Chad Bowar: How was your experience on Ozzfest this year?
Freddy Lim: The first few days it was hard to get used to this kind of life. Some of the members can eat any kind of food, but for me it’s terrible. I cannot get used to Western food, even after two months. But the way people work on the tour we really appreciate. They are really professional and efficient and have passion about music. Our experience has been very good.
Have you noticed an increase in your album sales since Ozzfest?
Yes. There are some fans who already knew about our music, but there are many people that didn’t even know what kind of music we play. But they seem to love our music after we play and they buy our albums. We sold lots of albums at the FYE tent. It feels very good. The FYE people told us that our albums are selling very well.
I understand you had some vehicle problems during Ozzfest and some fans helped you get to the show.
Yes, some Taiwanese Americans came with a van and took us to the show. It was kind of a miracle because most of the bands missed one or two shows because of vehicle problems or other problems. But we didn’t miss any.
You played the Wacken Festival in Germany this summer as well. How was that?
It was a 55 hour trip and we played for 40 minutes, but we had a great time there. All the instruments were left at the Frankfurt airport and didn’t make it to the venue. We had to borrow instruments. But nobody had a Taiwanese violin that we use, so our violinist had to play another keyboard for that show. The fans enjoyed the show very much.
You’re now getting ready to do a U.S. headlining tour.
Yes, we are playing the east coast in September. Then at the end of September we will tour with Cradle Of Filth and then in November we will tour Europe.
On September 16th you’re playing a show in New York and hoping to raise some attention to Taiwan’s hopes of getting admitted to the United Nations.
That’s one of the important concerts of this tour. We hope to get fans and media to come and give exposure that Taiwan is still being forced into some unfair international situations. We want to let more people know that our human rights are not considered important.
Are you concerned about any backlash back home from your strong stance on these issues?
I’m not for government, I’m for Taiwan. Both the opposition party and the government party support Taiwan joining the U.N. It’s a goal, a thing that all Taiwanese really care about. The Taiwanese really want to join the international society. Even the opposition party made the decision that no matter what, they support Taiwan joining the U.N. It’s a Taiwan issue, not an issue of any specific party.
What drew you towards heavy metal music?
My favorite metal band when I was a kid was Anthrax. The first experience I had with black metal was Emperor and Enslaved. They had a compilation album. Then I started to listen to Immortal, Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir.
Was it difficult to find that music in Taiwan?
Since the mid ‘90s it’s been easy to use the internet to buy them. You can definitely not buy them in stores. It’s all mail order.
What’s your favorite Anthrax album?
State Of Euphoria or Persistence Of Time.
