DISTURBED Drummer: All The Bands On The Radio 'Sound The Same To Me'

July 19, 2006

Alan Sculley of TimesLeader.com recently conducted an interview with DISTURBED drummer Mike Wengren. A few excerpts from teh chat follow:

On the band's greater emphasis on musicianship on their new album, "Ten Thousand Fists":

"Ironically, we've had suggestions from some of the label people or what not who say 'Why don't you guys simplify it? Instead of playing all that double bass, why don't you simplify it a little bit more?' And just to humor everybody we gave it a try a couple of times, and you know, we just don't know how to do that."

On the band's dissatisfaction with the music scene as a whole:

"There's a lot of R&B, there's a lot of rap, hip-hop, pop, the charts are flooded with that. I'd like to see rock take more hold of it, take some of it back. It's just frustrating with me, with all of us. I mean no disrespect to any of the bands out there, but I turn on the radio and most of the time I don't even know who it is because they all sound the same to me."

On President George W. Bush serving as the inspiration for the dark nature of the songs on "Ten Thousand Fists":

“That was a big influence on Dave's [Draiman] lyrical content on this record as well. We wouldn't at all say that this is a political record by any means, but it's definitely the most political of the three. We have a couple of songs that talk about the war. There's the song 'Deify', and while people seem to think that that's an anti-Bush song, it's not. He's just a perfect example of deifying someone, when somebody thinks an ordinary human being is god-like."

On parting ways with bassist Steve "Fuzz" Kmak, citing personal differences:

"We were with him for a long time and we were close friends, and it was just a tough situation to go through, like a bad divorce. And we weren't sure how we were going to start dating again. . . When John [Moyer] came in, he stepped up and it's just been great. He's added a new-found energy and excitement to the band. He's been a great player and we're gelling really well on stage together."

Read the entire article at TimesLeader.com.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).