MIKE WENGREN Reflects On DISTURBED's Early Years: 'We Were A Self-Promotion Machine'

In a recent interview with David Frangioni of Modern Drummer, DISTURBED's Mike Wengren reflected on the band's rise from Chicago clubs to global stages. ‬He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "August of '96 is when we basically formed DISTURBED. Myself and Dan Donegan, the guitar player, had been together since '92 with different versions, with different lineups, other guys, just trying to figure out how to make it work. And we had put an ad out in the paper, which was called Illinois Entertainer at the time, in Chicago. And we went through literally 50 to 60 different auditions of guys. We had a bass player at the time. And then one day in walks David — David Draiman, our DISTURBED singer now. And we had kind of gotten used to the routine of, 'Okay, Mr. Singer Guy, what covers do you know?' So David walks in and we're, like, 'All right, what covers do you know?' And he's, like, 'Well, do you guys have any originals?' We're, like, 'Yeah, of course we do.' He's, like, 'Well, just do that.' We're, like, 'Well, what are you gonna do? It's original. You don't know our song. You never heard it before.' He goes, 'Just play it and I'll figure something out.' So we went into a song, and he just started to scat a rhythmic type of melody, vocal line. And we were just looking around at each other, like, 'This is great.' Somebody who shows initiative, someone who has identity. It was exciting. And from that moment, we knew he was the guy."

Regarding how DISTURBED ended up getting noticed by Giant Records and signing a record deal in 1999, the drummer said: "Back in Chicago, back in those days, there was this sort of alterna[tive] pop-rock scene with bands like SMASHING PUMPKINS, VERUCA SALT, LOCAL H. We weren't part of that. We weren't part of the Cool Kids club. We were considered too heavy. So as far as like getting noticed in the Chicago area, like the Metro, we couldn't get a gig there to save our lives. So we had to go out to the suburbs, the South Side dive bars and just try to make our own scene. So there was a bunch of buddies of ours in other bands, and we just kind of created our own scene. We'd play these local bars. They weren't even clubs. And eventually we just started packing. So while we were doing that, we would also… We were a self-promotion machine. Whatever little money we'd save up from playing a gig, we'd eventually go and record a demo, a demo cassette. We would mass-produce these three-song cassette demos, and whether there was a local show or a national show in our genre, we would go out as many nights a week as we could and just promote. We'd stand outside when the show let out and just hand out cassettes, just to try and get the name out there. People started to take notice, not just because of the music but because we made sure to be out there, to be seen, to network. There was no social media, so we socially engaged with as many people as we could. If there was multiple shows going on that night, we would just divide and conquer. We'd split up. It was all about branding, all about getting the name out there. We just became a self-promotion machine. Eventually other bands started to take notice of what we were doing. There was this band called LUNGBRUSH, and they had a way in at the Metro, so they gave us an opening [slot]. So we did really well. We promoted [the show] to our South Side fans. They showed up in droves to see us play. And from that moment on [we were on our way to getting a record deal]."

DISTURBED kicked off the U.S. leg of "The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour" on February 25 at Ford Idaho Center Arena in Nampa, Idaho. The trek celebrated 25 years of DISTURBED's seminal debut album which launched the band into public consciousness and is one of the most important and influential heavy metal albums of all time. Each night featured two sets of music, opening with DISTURBED playing the five-times-platinum "The Sickness" in full, followed by a full set of greatest hits. Openers on the U.S. shows included THREE DAYS GRACE, SEVENDUST, DAUGHTRY and NOTHING MORE, depending on the date.

This past February, DISTURBED announced the European leg of "The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour" with support from MEGADETH. The trek will kick off on September 28 in Copenhagen, Denmark and conclude on October 28 in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Since "The Sickness" was released in 2000, the album was certified five times platinum by the RIAA, spent a total of 106 weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart, and Revolver named it one of "Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums." Billboard said of the title track upon release: "'Down With The Sickness' is, of course, the quintessential DISTURBED song, harnessing all the band's seethe and its now-famous tribal beat and guitar chug into three and a half minutes of alt-metal mayhem. It's menacing, it's rhythmic, it's rebellious."

DISTURBED recently released the 25th-anniversary edition of "The Sickness". To commemorate the anniversary, the band reissued the five-times-platinum-certified LP on March 7, exactly 25 years to the date of their original release.

On February 21, DISTURBED released a new single, "I Will Not Break", via the band's own label, Mother Culture Records.