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Fafara with Coal Chamber, 2012 (second from left)
another house to move my family and it
put me in a crazy headspace. This record is
just really focused. Winter Kills has some
great grooves. We really honed in on what
we do best and put our best foot forward.
Mosh: One thing most people might not
know about you is that your father (Lucas
"Tiger" Fafara) was a child actor who
appeared on the iconic '60s TV show, Leave
It To Beaver (as Tooey Brown). The roles are
somewhat reversed now with your own
kids growing up with a famous dad.
Dez: My father was an actor. I never really
grew up with him. We didn't really get to
know each other until later on in life. Even
now we're kind of reconnecting. I knew
what he did (acted) but we just weren't
close. I was in strange positions my whole
life with stepfathers that didn't really treat
me too well. With my kids, I don't think
they see it any different than me being any
other father, although I come and go, that
would be the only thing. But I'm in their
life daily. We talk and I try to be a guiding
moral force as much as I possibly can. Kids
that grow up with famous parents, or parents in an industry like mine, sometimes it
changes them. If they're living in
Hollywood, they can get into some bad
things. But I live in a small town. I don't
think it's changed my kids one bit. I think
they're proud of what I do.
Mosh: As long as they don't bring home
any Miley Cyrus CDs.
Dez: (Laughing) They listen to a lot of different music, man. Everything from rap to
Excision and Skrillex. I hear tons of bands.
But they love metal as well, so it's a good
thing.
Mosh: On Winter Kills, you recorded your
vocals at home in a make-shift vocal booth
while the rest of the band recorded in the
studio in Florida. What were the benefits
and the advantage of recording separately?
Dez: I just realized that we had been gone
so much already, that now putting me out
of my place another two months would
get me to a point where I'd be like, 'Ok, I'm
on song seven and I have four more songs
before I can go home.' I don't want to cheat
myself or cheat the listener. I want to be
fully into it. I don't want to be focused on
that when I can go home. We had an extra
room downstairs and we gutted it; black
carpet, black ceiling, black walls, allorange accouterments. I called vocalbooth.com and they went through different dimensions with me. It just added so
much focus to this record. The record really came together quick because I was so
focused.
Mosh: The last song of the album, "Sail," is
a cover song from the electronic/pop band
Awolnation. On paper, it's an odd choice
of a song for a metal band to cover, but
you pull it off quite well.
Dez: I heard the song coming from my
kid's bedroom one time. Later, I heard it
again with the whole family in the car and
I thought it was incredible. First, it says,
'Blame it on my ADD, baby.' I've suffered
from ADD my whole life. My parents had
me on Ritalin for 11 years and I still suffer
from ADHD. Doing obscure stuff outside
of the metal genre is what we really wanted to do. We put our own spin on it. Live,
the people who know the original are
singing along, but they're doing it with
their mouths open (in awe) because it's
metal – It's not like they're used to hearing
it. And the people who have never heard it
before think it's our original.
Mosh: With Winter Kills being your sixth
release, to have that consistent formula for
this many albums is something rare.
Dez: It's really rare that on a sixth record
you A.) debut higher and B.) sell more.
And the fans are even coming and saying
that we have more heart. There's just
something magical going on with this
band and with this record, Winter Kills. In
the future, we're not going to let them
down, either. We have a signature sound
but we always change it up. So if you listen to our first record to our sixth record,
they're very different from each other.
Beast, our last record is so different from
this record. Pray For Villains the one before
Beast is so different from Beast. I think
that's what's important. We're never just
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