By challenging convention, breaking boundaries, and innovating at every turn, Disturbed consistently push rock music forward. The multiplatinum Chicago hard rock juggernaut accomplished the rare feat of achieving “five consecutive number one debuts on the Billboard Top 200.” That accolade historically elevated them to rarefied air alongside Metallica, the only other hard rock group to do so in the history of the chart. They have also had two #1 albums in Australia – 2008’s Indestructible and 2015’s Immortalized. Their latest album “Evolution” has just been released and we had an in-depth and personal conversation with guitarist Dan Donegan on release day to chat about the new songs and how music can affect people’s lives.
Melisa: The new album “Evolution” is set for release today and I got a chance to listen to the album and wow! It’s epic, another killer album from yourselves. I want to say before I go on how much your music helps people with some of the darkest journeys that they’ve taken in their lives, for myself I was diagnosed with cancer on Wednesday. Yesterday I listened to the album and by the end of it I was ready to stand up and fight and really just give cancer a kick in the balls. How do you feel knowing how much your music means to people and helps them through their lives?
Dan: I mean truly good luck with you and everything, it’s really emotional just hearing you say that because I never imagined that making music in a garage as kids would impact people on a stage this big worldwide. It’s overwhelming to hear that and such a great feeling but the music is therapeutic for us and that’s why we write it. That’s why we play because it’s an outlet for us to express the way we feel and to know that our message, through out our career has connected to people and given them that strength and that’s what we hope for so I’m happy to hear that from you.
Melisa: And that was my question as the album does seem to have a deep message of hope and strength. Was that intentional from the start?
Dan: Yes and generally through out our career. I mean it might not mean something that ties together, it’s not going to be every song but the majority of the material touches on personal relationships or dark topics and dark issues but with a positive message. Whether it’s about depression or suicide or relationships or whatever it may be, we more or less try to put a positive spin on it so you find the strength to get through those difficult times.
Melisa: Absolutely and two singles have been released from the album, the first is “Are You Ready” and the second is “A Reason To Fight”. I’m interested to know why these two songs were picked.
Dan: Well the first one we did a fan poll to let them have a voice and tell us what they wanted to hear from us first, a heavier song or a more ballad type song. Generally most people will lean towards a more aggressive track so that’s no surprise but we gave them kind of typical Disturbed, something that they would may be satisfied and familiar with. So that was a no-brainer to us, it was a kind of old school Disturbed. With “A Reason To Fight”, we wanted to show them a very important message to us, very personal to all of us in the band. It’s a song just addressing addiction and depression and we’ve had family members that have struggled with that and battled a demon. Mike (Wengren, drums) lost his brother last year who has had his battles with it, I have a brother who has been on and off with his struggles with it. We’ve lost many great musicians that have lost to that demon as well and it’s such a big topic that so many people can relate to it, whether it’s a family member or yourself or whether it’s a friend or somebody you know that has gone through it or is going through it. So we thought it was an important topic that we should try to tackle and address it and let those people know that are battling those demons that there are people out there to help, there are people out there to listen. The ones who are noticing it that know people that are struggling, we need to step up our game a little bit more and address it before it’s too late. We don’t need to be burying people too soon when we can maybe reach out and let those people know, those loved ones know that we’re there to help.
Melisa: Absolutely and I do feel that music is medication for your soul and Disturbed really hit home that message with every album that you make. Evolution has a great mix of the heavy sound that we love from Disturbed and some truly beautiful songs as you touched on, I was really interested in “Hold On To Memories” and “Already Gone” I’m guessing because of my own journey I’m starting myself. Could you tell me a little about those two songs?
Dan: Generally we paint quite a picture as you can tell stylistically so of course we’re not going to divert ourselves away from the trademark sound of Disturbed. There’s always going to be some heavy riffs and some syncopation and some angst in there because we get therapy from this as well of course so that will always be part of our sound. But this was another road to express ourselves, with “Hold On To Memories” and “Already Gone”. With “Hold On To Memories” it’s just like the title of the song, it’s trying to cherish those moments in our lives and those people that are close to us. Holding onto those memories and a very personal subject but I think everyone can relate to that. It’s very similar in the sense of “Already Gone” in that it’s talking about losing those people at such a young age, losing young ones at too young of an age and kind of being frustrated about it and kind of being sick and tired of too many fallen brothers and sisters in the music business or close friends of ours that have gone down way too soon. But we want to encourage to continue to fight the fight.
Melisa: Absolutely and I think governments need to take more action into putting more research and more money into funding suicide prevention and education and finding new ways than just slapping people on medication. It’s a band aid, there’s more going on than just medication.
Dan: You hit the nail right on the head, that’s it. It’s a band aid and I know that here in America it seems to be happening far too often and I don’t know if it’s the same way in Australia but I would imagine so. Like you said, we really need to address the core of the problem instead of just putting that band aid on it for a temporary solution.
Melisa: Yes, so I want to know how Disturbed do it. You constantly bring out quality albums time and time again. I mean “The Lost Children”, from my understanding was a combination of songs that didn’t quite make it onto other albums and it was brilliant. What do you think is the secret to Disturb’s continuing success and what drives you all?
Dan: It’s funny because I love The Lost Children too and I hate that it’s put out as like a B-side album too because those songs to me are very evolved and well executed and I think there’s a number of those that could of been singles themselves. I have some favorites on that for sure, I wish we played them more to be honest with you. But I don’t know, I think the key to our success is just continuing to push each other creatively, trying to walk into the room with ideas that’s always going to inspire and that’s always the challenging thing. I’ve said it many times in interviews is I’m not thinking about the expectations from the fans or from the record label or from management. I really try to impress the guys in the room that I’m writing these songs with, I’m not really trying to inspire them because I’m writing with them so I’m trying to present music and riffs and chord changes that’s going to spark any inspiration and the music usually dictates what we want to sing about. So whatever vibe we’re feeling musically will kind of dictate what we want to touch upon, what subjects we think feel the mode of the song.
Melisa: Right so Disturbed have been around for many years and over that time I would of expected some crazy things to happen. Has there been a highlight for you of something crazy that has happened on the road or with fans?
Dan: This journey we’re on has been very surreal and overwhelming, I mean still to this day for us to be going at it for nearly 20 years and climbing a mountain. We still feel like we’ve always been headed up that mountain and never came back and I think we never take this for granted and there’s never days where we don’t stop and think how fortunate we are to be able to continue doing what we love to do to continue expressing ourselves and to continue going to fans who can relate to it. So it doesn’t matter where we have gone, we’ve been all over the place and we have to pinch ourselves and think, ‘Wow this has been such an incredible journey’. And to still meet fans from halfway around the world that can come up to us and tell us stories like yours of how our songs have given them strength through those difficult times is really a big reason that keeps that all right under us. If we can help people feel strong and put a smile on their face or help them escape from whatever is in their lives, help them get away from their jobs or school or whatever it is to having a night out, that’s a great feeling.
Melisa: Yes and we know Pantera was a huge influence on Disturbed, are there other influences for the band?
Dan: Many influences, I think there’s so many to list but a lot of the classic metal bands that we grew up to like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Pantera, Metallica. Those are a lot of the early classic metal bands that we got into but we also love a lot of classic rock bands, just the musicianship and the song writing of bands like Fleetwood Mac and Kansas and Toto. Just great songs and we always look at them and those songs stood the test of time and what we can learn from that, we try to perfect our craft as song writers and we’ve always been inspired by many things. We also grew up with a lot of punk rock bands as well, I find myself appreciating all types of music. A great song is a great song so I absorb as much as I can and try to take it all in.
Melisa: I think you do need that wide range of musical tastes really to have that appreciation.
Dan: Of course.
Melisa: Are there any plans to tour the album in Australia?
Dan: I definitely want to come so I’m sure you guys are at the top of the list. We’ve talked about it, we’re trying to make it happen. We’re trying to pull things together to make it happen so you are definitely at the top of the list for us.
Melisa: Well I will be there front and centre. Thank you so much for your time today Dan.
Dan: Thank you, I appreciate it. Have a good one.
