DISTURBED Frontman Talks GRAMMYS, Illegal Music Downloading

Away-Team.com conducted an interview with DISTURBED frontman David Draiman on February 16, 2009. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Away-Team.com: Let's talk about the latest album, "Indestructible". First of all, congratulations on "The Night" being your fourth single to be released from that album, and also your incredible Grammy nomination for the single "Inside The Fire". Even though you were totally screwed by the academy when they handed the award to THE MARS VOLTA, a band that isn't even really hard rock…the fact is, a friggin' metal band got nominated and you guys are totally creating roads for those that come behind you. Did you ever, in a million years, think you'd be four singles deep into a record and have a Grammy nomination amongst all this other incredible stuff that keeps happening for the band?

Draiman: First of all, thanks so much for the compliments, brother, you're too kind. I think, technically, "The Night" is only the third, OFFICIAL single to be released from the album since "Perfect Insanity" was really just something that we, as a band, released to the fans as a teaser for the album. It was on our MySpace page and I know a lot of radio stations picked that up and just ran with it, and we totally appreciate them giving us airtime, but since it wasn't an official release, "The Night" is more like the third single to come from that album. We think we've got one more that will get released to radio as our fourth single, so it's coming. (laughs) I don't know exactly which one we're going to finally agree upon to put out there, but this is one of our strongest albums, so I know it will be worthy of our fans. As far as the Grammy, we were just so honored to even be thought of. That's a pretty big deal and for a hard rock band, it's even more so. I don't want to take anything away from THE MARS VOLTA because I love those guys and they're a great band who I completely believe deserved the recognition they got. We were just so surprised and honored to be thought of for something like that. So, to answer your question…(laughs) NO…we never thought we'd see the day that our band would be up for a Grammy Award. It was a total shock. Case in point… LED ZEPPELIN's Robert Plant; One of the comments he made on the whole Robert Plant and Allison Krauss collaboration was that he thought it was kind of unusual that he's been in the business all these years and never won a Grammy. Now, he wins five of them for something that he did that had nothing to do with what he's done in the past. I didn't expect us to be there, and truth be told, the Grammys have been, and unfortunately on a certain level, continue to be, the home for other genres; not really hard rock or heavy metal. So, to even be nominated, for us, was a huge deal and something that I'll always look back on as a highlight of my career and life. Hopefully, the academy will look to expand its rock contingency to be able to properly reflect their constituents. Let's face it, the majority of this country in the last election, not this one that just happened, but the one before it…is painted red. Those states…the people in those states (laughs),they listen to two types of music; it's either country (laughter) or it's rock. [The Academy Of Musical Arts] is really being shortsighted to not recognize that fact, which is why their ratings continue to slump and suffer regardless of the performances they've tried to have on the show. I think if they had a little more of a rock presence, they'd see more people come to the table.”

Away-Team.com: In talking about music, and your albums in particular, you've always been a supporter of Internet file sharing and music downloading. (Dave nods his head in approval) Why have you openly opposed the RIAA's (Recording Industry Association Of America) moves to try and ban people from sharing music on the internet and the act of people pirating downloads from the Internet? Also, how do you explain why DISTURBED has had their last three albums hit number one in the week it was released and all of them go multi-platinum, even though you support people downloading your music, whether it's for free or as a paid purchase?

Draiman: Thank God, right? (laughs) You are really an idiot if you bite the hand that feeds you, and that's what they're doing by not letting the music get into the hands of the people who want it in the quickest and most efficient way possible. These are the people you sell ANYTHING to as a band; whether it be T-shirts, tickets, music or ANYTHING! These are the people who believe in you, took stock in you and spend their lives supporting you. I genuinely feel it's been the fault of the industry that it is collapsing under the weight of the greed and preponderance to hold onto a model which has not worked properly in some time. The recording industry should have been on the forefront of technology, not trying to catch up ten years later. They should have known that it is just a matter of time. The cassette killed the record, the CD killed the cassette, and now, the MP3 is killing the CD! It's logic. If [the RIAA] had been forward-thinking enough and been pushing THEIR version of the MP3 early on, they would have negotiated deals with the ISP's individually, and could have treated it…I'll give you an example; There are 70-million people who subscribe to ISPs to get their Internet services. You know, they have to go to a server to get on the Internet…There's a company called Big Champagne that has developed a software that measures Internet downloads. That's how we know how many download sales are occurring on our music. So, if you knew that this company also offered, for only $5.00 per month, unlimited internet file sharing…much like when you order the NFL Sunday Ticket, you pay one fee and get all the games and you can do what you want with them…you'd surely consider this over the alternatives. So, you've got this nominal fee…$5.00 per month…but you take that $5.00 a month times the 70-million people who subscribe and that's a lot of revenue. You can then use the software that Big Champagne has developed to disperse those royalties the same way that publishing is dispersed for the number of downloads.”

Read the entire interview from Away-Team.com.