DEVILDRIVER Frontman: 'I'm Completely Socially Awkward'

Omar Cordy of Ghost Cult magazine recently conducted an interview with vocalist Dez Fafara of Californian metallers DEVILDRIVER. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Ghost Cult: You've been with Roadrunner Records forever, basically. So this is your first time away from Roadrunner. What made you decide it was time for a change?

Dez: You know, I think it was beneficial for both of us. I think the label and I came to the same conclusion. A lot of people were leaving the label, a lot of people were getting let go, a lot of people that worked me and signed me, getting let go. A lot of the bands were getting let go. I didn't feel the passion there. I felt like on "Pray For Villains" and on "Beast", especially in the United States on Roadrunner, they didn't really pay attention to it, and that bummed me out, man. You need to have passion within the people that you work with, and that work alongside you, and I just wasn't feeling their passion anymore. Napalm Records, I feel their vibe I feel their passion for the music. They're a great business partner. We still have Roadrunner/Warner Brothers over in Australia, and we signed with Metal Blade in Japan, so we have good working business partners with this. It's difficult for me, because I'm artistic and I don't like the art to be turned into a commodity, but you have to, at a certain point, in order to get out there and tour and reach certain goals. You have to have people, that if they are going to do that, they are not just numbers people, they've got some kind of passion behind them, and everyone that I'm working with now on the business end has a lot of passion for the music. So I'm pleased to be with all these new business partners. It's a new venture, it's a new record, it's a new bass player, it's a new feeling for us, and we've definitely captured a record that's going to back all that.

Ghost Cult: I noticed you are very, very active on Twitter. I enjoy when you ask people to ask you any question and people start asking you every random thing, serious or not serious. You give very concise and matter-of-fact answers, and I appreciate your honesty.

Dez: Let me tell you something. I'm a hermit, I'm a loner, and I'm an isolationist. I'm completely socially awkward. You'll never find me at the strip club or backstage doing the whole "hangout party thing." My hands start getting sweaty if I'm around more than fifteen people; I just want to bail out. A perfect example is that I was just at an awards show less than a month ago, and as soon as I was done playing, I went straight to my bus and put on a movie instead of going in and hanging out with all the bands and everything. It's just too much for me. I prefer the isolation. I prefer to just do my art and make music. That being said, I did take a job where I have to be a little social and got to be out there and on the road. Well, it [Twitter] gives me an outlet. I'm able to talk to a mass audience or talk to people where I don't need to put myself in a social situation, because that just doesn't work for me anymore. I kind of bent to the rule where I just do better in some kind of isolation, with a few friends and not in big groups. So social media gives me an outlet I can post pictures on Instagram of my family and my dogs give people a bit of insight of what I do when I'm home. I'm a normal cat; I live a blue-collar, working-class life. It's how I grew up on the job site as a construction guy, and I remember that, and that's what's going on with me. But Twitter and Instagram give me a way to talk to people and not have to get out of my zone, which may be the back of the tour bus, or on my couch at home. Who knows?

Read the entire interview at Ghost Cult magazine.