Lucem Fero has issued an interview with DRAGONFORCE bassist Frédéric Leclercq, conducted by Welsh interviewer Anthony Morgan. The following is an excerpt:

Q: Could you provide an introduction to Ultra Beatdown?

A: "Uh, no (laughs). Yeah. Ultra Beatdown is DragonForce's fourth album, and the first DragonForce album to feature my contributions. To begin with, it's much superior. Ultra Beatdown is slightly more progressive, possibly. In our opinion, it's a more diverse album. I've toured the globe as part of DragonForce for two years, so we've gathered much experience. We gathered together the elements we enjoy, mixed and those ingredients."

Q: How did you inject your personality into Ultra Beatdown?

A: "By wanking (laughs). No. In select instances, I just wrote a couple of parts alongside Herman Li. Also, I personally wrote one composition. I handled bass duties, and additionally performed both acoustic guitars and some rhythm guitar. Those parts evidently contain my musical style, and that's audible. As I also play guitar, I merely tried to aid songwriting in certain respects, and made personal suggestions. Having said that, DragonForce's material isn't really my kind of music, so I'd prefer to trust the judgment of fellow group members - they know what they're doing."

Q: As you spend more time as part of DragonForce, will you become more confident with DragonForce's musical style, and contribute more as a songwriter?

A: "Since 2000, I've performed this type of material. In the past, I was part of a group called Heavenly. They performed the same type of material, but I just dislike it. I'm comfortable with playing such material - it's metal, so therefore that's alright. However, I dislike fantasy, dragons, swords, and performing at 200bpm complete with trumpets, and so on."

Q: Can you talk me through the filming of “Heroes of Our Time”'s music video?

A: "The video? 'Heroes Of Our Time' music video was filmed near Helsinki, in Finland. For the video's concept, some of us were given rough ideas, though I wasn't - I had other things to attend to. Once we arrived, everything was mostly ready. In short, we just spent the day looking like idiots. Their job was to make us look hunky, and cute. I think they failed (laughs)."

Q: Which of Ultra Beatdown's tracks would you like to be the subject of a music video?

A: "Personally, I'd like to film a music video in support of 'Reasons To Live', which happens to be my favourite track from Ultra Beatdown. However, I think we're aiming to film a music video for “'he Last Journey Home'. That's a song I like as well, so that's fine."

Q: So the choice of track isn't fully decided, but will likely be 'The Last Journey Home'?

A: "Probably, and that's what... I'm not making decisions. As it's very different from the tracks we usually write, I think this upcoming music video will likely feature 'The Last Journey Home'."

Q: Are there any plans to issue a live DragonForce DVD?

A: "We're still thinking about issuing a live DVD, though we won't at present. We've just began our UK tour, and we sound pretty horrible. Therefore, we still need time to become familiar with the new stage set up and so on. However, we'll eventually release a live DVD. It might not be issued during 2009, but actually 2010. It might even be released during 2009 - who knows? We'll definitely issue a live DVD, but we'll take our time so that we can compile something interesting. We don't rush the process, and issue a fuck ing Youtube quality DVD."

Q: Does Maladaptive have any future plans?

A: "I think we're going to recruit the singer from Carnival In Coal, a French group who were once signed to Earache Records. Arno Strobl, the group's singer, is going to sing as part of Maladaptive, I think. We might have a team featured on our upcoming material, and wacky sounds will be sung. Again, I'm currently taking my time. In addition, I'm very busy as part of DragonForce."

Read the entire interview at Lucem Fero.