DISTURBED Bassist: 'What's Great About Heavy Metal Is That The Music Belongs To The Fans'

Amy Harris of CityBeat.com recently conducted an interview with DISTURBED bassist John Moyer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

CityBeat.com: You have been together for ten years and have five albums and are always on the road, you fall into the workaholic category to me.

John: We are definitely workaholics. We have five albums in ten years and the band has been together longer than that. Let's call it eleven years. Think about that five albums in eleven years, that means every two years, roughly, we are putting out a new record. Well, what happens between those two years, we have to tour a record. We tour for a year on a record. And that only leaves only a year between touring and releasing a new record where we have to write a whole new body of material, get in the studio, record it, master it, and promote it, and get it out again and then get our wheels running for another tour.

CityBeat.com: It seemed really aggressive compared to a lot of the bands that I talk to. One of the questions I have for you is do you have any down time and in your down time, what do you do?

John: We don't have a lot of down time. In fact, increasingly what has to happen is, three of us are married with kids. David [Draiman], our singer, is engaged to be married.

CityBeat.com: He is. That's scary. I'm wondering if the writing will change if he's in a happy relationship.

John: That's an interesting point, but David, I don't think that will ever change for him. He's always going to be in touch with that angry side of him. It's just how he is. His therapy is writing lyrics like that. And to tell you the truth, no matter how happy a relationship is, being married and doing what we do as musicians, being on the road a lot is very stressful to a relationship. It's stressful on our lives, too. And I was about to say, we don't have a lot of down time so we have to incorporate a lot of what would normally be our down time with our work schedule. So we try to bring the families out as much as possible. When I am home, it's all family time for me, I don't have much time to do much else. Sometimes, if we are off for a couple weeks, I might go out and see a show or try to do something else. I'm a big homebody when I am home. Because when we are out, every day we are out. Every day we live being out. When I am home I like to be a homebody and I just basically curl up with the family and do family stuff. As far as the other side of it, everybody has a right to happiness, including David. I don't think that's going to change his lyrical approach. In fact it might make it more vicious, you never know.

CityBeat.com: You guys are coming through this summer, you guys are coming on [Rockstar Energy Drink] Mayhem fest in the next tour for the summer. You are going to be with MEGADETH and Dave Mustaine. I know they have to be huge influences to you guys.

John: I'm a big MEGADETH fan. It's awesome. We know Dave Ellefson very well and I've met Dave Mustaine a number of times over the years and he's a great guy. I'm super-excited about it. Not to date myself or to date MEGADETH, but I was in high school watching them in the arenas and listening to their records saying to myself, "Man, wouldn't it be great one of these days to be up on a stage like that to be able to rock out like they're doing." They've been around a long time. I got into them around the "Rust In Peace" era and they had already had four or five records before that. It's dangerous. And that's what's great about hard rock and heavy metal is that the music belongs to the fans. That's why the fans are so committed, and it's not just DISTURBED fans, and you mentioned this earlier that we have rabid fans, but I think that fans of hard rock and heavy metal in general are very dedicated because it is music that belongs to them. They like it because it sounds good not because People magazine rated it five stars. It's the bastard child of the music industry. Nobody really acknowledges it. There's like one category on the Grammys for it. There's no real industry because the more popular side of media does not embrace it. But it exists, and it thrives, and it's powerful. The biggest festivals are rock and metal festivals and it's because the fans connect to the music. You can't deny it. When you get into it at a young age, it's like dangerous music you hide from your parents because it belongs to you and you know it's powerful.

Read the entire interview from CityBeat.com.