On Friday, Headbangers Blog will present an in-depth and confessional podcast interview with Disturbed frontman David Draiman. To whet your appetite for the full 40-minute interview (which can be streamed or downloaded), we’ve transcribed the first five minutes of the conversation. Disturbed’s fourth album, Indestructible, the follow-up to 2005's Ten Thousand Fists, will come out June 3.
Headbangers Blog: You’re doing about three weeks of U.S. dates before heading off to Europe. Will you be playing much new material for those shows (which start April 26 in Little Rock, Arkansas and run through May 17 in Columbus, Ohio)?
David Draiman: We’ll only be playing the two songs that have been released thus far, [“Inside the Fire” and “Perfect Insanity”] until the actual release date. Unfortunately, that’s what we’re bound to until the record is actually out there. It’s kind of a tease, but for the first three-week run, even though we can’t play all of the new material, we’ll probably throw in a couple of older songs, and/or b-side stuff that just the diehards will get or people haven’t heard in a while or people never thought they’d hear live. So, we’re trying to keep it as fresh and exciting as possible for everyone without revealing too much of the new record.
There was a time when bands could actually test their upcoming album material on audiences to see how they responded, but now with the Internet, that rarely happens.
It’s a different world these days. It’s unfortunate because you truly do get a different level of appreciation for a song based on how it impacts live.
Are you going to be doing the same set on Rockstar Energy Mayhem tour?
No, first of all, our Mayhem set is a little shorter because we’re co-headlining with Slipknot. But by then there won’t be any more limitations and we’ll be able to play anything we want from the new record since it will already be out. So, we’ll definitely expand the set at that point.
It’s interesting that you’re able to tour with Slipknot one minute and then hit the road with someone much less aggressive like Korn or even Flyleaf the next?
It’s nice to be able to dip into both of those worlds a little bit, but I would have to say that on the Mayhem bill we are far and away the most melodic band on the lineup. But it’s okay because we still bring the s--t. We still keep it heavy, especially with the material from the new record. I think we’ve always been able to do more than hold our own. So I think we welcome being put into an environment that doesn’t have 10 bands on it that are just like us. It’s better that way.
Did you want Indestructible to be more in your face than Ten Thousand Fists?
Yeah. When we originally sat down – [guitarist] Dan [Donegan], [drummer] Mike [Wengren] and I – prior to writing anything for this record we had a lunch meeting and they asked me where my head was at with things. And I said, “Look guys, based on what has happened to me in the past two or three years of my life, please just throw at me the darkest, nastiest, most brutal s—t you can.” And, they delivered, so it was pretty much all I wanted and more from the first day I got pieces of the material.
What kinds of darkness and frustration have you been battling over the past few years?
Probably the most prevalent ones have been relationship-oriented -- the difficulties of actually trying to find real love or somebody that you can trust and somebody that’s willing to stick with you doing what I do for a living and being what I’ve become. It’s always been a challenge. A lot of women simply are not willing to deal with the life that comes along with what we do and being away from home for so long and the rumor mill and the stereotypes and everything else. I had three or four really rough relationships and breakups. It was just heartache after heartache after heartache. And betrayal and deception. So I was obviously feeling jaded from my relationship experiences. And then there was also bad luck – a bunch of it.
To find out way more about Draiman’s run of bad luck, how he cured his relationship woes, his history with heroin abuse and how Indestructible was born, check back Friday for the full podcast interview.
Until then, watch this promo ad for the Mayhem festival:
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival
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