DISTURBED Frontman: 'I Lead A Very, Very Straight-Edge Sort Of Lifestyle On The Road'

Eric Lewis of Times & Transcript recently conducted an interview with DISTURBED frontman David Draiman. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the seemingly never-ending life on the road:

"It's not easy, my friend, regardless of what people will tell you. I never understood why so many musicians turn to abusive drug use until I had been on the road for five, six years. And then you begin to understand why they get drawn into it, why they need it, why they need something to carry them over during the times of abandonment, or loneliness, of loss of anonymity, of loss of self, of loss of any stability and normalcy of life."

"You have to decide what's important to you. For instance, myself, I mean I lead a very, very straight-edge sort of lifestyle on the road. I'm kind of like in a bubble — can't drink, can't smoke, can't hang out late. None of it. My body is my instrument, and I'm not one of those guys that has an iron constitution and can go ahead and obliterate themselves and be OK the next day. I just can't do it, especially with how physically demanding pulling these songs off vocally is. You really need to respect what it takes to pull this off, and you really need to respect your body."

"I'm not tired of writing music and performing in front of crowds, but the life of touring, I've been tired of it for a long, long, long time.

On DISTURBED's future touring activities:

"I think that we in the future are going to be a little more selective in our touring and not tour as extensively, not cover territories more than once or twice in a cycle, and really kind of make each DISTURBED performance an event. I don't think that at our age and with the level of strenuousness that this life requires that we can continue beating the hell out of ourselves the way that we have."

On recording the last album, "Indestructible", without the help of an outside producer:

"It definitely makes you rely on each other much more heavily. Having that outside voice was sometimes helpful but, truth be told, 95 per cent of what has made every DISTURBED record from an arrangement perspective and from the way that the songs were actually written was completed prior to tracking, prior to entering into the studio."

On being fortunate to remain successful for so many years:

"We've survived extinction. We've been very, very fortunate. I think that we've been consistent. We've put out records that consistently have been what the fans have been looking for from DISTURBED. We've been consistent with our live performances. As long as we continue to maintain that level of trust with our fanbase, I think they'll still be there."

Read more from Times & Transcript.