While many musicians go as quickly as they come, Disturbed has managed continued success and is enduring.
“We’re succeeding by gaining fans, by going out and giving 110 per cent when we play a live show and each time we return to a city, the crowds have been gradually growing and to continue to do that in a business like this, [there] is usually such a short-lived life span for most bands,” explains guitarist Dan Donegan. “We feel like we are still going strong after a good, solid nine years.”
It’s the passion of music that keeps the quartet going after, quitting their careers to become broke musicians, travelling to pubs and small venues in hopes of being successful.
“I couldn’t imagine not doing this,” Donegan says. “It’s something I’ve always dreamt of doing and I was willing– we were all willing– to work hard for it until we got it.”
Disturbed’s first three albums, The Sickness, Believe and Ten Thousand Fists, are all platinum and the last two albums topped the Billboard charts. With the release of their fourth album, Indestructible, they hope to grow their already extensive fanbase.
Disturbed doesn’t measure their success by the amount of money they take home, but by the number of people they touch with their music. This can be seen by the many things they do for their fans such as meet and greets, signings, contests and the live concert in Las Vegas broadcasted in 73 countries where the viewers voted on which songs were played and in between songs the band would answer questions.
“We acknowledged the fact that no matter how big this band may get or how many albums this band gets, we realize we can’t live this life if it wasn’t for the fans,” Donegan says. “If they weren’t the ones coming to the concerts or the ones buying the albums, then we would be stuck playing a neighbourhood bar and not be able to continue to do what we love to do. We appreciate that and we’ll never forget that. Some bands just feel that they get to the point where they think they are too big and they don’t want to do that stuff anymore. We’ve never said no to that type of stuff.”
Not only has their passion and drive helped them to succeed, but their constant need to push each other will help them approach time-honoured bands like their idols Metallica, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.
“We’re always looking to grow as a band,” Donegan says. “The longer we’ve been together we’ve become a clan over the years with the amount of touring we’ve done. We’re always trying to push each other in directions that’s going to bring in something new and fresh for us. When we’re writing we’re always pushing each other. We are our own critics, we’re always trying to impress each other and that’s all we’ve always done.”