NBA players, you know, they're making millions of dollars,
19:05but it's all these other sports. Like you said, judo is a perfect example where they get nothing.
19:09These guys are rich in the NBA. So they go, they're not staying at the Olympic village.
19:13They're staying at the four-star right. And the Olympic village, they're sleeping on cardboard beds.
19:20It's crazy. It's like they have, they have a bowl of condoms and they're like, all right,
19:24everyone just go hang out in this village. It's like nothing. It's crazy. Wait,
19:28the way they treat Olympians is, it's unbelievable. I can't believe there's not a billionaire that
19:32doesn't just get heat. One billionaire could fund every Olympian in the United States very easily,
19:38and it would be a drop in the bucket for them. I'm working on that. I'm working on the B
19:43I'm
19:44working on the bill in their part, you know, we'll get there, but you know, but exactly.
19:49That's the point that, that we at least, you know, we can make a difference for them. So I know
19:53that
19:54we can make a difference for judo and the bicycle team. And then, you know, I'm, I'm having some
19:59ideas. I'm working on some other possibilities here that, that we can, you know, bring more awareness
20:04to it and, and get together and kind of help out these guys, help out our teams, get some medals.
20:09Let's, you know, let's, let's do this. And, you know, and, and back in the days to get to the
20:14Olympics as an athlete, that was a big, big thing. You know, that was, that was a big deal.
20:20And I feel like as, as the world is moving in indoors, if that makes any sense, right?
20:26Like when you and I were kids, we couldn't get go home or parents kicked us out, like get the
20:30hell out of here. Come back at sunset, drink out of the hose, you know, don't come in the house.
20:36All these kids are living their life indoor, right? And so I feel like sports and, and these,
20:41these activities are getting less and less and less. So, you know, so it's, it's, um, you know,
20:47as the makeup of society, I think it's also important that, that this is, this is not forgotten.
20:52And we don't all get universally fat and, you know what I mean? And, and all that lazy, you know?
20:58Yeah. I mean, when I, and there were no cell phones either. Like I remember I was a kid,
21:01I went to a Metallica concert. We got stuck in the parking lot for eight hours. My, we came home
21:07at
21:07like eight in the morning. My mom was crying. She thought we were dead. Now you just
21:11text your mom. Hey mom, we're stuck in this parking lot. We'll be home. You couldn't even
21:15do that back then. So it was like why we grew up, it was more of a wild time, but
21:20buy five
21:21finger death punch tickets because this money, you know, of course for the band, but they're
21:25helping out great causes. Love the new song. I have the storm. The tour starts July 20th in Camden,
21:31New Jersey, uh, the new album soon sometime this year, right? Yes. Anything, anything you could say
21:40this summer in summer or August, somewhere there, you know, obviously we're still working on it.
21:46So it's always about the album has to be right. Yes. We're never going to release it. You're never
21:51going to rush it. If it's not right, then we're not going to release it yet. But I think, I
21:56think
21:56we're going to be done with this pretty soon. And then, and then we can kind of schedule it in
22:01the
22:01end of the summer, maybe somewhere, August, I would say, but we'll see. I don't know. I don't want to
22:07stick a pin in this because we're still working on it, but, but I'm hoping for like a, an August
22:12-ish
22:13release, something, something like that. Well, based on Eye of the Storm, I'm very excited. Zoltan,
22:17it's always awesome talking to you. Thank you so much. Absolutely, my brother.
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