DISTURBING THE PEACE
Chicago metal band Disturbed is back on the charts with a hot new album that includes an unexpected cover of the brooding ’60s hit The Sound of Silence. Guitarist Dan Donegan spoke to Lynn Saxberg about the hit and jumping back into the rock ’n’ roll rat
Q The band disappeared in 2011 to go on an indefinite hiatus. What happened?
A We were finishing up a U.S. tour that summer, then going to South America, and we just thought that we wanted to stop the machine for a moment. It felt like it was getting a little assembly-line for us. Everybody branched off and did other things creatively, spent a little more time with families and stuff. We were kind of burnt at that point, and it felt like a good time to do it instead of continuing to roll into the next thing. There was never any threat of it being over with. It was a decision we all felt was the right one.
Q But then you came back last year with your sixth outing, Immortalized. Why get back to it?
A Once we got a couple of years into the hiatus, everybody had already made their rounds with side projects and touring and other
things, just to kind of whet the creative appetite. We realized how much we missed what we have together, and creatively we had a lot more to bring to the table.
Q The standout track on the album is a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence, the latest in a series of unlikely cover songs for the band. First of all, why tackle other artists’ songs?
A For me, personally, I just like that challenge. I like taking something that is iconic and something we view as a classic. It challenges us as musicians to not only do it justice, but do it enough that we pay tribute to that artist and make it our own. There’s a lot of kids out there who don’t realize that they’re covers, like what we did with Land of Confusion (Genesis) or Shout (Tears for Fears). There’s a generation of our fans who might not be aware of the original version.
Q How on Earth did you decide on The Sound of Silence for this album?
A The lyrics really struck a nerve with all of us. Our initial reaction was to do what Disturbed does and make it heavy, syncopated, rhythmic. I didn’t want to do that. I thought it was too predictable. I thought it would be more challenging to go down a different road with it. There are other ways of making the song heavy without making it loud and aggressive and angry. We thought it could be heavy in a dark, haunting way.
Q What was the reaction from others in your camp?
A I think the guys trusted my instinct on that. The hard sell on it was trying to convince our manager that we were taking a slow song and keeping it slow. Everybody’s reaction was we need to make it heavier, faster, whatever. I was more like: “There’s a way to do this. We just have to spend a little time with it.”
Q In the end, it’s David (Draiman)’s incredible vocal that makes it so powerful. Do you get goosebumps hearing it?
A Oh, for sure. Once it was coming together, it surpassed all our expectations. I don’t think he had a clue on how it was really sounding until he came out of the vocal booth and we were listening back to it. Everybody was quite surprised. It went beyond our expectations.
Q What made you so sure it would work out?
A I always wanted to have that song give David a lot of pressure to step up his game, to get him to sing in a way that our fan base hasn’t heard before. We know what he’s capable of doing because we hear him all the time outside the band. So I had the confidence of him being able to do that, and we wanted to show the rest of the world. It was putting the pressure on him to deliver a more vulnerable emotional performance.
Q How’s the response been?
A Pretty overwhelming, and not only from fans. Paul Simon himself reached out to us, and gave his blessing on the performance. Q It seems to be turning into
your biggest hit. Is that fair to say?
A We’ve had quite a few No. 1 songs. Down With the Sickness has always been our staple, our first big song off the first album, but this one obviously is reaching a lot of other audiences and demographics and different parts of the world. There’s 100 million views on it already. Just when it seems to have run its course, it’s given new life in other areas. Either people are making tribute videos or other countries are starting to pick up on it a little more. It’s connecting with a lot of different movements and videos and commercials. Every time we think it’s done, it takes off again. We had a No. 1 album in Australia when Immortalized came out, and then, six months later, it went back to No. 1 because of The Sound of Silence taking off. All these other countries have been building it over the months.
Q You mentioned that burnout was part of the reason for hiatus. Is it fun again?
A Better than ever. It wasn’t really all about being burnt-out. There were a number of factors. It was family time. We’re all married with kids. It gave us the opportunity to spend time with our families that we couldn’t before. I was home coaching my son’s football team the past four years. But once we got back together, the batteries were recharged. Now we’re firing on all cylinders.