He is one of the most prominent vocalists and musicians in the metal world and with his band "Disturbed" he conquered stages and charts around the world.
In addition, he demonstrates a patriotism that has never been seen on our land by an international artist !!
(Photo: Travis Shinn)
= His full name is David Michael Draiman and he was born on March 13, 1973, in Brooklyn to Jewish parents.
= His father was a real estate dealer but went to prison for financial fraud when David was only 12. His brother, Benny (Benjamin) is also a musician who lives and works in Israel. His grandmother Ziona, whose roots are from Yemen, immigrated to Israel with her family in the early 1900s.
= His mother is a Holocaust survivor whose entire family was wiped out during the Holocaust. David has stated several times that he has a strong connection to the issue following what his mother's family went through in the Holocaust.
= He attended an ultra-Orthodox school and even intended to be a rabbi, but in his youth, he began to rebel against the establishment and was expelled from the school. He said it made him hate religion for years, but later in life, he came to terms with it and even became a cantor.
= After graduating from high school he had a girlfriend who used heroin and eventually committed suicide. The event inspired David to write the song "Inside the Fire". But this relationship also put him on drugs and he started using heroin until in 1992 when he was 18, he tried to end his life. He survived the event after which he assured himself that he would never touch drugs again.
= He studied for a year at the "Neve Zion Yeshiva" in Kiryat Yearim near Jerusalem and by the way, he speaks fluent Hebrew.
(Photo: Ole Hagen)
= After a year he returned to the United States and began studying at "Loyola University Chicago". In 1996 he graduated with a BA in Political Science and Government, Philosophy, and Business Administration.
= After graduating, he worked as an administrative assistant at a health facility. A year later, he received an administrative license and ran his own health facility for five years.
= David said that his first major influences were from the bands "Kiss" and "Black Sabbath", but over the years he has adopted a wider range of genres from the rock world such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Whitesnake, Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Misfits, Nirvana, Soundgarden and more ...
= In 1994 guitarist Dan Donegan, drummer Mike Wengren and bassist Steve "Fuzz" Kmak formed a band called "Brawl". After two years of working together, the three published an ad in the Illinois Entertainer newspaper that they were looking for a singer. David who held more than 20 auditions for various bands at the time was determined to start making music. He auditioned and immediately the band members felt it was it, mostly because he started creating melodies while improvising to Dan's riffs and also because he was willing to go for original material, unlike the other singers the three auditioned.
= In 1996, David joined the band and he also was the one who chose the name that was changed from "Brawl" to "Disturbed".
(Photo: Disturbed)
= The four members recorded two different demos and started marketing themselves in every way possible. For three years they sought to perform anywhere in their city of Chicago, at every band show that came to perform in the city they tried to screw in as an opening act, and at every show, each of them was a salesman who sold CDs, tapes, shirts, flyers, and everything possible to expose their music to as many people as possible.
= At the same time, they are creating a logo for themselves and their familiar character "The Guy", a character who looks like a figure from a video game and will accompany them throughout their careers.
= In 1999 the young band manages to get a recording contract and signed with the Giant Records label.
= In 2000 the band releases their debut album "The Sickness". With the rise of the Nu-Metal genre, the band gained significant exposure and the album reached number 29 on Billboard. Although it did not reach number one, the album was the band's breakthrough point and has sold over 5 million copies to date, and was the band's most commercially successful album. The album released strong and successful singles such as: "Stupify", "Down With The Sickness", "Voices" and "The Game".
= In 2002 the band releases their second album "Believe" which goes straight to number one on Billboard and begins the tradition of conquering first place throughout the band's albums. A few months before the album's release, the band released a documentary called "M.O.L" that documents moments from the album's recordings and the album's tour. The singles "Prayer", "Remember" and "Liberate" were released from the album. The video clip of the first single was taken off air after the 9/11 attack, as there were images reminiscent of the attack.
= That same year, David recorded the song "Forsaken" for the famous Nu-Metal soundtrack of the movie "Queen of the Damned" produced by Jonathan Davis.
= In 2003, after the end of the "Music as a Weapon II" tour, bassist Steve was fired from the band. Bassist John Moyer replaced him and since then the band's lineup has not changed.
= In 2005 the third album "Ten Thousand Fists" was released which also, of course, reached number one on Billboard. This is the first album on which the character of "The Guy" can be seen on the album cover. One of the most famous songs on the album is the cover of the song "Land of Confusion" by the band "Genesis". This is the band's second best-selling album which has reached almost 2 million copies. The band members dedicated the album to guitarist Dimebag Darrell who passed away the year before the album was released. On this album, the band brings back the guitar solos to the structure of the songs, which was not common at the time.
= In 2006 David was ranked 42nd on Hit Parader magazine's list of the 100 greatest metal vocalists of all time.
= In 2008 the band releases their fourth album "Indestructible". This is the first album that the band produces by themselves and the production is led by David. He asked the band members to bring out the most gloomy and aggressive melodies and sounds they could to blend in with the lyrics. Following difficult experiences that David had in the two years before the album, such as a bad relationship that got out of hand, a serious motorcycle accident, and a suicide attempt by a relative, David decided to put it all out on the album. Here too as we mentioned, the album took first place on Billboard. In the bonus version of the album, there is a cover of the song "Midlife Crisis" by the band "Faith No More".
= In 2010 the band releases their fifth album "Asylum". The band commented that this album is more mature and even heavier than its previous albums, they put a very strong emphasis on accuracy and playing abilities. This is the fourth consecutive album that occupies first place in the Billboard charts. In the deluxe version of the album, there is a cover of the song "Living After Midnight" by the band "Judas Priest". This album was also produced independently by the band.
= One of the most prominent songs on the album is the song "Never Again" which David wrote about the Holocaust and in an interview he said:
"My two grandparents on my mother's side were Holocaust survivors. I have other relatives who are survivors, and all of my mother's family members, except my grandparents and their siblings, were completely wiped out. So I felt it was important to write about it because I realized the last generation of survivors was going to disappear". David further said that he feels that the generation that knew the Holocaust is disappearing and if it does not repent then their testimony will disappear along with the whole event.
= At the end of the tour to promote the album, which ended a year later, the band went on a hiatus. During the hiatus, David and guitarist Geno Lenardo from the band "Filter" formed an Industrial Metal band called "Device". In 2013 the band released their only album bearing the band's name.
= In 2013, David is a guest on the song "Dance in the Rain", which is taken from Megadeth's 14th album "Super Collider".
= In 2015 the band released the first signs of a comeback as it introduced a new logo on social media and an illustration of “The Guy” attached to life support machines. That same year, the "Disturbed" quartet returns and releases the band's sixth album "Immortalized". This album also reaches number one on Billboard, the fifth in a row, making it the third band, after "Metallica" and "Dave Matthews Band" to do so. The most famous single from the album, which has also become the band's most famous single to date is a cover of the song "The Sound of Silence" by "Simon & Garfunkel".
(Photo: LiveNation)
= In 2018, the band releases their seventh album "Evolution". Unfortunately, this is the band's first album that does not take first place on Billboard and stops the sequence that the band had from the second album. The band members said that in this album they challenged themselves to evolve in terms of sound and hence the name of the album. In addition, they also wanted to express the influences they had from classical rock that they listened to in their youth. In the deluxe version of the album, there is the song "The Sounds of Silence" performed along with Myles Kennedy.
= After the hiatus imposed on the band due to the corona epidemic, like many artists who invested their isolated time in creating, the band released their eighth album "Divisive" at the end of 2022. David said that the band members were excited like little children while working on the album since it came after so much time of distance, disconnection, and isolation. When the band members also said that they returned to the "vibes" of their first albums which added to the excitement.
= In July 2019, we experienced firsthand the unforgettable performance of the band in Israel. The show, which took place at Live Park, Rishon Lezion, was a powerful demonstration of love for Israel. Between each song, David stirs sentences in Hebrew, shouts "My brothers in blood" non-stop, displays the Israeli flag on the video screens, and brings the ten thousand metalheads to the pinnacle of excitement as he stands on stage and sings "Hatikva" with them. A great show of powerful music, patriotism, sweat, and tears !!
= Another special event that took place in Israel is David's supportive visit to the Western Wall.
In December 2021, David paid a visit to support Israel due to the attack in which the late Eli Kay was killed in an alley near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, by a Hamas operative. David wanted to prove the "innocence" of the State of Israel and present things to the world media as they are in reality. He published a post in which he invited everyone to march with him to the scene of the attack to demonstrate Israeli unity.
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