Who’s ready to hear a new album fromDevilDriver?! Recently while the band were on tour inIreland,Mike Spreitzer took some time out to catch up withDublin Concerts to talk touring, making money in the digital age and the timeline for a new album!
Alan:The new album seems to be going down really well
Mike:Yeah, a lot of people are taking to Winter Kills. I love the record too. Its my favourite record weve done since Last Kind Words.
Alan:Winter Kills has already been out eight months, and you guys seem to be on an eighteen month to two year album release cycle. So have you looked forward to the next album?
Mike:Weve already started writing for it. I know [John] Boecklin [Drummer] has a bunch of songs. I havent really had a lot of time to write because I just moved into a new house and Ive been building a studio in my garage to replace the studio that I have in my parents house, which I have outgrown, and thats where weve been doing all the pre-production. I cant even feel creative in that studio, Ive been in there for so long. So Im getting all my stuff out of there. Ive been building this studio in my new house. Ive been working on it for almost a year, in between tours, and it should be done in July. We have July and August off, so Im going to spend all that time writing for the next record. Boecklins already got probably like somewhere between three and five songs written, and a tentative date for recording of November/December, which means the record will probably be out some time next summer.
Alan:Ive seen it reported that you as a band feel that Winter Kills is your best album to date. Do you feel under pressure to better that?
Mike:Ive never really felt pressured. The only thing I kind of feel pressure about is not repeating ourselves too much, and hashing out the same type of record that weve done before. You know, I see things from a different perspective than our fans do, but theres a different vibe for every record for me. It always seems to come very organically for us. I just sit down and write. I dont really think about trying to do this or that or have a direction I want to go. To some extent I do. Now that weve done the song Sail [Awolnation cover], I think that kind of opened up some doors for me, where I can have more atmospheric tones, meshed with brutal guitars at the same time. Whereas before, I kind of strayed away from that. I didnt know ifDevilDriverfans would be into something like that, but they obviously do. Sail has gotten a great response. You know, its not our song, but we added a lot of elements to that.
Alan:You guys put on a great live show. The energy is so intense onstage, that I think it would be nice for fans to have, and it might even encourage more people to come and see your live shows, which is I presume how you make a living; through ticket sales. How do you even make a living from metal music these days? Like you mentioned, downloading has killed off physical album sales to a large extent.
Mike:Its about touring and merchandise. And when Im at home I also produce, mix and master bands. And I sold some songs to a music library that were just sitting on my computer doing nothing. I had a friend sing on them. Its kind of cool; I see them pop up on TV every now and then. I was watching one of my favourite shows Dexter a couple of years ago, and they dont tell me where my music goes, but one of my songs came up, and I was like Thats a cool song. Wait a minute, thats MY song!. And the singer is big into wrestling, WWE or whatever its called, and he and his wife see his songs pop up on that from time to time. I think Good, Ill be getting a cheque in the mail! [laughs]. Its not much, but it helps.
Check out the rest of the interview at Dublin Concerts
