Respected standard bearers for 21st century metal, Devildriver have spent almost the last two decades pursuing a course of uncompromising artistry and nonsense-free dedication to the road. Led by the prolific Dez Fafara, the Californian crew have earned their reputation as one of the hardest working bands on the planet, while issuing a steady succession of brutal but distinctive albums along the way.
Their focus has remained laser-sharp, and never more so than on the monumental upcoming double album, “Dealing With Demons”. The first volume of the double album offering – entitled Dealing With Demons I – is set for release on October 9, 2020 via Napalm Records. We caught up with Dez Fafara to find out what this album means to not only the fans but to Dez himself.
Andrew: It’s exactly a year since we last chatted, it was right before you came down to Australia. So how has things been since?
Dez: You know, things have been [laughs]. Things have been, what’s going on in the world is a strange time. I mean since we’ve talked we’ve escaped twice from wildfires here, my wife lived through and survived cancer, we’ve gone through a pandemic and now we’re in riot mode, so it’s been a crazy, crazy time since we spoke. I will say this, we are looking forward to coming back to Australia, looking forward to touring and playing again. We’re really, really happy with the reception of the new song that we put out “Keep Away From Me”, it’s the first song in four years basically, besides the covers record that we did with Randy from Lamb Of God and John Carter Cash, Lee Ving from Fear and all that. So it’s kind of our first record back in four years with new tunes and to hear what’s going on and to hear the stations that are coming onboard, to hear what people are saying in the press has brought a lot of happiness to my life, in the midst of complete fucking chaos in the world. So that being said, even doing interviews right now is a good time for me homy [laughs].
Andrew: Yeah definitely and as you said, it’s been a while since we’ve heard some new Devildriver so how does it feel to finally get some new songs out?
Dez: Incredible! I mean the stuff we put to bed in the beginning of 2019 so to get it out now is we timed it I think perfect. “Keep Away From Me” was written in late 2018 and written about my agoraphobia, I don’t do well in public, I don’t do well in spaces with a large amount of people. I go on stage obviously but you’re not going to take me to the after party, I’m not going to go to the Grammy Awards, it’s just not me. So it kind of played into the hands of quarantine world and obviously we couldn’t get together to make a video so the video – and I don’t know if you’ve seen it – portrays what we’re all going through and then has a message. I’ve always been a very positive person, you can look at the glass half full or half empty and I always look at it as glass half full so even the video says “Stand together”, something that I think we all need to do as humanity right now. So it’s been incredible to hear this, I mean it’s a lot of welcome back, it’s a lot of ‘Wow welcome back, we got what we wanted out of this song’. So I think people are going to love what’s coming, we’ve got four releases before the record in October and when you hear those four, you’re definitely going to want to get the record and dig into the final six or seven because I’m unleashing some things here.
The record is called “Dealing With Demons”, it’s basically me wanting to move in a more woke direction lyrically and I know a lot of people say, ‘I get a lot of strength out of your lyrics Dez, thanks for lifting me up’, but what they don’t realize is how much it sucks the life out of me, to kind of write about these topics I write about. So this is it, this is the chapter where I lay it all out on a double record, volume one and volume two. Every demon has it’s own little spirit, right, so this one “Keep Away From Me” is about the agoraphobia or quarantine, however you want to put it. But an interview I just had said has anything changed for you during quarantine? I said no, nothing. I never went to the grocery store, I always had it delivered, I don’t go out, nothing has changed. So it’s been a crazy time but it’s also been a real positive time in Devildriver land right now.
Andrew: I suppose as a lyric writer over the years it’s obviously a very cathartic experience but for this particular album would you say it’s been the pinnacle of getting all those sorts of demons out there? Would you say it’s been a more spiritual or cathartic experience for you more than any other album?
Dez: I mean I’ll tell you this, how many times have you interviewed me for how many records? So what I would say is most of the time in my career, even through Coal Chamber, people go what’s the song about? And I rarely ever say what it’s about, I always say I leave it up to the listener. This is the time in my life where I absolutely lay it on the table. I lay it on the table what the song’s about, every single song I lay it on the table what it’s about and it’s about me getting some things out there. I personally need to get rid of these topics so I never have to go back ever again and write about them, and it’s topics I’ve been engaged in for 25-30 years in my career you gotta understand and finally when are you done talking about certain things in your life, well this is it for me. I want to dumb it down by saying I’m going in a more woke direction but definitely not dumbed down because the lyrics on the forthcoming record after this are going to open people’s minds to worlds they may not even know so it’s important to get rid of all this shit.
As far as, ‘Oh it’s so cathartic’, I just don’t want to be a bullshit consonant artist, right and be like, ‘Oh yeah it was so cathartic to get rid of this shit’. But I will tell you that when I was done and I was done recording and when I heard both the volumes all together, I realized I did it, that’s it, I let it all go. What I’ve been hearing too is a lot of people saying they relate to the subject which is, that’s what you want to do as an artist, right. If you can gravitate towards an artist that you relate to and this is like 99 percent relatable, everybody has these fears whether it be agoraphobia or dealing with death, all the things I deal with on this record, if you don’t explore them you’ll never be able to let them go and that’s exactly what these subjects are doing for me. When I sit down to write, I find myself writing about the human experience, the disloyalty, the backstabbing, the this and that and it’s like, it’s time to grow. So here it is, all laid out on the table. Every single song is about a demon I’ve faced in my life and I feel like I tapped something that I may not have tapped in like probably, I want to say 10 years to be honest with you. It feels good as an artist.
Andrew: And the double album, obviously it’s a massive undertaking. When you initially started writing these songs, was the idea of a double album always going to be a part of it or was it something that just came along as you were writing it?
Dez: I’m very fortunate to be on a label who backs me artistically. To give you an example, when we did the heavy metal country covers record with all those guests, they backed me on that and they actually thought I was going to do something country so when they got a heavy metal record they were tripping out. So when I called them and said, ‘Look I want to do a double record, staggered release and the idea is to have a staggered record put out one year and then the next year and I can tour three years straight on it’, they were loving it. They were like, ‘Exactly what we need nowadays, we need artists that want to put out more material’. So they backed us and that’s all I can say, is that when you got somebody that backs you, it’s a great thing and I knew all along that it would take a double record, two volumes to get rid of this. There’s no way in hell I could conquer this in ten songs because there’s at least twenty of those guys swimming around in me that I gotta get the fuck rid of and that’s what it’s about. You guys are going to get some real personal shit man, I mean look, I’ll be honest, if I were to walk away today after this double record and walk from my whole career, I’d be in a good place. Because I would know that I left everything on the table for the people who supported me for 25-30 years or the newcomer to me, would get something so real and so poignant that they would appreciate it probably more than other bands they may even listen to that may write topics about, A: I don’t explore or B: I’ve never gone through.
Andrew: It’s certainly an interesting idea because I think with the first single that you released “Keep Away From Me”, I am curious though of how much of a representation is that song of the album or is the rest of the album completely different?
Dez: Every song is completely different, and look, any long time brand, it doesn’t matter what brand it is, let’s take Coca-Cola ok. Anytime you look at a brand, you say to yourself, ‘Hey it’s Coca-Cola, we better be Coca-Cola’. There’s a lot of bands out there, they put out the same record for 20-30 years and it’s how they exist and I don’t want to be one of them and that’s why Devildriver is, we got a sound but it’s all different from one another. This one I actually said to the guys on a phone call, ‘Listen you guys, I don’t want to explore past Devildriver. If we just met today, what kind of music would you make?’ And that’s the music that they gave me, is these two volumes, and I’m real proud of what they did as a band. It’s a new band and it’s a new sound, it’s taking it further. There’s going to be a lot of “Ah ha” moments that I think you guys are really going to trip out on. The next single that we release, people are going to be tripping. And the third one that I’m releasing, you’re going to hear stuff out of me you never heard vocally.
So this was an exploration in letting yourself go, like literally bleeding yourself. Not bleeding yourself in the way of, hey concentrate on what this brand is and what we should do. Like some thrash bands or whatever are like, ‘We gotta do it like this’. We actually said, ‘You know what? No, let’s make music and whatever comes out to be, that’s what we’re going to put out’. This is why I’m so pleased with this record man, I can’t wait to share it. It’s coming out in October, it’s like October couldn’t come quick enough! The next single, we drop another single in July and I’m flipped out, it’s going to be hard for me to wait these next 2 or 3 weeks to drop it because I just want people to hear it, every song is so different man.
Andrew: Yeah and as a huge fan myself I’m very much looking forward to this, I think a lot of Devildriver fans are as well. Would you say the long time Devildriver fans, the ones that have been there from the beginning, will be the most surprised on this album or do you think they will appreciate it more than anyone else?
Dez: Well first of all I’m talking to Australia and it’s Devildriver territory right, so yeah there’s going to be some huge surprises. If you’ve been a long time fan, you’re going to hear stuff out of me you’re probably waiting to hear because I’ve never collided my two worlds. I never collided what I did in Coal Chamber and Devildriver, I never collided those two worlds but now everything that I’ve done, I’m doing and my band is not doing anything they’ve done before, it’s all new to us. It’s like a brand new sound, a brand new band. So is everything going to be like “Keep Away From Me” tempo wise? No it’s not, it’s going to speed up, it’s going to slow down. Is everything going to be like it is vocally? No, you’re going to get some big surprises. So yeah I’m very secure in the fact that the long time Devildriver fans, let’s say the person who’s been with me 20 years, they’re going to get this record and they’re going to see the plateau. And then the new fan comes in that maybe has only heard a couple of songs or maybe the record prior to this or who knows, maybe they came in on the Outlaw Country thing we did, they’re going to get something that I think they’re going to hold on to and gravitate towards and they’re going to share with their friends, ‘Ok you gotta hear this’.
Because we’re just doing something different, we always have. Devildriver has never really fit in, I’m a punk rock guy who came into metal because I like it vicious. I break up listening to Dollhouse and the Cure. There’s so much within this band, so many different influences that I’m real proud to say nobody sounds like us and even if they try to fit in to the groove genre, they can’t fit into the dark groove genre which is literally #darkgroove. We have a thing that’s part goth, part metal, park punk. I’m not gonna say if it’s not vicious and it’s not vicious live too I don’t want to be a part of it, it’s always been that way for me.
Andrew: That’s what makes Devildriver so great and what makes you so unique as well. So we are very much looking forward to hearing the rest of this album, I certainly am myself. Thanks for your time, really appreciate it. Hopefully the album will do really well and hopefully at some point we will see you in Australia in the future.
Dez: Yeah absolutely man, thanks for talking to me and just tell everybody I said hello and we can’t wait to come down under. I’m hoping you guys open your borders soon and as soon as you do, we’re going to start booking tours.
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