Shoutweb: Hi Dan! Where are you and what are you up to?

Dan: I am at home in Chicago right now and getting ready to leave for L.A. tomorrow.

Shoutweb: You guys have quite the schedule coming up!

Dan: Oh. yeah. We're going to busy for probably another two years.

Shoutweb: Some things never change.

Dan: (laughter)

Shoutweb: I think the last time I saw you was at the Korn show in New York City and finally met Johnny K. He's doing some night at The Metro in Chicago called "the brains behind Disturbed" or something like that.

Dan: Oh, I know what you're talking about. It's actually some Grammy panel thing. Dave and I are doing on panel on October 3rd.

Shoutweb: It's sounds pretty intense. What's going on in Chicago?

Dan: I don't know. I was just told, "show up on October 3rd" and that we're on the panel. I don't know what they're going to ask us or it's about. I guess it could be industry stuff with people asking us questions.

Shoutweb: Did I read that you guys were in Tokyo recently? Was it a festival or something?

Dan: Yes, we were. In August we did a festival and it was our first time going over there. We're going to focus a lot internationally this time. We unfortunately didn't get a lot of these opportunities the first time around because we went through a little transition with the record label overseas. Now that everything is on track, we need to focus a lot more on building awareness overseas. We went over there to do a festival and, you know, how strange those line-ups are. They put us with No Doubt and The Offspring and other bands we don't fit with but it was good. The response was good. There were about 30,000 people and we flew from there to London and did some touring throughout Europe for a month.

Shoutweb: This record seems much more hopeful than the last one.

Dan: I think the lyrics and the messages are there. The album may not seem quite as dark but the messages are a little more positive. There is more hope. I think there are still some of the signature elements of Disturbed. There are still a few things in David's vocal style and musically there are some things you'll still be able to tell. The second you hear David's voice or the second you hear a guitar riff. I think this album is just a lot more dynamic than the first album.

Shoutweb: That was a good answer. Don't use that in any other interviews.

Dan: You know what? It's funny because in a year and half or two year from now when me and Dave do a lot of interviews together, it's like I know everything he's going to say and he knows everything I am going to say. (laughter)

Shoutweb: It's the same thing over and over again. (laughter)

Dan: Yup! (laughter)

Shoutweb: It's hard to come up with new material for interviews I'm sure. Once you find the right thing to describe the record or the music then you just explain it the same way every time. A lot of these newer bands are used to people interviewing them for ten minutes and asking them the same ten questions.

Dan: Exactly.

Shoutweb: How did you guys deal with the pressure of putting out your second record? I know it was a pretty tight timeframe.

Dan: It was too bad. First, being on the road for the first year is when it kind of kicked in for me. I hadn't written anything for the first year being on the road. And then that's when I got scared. You hear so many horror stories of writer's block. I'm not used to trying to come up with something in a hotel room or on a tour bus or backstage. So, it took some time getting used to it. I just basically had a bunch of riffs that I had saved off to the side whenever I had time. Whenever I had ideas, I would record them and save them. We worked on a few on the road or maybe in between if we had opportunities or during soundcheck. We were able to get a couple in the works like "Prayer" and the songs "Awaken". Those were the first two that we were working on but after we had come home in early December last year when we had finished touring, I had a bunch of ideas. I had a lot of structure ideas for the songs. Right after New Year's we had started getting together and it came together pretty quick.

Shoutweb: So you didn't feel that sophomore release pressure?

Dan: There wasn't really that much pressure as far as timeframe because we weren't given a timeframe. Warner Brothers didn't really expect us to deliver a record to them this year. I think they thought that with us touring for 22 months, basically non-stop, that we were exhausted. They thought that we had enough and needed a break, which we did at that point. We needed a break but we were home for a month and we were bored being at home. We were like, "Okay, we had our break" even though it wasn't much of a break. It was me sitting my bedroom playing my guitar during that break and working on ideas. I think a thing that definitely helped us not have to deal with that pressure of that sophomore release and trying to meet everybody's expectations - the fans or the label - was coming back home. I was really worried going into a studio that we weren't familiar with and punching the clock and going to work. I didn't feel comfortable at the time of doing it on the West Coast or people from the label there popping in whenever they want and looking over our shoulders to make sure we write the next "Stupify" or the next "Down With The Sickness". We chose to do it back home with Johnny K again to put us back in that comfortable familiar environment and to make use feel like we did when we were demoing when we were a local band. We felt like we were back in there again and it was something we were comfortable with. Our record label had a lot of trust in us and faith in us to let us do our thing. I spoke to our A&R guy in early January and he just kind of wanted to see where we were and what we were thinking. I told him we should be ready by March to start tracking and they couldn't believe it.

Shoutweb: They were probably like, "What kind of crap are you guys tossing together?"

Dan: I'm sure they've heard it hundreds of times from bands saying that they'll be ready or they'll have the material or whatever. We work best when we give ourselves a deadline, when we put pressure on ourselves to get it done. If we didn't feel the material was ready, we wouldn't have gone in. We were hard at work and things were coming together quicker that we thought it would. We went into the studio on March 14th for pre-production with Johnny K and all we did was track the songs live. We played everything we had written live. We sent it out to the label so they could hear what we were thinking and let Johnny K live with it and see if he had any input and ideas that he could help us with.

Shoutweb: How many songs was that?

Dan: I think it was 13 songs. The very next day, we said, "Okay, let's start tracking." Johnny K felt strongly about the songs as a producer and we as a band felt like the songs were ready to go. We didn't even really have a day of pre-production. We didn't even work on the structures of the songs. We had already written it and felt comfortable with the structures the way they were written. So it was really tracking the songs so that everybody else could hear them. The very next day we started getting the drum tracks down and everything came together really quickly.

Shoutweb: So when you write and everything that you prepared, it's worth all that time and energy?

Dan: This was probably the most prepared that we've been. We're always on top of things. We're not the type of band that goes into the studio and writes while we're in the studio. We'll experiment and make a few subtle changes but, for the most part, we beat the hell out of the songs before we enter the studio. We want every song to have it's own identity. We don't want it to sound repetitious and have it so that after hearing one or two tracks on the record it all starts sounding the same. Our biggest focus is to make sure that everything has it's own identity. We don't feel that we put any fillers on the record. We write every song with the hopes of topping the last song that we've just written. It's got to give us that feeling. It's got to send that chill up our spine, otherwise, we don't keep it. We work at it until it gives us that chill.

Shoutweb: Did you go in with more than 13 songs?

Dan: We don't write 50 songs and pick the best 13 to do. Whatever we write is what we end up recording. We just beat the hell out of each song and get them to where we feel that they top each one. We have to be confident that they're the best that they can be and track them all. We put twelve on the record, which was a tough decision. We want to have something available for down the road if we find the right movie soundtrack or something where we can have the lead track and we feel that it fits.

Shoutweb: Do you have anything in mind for that?

Dan: We're not really worried or rushing into it. We want to find something hopefully special for it. I think early with stuff of "The Sickness" with b-sides or soundtrack stuff, a lot of it was just trying to get an awareness of the band and getting the name out there. For some reason we never attached them to movies that did all that great. We feel just as strong about the song that we leave off the record as the ones that are on the record. That's why we want to make sure that we're more selective with what it's going to be attached to.

Shoutweb: So the recording went smoothly? No wild fits of rage?

Dan: It's fun because we have such a good friendship with Johnny K. We've known him for so many years and it wasn't with someone that it took time to know. Right off the bat, we could start off the first day ripping on each other and cutting each other down without anybody taking it personally. He's just like a fifth member of the band. It was like five buddies hanging out, making music and recording it. It was a good environment. He's a great producer. He knows how to push us to get the best performances out of us. Some of those times, it may be aggravating. It's late, you're tired, and you think that's it's fine the way it is and he's hearing something that he feels could be better. That's what you want. You want somebody who is going to push you to get the best out of you. That's what he's good at he's doing.

Shoutweb: "Breathe" has this kind of complexity...

Dan: I don't' know. It's just me playing my guitar in my bedroom. It kind of comes out of me. We call that the little Woody Woodpecker guitar riff. I think it's more of the old school type of metal riffs. With some of our backgrounds, it's just a straight up metal type of song.

Shoutweb: I would agree. The sound is cleaner. It's more straight up and not a lot of electronics going on.

Dan: It's pretty raw. It's pretty straight up. Not that we discussed it but the songs we thought were strong enough to stand on their own didn't need a lot of textures of the electronic element. So there is very little electronics in this one. There are just some subtle things but I think that the strength on David's vocals performance and melodies and musically, the old school elements that I think stand out more on this album. Mike's double bass drums and some of the old school guitar riffs we felt were strong enough to stand on their own.

Shoutweb: There a limited edition CD?

Dan: Yes, it's a DVD that includes the video for "Prayer". It also includes the making of the video and the in-studio footage during the making of the record. We wanted something more personal. Something that can make the fans feel more a part of what we're doing.

Shoutweb: Tell me why MTV banned the video.

Dan: They couldn't be totally specific as to what is offensive to them. We could only assume that certain images may be reminiscent of 9/11. It's funny, I turned the TV on the other day and they were showing those same images of 9/11. The scene in the video is an earthquake scene. The whole message was a positive message of hope. We had the option of editing it and getting MTV to play it and we chose not to. We don't feel that there is anything wrong with it. If we did agree to re-edit it then it would be us admitting that we feel that there is something wrong with it, which we don't. The whole idea was to give people hope, especially around this one-year anniversary of 9/11. It shows scenes in the video of everyday chaos. They are things that you notice in life. It has David walking down the street noticing a homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk begging for change and people walking by and ignoring him. And the old man is flashing back to the days when he was a successful businessman. Something bad had occurred in his life that put him in this position. There's a prostitute who is working the streets who is visibly upset that she is doing this. And she reflects back on her life when she was an innocent little girl and something has occurred in her life that made her resort to becoming a prostitute. These scenes intensify throughout the video. I am driving my car down the street and a little girl runs out in front of me to cross the street to meet up with her friends and she doesn't look for traffic and I do the good thing to swerve and miss her but then something back happens to me and I crash into another car. It reflects on things that have affected people throughout their lives that they are asking themselves "why is this happening?" We need something big and intense. We need something that was an act of God and we felt that something big and catastrophic like an earthquake showed that when there are things like this that happen, that you maybe looking for answers, and that if you look deep in yourself you have the strength to get through it. That's why I come out of my car accident and Mike emerges from an explosion that he is an innocent bystander past a construction site. He gets up off the ground and he makes it out of that. We all come out of our own demises to rise above it all. After the earthquake scene, we are standing on the rubble as one. The band comes together at the end. We're living signs of hope that you can find the strength to make it through the times. We thought it was sending a very positive message. We were giving something for people to feel good about. They chose not to play it and we respect that and fine. Hopefully, we can continue some kind of relationship with them. Maybe they'll play the next one but for now we want our fans to see it and get the message we wanted to convey. So the video is on all the CDs and I think it's a blessing in disguise. As soon as we put it on the web, it was viewed over a million times in the first week.

Shoutweb: Maybe you should rename it "Blessing"?

Dan: We should probably thank them because probably more people want to see it because they are being told that they can't. We still get the message out there. Everywhere else in the world is playing it except MTV in the U.S.

Shoutweb: You guys will be on MTV for an airing from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame soon.

Dan: We shot that earlier. I think it was first week in August. It was our first performance back. We were off for eight or nine months. It was our first performance back.

Shoutweb: Is there new material?

Dan: Yes, I think that's why they were holding it back until the day after the record was released.

Shoutweb: You guys have a huge tour coming up with Korn.

Dan: I think it's great timing. We have wanted to play with Korn for years. This is one of the bands that before we got signed, we would go to their concerts in the crowd looking up on the stage saying, "man, I would the opportunity to play with these guys." Finally, the timing seemed to be right. They released their album earlier and are out touring in support of it. I think with the heat of our album coming out it was something that it was great especially with TRUSTcompany as a new band with some heat.

Shoutweb: I never knew why you guys don't hand out lollipops at those shows because "Pop Sux!", get it? (laughter)

Dan: (laughter)

Shoutweb: What will the tour include? I know you've mentioned in several interviews that this is a more stripped down version with less theatrics.

Dan: A big reason we're steering a little away from the theatric side of things is that sometimes a lot of people would misinterpret what was happening or look at it as *just* a theatrical scene. I think this time hopefully the strength of these songs will say enough. We're working more closely with our lighting director and trying to set more drama with the lights and visuals. We want to have it set the mood. I think if we're working on anything, we're trying to nail down the lighting a little bit more to set the right vibe for each song. We just want to come out rocking. We want to play the new tunes. There are certain things that we are very thankful for off the first album but we don't want to be known for the band that came out with the electric chair or the gas chamber or a straight jacket. We don't want to be known as the band with the singer that makes the monkey noise. That's great and we're thankful that that has helped to get us where we are but we're more than just a sound or a gimmick. There was no gimmick to these intros that not everybody quite got. We'd rather just jam the songs and create the vibe with the music and lighting.

Shoutweb: So, you're not going to be taking any life-size cutouts of Britney Spears and tossing them into the audience?

Dan: No plans for that. I don't know if I would destroy a Britney Spears. Maybe we'll throw out an NSYNC or Backstreet Boys but I think we'll have to find other ways to violate Britney Spears. (laughter)

Shoutweb: (laughter) The song "Devour" is awesome.

Dan: That's another one with an old school riff that starts out the song. It's a little bit more complex than some of the other riffs. Once again, there is such big melody throughout this record especially the chorus of "Devour". It has a very big melodic part. There just some cool elements when it gets to the middle I think. When it gets to the bridge of the song, Dave's range is just a lot higher. I remember first writing that part and I was getting that chill up my spine hearing him hit some of those notes over something where I am playing two notes on the guitar. There is so much power with such a great melody on top of it. It has just some more of those old school elements. The song ends with a big melody that turns over and breaks into this rapid double bass kick drum while the guitar and bass match each other note for note and finish out which is kind of our old school inspiration. There is stuff that we grew up with that is shining through a little bit more.

Shoutweb: "Intoxication" screams single.

Dan: I think "Intoxication" could be but it's hard to pick. The next one will be "Remember". It's sludgier. It's more mid-tempo sludgy but it's got kind of the off timing verses. Musically, the beat kind of flips around with an off timing feel. The chorus is big as hell. Dave's melody on top of that it just huge. It's just one of those things. It's one of those songs that I feel very proud of from start to finish. I don't think that's there's any dead spots in that song. I don't think we could have done anything to make it better. To me, I feel, as a songwriter, that that is one of our masterpieces. I feel that it's the best we could possibly make that song. For a song like "Prayer" coming first, we wanted to have something that was still familiar enough. The aggressive side of it was there but it kind of lead you in another direction with how big the chorus is and how melodic Dave is in that chorus. It sort of eases you into seeing another side to this band. We kind of ease you into another side of that in "Remember". We have many options after that. I know we still want to through more aggressive stuff back at you too. I think "Liberate" will be a single as well from the feedback we've been getting. That's one of the more aggressive tracks on the record. It's very syncopated with quick, tight rhythms throughout the verses with another big chorus. There's aggression throughout the verses that is part of that signature Disturbed sound.

Shoutweb: And we love it! Well, have a great tour Dan and thank you for taking the time to chat.

Dan: You got it. Thanks for the interview.