While some bands find their unique identity before they even enter a studio, DevilDriver has taken a bit longer to evolve. After vocalist Dez Fafara formed the band in 2002 following his split from Coal Chamber, he and his new bandmates churned out an album within about six months. The self-titled record was primarily written by guitarist Evan Pitts, but with his departure (due to a distaste for the rigorous touring schedule), the songs penned after 2003 took on a new life. So much so, in fact, Fafara considers DevilDriver’s sophomore record The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand the band’s true debut.
DevilDriver has accumulated plenty of history in a short amount of time, but
Fafara said the new record
Pray For Villains is truly the defining album for his band. Driven by technical prowess and thought-provoking lyrical content,
Pray For Villains certainly rivals the energy that
DevilDriver is known for in their live show. That’s no easy feat, particularly considering that the metal group is nominated for Best Live Band in Metal Hammer’s Golden God Awards.
Fafara recently talked with Ultimate-Guitar writer
Amy Kelly about his esteemed live show and the new record, which he said was written with "
a fresh approach".
UG: For the latest album Pray For Villains, did you approach the songwriting any differently from your previous work?
Dez: Lyrically, I write constantly. I’ve got tons of books. I set myself to the task of writing for the record once I’ve heard the body of work from the other guys. Those guys, I believe, they don’t really write on the road. I’m sure they do if it’s a riff in their head or whatever, but it’s no real song structure. They all write on guitar, so then they get together as a team. They’re generally at Mike’s house and may cover 20 tunes. I sit and decide what’s best, what’s not. I rearrange, I arrange, I turn verses into choruses. Afterward I demo all the vocals. Once I do all that, we pick tunes from there. I have to get the body of music before I start putting pen to paper for the first song. The reason is that I might write a chorus for song A, and by the time I get to song C I go, “This chorus would fit better in song C.” Then I’ll transfer the song over. So I have to go through the body of work.
The song “Pray For Villains” has a unique concept behind it, with an owl playing a significant role in your vision. Have you wanted to incorporate that particular idea into the music for quite awhile?
Maybe. I’ve collected owls for a long time. My grandfather collected owls, too. When he passed away, my mother started giving me his owls. That was really a crazy cool coincidence. At the same time I was writing for the record. There was a eucalyptus grove, and there was an owl. All he did all night long was hoot. I’d get up really early in the morning before the sun was up, and he would just go off hooting the whole time. That icon, the owl, came together with the lyrics once I had written for “Pray For Villains.” There was also the whole concept of the badass bad guy coming in and taking care of the situation. I love the anti-hero. I always have. So the concept, I guess, was there and just manifested itself on this record.
I understand that you went away to your parents’ ranch to undertake most of your writing.
Yeah. I lived in Santa Barbara at the time, and my parents have a ranch kind of in the desert area. There’s nothing out there and no reception out there, so it was perfect. They have a guesthouse that’s really kind of far away from their house. I went down there and just got away. I would say probably 12 songs were written within 8 or 9 days. It was flowing. I would spend 8 or 9 hours a day, putting myself to the task out there. It was really cool, too.
"I have to get the body of music before I start putting pen to paper for the first song."
I write lyrics on the road, but I should say poetry. Some of those will stick and eventually over the course of the years, there will be 300, 400, 500 pieces of paper with sayings on it. My wife does the same thing, too. If she hears something that comes out of somebody’s mouth or if we say something to each other, we’ll type it in our phone. It might end up being an idea for a piece of poetry or a song.
The past few albums you opted to record at another remote setting, the Sonic Ranch Studios. I noticed that Pray For Villains was recorded in a distinctly different location: Los Angeles. What prompted the change?
Yeah, we recorded in Hollywood. We did two records out at Sonic, and I love that place. It is really secluded. You are completely left to your own devices. That can be hell! This time it was just way better. Logan’s studio in Hollywood is very intimate. If you work with the bass player, there’s nobody else there. When you work with the drummer, there was nobody else there. Plus there were so many other things to do in Los Angeles. It’s where I’m from and it’s where I was born and raised. I think it breathed some new life into the project.
How did you decide upon Logan Mader (formerly of Machine Head and Soulfly) to be producer?
I’ve known him forever. I traveled the world with him when he was in Machine Head. He came walking up on the bus. He was in the middle of the hallway and said, “I want to do this next record.” I just said, “Okay.” I heard the things that he had done before. I think the great thing about Logan is that he’s special in that he doesn’t incur his sound on the band. So many bands you can hear and go, “Oh, yeah. That producer obviously did that.” Everything he does is unique to a degree. Since he does allow the band’s sound to come through, I think that in essence makes him a great artist.
There are quite a few bands that will say their producers continuously offered ideas, even in the core songwriting. It sounds like Logan let you take full control.
All of the preproduction was completely done, so it wasn’t like we were still writing. We might cut and paste and arrange sometimes. I would say, “Look, that part is way too long there” or “Cut that part.” He would offer ideas, but I think the great thing about him is that he’s extremely serious in the studio. To the point where, for people who don’t know him, they might be uncomfortable. He won’t even crack a smile unless it’s real funny! He is in there to work. With us, it was very imperative that we define our sound in order to take us to the next 10 years of our career. We’re a band that grew from the beginning. We didn’t have six or seven years to make our first record. We had six months. So now, with this record, we just really wanted to define ourselves. That guy was a key to that.
There are several quotes from the band stating how the technical aspect was taken up a notch this time around. John Boecklin (drums) stated, “One song in particular is the craziest double bass patterns I’ve ever done, guitar work you would not expect from us, mixed in with a really fresh vocal approach completely new from Dez.” Would you say it all happened organically, rather than going in with the intent to make the songs more complex?
I think it came out organically and naturally. When I got to the music, I was almost uncomfortable with it. What I had to do was I had to take the songs apart and arrange them. Some of the verses became choruses and the choruses became the verses. That always happens, but the dynamics and the technical ability of the band really shined through. It really made me step it up vocally. It’s like, “Now am I going to be just so guttural or am I going to step it up?” I can sing my ass off if I want to. Certain sounds only go with DevilDriver. You don’t want to hear me doing a big, huge, clean chorus even though I could. You can hear me gutturally doing something with tonality and melody, and that will work for DevilDriver. I think that I was pushed by the music, and I think John’s quote was well-said. It was a fresh approach by all of us. When we first heard everything demoed, we were all out of our skin. Like, “Oh, man. We’ve made something here that is completely different than what is going on.” It’s a step above what we’ve done in the past, and we hope that the fans receive it like we did when we heard the first demos. It was, “Okay, if I heard this band, I would go purchase this record.” We kind of stepped outside of ourselves on this one and took a look inside.
"We’re a band that grew from the beginning."
I love the first record. There are songs that we’ll always play off the first record. Songs like “I Could Care Less” or “Meet The Wretched,” we play every single night. There are a lot of tunes off that record that I like. The evolution of the band is really simple. I left Coal Chamber. I started writing music with one guitar player named Evan Pitts. We got some guys behind us, and we did our first record. The first record, we had only been together six months. The second record was when Evan decided, “Wow, you guys are really serious about this. You never come home.” He was a guy who liked to kick back and work with bonsai trees. He wasn’t a touring kind of a musician. He said, “I’ve got to bow out of this. I can’t tour.” So I said, “Okay.” Then we got Mike. When we got Mike, we found out that my drummer could play guitar. Our bass player plays guitar. My two guitar players play guitar. So we have four guitar players! I’ve always said that I felt our debut is very scattered artistically. It’s not defining us, but it’s moving us forward momentum-wise artistically, which was good. It was only our second year together and we put out that record. On our third one The Last Kind Words, we had been touring so much that we knew what we wanted to put down on that record. So that record was pedal to the floor. When I look back on The Last Kind Words, even though I love that record, I think in my heart that there certainly could have been more defining moments on there. There could have been more abstract moments on there. We could have solidified some different sounds. It could have been a little more diverse for me. In those conversations touring over the years, we kind of knew where we wanted to go. We needed something defining. This sound, I think, if you listen to the record through and through, you’ll find this sound can carry us through for the next duration of our career together.
The live show has played a major factor in your success, and I noticed that you were nominated recently for Best Live Band in the Metal Hammer Golden God Awards. What do you think it is about a DevilDriver show that stands apart from the rest?
We’ve got a punk rock mentality onstage, I think – at least I do. We go up and we’ll go off. What I mean by “going off” is that we’re not jumping on our cabinets or doing backflips or a lot of the stuff that’s going onstage these days. We’re just going up with sincerity in our hearts and devastation in our minds. That’s the only way you can step on that stage. I think we all agree on that. Before we go onstage – you can call it cheesy – but we all put our hands together and go, “Fuck!” Then we go up onstage. I said, “As soon as this stops or we don’t do this night or don’t have the energy to do this one night and actually go ‘Fuck’ before going up onstage, then let’s stop. Let’s take a nice, long break.” So we all made that agreement. It may be tomorrow or it may be three years when one dude walks up and doesn’t want to put his hand in. Then we realize, “Okay, it’s time to come off the road.” I think that’s part of the unit. We destroy our bodies up there for fun! It’s a good time!
DevilDriver attempted the Guinness World Records’ “largest circle pit” back in 2007, and I understand that this year’s Download Festival also played a part in that goal. How did it go?
Yeah. They never showed up. They didn’t show up at the last one, but they wrote us up a letter. That was in the tent, which held between 15,000 and 20,000 people. At Download, there was 80,000, but they were divided in two. So we had two big pits. Again, that’s when the fans give to you. I can’t make them do that. You know as well as I do that people don’t have to do something they don’t want to do. When that happens in a place, we all kind of become one. It’s really appreciated.
Do you have a rigorous touring schedule this year?
Oh, yeah. We’re really not coming home too much until about 2012. I’ve got about eight days home now, and then we leave. We’re going to do the States, we’re going to come back to Europe, and then we go overseas and do Hawaii, Japan, and Australia. Then we come back for a week or two in Christmas, and then we go back over to Europe. We’ll do another State run next year. I love to tour. That’s in my blood and in my soul. I’m hoping that the rest of these guys can hang in there!
"We kind of stepped outside of ourselves and took a look inside."
Yeah! It’s a really cool thing. I don’t even remember how that even came about. I remember one night it came in my head and I said, “The day that this doesn’t happen, we’re taking time off.” We all looked at each other like, “Cool.” It could be two-and-a-half years from now. Some guy just says, “Look, dude. I need one month off.” You never get one month off ever.
Back in 2008, there was apparently footage taken from a Detroit show that was supposed be used for a DVD. Is that still in the works?
What’s going on with that, the camera man’s name is Dan Burke. He’s been with us from the very beginning with a camera in his hand. We’ve got it all, from the very first record until now, on tape – and we’ve never put out a DVD. First of all, we’ve got to film a live show or two. When we do get around to putting it out, it’s going to be very expansive. It’s going to be from the very beginning of preproduction of the first record up until now. We’re trying to figure out how to do that, what format to do that in, how many disks to do that in. I want it to be done right. I want it to be done expanded. I want it to have four or five disks. It’s the only way it’s going to be possible. We’ll see whether that comes to fruition or how that works.
Most of the DVDs out right now, even by the biggest metal bands right now, it’s only 18 or 20 days in their life. They don’t do a year in their life or two years in their life or three years in life. A guy comes out with a camera for 17, 18 days, slices it up, and makes a DVD. Hopefully something crazy happens. If it doesn’t, then it may get staged. The stuff that you see on ours is not staged. It’s over the course of the years. You’re going to see some pretty intense things. Everything from extreme happy times, when we’re all hearing that we got a tour, to fights and other things that don’t happen in 18 days. It’s what happened in eight years. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.
Interview by Amy Kelly
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