David Draiman Talks Twitter, Politics + Disturbed

We recently published our interview with David Draiman about his new band Device, but during that conversation the singer also talked about a number of other topics, including his presence on Twitter and the status of Disturbed.

While Device has Draiman busy right now, he remains connected with his fans as one of the most active rockers on Twitter. He often touches on subjects beyond music, particularly giving his take on current events happening in the world. See what he told us about social media and politics, plus the latest on Disturbed, below:

You have a great presence on Twitter. Not only do you tweet about your music but you tweet when big news stories break, often offering your opinion on the matters. Can you talk about using your Twitter page as an outlet to your fans and its importance to you?

Having a connection to the fans is very important to me. I like what Twitter does in that it enables people to have a means into what’s going on in your head without completely demystifying you – if you decide to use it that way. If you’re one of these people who uses Twitter to track your every move throughout the day and you want to Tweet about when you’re going to use the bathroom, well that’s your choice [laughs] and that’s what you want to use it for, then God bless you.

For me, I started it primarily as a mean of maintaining a dialogue and a contact between myself and the fanbase so they can ask me their questions. I can tell them what I think about certain issues that I’ve asked about time and time again so that I can use the gift I’ve been given and the position I’ve been given to just at least speak my opinion and offer a little bit of hope and encouragement and light to people -- and just try to be some sort of semblance of something that could be positive, a means of dealing with the bulls---t in the world, a means of making sense of it. I just go ahead and try to be honest.

Several of your Tweets offer political commentary and being that your father just ran for the Mayor of Los Angeles, do you have any political aspirations yourself?

No, no, never. I couldn’t, I certainly am not in any way shape or form dishonest enough. I would f--- up every step of the way because I would be too tied to the truth. I can’t go into politics, I’m not a good enough at b.s. -- that’s what has gotten me into trouble my entire career is that I’m too frank and wear it on my sleeve.

You’ve clearly stated that you doing Device is not the end of Disturbed. With that said, is there a tentative plan in place for when Disturbed plan on reconvening for a new album? 

No, there is no plan in place but we’ve talked about it. It’s definitely a part of the plan to reconvene. When? No clue - that we have not talked about. Everybody’s really happy doing what they’re doing right now and we’re going to let things sit for a while and stay away from it for a while and go back to it when we feel it’s the right time.

Have you had any reaction from your Disturbed band mates about the Device album?

Yeah, I actually sent it to them and they love it. They’re very supportive and very proud.

Device's self-titled debut album is currently available at iTunes in standard and deluxe editions. You can also catch the band on tour; click here for dates. And if you'd like to follow David Draiman on Twitter, click here.