Donegan Says Disturbed Didn’t Feel Sophomore Pressure

Therese McKeon of ShoutWeb.com spoke with Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan and asked if the group felt that sophomore release pressure with ‘Believe’. “There wasn’t really that much pressure as far as timeframe because we weren’t given a timeframe. Warner Brothers didn’t really expect us to deliver a record to them [in 2002],” Donegan said. “I think they thought that with us touring for 22 months, basically non-stop, that we were exhausted. They thought that we had enough and needed a break, which we did at that point. We needed a break but we were home for a month and we were bored being at home. We were like, ‘Okay, we had our break’ even though it wasn’t much of a break. It was me sitting my bedroom playing my guitar during that break and working on ideas. I think a thing that definitely helped us not have to deal with that pressure of that sophomore release and trying to meet everybody’s expectations – the fans or the label – was coming back home. I was really worried going into a studio that we weren’t familiar with and punching the clock and going to work. I didn’t feel comfortable at the time of doing it on the West Coast or people from the label there popping in whenever they want and looking over our shoulders to make sure we write the next ‘Stupify’ or the next ‘Down With The Sickness’. We chose to do it back home with Johnny K again to put us back in that comfortable familiar environment and to make use feel like we did when we were demoing when we were a local band.” The entire interview at shoutweb.com has since been removed.