DISTURBED Guitarist Discusses Formation Of FIGHT OR FLIGHT

Shauna of Alternative Addiction recently conducted an interview with DISTURBED and FIGHT OR FLIGHT guitarist Dan Donegan. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Alternative Addiction: I know that some people are confused out there, so for the record DISTURBED is not over, correct? You are just taking a break.

Dan: It's funny, because we never had a long conversation about it; we just kind of, collectively, towards the end of the touring cycle, said that at end of the touring cycle, maybe we should take a break from it. Not only just for us, but for the fans too. We don't want to burn them out of the same routine of us writing, recording and touring. It is always hard to stop and take a break when we still felt like we were on top of our game. We were headlining a lot of the festivals, touring all over the world and pulling in big crowds. It is hard to stop and walk away from that. We also thought that if everyone goes on and does what they choose to do, whether it be with side projects, time with families or whatever, then eventually when the day comes if we decide to pick up the phone and say, "Let's start writing again," hopefully there is new life injected into us and we can go back out stronger.

Alternative Addiction: You decided to start a side project because you missed the fans.

Dan: Oh, for sure! I knew that was going to happen. I didn't know it was going to happen as quickly as it did. It's in our blood and it's what we know. We have been doing it professionally since the late '90s. After every album cycle before, we would go home for maybe a month, two at the most, start writing, set up the record and go. This time when there was no plan to come back right away; it definitely kicked in more. I definitely missed performing. I was going out to more concerts and seeing anything that was coming to town. I was being a fan again. I was watching the things that inspired me in the first place to want to be a musician. That adrenaline rush is there and I needed an outlet to get back to it.

Alternative Addiction: [FIGHT OR FLIGHT] will release [its] debut album, "A Life by Design?", on July 23rd via Warner Bros. Records. How long have you been working on this project and how did this lineup come together?

Dan: At the start of it, I didn't know that I was planning to form a band. I just wanted an outlet to write, and then I started talking to Dan Chandler, the vocalist from EVANS BLUE. We did a show together at Rock On The Range a couple years ago. That was my first time seeing him live, and he left an impression on me. I thought he was a strong vocalist and I liked the band. In passing, someone had mentioned that maybe we should co-write sometime. I had put that in the back of my mind because I was already on the road with DISTURBED and that is where my head was at. Once we decided to take the break with DISTURBED, I reached out to him and we started talking a little bit more. I was a bit gun-shy at first, because I was waiting out the conversation to see who was going to pull the trigger and say, "I have some ideas. Do you want to write?" I was, like, "Hey, I'm sitting around doing nothing right now. Send me over some ideas." He started sending me some very stripped down ideas. I started separating the tracks and I started creating a foundation in music around it. That was a different approach for me, too, but I liked that challenge, because, historically, with DISTURBED, I have always presented the music to David [Draiman, DISTURBED singer] for him to write on top of. In the beginning, Dan was just sending me some vocal and melody ideas and I was building the music around it. It made me think outside the box a little more. I wanted it to come out naturally, but I wanted to make my best attempt at keeping it separate from DISTURBED as well.

Read the entire interview from Alternative Addiction.