DISTURBED's DAN DONEGAN On Working With Producer DREW FULK: 'I've Never Had A Better Experience In The Studio'

DISTURBED's Dan Donegan talked to Terrie Carr of the Morristown, New Jersey radio station 105.5 WDHA about his band's decision to work with producer Drew Fulk (MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, LIL PEEP, HIGHLY SUSPECT) on its recently released eighth studio album "Divisive". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's always challenging because… The early part of our career, we worked with Johnny K, who did the first three albums with us. He's a hometown friend, out of Chicago. I knew him growing up, being a local guy, doing the demos for bands locally. And then we kind of self-produced throughout the years. Then we went to Kevin Churko in Las Vegas, who's done FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH [and] IN THIS MOMENT — a lot of great bands — out of Vegas. So, at this point, we just felt like we needed new life, we needed another person in there. So to let somebody in from the outside, to kind of become that fifth member of the band, is always challenging. I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to our music, and to let somebody in and to try to allow them to have an opinion and trust them and respect what they do and bring to the table… I think we've opened up a lot more over the years. The older we get, we've kind of opened up to say, 'Hey, we can trust this person to throw ideas at us. It's gonna challenge us and push us too.'"

The guitarist continued: "It's a bit of a learning curve in the beginning. And I kind of was seeking out producers, trying to think who was catching my attention currently. And I thought Drew was kind of a younger guy in his 30s. I liked what he was doing [with] WAGE WAR and then MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, and he did a couple of one-off songs with PAPA ROACH and POP EVIL and stuff like that. So I really liked what he was doing with those bands, what he brought to the table with the production of them. And I thought that this could be a really good marriage between him and DISTURBED.

"We wanted to get back to some of the core elements of what DISTURBED is — those signature elements of… that animalistic side to David's [Draiman] vocals," Donegan explained. "Even though he's still very melodic, bringing out that animalistic side to him, bringing the heavy riffs with the syncopation in the rhythm section and then with the modern-day production. And we thought Drew would be a good marriage and a good addition to this band. And it was. I flew out to California to meet with him — it was just me and him — just to hang out, not even work together. I just wanted to see if we just vibed as people. And we just hit it off right away. I picked him as the producer. I told the [other] guys [in the band] my opinion: 'I think that Drew is the guy that we should at least enter the studio with and see how it goes.' And it was just a short period of time of being in the studio once we started the writing process that we felt his opinions, his contribution was something that we were gonna benefit from. And it just became a great friendship and working relationship with him. It was amazing. I've never had a better experience in the studio than being with Drew. Him and I had a great chemistry, and it really got the ball rolling for us to kind of create those ideas to give David a bed of music that was gonna inspire him melodically and lyrically."

"Divisive" came out last November. The LP was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to Billboard, "Divisive" sold 26,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release, with 22,000 units via album sales.

On the all-format Billboard 200 chart, "Divisive" debuted at No. 13.

DISTURBED has had five No. 1s on the all-genre chart, beginning with "Believe" in 2002.

Dan's recent divorce inspired the "Divisive" song "Don't Tell Me", which is a duet with HEART's Ann Wilson. In two decades, it breaks ground as the first-ever guest collaboration on a DISTURBED record.

"It was very personal to me," Dan previously said. "I was going through my divorce, and I wanted to touch on the fact I was in a very long marriage to a wonderful woman. She's a great mother to my kids. We were together for 18 years. Even though the marriage was in a tough spot, it was hard to leg go, because we'd invested so much into each other. I felt like listeners could relate to it."