In a brand new interview with “The Mistress Carrie Podcast”, DEVILDRIVER frontman Dez Fafara spoke about how he is dealing with the coronavirus crisis and what the touring circuit might look like post-pandemic. Asked if he thinks bands will hit the road in a major way next year, he said (hear audio below): “I don’t know if I feel that to be true in 2021, just because I’ve been talking to some people. I’d like to keep it positive and be, like, ‘Fuck yeah! Let’s get some shows going,’ but I’m not sure. And I’m seeing a lot of people hold their records back and not deliver records, because it’s not a good business move. To deliver a record in the middle of a pandemic when you can’t tour on it, et cetera, et cetera, it’s gonna sell less. And I made the opposite move. I didn’t do the business move, I made the people move — I said, ‘People need music now.’ … And then we shift to what we think 2021 is gonna be, and I don’t know if a second lockdown is coming, if, no, you’re not gonna be allowed more than a hundred people in a room. Right now, in Europe, they’re building COVID venues, where you actually sit with partitions between you.
“I really don’t know what’s going on,” he continued. “I try to listen to it all — mainstream media and the real underground dark stuff. … I don’t know what this is. Like all of us, I don’t know. Is it man-made? Is it not man-made? Did it get let loose from China? Was it let loose from our country to China? Is this for a bigger purpose, or is this just, ‘Uh-oh, it’s an accident.’ We all better help fucking each other as a world and let’s get through this.
“It’s a crazy situation,” he added. “That being said, I’m booking tours. I’ve got a huge tour that’s getting ready to announce for DEVILDRIVER — four major, major, big, big, big bands. And hopefully it’s gonna go out in April/May next year. But I just don’t know.”
DEVILDRIVER recently announced a new double album, “Dealing With Demons”. The first volume — titled “Dealing With Demons I” — drops on October 9 via Napalm Records and marks the band’s first release of new, original material since 2016’s acclaimed “Trust No One”. Representing the onset of a final purging of the themes that have long possessed Fafara and DEVILDRIVER‘s music, each track on “Dealing With Demons I” illustrates a different demon to be dealt with or released.
Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral
