DISTURBED Frontman Says Half Of 'Evolution' Album Is 'Very, Very Different'

Adam Kane of Winnipeg radio station CITI-FM recently conducted an interview with DISTURBED frontman David Draiman about the band's forthcoming album, "Evolution". You can listen to the entire chat via the SoundCloud widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On "Evolution":

David: "It is, in our opinion, your new baby is always our favorite, but, in our opinion, this is the most powerful body of work as a whole that we've ever released. We couldn't be more proud. Also, at the same time, it's probably the most unique and certainly the most different from anything people have heard from us. There's plenty of familiarity for half the record. It's DISTURBED meat and potatoes that you're used to hearing: it's rhythmic, it's heavy, it's melodic, it's syncopated, it's all the things people have come to identify us with and love us for, but half the record is a dramatic left turn. Very, very different. There's heavy songs and the rest can only be described, because there's really no other way to define them, as ballads. Something the success of [SIMON & GARFUNKEL's] 'The Sound Of Silence' cover did for us, it gave us the confidence to go in any direction. It gave us the confidence to no longer have any stylistic parameters of any kind. That was so liberating and so wonderful to be able to go in any kind of direction and go in unchartered territory for DISTURBED. Some of these, all of these songs, there are some truly, truly some unbelievable moments within this record that still, even if I'm glossing over the record or trying to rehearse one of the songs, it still gets me emotional going through them. They're really moving. Hopefully everybody else is feeling the same way we do about it. That's all we hope. [Laughs]"

On whether the creation of "Evolution" was like "going to war":

David: "It very much is. You have to fight for the strength of your creation. It's fighting to make sure the song is as powerful as it can be, that the meaning behind it as poignant as it can be, that you're using all the choices of words, notes, patterns, rhythms. You're dealing with other very strong creative influences that are a part, and other creative minds that are a part of that process and you're fighting for your vision. It's a fight worth having and it's a war that you have to win. At the end of the day, we all end up benefiting from the rewards that you reap from it. I think there's no truer and more pure purpose than to be able to refine your art to a point where you feel it's as possible as it can be."

On the band being unafraid to do ballads and inject melody into their sound:

David: "Melody has always been in our wheelhouse, but when you hear the rest of this record, you'll notice a very tangible left turn. It's markedly different than anything we've put out. The closest thing to some of the stuff on this record would be 'Darkness' from the 'Believe' record. We haven't tried anything like that since then. Now there's half a record full of it. To me, these are some of the most powerful songs we've ever written. I'm brimming with anticipation for people to hear this thing. I'm eager to hear people's reactions."

On whether he touches upon any current American political topics:

David: "There's very powerful themes running throughout the record. I think that in my humble opinion, that the world is divided and the media has a very good, a very predictable habit of emphasizing whatever will keep people clicking. [Laughs] Whatever will keep people tuned in and there's nothing like stoking the coals of fear and aggression to do that. I think that we're more united than the media would care to admit. We're not as divided as the perception would relay — not in the United States, not anywhere really in the world. People who are divided are easier to control. That's one of the primary themes of the first two tracks on the record. It's dealing with control, and 'Are You Ready', in particular, is a call to arms against those who are so eager to keep us underfoot and are so eager to victimize us and to prey upon our weaknesses. It's encouraging people to no longer be prey, to not let them stir us up anymore."

"Evolution" will arrive on October 19. Like "Immortalized", the new disc was recorded at The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada with producer Kevin Churko.

DISTURBED only has one show on its schedule so far for the rest of 2018, at the Austin City Limits music festival on October 13 in Austin, Texas.

Photo by Travis Shinn