It's good to see you around …

Well, Factory Of Art is a long-time experienced band ... How do you feel to be still on the road after twelve years?
It's funny! We are twelve years in action and the most of the people call us still "Newcomers" ... we are probably the oldest newcomers around the world, hahaha! We are still in hope, that the world will wake up one day and open its arms for Factory Of Art. For us Rock'n'Roll means not the decision in the age of twenty: Will I be "Rock Star" or will I be Bank Employee ... It means to believe in the own mission still in the age of fifty.

What's your hidden secret?
We are working a very long time on songs for an album with the only reason to hear these songs by ourselves. Later we hope, there may are a lot of other people, who will love this songs too ... Every member of the band looks for Alternation for his boring 9-to-5-living and found it with Factory Of Art, hahaha!

Would you like to talk about the very first beginning of band?
Factory Of Art started up in the year 1990 as an instrumental Art Rock project of Flecke and Ron. Someday they decided to form a real band with a singer. That was the starting signal of the progressive influenced Power Metal Group from nowadays. In the end of 1991 the first seriously line-up (after frequent changes in the first time) was playing a mixture of older instrumentals, newer songs and covers with the result of a constantly growing, faithful crowd. Next step was the production of the first Demo-Cassette " ... No Better World!" ...

Your first release was the demo-tape '… No Better World!'… Would you like to talk about your previous recording efforts?
This first production was an adventure and a test at the same time. The studio was a brand-new one and we were the first act to produce in. It was a new experience for the band and also the studio crew. The final result was not perfect but a very important thing for FOA. By one of the four songs ("Wings Of Destiny") a Munich producer, Martin Köppl, became attentive. Nearly all later recordings (until 1997) happened in his studio with the exception of the "Roadrunner Session Tape". These sessions were the price won within a competition of Rock Hard Megazine and Roadrunner Records and were originally intended for a compilation to support some of the best groups from East Germany. But the sampler was never released so we published the two tracks (produced by Alex Krull of Atrocity) by ourselves ... After that and the AFM releases "Grasp!!!" and "Point Of No Return" the band broke down by inner turbulences and was reformed at the end of 1997 with the now current line-up.

Which the highlights of your career?
There was not an "one-and-only-highlight", we had a lot of great moments, especially all the beautiful things happened after the "Story Of Pain" release. (For example the tour with Destruction and Raise Hell.) But we hope to see the REAL highlights only in the future ...

What happened after the release of 'Story Of Pain'?
"Story ..." was really the most important step in our career till then and a full success! The title track was published also on the "Unerhört!"-Compilation of Rock Hard Megazine, wich is an additional competition - won by us! As price we toured with Destruction and Raise Hell. It was a very great experience! The second song "The Mass" got 3rd position in the Hardsampler.de competition so we played on Hard Live Festival and we were live on TV screen at NBC/Giga. Not to forget all the euphoric reactions of fans and media ...

CCP Records is not known as a label specialised in classic heavy metal, why did you sign with them?
They did the best offer ... It's not a problem that they are not specialised in our musical direction. So we are not band number 666. It's a new experience for CCP and also for us - that's a good thing, for both sides.

When did you start to work at ''The Tempter'?
The three songs from "Story Of Pain" EP developed as early versions already in 1997. The Rest of the album was written between 1998 and 2001.

Who is this tempter?
Dr. Edward Tempter is a fictious person, the opponent of our fictious main actor Adam E. Villain. He is a psychiatrist and member of a sect, into wich Adam comes too.

It seems there're relations with reality surrounding us … Is this tempter a real person or a spirit?
You're right, there are a lot of relations with reality - it's our intention. He's not a spirit, he's a real person within the story, you know? And the special thing is, that "Tempter" is not the main person of the story but nevertheless the name giver of the album. So you can see it's not the old story of "The Good" and "The Bad", both sides are part of a game of a higher force.

Would you like to talk about the thematics you deal in?
There's not a certain thematic. It is a fictitious Thriller Story with references to the reality. Our main actor is a man who lose all morality by political arbitrariness. Although he actually embodies "the bad", he wins sympathy more and more in the continuing story, because he unknowingly endangers a secret project of the government.

The sound is changed as regards the past … Now you play a more experimental power metal… Which are the most salient aspects of your sound?
We are always trying to be open-minded for all influences wich are good-faced to the band. After the break the remaining members was able to give a harder and more symphonical sound to FOA and the new members had the same intention in mind. Look, the band isn't the same as before and it's a logical thing, that the sound isn't the same too. The vocals are more metallic, untypical for power metal (like also the progressive influences) wich becomes a trademark to the Factory sound.

And after 'The Tempter'?
We will carry on to evolve our sound. It will be harder, more aggressive and more powerful. And it seems to be sure, that the new album (wich we want to record and release as soon as possible) also will be a concept album ... Until then we'll try to play a lot of concerts, festivals and so on.

Would you like to become rockstars?
This is not the main reason for us but we would not refuse all the beautiful things of a professional tour organisation with a comfortably Nightliner and things like that. And naturally a bigger budget for recordings would not be the worst ... But the usually Rock Star Dream of a twenty years old kid is not ours.

Emanuele Gentile, Italy