 RX:
So, how have things been going with you?
Dez
Fafara: Things are going fantastic, dude! I'm actually
in the studio as we speak, and we just finished mixing a
song called 'Unlucky 13' for the new CD. I can tell
you now, I've never been more excited about something coming
out with my name on it than I am at this moment.
RX:
The new album is called The Fury Of Our Maker's
Hand. What does the title mean to you? With
the recent tsunami
causing such horrible destruction, the title couldn't
be more timely.
DF:
Yeah! You know, that's very strange, and you're actually
only the second person to make that observation.
I do want
to say, though, that we had decided on the album
title long before everything started going haywire
with the tsunami
and earthquakes and everything. To me, the title The
Fury Of Our Maker's Hand is that there's
a meaning to
everything that's happened. No one knows anything
until we're dead, then we know it all, but it's too
late, if you get
what I'm saying. And that fury can be in the form
of natural disaster on a global scale, or more of
a personal nature,
where it impacts only you.
RX:
I really wanted to be able to embrace the Devildriver album,
but it seemed that, while heavier other things you'd done,
it was more "heavy for heavy's sake", and
didn't have a very pointed focus musically. Obviously
with the demise
of Coal Chamber, you were going through a very stressful
time, and with a new band, there had to be a
good bit of concern as to whether your fans would
follow you to Devildriver.
DF:
You know, I can agree with you on some points, but
I will say that I definitely knew where I wanted
to go with both
Coal Chamber and know where I want to go with Devildriver.
The problem is in getting the musicians to follow
me. You'll notice on the new CD that the old guitar
player is gone. That's because he didn't want to
go where
I want to go. There were songs on the first Devildriver
that we did use to fill space, as it were. There
were songs
that were very much in the Coal Chamber sound, and
were directed specifically at pulling those fans
of Coal
Chamber into the Devildriver camp. The label had
some say in the tracks that went on there, but I'm
still very
proud of what that album means to me. This new one,
though, is...the only way I could even describe it
is a
jump in light speed. Whatever your opinion of the
first one - and this goes for anyone - The
Fury... is going to
devastate. I'm standing on 14 tracks right now, totalling
about an hour and fifteen minutes of music, and for the
first time ever, there's no way anyone wants to make
any cuts, or leave anything off! I'm sure we won't
put every
track on the album, and we'll let it up to the label
as well as us, so far as what gets on. Still, the
songs that
don't make the album will be on soundtracks or B-sides.
Either way, we'll make sure the kids get 'em.
RX:
The first Devildriver was different from your past
projects, in that you used more of your range in
that one album than
you had the whole time you were in Coal Chamber.
How has your vocal approach changed for The
Fury...
DF:
Well, the problem with Coal Chamber was that the
music wouldn't allow me to go where I wanted to go.
The first Devildriver
was the first step in the direction I want to take
this band. On this second one, the highs are more
high, the
mids are more in the middle, and the lows are lowere.
If I'd came into Coal Chamber with this type of vocal style,
no one would've loved it. I have to mention Colin
Richardson's contribution to The Fury....
I've never worked with
a producer like him before, and he really let me
expand on what I could do. Whereas most producers
will spend a
few hours on a song, focusing on a word, Colin concentrated
more on the phrase, lyrical style, and how the emotion I
was projecting would fit into the track. I've never
had anyone capture what I do live in the studio.
Where before, I'd have been
spending half of a day on a word or sentence, when
the vibe was right, Colin would just start the tape,
and we'd knock
an entire vocal track out in 2 1/2 hours. The thing's
done so far as he's concerned, and he just flew out
this morning.
Just before he left, last night, we listened to the
whole album for the first time, as well as alot of
things he's done
in the past. I couldn't be happier with the work
he's done on The Fury....
RX:
You got into music not from friends or searching
on your own, but from your parents' record collection.
How im- portant
do you think parental support was to you in getting
where you are today?
DF:
Well, yeah. I can say they supported, but I can also
say they didn't in some ways. (Laughs) Where they
supported me
going to rehearsal, they didn't when I got my nose
pierced. Still, they let me mostly follow my dreams,
and do what
made me happy, and that's what I'm trying to do with
my kids today. I mean, if you're kid wants to be
a sculptor,
buy him clay! Don't be like, "You go be a doctor!".
A good example of this is that one of my own kids recently
got into rap, which I wasn't exactly thrilled about.
I did support him, though. Oh! I want to take this
chance to
publicly thank Jack Black for making School Of Rock!
(Laughs) Now that same kid is walking around singing 'Iron
Man' by Sabbath, and I love that! He's like, writing
the words down and trying to make sense of them.
Also, another
one of my kids isn't even really into music at all.
He's more into sports right now, and that's fine.
It just comes down
to being able to get behind your children in whatever
they decide to make of their lives.
RX:
You've mentioned recently wanting to take Devildriver
in a new direction with The Fury....
On what paths would you like to
take Devildriver, and is the new album a marked change
from the debut?
DF:
I wouldn't even say a "new direction",
really. It's more of just a stepping up as far as
technically, melodically, and lyrically. I
couldn't really take this to where we should've been
on the first one. You've got to appease some of those
fans from your previous
band...give them something they love, so they keep
coming back to see what you're up to. This one's
going to just
open up the minds of the people who got the first
CD. I know it sounds like marketing, or some hype,
but I truly think that
if you were into the first Devildriver, you're going
to shit yourself with this one! Linear...that's a
great word. The first disc
was alot more linear, but The Fury... is
just total overkill.
RX:
How is the songwriting done for the band? You took
some flack in the Coal Chamber days for coming across
as controlling,
or sometimes even egotistical. Does everyone Devildriver
contribute to the songwriting, or do you pretty
much handle it all?
DF:
Let me tell you. Not to even go back into Coal Chamber,
but they would give me things, and I'd say I didn't
like it, then someone
would be pissed for days on end. I can't work that
way. This band, they'll write thirty songs, and give
them to me. I'll
tell them what I like, and what I don't. I'll suggest
changes, or maybe a different delivery here and there.
I don't play music, and
I don't play an instrument, so my voice is all I
have, and it's my instrument. I have to be given
the authority to use my instrument
to the best of my ability, the same as any guitarist,
bass player, or drummer. That's one thing that's
really making this
project fun, it that we're all very open-minded in
this band. We're having a good time with it!
RX:
Your website describes some of the music on The
Fury Of Our Maker's Hand as "mind expanding".
That's a fairly
heavy claim to make. When I think of music that is "mind
expanding", I think of bands like Pink Floyd, Blut
Aus Nord, and Godflesh...bands that take you somewhere
with their songs. Where is Devildriver trying to take
it's fans?
DF:
Oh, man! Our first tour ever was with Godflesh! I'm
like, the biggest Godflesh fan! Justin's incredibly
cool, and the first night of the
tour, he took me up to the bus and gave me all the
CDs, and a shirt. Since then, we've gotten to know
each other a little bit.
On this album, there are songs that take you to other
worlds, and you'll venture into many different places.
You'll be in different
rooms, but it's still the same house. You really
don't want to take people to different houses in
one album. There's no hype
in it for me at this point, because no one's heard
the damn thing yet, besides the band and Colin, really.
We really think this
album's going to broaden people's minds and take
them to different spaces than anything else today.
RX:
Can you let us in on some of the songs and topics
covered with the new record?
DF:
Sure! There's a song called 'Pale Horse', and one
called 'Grinfucked' as well.
RX:
Grinfucked?
DF:
Yep! (Laughs) Haven't you ever been?
RX:
Aha! Now it all comes clear! (Laughs) And yes, daily!
DF:
So now you know!
RX:
Thanks very much for your time and honesty. Is there
anything you'd like to end with?
DF:
Nah, thank you, man! It's been a pleasure! This is
going to definitely grow, and it's not on any kind
of decline. As many people as
are visiting our site, and as supportive as the fans
have been, we're seeing it now. Look at the numbers
we're creating on website
traffic. There's bands far bigger than we are that
don't get half the traffic we do! It just goes to
show you that, as long as
you're true, people will back you, and you'll have
the support you need from the people who appreciate
your music.
www.devildriver.com
Photograph
of Dez by Icer Rose |
