 |
| |
|
| |
Interview
by SashaS
7-5-2004
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| DevilDriver: clear off, Van Helsing!!! |
|
In pursuit of a gargantuan bell
DevilDriver: raw, coronary-stimulating metal
A ‘Wanna B Millionaire’ question: what is Devildriver: a) koala on heat, b) knife model, c) witches bells, d) a Floridian cocktail? The final answer is - c); ‘Devildriver’ is the name witches give to the bells they use to drive away evil when casting their spells.
The DevilDriver we write of is a band. And, aside the pathetic skit [darn overclaim - Humour-free Ed.] of the previous paragraph, there is nothing common, clichéd or metal-predictable about the outfit but its passion for noise, huge riffs and songs to cleanse your cardiac-system. The band is a five-strong with Dez Fafara on vocal backed by Evan and Jeff on guitars, John on bass and Johnny B on drums.
DevilDriver, as you should know, is not Dez Fafara’s first band. In fact, the singer has been toiling in the rock trenches since 1994, having sold well over a million albums worldwide, having appeared on nine soundtracks, and having spent countless years on the road playing hundreds of shows. That was with a band called Coal Chamber that is now a sore memory (for the man).
DevilDriver came through London earlier this week to play a show before heading home, having 24-hour break and then hitting the road with Slipknot, Fear Factory and Chimaira. “Just keep moving, man,” states Fafara matter-of-factly. He, and drummer Johnny B, are facing us for these exchanges on an inclement afternoon.
Later that night they played a storming show at Underworld, smashing chords, breaking structures and demolishing limits whilst visibly enjoying the show and sharing the vibes with the like-inclined. Brutal, committed to destruction of radio-complying metal but still retaining melodic basis and sense of adventure. It hasn’t been this happy for Dez in a long while.
“It all started when the music for the second Coal Chamber album started coming in,” Fafara gets a faraway look, “for ‘Chamber Music’. I started thinking of perhaps doing something on a side, not even leaving the band, I wanted to play heavier stuff. By the time we got to our third album, ‘Dark Days’, band was no longer speaking, no longer recording in the same studio at the same time, everyone was doing drugs but different ones which kept us all apart… After doing a tour with Coal Chamber on separate busses because we just couldn’t get along…”
“So, after a drugged punch-up on stage I left and went home… I was hanging around town when (guitarist) Evan passed me a message on a napkin and I eventually called him and started the band.”
Unfortunately, Even wasn’t part of this tour due to a strumming-hand injury.
Triumph of a new day
“I needed to be happy, as in every job, and I need to find happiness in music, again,” Fafara explains. “But, I wasn’t bitter, I have passion for music and I have a goal, which is longevity, and I needed to make my move.”
“Bitter at the world he wasn’t,” Johnny offers after a prompt, “but he was not in a mood to hang out with Coal Chamber… He’d tell me a story and I’d say, ‘it sucks.’.”
“I felt relieved, I felt impassioned to go out and get another band,” Fafara continues animatedly, “and within a year I had an album out. That was my main goal and since then it’s been going… Personally, I’m looking for growth, the band to grow, get more technical, heavier, faster, darker… Some songs slower, sludgier, we gonna really expend.”
Lyrically, there is little response to the events happening in global terms; everyone appears to be dwelling on internal and personal matter…
“Well, as a music listener,” Fafara reasons, “I want to be taken away from it all. I also want to here someone say something but the moment they open their mouth, I feel like criticising them for not being informed… Should more artists speak up? If you have big enough voice and the facts.”
“I don’t know if music is the correct place for that? Music, politics and religion, don’t really go together.”
"Road is me..."
It could be a reaction to his previous experience, perhaps - the biggest lesson learnt from that period?
“The lesson is - keep control in your own house. But, at the same time you have to be a good leader and you need to listen to people around… And, I’m not going to make the same mistakes and will not let anyone in the DevilDriver do them. We know how to party here, you know, but there is time for it, work comes first. I love the triumph of the new day and what’s around the corner, and that’s the most refreshing thing you can have.”
Where does this optimism come from, the times are not really great?
“It’s the most horrible time to be in the music business,“ Fafara agrees, “it is the most horrible time to be in a heavy metal ever… If you think you can come in to make money and buy a Rolls Royce, such fantasy will not come true… For that matter, you’ll not have a Lear Jet even after four platinum albums, and you have to be in it for the music. If you are not interested in the money and want to make music, it is the best time to be in the music industry because - there is only the real, true talent.”
DevilDriver prove the point.
“The road is me…” Fafara concludes. “For me life is touring and it is the road we’ve chosen.”
SashaS
7-5-2004
DevilDriver album ‘DevilDriver’ is available now on Roadrunner
|
|
|
