DEVILDRIVER Frontman On New CD: 'The Bass Is So Heavy It Shouldn't Even Be Allowed!'

Spiritech of Australia's PyroMusic.net recently conducted an interview with vocalist Dez Fafara of Santa Barbara, California's DEVILDRIVER. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

PyroMusic.net: You've recently revealed that the title [of the new DEVILDRIVER album] will be "Pray For Villains". What's the meaning behind this one?

Dez Fafara: There's a song on the record called "Pray For Villains", and the chorus is, "They pray for villains when their heroes let them down." And it's pretty self-explanatory, you know? A lot of times we put our heroes in a mess and they can't do a damn thing, and all of a sudden someone comes along who you think is the bad guy or the villain, and he saves the day. So that's what that's about.

PyroMusic.net: Interesting. How does the new material compare to your previous albums — heavier? More melodic? Faster? More guitar solos?

Dez Fafara: Way, way, way more guitar work, way more solos, the drumming has stepped up, the bass is so heavy it shouldn't even be allowed! (laughs) It's so heavy. Vocally, I'm doing a lot of different things, I broke out of the box. I think the band as a whole has just been growing from the first record until "The Last Kind Words" and now, we've stepped it up a notch in order to define who we are and define our sound and also not get trapped into the same place. We're never going to make the same record twice and I think that's the one thing that stands out about this record, it's just definitely something different from DEVILDRIVER.

PyroMusic.net: From interviews I've read that seems to be somewhat of a band mantra, to never make the same album twice.

Dez Fafara: I think so. I think art has to grow. I don't want to be stale and make the same record. I tell people if you're looking for "The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand Part II" or "The Last Kind Words Part II", well, you're not going to get it. We continue to grow and define ourselves and as artists, if you don't grow you get stale, and that's not a good place to be in.

PyroMusic.net: You guys have also had some rather cool artwork on your previous albums- have you got the art for "Pray For Villains" finalized yet?

Dez Fafara: Yeah, I've got a bunch of stuff in line right now. I'm working on all the artwork and all the concept stuff right now, I should have it done by the end of this month and it should be really cool. It's going to be something different. The last three records have just featured the cross predominantly on the front cover and this time we're going to break out of that box and give them something else.

PyroMusic.net: The band has been rather prolific throughout your career, having released four albums now in about a six-year period. Is this an important thing for DEVILDRIVER to do to keep your name out there?

Dez Fafara: Yeah, well we've been together since 2002, so we've just continued to make music. For us, making fans wait two or three years between records is just ridiculous. So there's no reason why we can't continue to tour as much as we do, and we tour more than most bands in the world. So there's not a reason we can't continue to do that and to write at the same time and keep putting out music.

PyroMusic.net: Do the whole band tend to write much while on the road?

Dez Fafara: Ah, well I know that some people do write on the road, some people write when they get home, I think it's a mixture of both. I tend to write once I get the music in my hands and decide what songs I like and what songs are good for DEVILDRIVER and what ones aren't, that's when I start my writing process. My writing process didn't start until December 10 last year, and between December 10th and now I wrote it, demoed the whole thing, all 15 songs and recorded all 15 songs. So I've been working hard.

PyroMusic.net: DEVILDRIVER are renowned for having a wide variety of different metal influences in their music. Is there anything that you've written through your own process where you've thought, "this isn't right for DEVILDRIVER," or it a case of anything goes?

Dez Fafara: Well, no it's not anything goes at all. It's totally the opposite actually. I don't mind breaking out of the box and stretching our artistic wings, but I know what DEVILDRIVER is and I know what DEVILDRIVER isn't. There's so many influences in this band... often times I don't get brought music from the players because they know, this is absolutely not for DEVILDRIVER — it'd be great for another band but not for DEVILDRIVER. So there are those walls and those boundaries that we don't cross, but I don't want us also to be afraid to jump out of the box and do different things and this record is really about, us stretching our wings now and really, really beginning to... when you hear the record you'll understand what I'm saying.

Read the entire interview from PyroMusic.net.