Devildriver has always been one of those bands that right from the start as soon as I heard their music, I know something special was going on here. It’s not everyday you come across bands that get your full attention like that and I can probably count on my hands the number of bands in the past that had the ability to do that for me. The debut self titled album released back in 2003 was merely a stepping stone for what would eventually become the signature sound of the band with the second album “The Fury Of Our Makers Hands” blowing up and stamping their authority on the new wave of American heavy metal.
Dez Fafara is also another interesting guy and an entity all on his own, as the frontman for Devildriver as well as being well known for his work with Coal Chamber, Dez has become in many ways the spokesperson for modern metal as it is. His driving work ethic and a need to shake things up in metal has been the catalyst for his success and once again we see the metal world react either indifferently or in proud fist pumping support to his latest work “Outlaws ’til the End, Vol. 1”, a set of outlaw country cover songs that range from classic Johnny Cash tracks to Hank Williams III to Steve Earle and more. Not only that but there’s a whole slew of well reputable guests that include members of Lamb Of God, Wednesday 13, Fear Factory, 36 Crazy Fists and more.
Dez and I have spoken for interviews a few times in the past and there’s no getting around it, Dez has a certain way of getting his point across with absolutely no hesitation or bullshit tagged onto it. It’s one of the qualities I admire him for and certainly with being straight to the point, one I can relate to. As a regular to Australian shores Devildriver are fairly familiar to any metal fan and while many go back to the old Coal Chamber days, for me it’s always been about Devildriver. And so as mentioned before, we get straight to the point which is the new outlaw covers release “Outlaws ’til the End, Vol. 1” which is released on July 6th and how this whole thing came to fruition.
Dez: I knew it was going to be 3 years between records for Devildriver and I’m a real sticklar on getting a record out every two years, I’m the kind of guy who lays into bands when they wait 3, 4, 5, 6 years for records and I call them lazy. So I figured it was very essential for us to get something out that would be cool for the fanbase to have, so I was like, ‘Let’s do a covers record’. We started talking, a lot of our fans like the covers that we do so we decided, look a lot of people have already covered a lot of punk rock covers. Slayer have done it, a lot of bands have done other metal covers so what were we going to do? So I was always the type that never walks on ground that’s already been treaded and if I see footprints I go off territory so let’s do something different. Let’s take the outlaw country genre because I love the outlaw country guys, they’re the Lemmy’s of their genre and let’s cover those tunes and let’s put them to heavy metal. Some of those lyrics are the most poignant on the planet, the story telling is insane so let’s get it down into heavy metal and let’s crash these two genres with a bunch of guests and let’s do something that will give the fans something to listen to.
Andrew: Yeah and what’s interesting is if you look into the back catalogue of Devildriver there’s always been a country vibe in some of the songs like in “Before The Hangmans Noose” and “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” so that’s always been in Devildriver’s sound I guess.
Dez: It is important for us to lay into these things, make them heavy, give them groove and do something different. I mean I can’t emphasis that enough, a lot of bands are starting to sound the same, the metal genre is getting extremely cluttered right now. I’m not hearing anybody doing anything extremely different right now so it’s like we need to come up with something different and shake up the genre and we need to shake up the status quo. The way to do that is to take a genre that’s never been collided with in metal and do it proper and do it with guests from other genres. We got Hank III, we got John and Ana Cash, we got Lee Ving from Fear, we got Wednesday 13, we got Devildriver. You got all these different genres coming together to attack this thing and I think that’s the important thing is we try to tread on new ground here.
Andrew: There’s a lot of guests on there, some amazing names but in particular I want to ask you about Johnny Cash’ children on “Ghost Riders In The Sky”. That’s a very cool thing, how did that one come about?
Dez: Pretty incredible to work with that family and now it looks like the Cash’s are going to be doing more things in the future because I’ve been talking to John Carter weekly about doing some other stuff. I talked to them and we came to the Cash cabin in Nashville, the first hour was spent by John telling me his love of heavy metal, showing me pictures of Johnny Cash taking him to go see Ozzy when he was 10 years old and I spent the next hour telling him my love for outlaw country. But working with that family was wonderful, recording at the Cash cabin was obviously a momentous occasion for me and that’s one of the most memorable things I’ve done in the last 25 years. I got to sign the mantle over the fireplace that Johnny and his son hand made and I signed it next to Willie Nelson and Chris Cornell so forever that will be there. These are the kinds of things that came out of this, this project was about camaraderie, it was about bringing artists together that hasn’t been done since the 70’s and doing something fantastic and having camaraderie around putting two genres together that’s never been done.
Andrew: There’s some dark songs on there but there’s also a fun vibe there too. Like “Ghost Riders In The Sky” sounded like it was a fun one to record.
Dez: Yeah all the songs were amazing to do because we had no script, it was just do it for your own self. And we knew we weren’t gearing up to monetize these songs meaning it didn’t have to be perfect for the radio, we weren’t skewing our art for monetization so we were totally free as artists. John Carter said it the best in an interview, he said ‘Call me an outlaw, call me what you want. I’m free, I’m free to do whatever genre I want, free to do whatever music I want’. And he brought up to me, I said, ‘Do you think your father Johnny would love this?’ He said he would absolutely love this, he covered “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails. So he turned it around, he did it the opposite way but he would love this and just hearing that made my heart fucking full.
Andrew: One of the most fun covers I’ve heard on the album so far is the Copperhead Road song, that one is such a brilliant take and such a heavy version as well. Tell me a bit about that one and why you decided to go for that song.
Dez: Always loved Copperhead Road, always loved the stories of moonshine and if you’ve been on tour in the United States like I have for 25 years, I don’t drink anymore, I’m sober but I’ve tasted some real good moonshine and homemade by families that have come out and brought it and been making it for generations. So we picked that and we put Brock [Lindow] from 26 Crazy Fists who was the perfect fit, his voice is so unique. I really can’t pigeonhole him, he has a very unique style and a very unique voice and I thought he absolutely slayed that song. There’s a lot of people that are loving that tune and I’m just humbled and honoured and appreciative of all the guests that are onboard.
Read our review of Outlaws Til The End Vol. 1
Andrew: How long did it actually take to get everyone involved and be a part of this whole thing?
Dez: This fucking thing was a labour of love man, I thought it was going to be ‘Let’s do a covers record, it will be simple’. But wrong, it was two years in the making, money ran out halfway through, the logistics was fucking insanity. Some of the artists that I asked that wanted to do it couldn’t do it because they got strung out into fucking tours and other stuff so it was just a real process of love trying to get this done. I remember four months ago telling my wife who’s the manager, Anastasia, I said to her, ‘I don’t think this thing is going to get done’, and she said, ‘Honey just walking, just keep putting you foot in front of you and getting it done’.
Andrew: Well speaking of then, it’s titled Volume 1 so I assume there will be a second volume coming out at some point?
Dez: Yeah we just don’t know when. Putting the Volume 1 at the end was the best thing we ever did because by the time I turned this in, I had 10-20 phone calls coming in that wanted to be on this one or were bummed that I didn’t get in touch with them and told me they wanted to be on the second one. So at the last minute my wife, smart woman, slapped Volume 1 on there.
Andrew: OK cool and so then I suppose this may also be a cool inspiration for the next Devildriver album then. How do you think this will be used as inspiration musically speaking for the next Devildriver album?
Dez: I don’t know but we do know one thing, we know that pedal steel and slide guitar works amazingly well with heavy metal and that’s something that noone knew before. We also found out that Neil [Tiemann] my guitar player has an amazing singing voice and when we sing together, we can do this thing that’s not that big shitty, clean chorus thing that every fucking band is doing to monetize and sell their fucking art to radio to keep their fucking band alive, I hate that. So I never wanted to do that, so Neil and I sung together on some of these choruses and it was like, ‘Oh shit we got a secret weapon!’ So I don’t know when Volume 2 is going to come out, like I said I’m not really chomping at the bit to start number 2 at this point right now. It was such a fucking labour of love this one, let’s just get it out there for a while and let people enjoy it before we start talking about another one.
Andrew: Well with the couple of songs that have been put out there to the public, what kind of feedback and response have you been getting from people so far?
Dez: It’s been really incredible, I was holding my breathe man because you don’t know what people are going to think. A lot of people came to me and said mixing outlaw country and heavy metal is going to be the death of you man, you shouldn’t be doing this and that made me put my middle finger up twice as much. If you tell me I can’t do something, I’m going to shove it in your face and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability! We’ve been hearing incredible feedback, everything from 10 out of 10 to record of the year to finally something different. Lee Ving from Fear said it best, ‘I think Dez may have started another genre’ and then two nights ago a guy who is a friend of mine was in a club out in Dallas and he sends me a photograph of a flyer in the club and it says, ‘Next Thursday, outlaw country and heavy metal bands get together to do outlaw country’ 4 local heavy metal bands getting together to do outlaw country and he goes, ‘Look dude, it’s already started’. So there you go, we might have something happening here and I find myself trying to explain more so to people in Europe and the UK that if you come to America and you’re at a backyard Barbecue or backstage or on a tour bus, you’re going to hear Slayer and Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson right into Pantera and nobody bats an eye. So it does go hand in hand here in America
Andrew: Yeah absolutely I would agree with that. And with all those artists that you had covered on this record then, who was the one that means the most to you musically speaking?
Dez: That’s very difficult because I’m very appreciative and humbled that any one of these artists would give their time and ability to do this with me so I really can’t say. But I can say that working with all of them was an absolute pleasure and being able to track alongside [these] guys, that’s where the actual honour comes in. Tracking alongside Randy Blythe [Lamb Of God] or having Randy watch me track, tracking along with Lee Ving, tracking alongside John Carter Cash and Ana Cash, watching them track. These are the beautiful things that I take away with me.
Andrew: Well this album sounds fantastic and you should be proud of what you guys have been able to do here. I hope it turns out well and everyone gets onto it as it’s a great album. Thanks for your time Dez, really appreciated!
Dez: Thank you very much brother, I appreciate all the support. I hope everybody gets this thing and turns it up!
