DEVILDRIVER
front-man Dez Fafara has a lot to be excited about this year. Not only has the
band breeched the ten-year mark, but they’ve done so with some of the
hardest-hitting and intense material they’ve conjured up thus far. Following
their trend of not following trends (self-imposed or otherwise), Fafara and
guitarists Jeff Kendrick and Mike Spreitzer, drummer John Boecklin and new
bassist Chris Towning have assembled collection of frenzied, yet calculated
groove worth writing home about. Titled "Winter Kills," the album is a milestone in
DEVILDRIVER’s career as it’s the band’s first release on Napalm Records, who
they signed with after the mass Roadrunner Records exodus. It’s also among the
vocalist’s personal favorites, as he explains during our talk.
When
listening to "Winter Kills," I’m reminded of some of Devildriver’s earliest
material. What sort of end result were you looking for when writing and how do
you feel about how things turned out.
It’s a very groove-heavy record. We know what we do
and we tried to do it well this time. Devildriver is kind of a square peg in a
round hole. Nobody can really decide what kind of music we make, so our fans
have dubbed us the ‘California Groove Machine.’ That’s a hell of a title to
live up and we needed to make sure we did that with "Winter Kills." We went for
big grooves, bigger hooks, tight arrangements and the instrumentation is
absolutely incredible. The guys really out did themselves this time and we all
had a great time making this record. The headspace around the entire process
was incredible; very positive all the way around. I’ve never once said this
because I feel like it leaves you with nowhere to go, but I honestly feel that
this is Devildriver’s best record.
At
what point did you start to realize that?
Once I started getting the song demos from the guys,
I started to realize that we had something really special; I knew it was going
to killer. From there, the writing process really started happening for us.
There’s a flow and a magic about that’s just really hard to explain. It felt
like I was holding lightning in a bottle. The chemistry with this band has
always been there, so nothing much changed in that aspect. We just really got
down to business on this record. We knew we had to make the record of our
lives, so we got in there and did it. We love to make music and we love to
experiment. We experimented with "Pray for Villains," we experimented with "Last
Kind Words," we experimented with "Beast," and on this record we experimented
again. We sat down and told ourselves, “Look, let’s experiment on every record,
but make sure we keep the grooves big and arrangements tight.” The arrangements
on "Winter Kills" are much tighter than they were on "Beast" and I think that
allowed us to make a better record.
Was
part of that extra push to make this the record of your lives, as you put it,
related to the fact that this is your first after parting ways with Roadrunner
Records?
First of all, I gotta tell you that we do that with
every record. We never try to best any previous effort, but we always try to
make our best record. When we got to work on "Winter Kills" and started hearing
the initial results, we realized that this was looking to be a very special
record, so we started paying attention even more and said, “Alright, this is
what we need to do.” What we had to do was absolutely groove, make sure the
hooks stood out and that they grabbed a hold of people. We had to make sure this
was different sounding than the other records, which it is. And that this
record kept itself separated from any other album we’ve, which it does. It’s
important for us to be different. I think that’s the one word that sums up
Devildriver; different. We’re just a different kind of band and every record
has a signature sound.
It
does set itself apart from the rest of your work, but it’s still very much a
Devildriver record. It’s recognizable, but not recycled; which I assume is the
goal.
We do different records and I think that’s
important. I don’t think our fans want to hear the same record twice. It’s a
compliment when someone tells me it doesn’t sound like Beast or whatever other
record of ours. They’re right! That’s a compliment right there. There are too
many bands out there that have been around for a long time, especially 10 years
like we have, that will make the same record two or more times because they
know what their fans want, so they stick to it. We test our fans. We test them
each time out. If you liked that record, let’s see how well you like this one.
If you didn’t like that other record, then try another on for size. Either way,
we’re going to do what we want to do.
Is
that level of integrity a challenge to maintain after so many years and albums?
Have you ever been tempted by the comfort zone?
No, man, because there are so many different
influences that are constantly at work in this band and different players will
take the lead from time to time. With
each record, a different guy in the band will step up at different times and
sort of lead the march. I think that’s an important thing.
How
do you feel about starting a new stage in your career now that you’re with a
new label?
I’m happy, man. I’m
very excited about things. I’m really happy with Napalm and to be with someone
with passion for music. Roadrunner, in the United States, just kind of put us
out there for the last couple records. They knew they were selling the label.
They did it do a bunch of other bands too. They let a lot of good people go and
they let a lot of good bands go, and that was that. It was time to go. I wasn’t
experiencing the passion for the music. I don’t want to do business with bean
counters, I want to be with passionate people who knew business and aren’t
going to mathematically equate me into what I can and can’t do. This band has
been on a steady growth since inception, and that’s due to us working our asses
off and earning the respect of the bands and fans one person at a time. None of that came from a massive label
presence. In the beginning of my career, with Coal Chamber, that might have
been true, but now it’s good to be able to move forward and keep at it.
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