Influences

So what's new and exciting in the Disturbed camp
Just been writing. We've been real busy. I mean, everybody
Kind of our personal lives have been busy as well, too
You know, Mike, our drummer, just got married a couple weeks ago
And I just had a baby boy about a little over a month ago
So, you know, we're all just kind of balancing family life
And trying to get back in writing mode
Which we've been kind of hitting it pretty hard
So I think before Mike's wedding and before the baby came
We wanted to get, you know, a majority of the material written

Which we seemed to be pretty successful at
So we're just kind of fine-tuning a lot of stuff right now
So what's the next album going to sound like compared to the others
You got any surprises for us
Definitely, as far as musically, it's a lot ballier than we've written
I think there's going to be those signature things that are us
Just because stylistically, that's the way we perform
And, you know, David Vokely, it's always going to sound like him
So, you know, he's got some big melodic moments
But, you know, there's some still, you know, aggressive stuff

It's a lot ballier than, I think, trying to get a good blend
Of the elements of the past three CDs to try to
You know, evolve into something a little bit fresh and new for us as well
I see the heavy metal community received the last CD quite well, what do you think
Yeah, it came out great. You know, there was a little bit longer time in between
CDs that we had hoped for, between Believe and 10,000 Fists
And there were a couple, you know, bumps in the road and a few things we had to get past
And, you know, at that time my daughter was born
During the break, you know, David was spending a little bit of time in L.A
We were in search of a bass player at the time

So there was, you know, besides writing the material
We had to go through the whole bass player audition and
Spend time and make sure that we were comfortable
Before we came back out that we had our guy
So, you know, it was just a little bit longer than we had hoped for
But when 10,000 Fists came out, you know, it debuted at number one
Beating out Bon Jovi that week. And, you know, it's pretty satisfying
Even though, you know, in the long run it may not matter
It's more of a bragging rights thing, but I think, you know, to us it feels good to know
That we had time off, you know, to be able to come out and still have the fans

You know, frantic about it and really anticipating what we had
So hopefully it'll be the same way
We're really excited about this material, probably more so than we have been in the past
I think we're just anxious to get it going
I thought when you guys came out, you were the band that kind of fused
All the old school fans to the new school of metal, if you will
I mean, do you get that vibe a lot from people
Yeah, you know, it's so over the years, you know
Ehen people try to categorize us
And I don't know what you want to call it

I mean, whatever you want, there's all different labels that come up
You know, to us, we were, you know, we grew up on the old school metal bands
Like you mentioned, you know, Iron Maiden and Priest and Sabbath and
You know, Queensryche and all those bands were big influences on us
And, you know, I just think the term, you know, heavy metal
It's just kind of changed to what it is
You know, what it is today is not what, you know, I remembered it as
But, you know, putting that down, it's just, I don't know how that term changed
So, you know, I don't care as far as what category we're lumped in
But we've always been kind of, there's a type of band who likes to incorporate

You know, melody and a message, you know, in our songs
Much so like those metal bands from the 80s
So I was chatting with your manager yesterday, and I just kind of randomly brought up
I was going to ask you your opinion on the state of music
And, you know, he started chuckling
Are you opinionated on that, or what are your thoughts
You know, I don't really, you know, unfortunately, I don't really pay attention to it
You know, anymore, I mean, I'm a huge fan of music
But there hasn't really been anything, you know, new and exciting
And, you know, I just, I think that we just kind of continue

You know, moving along, doing our own thing
And there's not, it would be nice to have more bands
That we can be kind of lumped in together to kind of make it a stronger scene
I mean, with the exceptions of bands like, you know, Korn and Godsmack and
You know, now System of a Down is gone
You know, there's not enough of that, you know, so it would be nice to still
You know, make a statement within the industry
But, you know, like I said, there just hasn't been a whole lot of new stuff
That has really caught my attention, I I mean, it kind of all, to me
Kind of all sounds the same. I mean, I dig a few songs here and there

From some of these bands, I think there's some good musicianship and there's some
You know, as a guitar player, you know, there's some good guitar players
That are kind of up and rising that, you know, I think are good players
But I just haven't heard really strong anthemic songs, you know, in a long time
Yeah, I hear that. What do you jam to when you're just kicking around the house
You know, just doing your thing, you know, lately it's just been trying to
You know, listen to kind of the old stuff that could inspire me
You know, for what we're doing today, I mean
Usually I like to try to listen to a little bit of everything

To keep us sounding fresh and new and stay on top of it
But I've been, lately it's been a lot more of going back to, you know
Faith No More and Sabbath and Maiden and stuff like that, and Queensryche
Just to kind of look for some more inspiration of those bands that
You know, got me, you know going in the first place