DISTURBED's DAN DONEGAN Says Heavier Musical Direction On 'Divisive' Album Happened 'Naturally'  

In a new interview with Australia's Heavy, DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan spoke about the heavier music direction of the band's latest studio album, "Divisive". Regarding what motivated the band to "return to its roots," Dan said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Organically, when we're writing it, it's just gotta happen naturally. We could always talk about, 'Hey, we want this next record to be heavy,' or, 'We wanna do a power ballad,' or whatever. It's really just comes down to picking up the instrument and start playing and seeing what comes out.

"Some of the inspiration, for me, [came from] working with a new producer this time around, with Drew Fulk," he explained. "I really liked a lot of the work he's had with the band WAGE WAR and MOTIONLESS IN WHITE and some of the production ideas he had. And just getting in a room with somebody new, it's almost like having a fifth member of the band. And sometimes it's hard to give up a little bit of freedom to allow somebody in to your personal space and hear them, because there's so many great, gifted musicians and producers out there. I hold this stuff so close to my heart, it's hard to just have somebody else have an opinion. And we've learned to open up and let somebody just kind of throw some ideas at you and kind of push you in a different way. And with Drew being this kind of new, hot producer and all these new elements, it was just really exciting to get in the room with him and just kind of bounce ideas off each other and really get what we needed from each other. So, it's been a great experience."

When the interviewer noted that having an outside perspective is sometimes a necessity to get him and his bandmates out of their "attachment" that they might have to what they are creating, Dan concurred. "Absolutely," he said. "I think, historically, in the past we would call it 'demoitis,' 'cause we would record these things. You get so attached to the demo, and then we would go in the studio. All we would do is just re-record them with better takes, but basically almost exactly the way the demo was. And then we realized sometimes we've gotta maybe don't get too attached to it and let those moments happen in the studio as we're improvising ideas and putting each other on the spot and just feeding off of each other. And a lot of that happened with this album, with 'Divisive'. I ended up writing probably half of it in the studio as we were going. And I would just come up with a new riff, kind of put David [Draiman, DISTURBED singer] on the spot. That's where we shine the most, when I can throw a riff at him and just make him, in that moment, improvise that melody on top of it, and magic happens."

After the interviewer commended the DISTURBED bandmembers for still working on music in a room together when so many other groups choose to piece their material together remotely, Dan clarified: "We've done that in the past, and, yeah, the technology is there to do it, and you can still get good results. But I think we've come back around to trying to go back to those garage band days of capturing that moment together.

"We all live in different states back in the U.S., and if I share a file, I'm, like, sitting there waiting for the phone call, getting feedback. 'Hey, what do you think of it? Let's hear your melody,'" he explained. "You don't share that excitement together [like you do] when you're improvising, and I play the riff and we feed off each other and then you see, 'Okay, this is working,' 'cause you're reading the body language of the other bandmembers. You know you're on to something. And if you're not feeling it, you start changing the riff around, changing the beat around, that whole improvising stage. In our case, we realized, we feel that we get better results out of it that way."

Earlier this month, DISTURBED garnered its 19th No. 1 on the Active Rock radio chart with "Don't Tell Me", the band's latest single, which features a guest appearance by Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee and HEART co-founder Ann Wilson. The song is DISTURBED's fourth No. 1 off "Divisive".

This is the second time DISTURBED has earned four No. 1s on a single record, having previously accomplished the same feat on 2015's "Immortalized". Only nine rock albums since 1992 have been able to secure four No. 1 songs on the Mediabase Rock charts and two of them have been DISTURBED's.

Released in November 2022, "Divisive" was recorded earlier that year with Fulk 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.