DevilDriver var nyligen här som en del av "The eighth plague tour" och varför då inte ta ett snack med sångaren Dez igen. Vi satte oss ner på Klubbens ovanvåning och snackade bl a om familj, indianer och flöjter.
How was Gothenburg yesterday?
Dez: Easy. It was my 10 year anniversary yesterday with my wife too, so we got to go to Peter from In Flames restaurant 2112. If you ever get to go there, it´s amazing! Fine dining, great bar and he´s a great guy.
The reason for just you guys playing there was…?
Dez: We don´t like days off and it wasn´t far to travel so we booked in a show.
Cool! Doing a package tour like this, is it more fun or more of a hassle because it´s more people involved?
Dez: This tour is really well done, so it´s nothing but fun so far! I´ve known Machine Head forever. I met the Bring Me The Horizon guys in Australia with my 13 year old son and we watched them and I´ve known Darkest Hour for a long time and I love their music, so the first night everybody was hanging. I f you went to my back lounge, I had all of the Machine Head´s crew, all of our crew and everybody back there just hanging out. It was cool! It´s good when everybody knows each other. Machine Head took out Coal Chamber back in the day and Coal Chamber took Machine Head out in the States, so we go way back. I´m pleased that they´d have us.
How´s the response been to the latest album? Has it been all good?
Dez: Unbelievable! It came out top 40 in the United States and we´ve gotten radio airplay which is impossible now. Number 9 in Australia and it did really well over here as well. All through the UK and all through Europe. We´re really pleased. We put one out every two years, so you never know what to expect. We´ve put out a lot of music. In 10 years we´ve put out five records and I think it´s due to the fact that we were only together for six months before we got our first record deal and most bands have five or six years before they get their first deal. Their writing process slows down and we´ve just been writing right now. We enjoy what we do!
Yeah, I was gonna ask about that, if you write while on tour?
Dez: We do!
Ok. I just talked to BMTH and they said that they don´t have the time for it or the urge to do it.
Dez: Some musicians are different and they may have their own way. What I feel is that if you´re a musician, you should write every day, so I write a song every day. I have books and books of lyrics to song structures. The day before our last tour, Jeff my guitar player, gave me a riff and I was like “That´s the first verse of the first song on the next record!”. I just heard it and I´ve got the ability to just hear, but we do like to write on the road. If your time is consumed by drugs and booze you don´t have the time to do it, but that´s not what happens within our camp, so we have plenty of time to just sit around and write. Otherwise it would get really boring!
These days, do you use your phone or a computer to record it?
Dez: We bring out some recording equipment. We don´t bring it to Europe because that´s really hard to do. Especially since they charge for every extra seat so you get charged like a fucking million dollars, but in the States we bring it out and set it up and it´s like “Hey, we´ve got an idea!” and just go! It warms my voice up for the show and it´s better than sound checking in the afternoon! That fucks me up because I´m not ready. It blows my voice out for the night.
Speaking of making music, have you heard Metallica´s “Lulu”?
Dez: I have not!
It´s really interesting that it´s been totally slaughtered over the world.
Dez: It´s good that people are being honest! If they don´t like it, so be it.
Could you see yourself doing something completely different music wise?
Dez: Oh yeah and I already do! I do projects with a lot of different people. I have a thing and you can hear it on MySpace and it´s called High Desert Moon! It´s all Native American flute. I own like 30 flutes and play and I´m heavily into Native culture in America. I made a record with a guy named Greg Weiss whose father is responsible for writing some of the biggest tracks in history, like “Rhinestone cowboy” and “Evil woman”, so him and I got together and it´s like canyon desert music, man! You gotta check it out! It´s High Desert Moon on MySpace. But I have a project with Mark Morton (Lamb of God) as well and I´m gonna sing on the new Soulfly record and Cancer Bats called me last night and wants me to sing on their shit. Grimfist hit me up in Norway and wants me to come jam on their shit. I like to jam! I like to play music and I like to write music and that´s what I´m all about! So doing something that different, yeah no problem! I´m influenced from everything from Goth to Black Flag.
Coming up with Native American stuff, is that harder than DevilDriver?
Dez: It´s whatever comes out naturally, I´m gonna do. From Coal Chamber to DevilDriver to High Desert Moon to other stuff that I´m working on, it just gotta come out naturally! The High Desert Moon stuff is just something that I feel is a pass life thing.
But where does that interest come from?
Dez: I´ve always been interested and when I was like five or six I was interested too. My mum can remember me being really interested in Native cultures. Before I go on stage I listen to scream singing, Native American scream singing and it just gets me, like ready to go! Puts on the war face for sure!
I studied in Bemidji in Minnesota way back and I went to see a Pow Wow, which was really cool.
Dez: Yeah! I went to the gathering of the nations near my house last year and that was absolutely amazing! In Minnesota, this guy Rolling Cloud… he´s very famous actually. His great great grandfather was like their highest medicine man they ever had. They´re just beautiful people! We crushed them! When the white man came in, they decimated their culture.
Yeah, it´s the same thing everywhere. Like the Aboriginals in Australia.
Dez: Yeah, they decimated them over there. You go to Sydney harbor and it´s amazing, but that was their holy ground they should tear everything down and give it back to the people, really! If you know something is right, how do you stay wrong? There might be a lyric in there… (laughs)
This tour ends in England in early December, what do you do after that?
Dez: Christmas with the family. I have three boys and a great Dane and a Doberman and a wife that I miss very much, so go home and hang out with them for Christmas and then I do Soundwave right after that in February, with Coal Chamber. It´ll be incredible! Two days later DevilDriver goes out in the United States in March with a stacked package. Just a really good package!
Next album?
Dez: We´re probably gonna stop the grind some time after July next year, maybe into October next year. We usually put out a record every two years if we don´t go away and write and go back out on tour, but I have a feeling we´re gonna be taking maybe a year to take off to write and really regroup. I mean, for 10 years straight we´ve earned the name “the hardest working band”! We clock in more shows than any band I can think of.
How do you make that work with a family?
Dez: You have to have a woman that is really behind you and my woman is my best friend. She´s a rock and she knows she has the life of a wife of a sailor. She met me when I was doing it. Most men in America can get maybe three weeks off at home or whatever. I can come home from a tour and have two or three weeks off, go out on tour and then have three weeks off. I actually get more time at home, like home all day. And she likes to travel with me and I took her and the kids last time to Australia and I´m taking them this time to Soundwave and I take them all over Europe as well. There´s some places she´d like to return to and others she doesn´t. She really wants to come to the Scandinavian countries, so next time I come out here I´m gonna bring her!
You should come in the summer!
Dez: Yeah of course, but even the winter I like it here.
It´s cold as hell!
Dez. It´s ok, I like it cold and dark. I light candles in the back lounge.
Is there a big difference between American and European audiences?
Dez: I get asked that a lot.
I just feel that... like Swedes can be a bit more reserved.
Dez: We´ll see tonight! (laughs) We´ll see tonight! They love their metal across the world, but in Europe there´s just something to the fans the way they take to the bands. Fans in the States kind of go through their bands quicker. I watch my son go from Job for a Cowboy to Suicide Silence to Skrillex and now it´s totally about dub step. I wasn´t like that when I was a kid. I heard KISS and I was like “Oh shit!” and I hung on. It is what it is.
Yeah! Well, thank you!
/Niclas
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