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(Winter 2006) by George Dionne
When DevilDriver released their debut album in 2003, I stayed away from
it. I knew that the frontman of Coal Chamber was heading up this new group,
and Coal Chamber and nu-metal wasn't really my thing. I heard time and time
again that DevilDriver was nothing like Coal Chamber, but I refused to believe
it. That was until 2004, when I attended an Opeth concert. DevilDriver was
the opener.
I remember being really bummed out that I was going to have
to sit through them. That all changed when DevilDriver took the stage.
I couldn't
believe the heaviness, the energy, and the raw power of this band. I
knew after that show that I just had to get my hands on their album. DevilDriver
went on to tour relentlessly for the years that followed. Somewhere in
between shows they released their sophomore effort The Fury of Our
Maker's Hand (read
CD review) in 2005. Once again on tour with Opeth, vocalist Dez Fafara
took time from listening to old horror radio programs (his TV was
broken) to speak with me.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about DevilDriver, how would you
describe the group’s music to me?
DF: Heavy, brutal, and trashy. At times we’re hooky, and always with
a groove. It’s just pure ferociousness onstage, and just more energy
than you will see out of any other band.
RIL: I have to totally agree with you. I saw you open for Opeth about
a year and a half ago. I was a little apprehensive about Devildriver because
I wasn’t
really a big Coal Chamber fan. I sat through the set and thought, ‘Oh
my god, this is so good!’
DF: Thanks for that man. I think it took us two and
a half years to have people think that we were viable. Everyone wanted me
to step out of Coal
Chamber and start headlining, but I just wanted to open for everybody under
the sun until it was time for us to step out. In May, it will be that time
for us to step out and headline. We’re going to do a three week run
and test the waters with some really great bands; a five band package, so
people can really get the best out of their money. In October, November,
and January of this year, and into next year, we’re going to go on
a four month headline. It will be two and a half years of just straight touring.
RIL: That sounds great. Do you know which bands you will be touring with?
DF: Not right now. We’re going back and forth,
and we will probably have it solidified later.
RIL: You’re currently on tour with Opeth; besides the number
of bands on the bill, how does this tour differ from the Sounds of the Underground
Tour you were on previously?
DF: Everything is 100% different, I mean from the day
time to night time performances. We started last night and it’s just going really well.
We’re opposite bands going out together, and that’s a killer
thing for a kid to come see. It’s real easy to get caught up, and there
are some tours going on right now where all the bands sound the same.
RIL: Were you approached to be on the next Sounds of the Underground tour?
DF: We were not, nor are we doing Ozzfest. Sounds are
not doing any repeat bands, except GWAR. With Ozzfest, I’ve done it so many times, but
when this band jumps to another level, we will probably be approached to
do it. Sharon is going to wait till we jump, and that’s just around
the corner.
RIL: There are a lot of dark and violent lyrics on your latest album
The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand. I can’t image they come from your
personal life, so where do you find the inspiration for your music?
DF: There are a lot of inspirational and uplifting
lyrics there too. We don’t
do that much of the hate stuff. Where do I get the inspiration? I don’t
know if you have done any research on me, but as a kid I had a tough childhood.
I think that there is darkness all around us, but I believe that out of that
comes great light. A week or two ago I lost my grandmother, the person who
raised me. You take things like that and go, ‘How can I get this to
be positive?’ That’s what I’ve always talked about lyrically.
That’s really the bulk of what I’m all about. Even though the
glass is below half-full, I always look at it like it’s almost full.
RIL: Not too many artists were able to survive after the decline of nu-metal.
After departing from Coal Chamber, was your initial goal to create and entirely
different sounding band with DevilDriver in order to stay relevant?
DF: I believe I was always the heavy heart of Cold Chamber. I had been telling
them that musically, for years, what direction that I wanted to go. It just
kept going in another direction until my departure. I wanted to do something
that I wanted to listen to. DevilDriver was a natural step for me. It was
natural evolution.
RIL: Why do you think other nu-metal bands just faded away?
DF: It took them almost ten years to put a label on
what Cold Chamber did, because we were just so eclectic. People tried to
put us as Goth and all
sorts of things. I’d rather think that the nu-metal term fits bands
like Papa Roach and the like. There were some really eclectic bands musically,
and progressive bands musically back then, that the term nu-metal became
a bad word. I don’t understand. Why did some bands not make? I don’t
know.
RIL: What do you think made you evolve with the times? Was it something
you always wanted to do or did you take steps to evolve into what heavy music
has become today?
DF: What it was becoming?
RIL: What I mean is, you had roots in the past, but you took a path that
has become more acceptable within the music buying public today?
DF: What I do is barely acceptable and viable. I think
that’s what
all metal is about. I don’t see it as a thing that everyone is picking
up on. I could have probably left and picked up on this emo thing that everyone
is up on. There is a lot of metal out there now that’s real popular,
and I can see why; it’s easy to be played on the radio and it doesn’t
offend. I didn’t want to take a step in that direction. I had done
that. I had done the radio thing. I just said to myself, if I’m going
to do anything, I’m going to do something that’s going to make
me happy. I think DevilDriver is a natural evolution. However, I don’t
think it’s an easy path to take, and it surely wasn’t the most
trodden path. As far as metal being acceptable, I don’t know.
RIL: I guess I said that because I have always been a metal fan.
DF: Metal has really never gone away. I know twelve
year old kids that listen to Venom the same way that I did. It takes different
faces and different
shapes. Hopefully the artist tries to do something that’s eclectic
and different. I really think that’s what DevilDriver is right now
in the world of radio friendly metal bands. We’re absolutely bringing
in some unadulterated metal. If you catch us live, we’re just a killer
rock band. I’m always going to take that path. I’m going to
go forward and cut my own path.
RIL: Do you think you’ll ever get to a point where people will
stop asking you about Coal Chamber?
DF: Nah, man. I’ve got it tattooed on me. I did
it for ten years. It was great. I had a lot of great times and horrible times
too. I got to travel
the world, play with Pantera, and I did a million other things. I even got
a gold record out of it. Then again, I never did anything twice. I think
I learned so many things from being in that band that it made me a wiser
person.
RIL: Have you kept in touch with any of the members of Coal Chamber?
DF: I talk to Nadia quite frequently. She’s a great
person. As for the rest of them, I know their stories, and I’d rather
not discuss them at all. I wish them the best of luck in life, and I thank
them for the memories.
RIL: The style of vocals you use require a lot of strain on the vocals chords,
have you done any training to prevent injury?
DF: No. It’s something that I do from the cut. I had an operation when
I was fifteen on my tonsils and I was in the hospital for about two month.
My throat was cauterized seven or eight times. Because of that, it gave me
a distinct sound. I’m fortunate that way. I warm up and do what everybody
else does though.
RIL: The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand has been out for a while
now. Are you working on a follow-up yet?
DF: Yeah, we’ve been writing. We’re coming up with a direction
right now. We’re not really going to come off tour until January or
February of next year. It will be cool for us to come back and do an album
again.
RIL: You had mentioned that someone was filming your shows, are you planning
a DVD?
DF: Yes we are. They have been out with us for five or six months now filming
every single thing from someone spitting up, to someone eating chocolate,
to a guy passed out in the back of the pit. What we film is going up on the
website soon.
RIL: Will the website clips evolve into a DVD at some point?
DF: Yeah, definitely. I don’t know what we’re going to do with
it yet, but I didn’t want to just get one show. We’re just stock
piling footage. The main thing is to get different angles from thirty to
forty shows.
RIL: Looking at your song titles you’ve got "Grinfucked,"
"Pale Horse Apocalypse," "Impending Disaster," "Before the Hangman’s
Noose;" they’re
all pretty brutal, but they’re all good songs and definitely metal.
But what I want to know is; have you ever wanted to write about puppy dogs,
rainbows, and falling in love?
DF: You know what? I’ve written about everything man. We have a B-side
about that kind of thing, believe it or not. If you read my lyrics, their
kind of in step of what other people are writing about. It’s because
I’m a massive metal head and read other peoples lyrics, you know? You
never want to be a…you never want to constrict yourself with any genre.
I like to fit a square peg into a round hole and be a little bit different
than what’s going on.
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DEZ
FAFARA
