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ON THE COUCH WITH: DevilDriver

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: Hey Dez, how’s it going?
DevilDriver: Hey man, i’m doing really well, i’m at home today, getting ready to head out on tour here in the states.

Access All Areas.net.au: You have your new record “Prey For Villans” coming out soon, are you guys excited?
DevilDriver: Yeah, its always exciting when we get to put out new material, we worked hard on this record to make it our heaviest yet & we feel we accomplished this.

Access All Areas.net.au: Writing this record, what was the ideas you had for the material?
DevilDriver: Well as i said, i wanted it to be heavy, aggressive & intense & i got that. Its the fourth DevilDriver record, so i was looking to take things up a step & really write some crazy stuff, but still good songs.

Access All Areas.net.au: Musically it definitely shows, with a lot of heavy instrumentation, was that what you were looking for from the guys on the instruments?
DevilDriver: Well the idea was for us to take things to the next level musically, to really put DevilDriver up there in the thrash metal genre. We did some things that will make people happy & we really had fun doing this. The guys got what i was after & they were just going insane on the riffs & the drums & whatever else was thrown in.

Access All Areas.net.au: Recording this material, was it a fun experience?
DevilDriver: Yeah, we always have fun recording, especially me. I enjoyed this time we had & we really tore the studio apart... it was a lot of fun.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the recording, you worked with producer Logan Mader, how’d this come about & you enjoy working with him?
DevilDriver: Well i knew Logan from back in the 90’s from touring, back when i was in Cole Chamber & he was in Machine Head we toured together & we ended up hanging out together as we both tended not to hang with anyone & since we had that in common hung & became friends. Once i heard logan was doing production, i listened to his work & then got in contact & we lined it up. Logan was great in the studio, he really has the idea of how to make a band grow to the level it needs to be by itself by working itself out instead of coming in with all ideas & criticism. He of course, gave little tips on where we could improve, but in good ways & that made things really cool. We enjoyed the recording & had fun with Logan.

Access All Areas.net.au: First single from the record was the title track... how was this chosen?
DevilDriver: Well its just the best track we felt that shows the record for what it is & really comes at you, which the record does. Its a heavy, aggressive song & its just a great single that we ended up with... its done well for us.

Access All Areas.net.au: With this record, its now the fourth, do you feel you are becoming more of a band with each record?
DevilDriver: Definitely, back like 7 to 8 years ago when the first DevilDriver record got done it was really just me & not the guys. Since then we’ve had time to form & grow together & over these last few records we’ve really come together as a band & now we’re tight, we’re really together & really just great friends & bandmates. It took a while i’ll admit, but now things are exactly how i wanted them to be.

Access All Areas.net.au: With you, you’ve been in metal bands for a good 20 years now i’d say... if not close to anyway, do you still enjoy writing & performing the music you do?
DevilDriver: Yeah, its a real joy of mine to be in this band & to play the music i do... its my passion. Over the years, things have changed & sometimes maybe been uncertain... but in the end its still what i love to do & what i’m going to continue to do as music is my life.

Access All Areas.net.au: Earlier this year, you were on tour on the Soundwave tour in Australia, how was this?
DevilDriver: This was really fun, i love coming to Australia to play, its always so much fun. This tour had some great bands to play alongside & it was just a heap of fun for me & the band.

Access All Areas.net.au: You have a tour in the states coming up with about 8 other bands... is this going to be a fun tour?
DevilDriver: Oh Yeah, i’m so excited for this tour, we get to play with some great metal & some great hardcore bands. In the states there’s been a real divide but we will bring it together to make a real heavy tour & we’re excited.

Access All Areas.net.au: With touring, how have any new songs from the record been & do you plan to play some on this new tour coming up?
DevilDriver: Well we’ve done i think 2 or 3 new ones so far since we’ve been back live & they’re going great, such good responses. On the tour coming up we are planning to play like 5 songs or so & these should hopefully go down well.

Access All Areas.net.au: With touring, it has just been announced you are coming back here in December to tour, excited?
DevilDriver: Oh yeah, its going to be great, always enjoy the time down there & this tour should be no exception.

Access All Areas.net.au: You are touring with Lamb Of God & Shadows Fall... looking forward to touring with these guys?
Devil Driver: These guys are both great bands, we are so happy we could come down with them & it will be a great time. I know both bands so will be just a great trip with good friends doing some good shows for our great aussie fans down there.

Access All Areas.net.au: Well Dez, thanks for the interview, all the best & have fun in Australia.
DevilDriver: Thanks Ben, nice chatting with you. Bye.

Interview By: Ben Coby.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

DevilDriver has always been a band on a three-pronged mission: Work hard, rock harder, and kick as many asses as possible in the process.

Since first forming in 2003, the Santa Barbara metal quintet has stuck resolutely to this mission, even though it’s often meant traveling a rougher, less glamorous road than most musicians would prefer to endure. Rather than cashing in on the popularity of his previous successes, frontman Dez Fafara insisted from the get-go that DevilDriver should not only forge their own unique sound, but should also start at the proverbial bottom of the bill and work their way up through endless touring, earning the music world’s respect one fan at a time.

“I get that hard-working attitude from my father,” says Dez. “I believe in gnawing at the bit, you know? It’s taken its toll on us, sure — but hard work, road work and belief in ourselves is what we’re based on.”

Pray For Villains, DevilDriver’s gut-punching new album, is clearly the culmination of that endless hard work and unconquerable self-belief. Having honed their powerful sound over the course of three previous albums — 2003’s self-titled debut, 2005’s The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand and 2007’s The Last Kind Words — and countless live dates (including their legendary Download appearance in 2007, where the band’s ferocious performance triggered what many believe to be the largest circle pit in history), the band is now operating at a higher level than ever before.

“For us, it’s been a constant growth, musically,” Dez explains. “Not only in terms of finding out how to write together, but in figuring out what a good DevilDriver song is. Every single record has been a progression, and we approached everything the same way as we’ve always done, but it clicked really hard on this record. This is the defining sound of what we are, and where we’re going to go in the future.”

Produced by former Machine Head/Soulfly guitarist Logan Mader (who has previously manned the controls for the Cavalera Conspiracy, Divine Heresy and Five Finger Death Punch), Pray For Villains finds DevilDriver rocking as brutally as ever, with the rhythm section of drummer John Boecklin and bassist Jon Miller pummeling the listener into submission while the guitar tag-team of Jeff Kendrick and Mike Spreitzer lets fly with one nasty riff and incendiary solo after another, and Dez truly howls like a man possessed. The album is both more technical and more straightforward than anything DevilDriver has done in the past, but there’s also an additional emphasis on groove, dynamics and song-craft.

“We decided not to go even more brutal, more heavy, more screamy, more fast than last time, because we’ve already proved we can do that,” says Dez. “There’s a lot more groove going on, a lot more dynamics. The guitar work is amazing —some of the solos absolutely blow me away — and the drumming is un-fucking-real. There’s gonna be kids in their basements trying to learn this shit forever. Yet we also said, ‘Let’s not only bring groove into this, but let’s bring hooks, and let’s write better songs.’ We didn’t dial it down at all, but we wanted to add some substance to it, as well.”

Lyrically and thematically, the album’s rampaging title track pretty much sums up where Dez is coming from on Pray For Villains. Inspired by his love of Western films, the song is about “how you put all your eggs in one basket, and you bet on the hero — but it’s actually the bad-ass villain who comes in and saves the day,” he explains. “I love Westerns, especially the ones with Clint Eastwood; I like the anti-heroes, rather than the John Wayne kind of guys. I was thinking that in those films, just like in real life, it usually takes a fucking bad-ass to come in and do the job — and that’s usually not the guy in white with the shiny gun. A lot of these songs, including ‘Resurrection Blvd.,’ ‘In The Cards’ and ‘Forgiveness Is A Six-Gun,’ are definitely influenced by that.”

Themes of self-reliance, hard work and positive energy also run through tracks like “I See Belief,” “Pure Sincerity” and “Back With A Vengeance,” all of which reflect both the scars and the hard-won accomplishments of DevilDriver’s first half-decade. “I’m not a nihilistic dude,” Dez explains. “The line,‘I see belief when no one else does’ — a lot of people are so negative about things, saying, ‘Oh, that will never work,’ or ’We’ll never get that tour,’ or ‘We’ll never get to that place’ but I’m just not that guy. Call it stupidity or blind luck,” he laughs, “but I’ve got a feel for what’s going to happen with this band. I believe in the motivation and upward mobility of this band, as well as the movement and the bond that we’re creating between our fans and us. I want to bring that positivity through the power of metal and say to people, ‘Hey, keep your head up/Get your head out of the sand’— take a breath of fresh air, try to be positive about life, and move through it with strength, power and belief in yourself.”

Of “Pure Sincerity,” Dez reveals, “That’s for when people ask, ‘What’s DevilDriver about?’ Well, listen to ‘Pure Sincerity’: ‘Give ‘em what they want/Give ‘em what they need/Pure Sincerity’. That’s all it’s ever been, from the time we started making music — giving them what we feel is our music, and not trying to follow any kind of trend.”

“Back With a Vengeance” is a howl of triumph, a musical victory lap for a band that many critics discounted or disregarded, at least until DevilDriver’s ever-increasing fanbase and reputation for consistently punishing live shows became simply too much to ignore. “That song’s about looking yourself in the mirror and going, ‘Yep, that’s right, we’re kicking ass like I always knew we would be,’” Dez explains. “Don’t ever count any motherfucker out in life. It may have taken a record or three to get it through everybody’s heads, but now it’s obvious. And on ‘Back With A Vengeance,’ I’m actually giving myself a minute to step back and look at DevilDriver and go, ‘Holy shit, we all built this thing together — and it’s a monstrous machine!’”

To no one’s surprise, DevilDriver will be taking that monstrous machine on the road for the rest of 2009, and probably beyond. (The band’s innate affinity for touring is reflected on the new tracks “I’ve Been Sober” and “Another Night In London.”) “We need to travel,” says Dez. “So we’re booked through Christmas ‘09; we’re going all over the world, and we’re not coming home. Our schedule is so rigorous, it’s unreal — sometimes even I don’t know why I put myself through it — but I love the road. I love my family, but I can’t sit home for more than two weeks,” he laughs. “I think time for me at home is wasted right now. I’m still young enough to go out and do my thing.”

“You have to love what you do,” Dez concludes. “We love to play together as a band, we love to be onstage, and we love to deliver our music to people live. We’ve always said that’s been part of the mission — and if you’re gonna talk it, you’ve gotta walk it.”

www.devildriver.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Funeral For A Friend
Well I guess the most memorable would be in 2005 when we played the first Australian Taste Of Chaos festival. It was the first night in Perth & the venue was like five or seven thousand & we were sure we’d be pretty unknown. We got up on stage & started playing & then we noticed the crowd & saw that pretty much everyone was singing the songs & we were like “did we sell all our cds in perth or something?”, so that was pretty memorable for me personally. Also playing the Warped tour in America, its like a 2 month travelling township or something, you play shows go hang out & then travel like a thousand miles & start over. There’s been other experiences, but those are probably the standouts for me.

Ideal Lineup?
Well for me I would have to say Nine Inch Nails who I saw at Redding the other year when they played before The Smashing Pumpkins. The set was just amazing & I’m not really even a fan of the band, but the set was just something they really play great. Also I’d probably say Killswitch Engage they are a great band & are good friends of mine, we toured Australia with them on our first tour & made good friends with them & yeah they just play great music & are great musicians I guess. There’s others I think but those would be the 2 I’d say off the top of my head.

Tips for attending Music Festivals?
Well I guess just drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated, stay out of the way of trouble & really just look after yourself & anyone who gets in trouble that you know & you should have a pretty good day.