Disturbed

Popular music is just what its name says: music that is "popular." But although this idea in and of itself is painfully simple, when applied to the actual music industry as we know it today, it becomes quite complicated. A fine example of this complication would be Chicago’s Disturbed.

Consisting of David Draiman on vocals, Dan Donegan on guitar, Mike Wengren on drums, and bassist Fuzz, Disturbed has risen to the upper-echelon of the music industry in a relatively short amount of time. This rise was made possible by the extensive use of the usual pop-music major-label avenues, namely: radio, packaged tours (Ozzfest), and the all-encompassing, yet stealthy, promotional machine employed by the majors.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Whereas all indicators point towards "pop," both Disturbed, and their fans, most especially their fans, would find that label offensive. But while Disturbed may be musically heavy and lyrically "disturbing," this is by no means any sort of counter-cultural statement; moreover, heavy music has become the new gangster-rap: "Hard" music for the masses. But does commercial success marginalize heavy music? Can "evil" be mainstream?

The Synthesis recently had the opportunity to discuss this with Disturbed’s Dan Donegan, as he and his bandmates took a brief respite from their grueling tour schedule.

We’re in Pittsburgh, doing an outdoor radio-fest.

Staind, Spineshank, Fuel, Cold, Crazy Town; there’s a ton of bands.

It’s cool. We just finished our headlining tour with Mudvayne and Spineshank, now we’re gonna play a few of these radio shows.

It’s pretty overwhelming, all the opportunities we’ve gotten in the past year. We’ve just been busy touring. We came home for Christmas, but for the most part we’ve been staying on the road. We’ve been part of some really good tours: we went to Europe with Marilyn Manson, we did some touring here with Stone Temple Pilots and Godsmack…

Um, no. I think as we play on these different tours, playing to different audiences, our fan base has grown because of that. We’re playing for a wide age range, which is fine with us because we want to get our music out to as many people as possible.

As long as it’s not losing the integrity of the song. As far as radio, we’ve gotten away with "Stupify," where at the end of every line in the verse David’s singing "fuck." But for some of the more obvious swearing, I mean, we want to get our music out there, and by editing out a swear word, we’re not losing the message as long as people still get what’s being said in the song. We want to get it out to as many people as possible and we do have younger kids who come to the shows; parents who bring their kids out to the shows. There’s four and five year old kids singing the lyrics to the songs, which is kind of strange.

I think that’s partially up to the parents, if they let their kids listen to that type of music. We’re not spreading any negative message in any way. With a song like "Voices," it’s not saying it’s okay to go out and kill somebody, it’s just we’re more sympathetic towards a person who can’t control the voices they hear, voices that tell them to do bad things. There’s sick people who can’t control themselves. I don’t think there’s any negative messages in any of our songs.

There’s nothing we can really do about it. Just like many other bands, there’s so many people out there who may have a different view on it. Everybody has their own interpretation of the songs and we just try with interviews and any other media to explain what the real message is. Like I said, everybody may have a different point of view, they may get the wrong message. We can’t really do anything about that.

Our songs are important to us. There’s a lot of really good heavy bands out there, but I don’t think a lot of kids listen to what’s being said in their songs. I think our songs are melodic enough and clear enough to [understand]. We look out and we see kids singing the lyrics, which means that a majority of them are paying attention to what’s being said.

I don’t think we’re anything like any of those bands. I think people can see through what is fake and see what’s real. We’re not reinventing the wheel, we’re just doing what comes naturally to us.

Check out Disturbed’s album, Sickness, at fine record stores all over the place.

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