DEVILDRIVER

DevilDriver
Interview by Jason Walsh

It has been a slow and steady climb for the metal outfit from Santa Barabara, who formed in 2002 after frontman Dez Fafara left Coal Chamber. Originally named Deathride, they changed their name due to copyright issues with another band of the same name, and thus became DevilDriver, referring to bells used by Italian witches to drive away evil, dark forces. Now, nine years later, the band has released their fourth full-length album and have toured nonstop since their inception.

“Pray for Villians” hit shelves this summer selling nearly 15,000 units its first week and debuted at #35 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. I had a chance to talk with vocalist Dez Fafara on the day of “Pray for Villains” release to talk about the new Roadrunner Records offering, as well as upcoming tours, and the future of DevilDriver.

JW: So man, how are you doing today?

DEZ: Dude, I’m doing killer. It’s day of release. Unreal. You know what I mean? That’s a far cry from when we got done. You know it’s always three or four months, once you get done, then they release the record so the anticipation of that kind of builds up like a damn volcano.

JW: How do you feel about the record? I just listened to it right before you called and I got to tell you, it’s really good and a lot different from some of your older stuff. I mean, how are you feeling about it?

DEZ: Well for me it’s a culmination of records and I think what people need to know is DevilDriver was only together like six months before we recorded our first record, that was primarily written by one guitar player, so by the second record we’d only been together two years and that’s when we’d find out that everybody could write guitar and put in their own feel. By the time we got to the third record, we’d only been together four or five years, so the growth has been inspiring for me. You know, I mean I think we continue to define what we’re doing and certainly separate ourselves from the genre that’s going on definitely.

JW: But personally, after you sit back, you listen to it, you’re driving in your car or whatever the case may be, how are you feeling about it?

DEZ: Personally, how do I feel about it? I think we stepped it up a notch. I knew that when I received the music, it made me vocally have to step up to the plate and not just be, y’know, some death metal screamer all my life and actually go, “OK, let’s get down to it,” without throwing in the huge clean choruses and all that to sell out to radio. So for myself artistically, as long as we push boundaries and don’t kind of wallow in the mire of what everybody else is doing, then that’s what’s important to me. As long as it’s art that stands apart from itself, that’s where I’m going with it. So, y’know, content. I never want to call myself happy, because I’ve made so many records now and I never look back and I’m never happy because once I’m happy then it’s not going to make me move forward in an artistic way to go write the next record. I mean I’m writing today already for the next record and my record just got released so…

JW: So always looking ahead, even though this just came out and you’re just now getting it out to the people, but you’re always kind of looking to the future?

DEZ: I can’t get wrapped up in the art that we’re doing in the moment because I just got so much art in the future, y’know, and I know how this band is growing and I think we’re starting to find a sound now that’s really going to take us through the years and like I said, define us. I’ve rarely used that word when it comes to interviews on any of the last records. I’ve always said, “hey, each record is going to get better,” which for me, it definitely has.

JW: Tell me about who you had in the studio producing this?

DEZ: Logan Mader. He was ex-guitar player for Machine Head. He’s produced a bunch of bands and the thing that he is really good at is he puts his stamp on it without putting his sound on it, meaning band A, B, and C all sound they’re produced by one producer because you can hear his sound. He doesn’t do that. He allows the band’s sound to come out and to generate your own tune and then he focuses you in on it and we really honed in on songwriting this record, so it was important to have a cat in there like that to take some of the structures that we were doing and making sure that they stayed true to what we were trying to do.

JW: Now you were talking about pushing yourself when you got the music. You heard it, you knew that you kind of had to, like you said, step it up a little. Was he there as well to help push you and make you go beyond where you thought you might be able to go?

DEZ: Absolutely. Once we heard the demos, we realized, OK, some of this we’re going to sing our asses off so we got to be real focused, y’know. I didn’t hit any alcohol, I should say wine because I don’t drink hard alcohol, but I didn’t hit any wine or any beer or any of that when I was behind the mic. I wanted the progression of the vocals to be, y’know, you could hear the pronunciation and the diction in every word, you know what I mean? So, he was instrumental in that and he would call me out on it if it wasn’t clear and if I wasn’t hitting whatever tones that I wanted to hit within the melody, different keys and everything else.

JW: And that’s good for the creative process to have somebody that’s in there that does that instead of just kind of like “let’s knock this out.”

DEZ: Yeah, yeah. There’s two kinds of producers: one that nurtures you and one that wants to knock it out. And when you’re recording music, unlike other arts, you know when it comes to painting or sculpture or whatever, you’re not alone. You’re surrounded by musicians. You’re surrounded by a guy, working the board recording you, and you’ve got to all work as a team in order to get the sound that you want.

JW: Now, you guys just got back from Europe. How was that?

DEZ: Killer. You know any time you can do festivals and do off-shows with Down, Slipknot, Anthrax, I mean it was a great time, man. We had a killer time. We were there for a month.

JW: And that’s the thing. Going over there to Europe, especially when you’re in metal bands, you guys draw huge, huge crowds as opposed to the States, not to say you wouldn‘t draw big crowds in the States, but over there it‘s a completely different world.

DEZ: Absolutely. You know the thing is over there you can go from playing a festival like DOWNLOAD in front of 85,000 people and then the next night, you’re in a club with Slipknot that’s got 6000 people, and the next night you’re with Anthrax that’s got 1500-2000 people, and then you make it an off-show, because we don’t like to sit, that may only be 600 people at a club. Then you take that energy and you take it right back to the stage when you do the festival. It all helps each other.

JW: You guys are getting ready to start the “Thrash & Burn Tour.” Tell me a little bit about that?

DEZ: Well, it’s a diverse lineup. The “Thrash & Burn” guys have done it a couple times and they called us, they wanted us to headline it. We said “sure, we’ll do it” and for me it’s really killer. It’s like oil and water because it’s hardcore and metal and most the time those bands, they don’t mix a lot on tour. They’re all friends and everyone hangs out, especially at festivals and other places like that, but in America, it’s like people don’t put those two genres together and out them out on the road. So, there’s a bunch of hardcore bands and a bunch of metal bands going out, playing decent-sized venues, and really getting down to it. If you support the underground-type tour, where it’s not a bunch of big bands that everyone’s put together to kind of spin everybody’s head and get 30,000 people to some big festival. It’s really bands you should hear about, bands you should know about, like Despised Icon, Oceano, Emmure, DevilDriver. So, it’s an important thing to come out and support.

JW: And the good thing about that is you’ll have a diverse audience that will come out to these shows. Like some guys might be coming out to see one band, and maybe they don’t know about you guys or some of the other guys on the roster and the get to check them out.

DEZ: That’s what I said. I said “look, if you’re into metal, you’re going to get you’re share of hardcore. If you’re into hardcore, you’re going to get your share of metal.” Either way, if it’s heavy, count me in. I don’t care if you have a shaved head and a hat on sideways, y’know, and you’re only listening to hardcore, but you better know you’re roots, like Black Flag and things like that, right? And if you’re listening to metal, same thing. You better come out because some of these bands are heavy as hell. I mean I don’t know if you’ve ever heard some of the bands we’re going on tour with, but I’m proud to say that it’s obvious that basements are rattling all over the nation with people doing heavy shit. It’s obvious.

JW: And that’s kind of thing now. This kind of music has always been up and down. The faithful ones have stuck it out and it seems like we’re seeing a resurgence of heavier music in both metal and hardcore.

DEZ: You do. Almost to the point where it’s getting convoluted with so many bands. We’re going to see who comes out, how would I say, on top, over the next two or three years. Like who is going to hang in and be there for the duration doing their sound and I think it’s important. I’m really influenced by what people call hardcore now, which early for me was Crumbsuckers, Black Flag, bands like that, that extremely influenced me, man. Bands like Minor Threat. I mean I get off on all music that’s heavy and the roots of hardcore are punk rock, and the roots of DevilDriver are punk rock. If you watch our stage show, we’re like plug in and go.
JW: Very cool. Last question. After this tour, what’s the band do from here?

DEZ: After this tour, we’re going to come home for a brief moment, we’re going to head overseas October and November with Behemoth to do some really killer venues there for about five or six weeks. Then we come home and we go straight over to Australia with Lamb of God and I think hit Japan and Hawaii by ourselves. In December, come home for Christmas, take a little bit of January off, start rehearsals, get out February and March back over to Europe, and back to the States again. I mean we’re running strong until about 2012. We’re starting to book the middle of 2011 today.

JW: Always looking to the future.

DEZ: Always, man, always. The thing with this band is we never stop touring. I’m hoping my guys hang in (laughs).