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Dez Fafara | Devildriver
Anthony Saia, station manager for KUOI 89.3 FM recently got to sit down with Dez Fafara, lyrical mastermind from band Devildriver. Check it.
Dez Fafara: How you doin bro?
Anthony: Im doin great man. How about you? Where are you at right now?
DF: Im in California. Sitting here waiting for a rainstorm. We leave in four days or five days to go over to Soundwave with Iron Maiden and Slayer. Otherwise, I have four or five days to just kinda kick it with the dog, the family and the wife yknow?
A: Dude, that sounds like the life for sure! So, you guys are going to be supporting Beast that comes out next week, are you stoked for that?
DF: Yeah man, its unreal. The feedback has been so positive yknow? You live in a bubble when you make art, man, I mean, we do. We go out to Texas and barricade ourselves in on acreage where theres nothing to do except make a record. We were sitting on the thing for six or seven weeks and we started demoing and as soon as I started getting the demos together I was like, Aw man, we gotta get in, we gotta make this record, and yknow then you start getting all this positive feedback after waiting about seven or eight months for the record to come out and its so appreciative when you work so hard.
A: Hell yeah man. I just got finished with the Dead to Rights video.
DF: Whatd you think?
A: I thought it was great man, for sure especially the chick that turns into the demon at the end.
DF: For sure man. Austin Redding, man. Hes a really cool director and when he hit me up there was this movie called The Viy or Spirit of Evil. Its from 1966 and its a Russian fairytale. Its a killer movie and a horror flick. One of my favorites and I sent him that and he bought a copy off of Amazon, watched it and was like, Okay, I want to try and redo that thing. So thats what that video is. A re-telling of that movie.
A: Righteous man, Ill have to check that out. Killer. So, what can you tell me about the recording process with Beast aside from the seclusion you guys kind of went for?
DF: Well, we write while we are on the road and off the road and we are on the road pretty much constantly so, yknow, wrote a lot on the road. These guys write individually. Everybody plays guitar except myself. I just got my first guitar a couple months ago so well see how that changes things. But yknow, they write and then they get together in pairs and head over to Mikes house, my guitar player and hes pretty much the one behind the computer. Hes the guy that demos everything. Then they give it to me and I work with one of my guys, a guy named Greg Weiss who Ive done other projects with as well (High Desert Moon). We arrange the songs, split up the songs and do what we have to do to them. I demo them and send them back to them. Then we start the criticism and the critique part of it, which youve got to have big ears and a hard heart. You cant be a softy and go into those meetings and everybody is critiquing what each guy is doing and fine-tuning it. The one thing to say about Devildriver is when we hit the recording process all the pre-production is done. We dont need, nor want three or four weeks with a producer doing pre-production. I think it lends to much to what there vision of what the record is rather than the band, so were done when we go in and thats the process.
A: Wow man. Thats some work! You guys had already worked with Mark Lewis on the Last Kind Words album with him as an engineer so when he stepped up to produce this record was it easier to work with him since youd already had an established working relationship?
DF: Yeah man, definitely. I mean, that is why we got a hold of Mark Lewis in the first place. We knew that we wanted to work with Mark again after The Last Kind Words and it became apparent to me not to take anything away from Jason Suecof but that Mark had done a lot of work and was really really in the mud and the mire with us on the Last Kind Words so we wanted to work him in the future and when we were working with Pray For Villains, the record that were currently touring on now, we knew that record wasnt the record for Mark but it was more of a record for Logan Meyer to work on, so when I heard the demos for Beast we called Mark and he was in. Working with the guy is a pleasure too. Hes a workaholic. Hes in there 14 hours a day, pushing everybody. All the intricacies possible, all the technique, everything is him making sure that were pushing it to the ultimate ability.
A: Well, all that work certainly translates well man. Now, I have a question about track number 12, the 16 Horse Power cover. How did that come to be?
DF: First, it bears to say that first of all covers are a dangerous thing, man. Ive only done a few in my whole career but me and Mike, we love 16 Horse Power and Wovenhand. I think that David Eugene is one of the most talented cats out there so thats kind of our little pet project. Mike took the song and Devildrivered it, made it our own, and I started to demo vocals and as soon as I demoed the vocals a lot of vocals on the record are some of the demo vocals because it came out so good. It was such a good time. You could feel it and its really rare too that a cover track will make the record and this one, we didnt even think about cutting it. It was already part of the repertoire back when we heard it with all the rest of the tracks. So thats the story behind that.
A: Thats rad man. Wovenhand is great. I dig it. So, switching gears a little bit man. I know people have asked, and Im curious because vocalists take care of their voices in different ways, how do you do it?
DF: Ive got to get sleep. Everything else is secondary. I dont booze after the shows so I can make it to the next day. Yknow, youre paying hard earned money to come see me, especially in a horrible economy. Youre not going to catch me slipping. So Ive got some rules. Ive got to get some sleep, I watch what happens after the show and thats pretty much it. You know, just take care of my voice.
A: Thats respectful dude. Coming from a guy like me who is paying to go to these shows, I dont want to pay to see some dude whos not taking care of himself
DF: No, no. Even in the cases when it does blow out and Ive got to knock on wood here just talking to you, but in Europe I got horribly sick man, like ridiculously sick and it was like minus thirty out. We had eight more shows to do and I finished all the shows but when I got home I had pneumonia but my voice didnt really give out on me even though I was sick as a dog. So, that being said, Im hoping that she stays true to me for the rest of my career [laughs].
A: Speaking of your career, looking back at your history, youve worked with some pretty prolific contemporaries like the late Paul Gray, Dino Cazeres and Andrea Kisser. What artists would you like to work with in the future or there some youd prefer to stay away from?
DF: So many cats that Id love to work with, man. It just goes without saying. Theres just a lot of talented people in the music industry so to name names would just be impossible. I have been fortunate over my time to work with some pretty heavy hitters and learn some things from them. I think thats what its all about when you work with other individuals within the music industry is the learning process. Yknow? You might be working with somebody that doesnt do your kind of music or somebody who does a different style of what your music is and then you get to put your spin on things and so its always a learning process and a growth. Always a good time when you get to work outside your band that being said it brings something back to the table when you come back home to work with your band.
A: One of those heavy hitters was Ozzy, yeah? How was that in particular?
DF: That was unbelievable. That was in the Coal Chamber days. Working with a cat like that is crazy, hes a legend but getting to know him was even better. Hes a really down to earth individual. Hes a family guy. Hes everything you guys see but, yknow, he can cook a mean breakfast and hes a nice guy. Me, Im still like a kid on the outside looking in with what I do, I mean, I really am and so every time Im sitting next to somebody like that, working with them I just think to myself I pinch myself to check to see if theyre still there like, Youre still here? Alright, cool. Pay attention. [laughs]
A: Thats great. [laughs] So, when I found out that I had an opportunity to do this interview I asked a few of my friends who are also fans of yours if they had anything they wanted to ask you. They all came up with the same question, which I kind of already know the answer to, but they wanted to know if there will ever be a Coal Chamber reunion show at the bare minimum?
DF: You know? I wouldnt ever count anything like that out. I mean, but at this point people need to know this right: I left Coal Chamber because they were all on meth. So every night I went on stage, I was feeding the monster money. They were taking all the fame and all that money and they were killing themselves. When I left the band, they had nothing so they ran out of money, they ran out of drugs and now they are all clean off of hard drugs, which is amazing. So I talk to them about five-six times a year. Were all friends. Meegs has come up on stage with Devildriver and weve done Loco in Pasadena and it was a good time. So, I wouldnt rule anything like that out. But I will certainly say this, that nowhere in the near future is that going to happen, yknow? But you cant rule out the future. I dont have a crystal ball, I have tarot cards and Im not about to do that reading and ask that question cause I myself dont even want to know. All I know is that when I started Coal Chamber I was in love with it and I was in love with the music. I was in love with everything until my friends starting killing themselves drugs and then I had to bail. Now Im proud that I did because theyre still alive and now you can even talk about Hey, will anything ever happen with them again? Well, theyre still alive so who knows.
A: For sure man, you never know what tomorrow brings.
DF: Nope, you never know.
A: Wow man, thats heavy but Im really glad for them too. Lets switch gears if you dont mind. Reading lyrics, like songs like Dead To Rights off the forthcoming record, how do you build your lyrical structures and things like that?
DF: Well, I love arrangement. Its really easy to stick to a cookie cutter formula yknow, like verse, chorus, verse, chorus and we really didnt want to do that and on Beast specifically we messed with all the arrangements. I mean the song Blur is so out of the pocket different and I like to mess with arrangements a lot. Its a fun part. Lyrical structure is fun to me as well. Pray For Villains I wanted to step outside myself. Id never wrote from a third person point of view and so with Pray For Villains thats what I did. I wrote from a third person point of view. I almost wanted to get to the core of the structure. What it was like for say, yknow Id come out of the box and say someone like Johnny Cash to write, I show a man in Reno just to watch him die and then people attribute that to his life, like, his whole career they think that he did this. And so I figured, how do you write like that? Thats what I explored on that record. On this record I couldnt do that. I was in the heat of the moment. Everything that I had written for Beast, as soon as I got the demos I threw out and I wrote everything just on the spot, right there to the core, where I was going with my life in the point in time. It was a watershed year this year. Got rid of a lot of people business and personally that were just vampiric and not bringing anything positive to the table and that being said I was in a moving process with my family during the making of the art so I had to leave the recording sessions which Ive never had to do before. It was just a trippy time and now, looking back, I think it fueled the record. I mean, for sure. You listen to this thing and its visceral, its volatile, its like a kick in the teeth all the way though. So, y know, you never want to go through terrible times but I tell you what, music can definitely get you through it.
A: For sure man. Im looking at these lyrics and listening to these songs I and I can just see and hear the aggressiveness of this thing. What it just the timing of the thing?
DF: Yeah man, it was the time. I havent felt like that since my early 20s. Yknow I was just so fed up with so many things and so much going on that it was just watershed. My drummer said it best when they interviewed him, And they said, yknow, whats going with your vocalist? And he said, Dez has a lot to get off his chest. I think that being said, thats pretty much it and everyone around me knows who I wrote about and what I was writing about which is good. Ive managed to scale down my life to now my really immediate family and my really close friends and my band and its really helped, yknow, to just keep people at bay. You gotta realize what we do, were surrounded by people 24/7 and sometimes that can be extremely draining especially when they are bringing around influences to people that are not that positive. Yknow, youve got to watch yourself on that and thats what Ive done this year. And its definitely reflected in that record, man, lyrically. Its totally reflected in that record.
A: Yeah man, for sure. Let me just say and I dont know if anyone has told you this yet but thank you. Thank you for being able to take all of that put it out on a record and share it with the world. It means a lot.
DF: I appreciate it man. Yknow, I had to go within and I have to get it out somehow. I couldnt go out to the back of my house and scream, they would have called the cops on me. Id have been back there screaming for days. It was really cathartic for me too. [laughs] One question I always avoid: What this record cathartic? Its like 15 years of being asked that I probably laughed about 15 times. But now I know exactly what people are talking about. It was cathartic and heres the thing too man, when I was young and now, music has been the refuge. Its been the shelter. Its takes everything away from me and if I can give somebody that by doing music and giving some sort of empowerment, some sort of strength and stuff y know what? Im so with that. Yknow, for me thats more powerful than anything yknow, to be able to give somebody empowerment thats what music gives me to this day. Im not the kind of guy that can just sit around and watch TV all day. Unless its something decent [laughs]. Yknow what I mean?
A: For sure! Alright man, just really quick a couple more questions for you: How many tattoos do you have in total?
DF: God, I could never count but my back is almost wide open and Im getting ready to do that probably within the next couple weeks. Everything is done except some of my legs and can I count? I dont even know man, theyre blending together. Ive been getting tattoos since I was 15 which Im not advocating [laughs] but it is what it is and so Ive got a lot of work and if you do get tattooed young youre going to have to do what Ive had to do. Ive had a lot of cover-up work on stuff that was either horrible or just stuff that I dont want to remember. Watch names, thats one thing I learned with time and thats all Ive gotta say.
A: And are you going to be work with Paul Booth again?
DF: Paul did my left hand. He did me and Lynn Strait, God rest his soul, from Snot the same day at Ozzfest. He did my hand and he did Lynns left hand. Hes an incredible artist man and his painting are just off the charts. People should definitely check out his websites and things like that. And hes an incredible guy. Hes such a nice dude. It does take a lot of time to get in to see Paul but we were all backstage together and the chair just happened to be open so I did that and then we went on stage about an hour later.
A: Dude, thats crazy!
DF: I know! My hand was about as big as a baseball.
A: Alright man, well, its been a pleasure chatting with you, take care. Have a killer time in Austrailia.
DF: Definitely man. Hopefully well see you out at the shows.
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