DragonForce’s Herman Li Says His “Superpower” is Not Letting Internet Criticism Upset Him
People on the Internet are dicks. Our comment section will always be living proof of that. There’s something about the anonymity of a keyboard that makes some people braver than they are in real life. There needs to be a feature on laptops and phones that comes out and bitchslaps you when you deserve it. But Herman Li of power metal quintet DragonForce says that Internet criticism can’t touch him because he has a superpower.
In a recent interview with website Brocarde (as transcribed by Blabbermouth) Li explained how he deals with the criticism his band has received online:
“I think we got much more negative comments when we first started to get known, as a new band that came in. When we had our big break, a lot of people confused the music, they couldn’t accept it. But these days it’s been really, really positive generally. I mean, I really don’t get that many nasty messages… For the nasty people that wanna send them, I’m not trying to say, ‘Wake up and do it again.’ But we’ve had a long career now and a lot of those people moved on in their life.”
He continued:
“Unfortunately, for a lot of artists, it seems like a lot of the fans [don’t] look at them as like normal humans. They wouldn’t say these things in your face, because that would just be crazy, it would be like a crazy thing. And most of these people cannot understand that we’re just normal people and things do affect the artist’s life, what they write on the Internet. Luckily, I was told I’ve got some kind of superpower that I can suppress these things when I read them; it doesn’t bother me.
“I think to be an artist, you’ve gotta block out what’s out there, the noises, and just concentrate on what you do and express because there’s always been an opinion about artists since the beginning of time, and you’ve gotta do your thing to satisfy yourself, be who you are.”
I can’t imagine who would want to talk shit about DragonForce anyway. They write epic, tongue-in-cheek songs with fantasy themes and video game references and they’ve covered both Celine Dion and Taylor Swift. If that doesn’t sound like a mountain of fun to you, you probably take metal way too seriously.
If you want in on that fun, you can catch DragonForce at the following shows in South America:
Oct 15 – Santiago, Chile @ Teatro Cariola
Oct 17 – Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Teatro Vorterix
Oct 19-20 – São Paulo, Brazil @ Knotfest Brazil
