DRAGONFORCE Is Using Coronavirus Downtime To Work On New Music

DRAGONFORCE guitarist Herman Li has been using the coronavirus downtime to work on new material. He tells Ultimate Guitar in a new interview: "We were originally not planning to work on any new songs. I was supposed to still be on tour right now. But we actually started writing new songs already. You have to take that time away to write new songs. Now that we've been sort of forced away, we've started to write new songs together. So we're already working on songs for a new album which isn't going to be out for ages."

Li also talked about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected his everyday life. He said: "I'll be honest with you, the virus has not been a good thing, but I'm happy this has happened in a really strange way. Don't take it the wrong way, but it's like, given me a moment of breathing space to be at home.

"I have so many things to do and I couldn't do it — I had no time to do it between touring. Now the world seems to have slowed down for a moment and it has given me time to catch up on stuff.

"I don't know if people can relate to it but I am living in Los Angeles right now, as opposed to living in Europe," he continued. "Everything is a bit slower in Europe, you have more time to relax and vacation and it feels like you have more downtime to yourself. Being in the U.S., you don't really get that. It's kind of slowed down altogether and people are coming together. It reminds me of living back in Europe."

DRAGONFORCE was forced to cancel most of its U.S. tour this past winter due to the coronavirus crisis.

The band's recent European run of shows marked the band's first with new bassist and backing vocalist Alicia Vigil (VIGIL OF WAR),who joined DRAGONFORCE in January. Last August, DRAGONFORCE parted ways with longtime bassist Frédéric Leclercq. Playing bass for the group at some its shows late last year was Damien Rainaud, who produced DRAGONFORCE's eighth full-length album, "Extreme Power Metal".

Li told Ultimate Guitar about Vigil: "She's awesome. She's really talented, really hard-working and exactly what we were looking for in DRAGONFORCE. She is currently our touring bassist that we're trying out at the moment to get a feeling if she is going to work out long-term. But we're going to discuss it and see how it goes, if she is going to be a full-time permanent member."

"Extreme Power Metal" came out in September.