Ex-MEGADETH Drummer SHAWN DROVER On Relying On Social Media To Promote His Bands' Music: 'It's A Necessary Evil'

Former MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover, who is currently promoting the debut album from his WITHERING SCORN project, was asked in a new interview with the "Trendcrusher" podcast if he enjoys having to rely on social media so much to promote his music and grow his bands' audiences. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Not really, to give you an honest answer. I mean, look, it's a necessary evil. You have to promote your record. Everything keeps coming back to the pandemic. With this pandemic, now so many bands are not able to tour — they're canceling tours because of the cost of petrol in Europe, the cost of bus drivers and buses, the lack of availability of bus drivers and buses because everybody and their grandmother is on tour right now. You've gotta find ways to promote your product, ultimately. So now, with the advent of social media, everybody's doing that. But that's almost a problem, is like everybody and their grandmother is posting on Instagram that they just went to Starbucks and had a latte. It's, like, you kind of get lost in the shuffle of all of the things that you're posting, that I'm posting. We can go on Instagram right now and there'll be 20 new posts from somebody. You can't be on it 15 hours a day and looking at the updates."

He continued: "It's complicated. I understand that's a necessity, and I'm embracing it as much as I can. I'm on it almost every day with the new band, 'cause I believe in the music that we put out, so I have to promote it. I don't mind promoting things. This is just such a new and different thing than what we did back in the day, but you have to adapt to that and you have to try to roll with it. So we're doing the best we can with it. It is what it is. The record company does their job; we do our job. Would I rather it be in the '80s when it was just on the radio and you went and bought metal magazines, and you bought it because… I would definitely prefer that, but that's not reality anymore. I try to adapt the best that I can, and I understand what it is. So you just try to make the best of it."

In addition to Shawn, WITHERING SCORN features his brother, and fellow ex-MEGADETH member, Glen Drover, along with former FATES WARNING bassist Joe DiBiase and German singer Henning Basse, who has previously played with FIREWIND, METALIUM and MAYAN.

WITHERING SCORN's debut album, "Prophets Of Demise", was released on July 7 via Frontiers Music Srl.

WITHERING SCORN was formed in 2020 by Glen and Shawn, who previously played together in MEGADETH, as well as in EIDOLON. The pair have teamed up once again for their latest musical offering and are joined by DiBiase, who played with FATES WARNING for 14 years on multiple records and world tours, and Basse. The potent combination of these four incredibly talented musicians joining forces has given birth to an uncompromising heavy metal record in the form of "Prophets Of Demise".

Shawn joined MEGADETH in 2004 as the replacement for Nick Menza, who had only just rejoined the group. Drover performed on four MEGADETH studio records: 2007's "United Abominations", 2009's "Endgame", 2011's "TH1RT3EN" and 2013's "Super Collider".

Glen Drover left MEGADETH at the end of 2007 and was replaced by Chris Broderick, who previously played with NEVERMORE and JAG PANZER.