Disturbed get Down With The Sickness

27 October 2008

Disturbed is one of the most influential bands making incredible metal music on the scene today and with another side-splitting new album under their belts they have taken to the road with those hotties in Shinedown. I caught up with guitarist Dan Donegan to chat about muddy festivals, the war in Iraq and just what the sound in Down With The Sickness means.

Hey Dan, how are you?

Hey, I’m good thanks, just finished sound checking and we’re all ready for tonight in Manchester now.

Awesome; so how are you enjoying your tour of the UK?

It’s great, we’re excited to be back over here because we were here in June doing the festivals so it’s great to be back and see what the turnout is going to be like for our own headlining run.

How are you enjoying playing with the guys in Shinedown?

They’re a great band and we’re all fans of them and they’re doing very well in the states and when we were thinking about bands we wanted to bring over here with us they were available and someone we were really interested in having as part of this tour.

Where has been your favourite venue to play so far?

It’s hard to say, I can’t really pick a favourite because the turnout and reaction has been great so far. Maybe one that stands out is in Nottingham because it’s a pretty historic place and it’s a very small stage and a very intimate setting so it’s more ‘in your face’ with the crowd which I like.

Has anything exciting happened whilst you’ve been on tour?

We’ve only had a few shows so far so nothing too crazy has happened so far. Even on our days off we’ve been doing press but last night a couple of us were able to go out and have a few drinks and get a little crazy but nobody got arrested so that’s a good thing!

What are your plans for when the tour is over?

We’re going to be here and Europe for another few weeks and then go back to the States and finish the year out over there and will probably hit some smaller markets out there that we haven’t been to in a while and then start things back up again in mid-January and go back out because we want to head up into Canada and do some dates up there too.

If things work out for us we would really like to come back over here and do the festivals again next June so we’re keeping out fingers crossed because we had a great time last time and we hope that we can be part of it again.

Tell me a little bit about your latest album Indestructible.

It’s exciting because we got off on the right foot and collectively we discussed that we wanted to get a little darker with some more attitude and aggression to this album. David wanted to lyrically get darker than he’s ever gone before and we wanted to give him the music that would inspire that so once we started to writing process I would bring in some ideas and work on them with Mike our drummer and we will make some mix-tape demos and give it to David and see what we can spark out of him so right away we got off on the right foot.

The first song we wrote was The Night so that inspired us and we just felt the vibe that we were on the right track with where we were going with this album.

What’s the meaning behind the title?

It takes on a couple of meanings but the actual song was written to inspire the troops and almost be a fight song to strip them of their fear. We have come across many troops whilst we’ve been playing shows and they’ve come up to us and said how much our music has inspired them when they’re going into battle so we wanted to give them a song that would lead them in and show our support to them.

Even if you’re against the war - which we are - we still want to support out troops because they’re just there doing their job without questioning it.

Besides that it also signifies us as a band just sailing along and feeling indestructible after all these years. We came out at a time when we were labelled as a nu-metal band and we’ve stood the test of time and proven everyone wrong and we’re still going strong and it’s still growing for us at a nice, steady pace but we’re still climbing the mountain. We’ve lasted a lot longer than people expected or probably wanted us to!

Your previous album came out in 2005 - what have you been getting up to since then?

Just touring hard really. After we finished touring from Ten Thousand Fists we came home and didn’t really take a lot of time off before we started working at home. We had a little bit of down time and I had a second child along the way as my son was born in June so I wanted to get a lot of the material out of the way before he was born because I know I would need some time to be a dad again.

Me and Mike got together and wrote a lot of material before that happened - all summer long in fact, and then we went into the studio to record the album in the late fall of 2007.

Where would you like to be in ten years time?

Just still conquering new territories, it’s been a nice feeling that every time we go somewhere - when we come back it feels like the crowd is getting bigger and more intense and it’s a lot of territory to cover as it’s a big world and we can’t hit everywhere but we’re doing out best to get our music out to as many people as we can.

We also have a really close bond within the band and we’re still the best of friends so hopefully we’ll stay that way because I know many bands that are at odds with each other but they just do it so they can stay in the music business but we still very much enjoy doing everything together so I hope that we continue to do that for as long as they choose.

Yeah, I totally agree, many bands are splitting up at the moment, but aside from being great friends; what do you think is the key to your success?

We’re just very hard working and we’re the hardest working guys that I know and I wouldn’t want it any other way. We’re very involve din every aspect from anything from the record label to the management and our merchandise; we’re very hands-on and involved and of course the fact that we still enjoy each other’s company and the respect we have for each other.

It’s a hard thing to be around each other 24 hours a day; I’ve been around these guys more than I have been with my own family but that’s the way it is for us so we know when to leave each other alone for a while and things. Everyone has a great sense of humour and we joke around with each other but we know when to back off and give each other room to breathe and I think it’s that mutual respect that keeps us going strong.

It’s clear that the music industry is undergoing a change at the moment; what do you think of all the new bands coming onto the scene?

I’m fans of some of the new stuff because I’m a music lover so I’ll listen to anything that I’m into. I like to see new bands come out and have a unique sound or something original and their own identity. Everyone gets their inspiration from someone but I like when they take what they like and turn it into something of their own.

I think everyone has always had a hard time labelling us and I really don’t care where we fit in; we’re just a rock band whether it’s nu-metal, heavy metal, rock just as long as you listen to us. For new bands it’s great to see someone come along and do their own thing and I think we have captured that ourselves within Disturbed and stylistically when you hear our music they know it’s us, when they hear David’s vocals they know it’s us and it’s a hard thing to do but there is a handful of bands who can do it and those are the bands that I really respect.

Yeah, I totally agree; so can you name a couple of that bands you look up to?

For the modern bands I would have to say I’m a fan of Korn, System Of A Down, Tool and those types of bands. But I was brought up on classic metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and it’s great tot see those guys coming back and doing full on tours so we were very fortunate to be able to play some festivals with the likes of Judas Priest and Metallica.

We did 2 shows in Sweden with Judas Priest and a couple of festivals so we’re almost ticking off our wish list of bands we’re always wanted to share the stage with!

Who is left on that list then?

I think we’ve just about got all the classic bands but we haven’t done anything with Iron Maiden and we’d love to share the stage with them. We would love to do a full-on tour with any of those bands and we’re huge metallica fans too so even though we’ve done a few festivals with them we would love to be a main support to them someday.

I’m sure that will happen one day! But talking of dreams, who would make up your super group?

Ooh, drummer-wise I would say Danny Carrey from Tool, vocally; James Hatfield on vocals and guitar actually. The lead guitarist would be Tom Morello and on bass guitar I would have to say Ryan from Mudvayne.

We ask every band to come up with a question for the next band and the guys in Aiden want to know what “Ooh wa ah ah ah” - from the song Down With The Sickness means?

It was just an instinct when we were playing and writing the song that the music just inspired him to do this animalistic noise that has become the trademark of the song. It’s nothing more than natural instinct that kind of came out of him from what the music made him feel. It catches everyone off guard and it just kind of stuck and has obviously become the big trademark of us and hopefully will be known for more than just a noise.

Can you come up with a question for the lovely Scouting For Girls?

Is it guys in the band? I’m not familiar with their music but I guess you could ask them where is the best place they have scouted for girls and where have they found the most success scouting for girls?