FSI have a great mix of a combination of styles - how would you describe it ? Does this reflect what kind of stuff you listen to ?

As a band we listen to many different styles of music, metal and otherwise. We don't purposefully attempt to mix styles, but just play what feels natural. It's very difficult to try and describe your own music, we would rather leave that to the listener, but if pushed I would say we're 'Metal'!

The recordings sound pretty tight - you're obviously well experienced and love what you do. How long have you been in your current incarnation ? Any previous bands ?

We've been together for about 2 years, but Al joined us 6 months ago after an amicable split from our original drummer. Since Al joined we feel we've shifted up a gear, the songs are stronger, we're tighter and more confident live and the recording process is a lot easier.

We've all been in other bands before and we all have other projects that run along side F.S.I. All Dave's (guitar) previous bands were shit apart from 'Klunk' which was where he met Andy (bass), who was also a part-time member of Bedford Industrial Metal band 'Saint of Eden' and a member of 'JacksCreation' a rock band from Dartford. Dave subsequently joined 'Saints of Eden' and they still play the occasional gig.

Jonas (vocal/keys) was in 'Final Doom' when he was still in his homeland of Sweden, and when he's not playing with F.S.I. or getting mistaken for his legendary Jazz/Fusion bass playing namesake he is writing and giging with 'Other Eyes Wise' with the original F.S.I. drummer Simon.

Al (drums) has been in a number of bands, most notably 'Two Tales of Woe' in Ireland and 'Chaos Avatar' in Venezuela and is also developing a couple of other projects.

Someone described you guys as 'Experimentally unforgiving angry bearded man Metal' - Give us a few more descriptions from the top of your head ?

Er, Heavy... or 'Scary looking but surprisingly approachable'

You arent afraid to use clean vox (to great effect) - to have this beside extreme vox was unheard of in the early 90s, but is now common place - what for you is the best period of 'metal' ?

Every period of Metal had some great bands and some not so great, but safe to say we're not really bothered by any Metal that comes with a can of hair spray.

The rapid Double bass blasts of your drummer and staccato of the guitars sound like you rehearse and gig shitloads ?

We do, and we want more of it.

The music is relatively complex for metal - but not losing the groove of the riffs (like Dillinger Escape Plan seem to do to my ears) - how technical is too technical ? Is that a headache when gigging ?

We don't intentionally try to make it complex and there are plenty of other bands that are far more complex than us, we just play what we think sounds good. We prefer to mess around with the time signature than add a million notes, that way you can still keep a groove going and keep the audience interested without them needing a calculator to work your music out.

We rehearse quite regularly and always practice the set if we have upcoming gigs, but that doesn't mean we're immune to making the odd mistake. A great bit of advice is "if you make a mistake, play it again and it sounds like you meant to do it..."

Ok - tell us your top 10 essential 'metal' albums if you were gonna audition for FSI ?

IN no particular order:
Mastodon - Leviathan
Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake
Pantera - Great Southern Trend Kill
Baroness - Red
Suicide Silence - The Cleansing
Deftones - White Pony
Meshuggah - Chaosphere
Bison B.C - Quiet Earth
Gojira - The Way of all Flesh
and obviously... Metallica - Master of Puppets


Perhaps an incredibly obvious and boring question ; What does FSI stand for ?

Fuck Squad International
Four Stupid Idiots
Froggrass Sycophant Igloo
Fishy Smelling Individuals

you choose...!

What's planned for FSI in 2011 ?

Write, gig, record and tour...
...and finally settle on a name. Cheers