Interviews : Disturbed (Dan Donegan) – 17/11/2010

Disturbed are a band that need very little introduction. Since the release of their debut album ‘The Sickness’ nearly 11 years ago, they have firmly cemented themselves as one of the biggest bands in modern metal. Their most recent release “Asylum” catapulted into #1 on the US Billboard 200, their fourth consecutive album to do so – making them one of three bands who have ever achieved that feat (The others being Metallica and Dave Matthews Band.)

Disturbed will be bringing their massive, Metal Obsession sponsored, “Music as a Weapon” tour to Australia and New Zealand in April 2011. The metal icons will be ably supported by Trivium, As I Lay Dying and Melbourne post-hardcore favourites Forgiven Rival.

Metal Obsession caught up with guitarist and founding member Dan Donegan to talk Australia, Asylum and just Disturbed in general.

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Metal Obsession: Hey Dan, how’s things in Scandinavia?

Dan Donegan: Great man, we’re in Sweden tonight.

MO: Awesome! Who’s your favourite Swedish band?

DD: Hmm, probably Opeth.

MO: Opeth are my favorite band full stop… but I was hoping you were going to say ABBA.

DD: [Laughs] Yeah I don’t think so!

MO: Congratulations on becoming only the third band in history with four consecutive #1 US albums. That must feel alright?

DD: Yeah it’s pretty overwhelming, I can’t thank our fans enough. In a day and age where music is mostly dominated by pop and hip hop, it’s the fans way of using their voices to show that there is a place in music for this type of band.

MO: Looking forward to making the journey back to Australia in April?

DD: For sure, it’s one of our favourite countries in the world to tour and every time we have been there the reception has stepped up quite a bit. We’ve been slowly climbing a ladder and playing in bigger rooms, we are playing in stadiums this time around!

MO: Got anything special planned production wise?

DD: For sure, we’ve stepped up our game quite a bit with the production on this European tour and will be bringing the same to Australia. Every time we tour, we like to do it a little bit better than the time before to give the fans a greater visual spectacle and get more bang for their buck.

MO: Your Wembley Stadium date is coming up soon, that must be exciting!

DD: For sure, that will be an awesome notch in the belt for us.

MO: You’re bringing over some pretty hefty support acts, you a fan of the other bands?

DD: I’ve never had the chance to see As I Lay Dying, we are aware of them obviously but haven’t crossed paths with them yet so that will be exciting for us. Trivium we have seen at festivals a few times and they are a great band. I think they are very talented and we are very happy to have them touring with us.

MO: What percentage of your set can we expect to be off Asylum?

DD: It depends on the set length, but I’m sure there will be a pretty good amount. We will definitely play an even split from all five albums though, obviously we will play all the hits but we like to mix in a few others as well to keep it interesting for all of us.

MO: Remnants and Asylum essentially work as one song, why did you decide to split the two?

DD: We liked the idea of an instrumental intro piece. It was actually the first piece I wrote for the album musically, it just kinda happened that way. After the Indestructible tour, I picked up an guitar and got back into writing mode. I wrote the clean part of the song on acoustic and recorded it, then started soloing over it. I got caught up in a really melodic solo and I knew then that it could potentially be a great way to open the new album. I think Remnants builds a bit of anticipation, setting up the listener for Asylum.

MO: After you wrote the title track, was it already clear what direction you wanted the album to head in?

DD: Usually when we have three or four musical ideas, we create a rough template for the album. We want every song to have its own identity, but after Asylum and a few other ideas we had certainly set the tone for the record.

MO: The artwork looks great. Your mascot ‘The Guy’ has certainly seen a big progression, he’s looking pretty vicious now!

DD: [Laughs] Yeah, he’s definitely changed since he started out. That was kind of accidental by the way. He started off as this two dimensional character off the first album and then became a trademark for our band. Even before we had a record deal and were just playing shows in Chicago people were getting it tattooed all over their bodies – it has become a big part of our band’s identity.

MO: The guitar solos on Asylum come across as having a real classic rock influence, more-so than any previous efforts. Was that intentional, or just something that happened?

DD: Yeah it was completely natural, it’s just the way that I play. I grew up loving a lot of guitarists that in-turn influenced me and my sound. Everyone from the guitarists from Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest to Dimebag and even some 80’s guitarists. I try and pick up as many tricks along the way and continue to evolve my sound, Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains is a guitarist that I absolutely love. I want my solos to be catchy and melodic, having a hook just as big as a chorus would have.

MO: With Disturbed you have had some incredible performance opportunities, if you could relive any gig – which one would you choose?

DD: We’ve had a couple of festival opportunities with Metallica, but there was a one-off in Germany where it was just us and them. Being the only support band for Metallica was challenging for us. We were playing in a country that didn’t know our music too well and the majority of Metallica fans care about Metallica and couldn’t care less about the support act. We felt like we really had to earn our place on stage and had the added pressure of having Metallica watching us and judging us side of stage. We love a good challenge and I think we really held our own that night. I’d love to relive any opportunity to have to get up on stage and really have to work hard for the crowd respect.

MO: Classic question mate, is file-sharing something that disturbs you or are you happy for anyone to have access to your music?

DD: Well I like that anyone has access to the music and I don’t feel like the fans are stealing as such, but there is a big downside to it. People who download our albums obviously enjoy them and will come to our show, buy a t-shirt and be part of the experience. However, whether the fans realise it or not, a lot of smaller bands a hurt greatly by  it because they can get dropped from record labels for not selling enough albums. Many bands that I have become a fan of no longer have record deals because they have been dropped for not selling enough records due to file sharing. It’s tough seeing bands with so much potential having their opportunities shattered due to low sales.

MO: If you could pinpoint something that inspired you to want to play music, what would it be?

DD: Live concerts. Once I started seeing the impact and the power four or five guys could command I knew I wanted to play music. I remember hearing a guitar rip through an arena and desperately wanting to be on the stage.

MO: Well I’m stoked to hear your guitar rip through Rod Laver Arena in April. Cheers for your time mate, will be seeing you in Melbourne!

DD: Thanks buddy, see you there.

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You can catch Disturbed live on the following dates:

Wed 20th April @ Burswood Dome, Perth
Sat 23rd April @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
Sun 24th April @ Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Mon 25th April @ Acer Arena, Sydney
Thu 28th April @ Entertainment Centre, Newcastle
Sat 30th April @ Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
Tue 3rd May @ Vector Arena, Auckland
Wed 4th May @ TSB Arena, Wellington
Fri 6th May @ CBS Arena, Canterbury

Frontier Members pre-sale – Wed 17th Nov, 2pm AEDT until Thu 18th Nov, 2pm AEDT.
General public on sale from 9am local time, Friday 26 Nov.

All shows are all ages. Tickets available from Ticketek.