Dan Donegan – Disturbed ‘We Did Feel Like the Black Sheep Because It Was a Longer Journey’
Our feelin’ festy celebration continues as we head into Knotfest territory, and we’re stoked to share our chat with the one and only Dan Donegan from Disturbed.
A long time coming – we’ve been trying to get this band on WoS since our conception in 2014 – Browny joined the metal man for a candid chat about life on the road, playing the festival side by side with their musical peers and Fortnite!? Yep, you read that right. Disturbed recently had their breakthrough hit ‘Down With The Sickness‘ added to the Guitar Hero-inspired side-game on the cult classic third-person shooter, which amasses close to 230 Million players every month. Not a bad way to introduce your music to a new generation of future metalheads.
Photo Gallery by Clinton Hatfield. Insta: @ampd.agency.
The pair also discussed the mid-2000s era when the band first broke out – around the same time as Linkin Park, Evanescence, Limp Bizkit and KoRn‘s heyday – but Disturbed was always the black sheep in comparison and never received the same mainstream airplay or support down under.
When asked about navigating that time Dan shared:
‘We somehow navigated our way through it, and kept doing what we do – we did somewhat feel like the black sheep because it was a longer journey I feel, but we’ve always been climbing that mountain. We had to earn it.”
And earn it they did with Australian fans discovering the band at various stages of their careers between early albums such as The Sickness (2000) and Believe (2002) all the way through to their latest release Divisive (2022) which harked back to their early roots in a fantastic return-to-form for the metal act.
Disturbed‘s covers also made them a household name after they turned each venture into their own with tracks like ‘The Sound of Silence‘, ‘Shout 2000‘, ‘Land of Confusion‘ and ‘If I Ever Lose My Faith in You‘ proving you can add your own flavour to a notable release and not compromise the original recording.
In recent months, frontman David Draiman shared his support for the Queen of the Music Scene, Taylor Swift, so we questioned whether the band would be open to covering one of her songs – as a way to introduce Swifties to the wonderful world of metal – to which Dan replied:
“I really wouldn’t rule out anything,” before further explaining himself. “For me personally, our songs always start off with me presenting a music idea to David and to the guys… When it comes to a cover, we don’t just cover [anything]. The important things to me are first, the lyrics and the message. Then the next thing is musically; is there something where I feel I could change it enough?
I wouldn’t want something that’s too signature musically, like ‘Stairway to Heaven’. I wouldn’t want to change the guitar part… I’m not saying I never would, but that one is at the bottom of the list because it’s too signature of a part.”
I’m definitely open to the ideas [of] any genre of music. I like the challenge of trying to pay tribute to something and our respects to the original songwriter, but put enough of our own stamp on it.”
Give the interview a spin and stay tuned for more feelin’ festy goodness coming your way.
Enter our feelin’ festy competition to score an exclusive festival fiend prize here
