In a recent interview with Higgo of Australia's Triple M radio station, DEVILDRIVER frontman Dez Fafara spoke about "Dealing With Demons I" — the band's first release of new, original material since 2016's "Trust No One".
"This record is about, look, let's do a double record — volume one and volume two — let's go into every single thing, hit it on the mark, every single demon that I deal with, which will be completely relatable to people, and get it out that way," he said (hear audio below). "And my works after this, however many it is — one, two, 10, 20, if any — I can start writing in a moke woke direction and someplace I've been going in my head for about two or three years about lyrically writing. But first I had to get all this out.
"Look, a lot of musicians just say, 'Ah, it's the most personal record to me.' Of course, every record should be personal to you," he continued. "But this is called 'Dealing With It'. So why? Because I've dealt with a lot of demons in my life. And how do I keep positive through them? Well, I'll tell you what: listen to these songs and see if you don't identify with every single thing that I'm talking about."
Elaborating on why "Dealing With Demons I" is a particularly important album for him, Dez said: "I think it would be more difficult for me to actually keep writing about the things that I do since COAL CHAMBER all through DEVILDRIVER, which is the human enigma. We're talking about the volatility of humans. We're talking about trust, we're talking about love, hate, loyalty, disloyalty, agoraphobia — whatever you're going through as a human.
"I said to myself, in order for myself to go to the next level as a writer, I have to get some stuff out. And I told [my wife] Anahstasia this in the writing process, I have to hit the mark…
"If you've interviewed me before, most of the time you'll say, 'What is the song about?' And I never tell anybody; I mean, it's never been my way that I say, 'Oh, the song is about this,' ever. I say, 'What does the song mean to you?' 'Okay. Cool. Let's use that.' But this is not the case.
"First of all, you're gonna get a video for every song, 'cause I need a piece of art to go along with every song. And then I'm gonna explain every tune to you guys in interviews, so you're well aware where I'm going."
Fafara confirmed that "there is no fiction whatsoever" on "Dealing With Demons I". "And if I use any analogies within the lyrics, going along with this amazing music that these guys wrote, it's going to be very poignant and it's gonna hit the nail on the head and go straight to the bull's eye," he said.
"Dealing With Demons I" will be released on October 9 via Napalm Records and will be available in several formats. The official lyric video for the disc's first single, "Keep Away From Me", can be seen below.
Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral
