With ‘The Sound of Silence,’ Disturbed Finds a Crossover Moment
'I couldn’t be more flabbergasted by the whole thing,' singer David Draiman says
PHOTO: TRAVIS SHINN
On Disturbed’s “The Vengeful One,” lead singer David Draiman sings, “Hear the innocent voices scream, as their tormentors laugh through all of it.” Now the heavy metal band has an unlikely hit with their cover version of Simon & Garfunkel‘s wistful “The Sound of Silence,” crossing over into territory they’ve yet to experience in their 22-year career.
“I couldn’t be more flabbergasted by the whole thing,” Draiman says.
He adds, “[It’s a song] that my parents can play for their friends with pride without having to warn them not to be frightened ahead of time. I have fans saying, ‘Finally, me and my mom can actually agree on music for once!’”
The song has been on the Billboard Hot 100 since early March, peaking so far at No. 42 — a career high for the band. A recent performance of “The Sound of Silence” on “Conan” has racked up more than 10 million views on YouTube – the late-night show’s highest total views for a music performance.
The song continues to make strides in places where Disturbed’s music isn’t typically found. On Monday, a finalist on “Dancing With the Stars” used their version in one of the season’s final dances. Earlier this month, the band’s parent label Warner Bros. shipped the song to Top 40 radio, also a first for the band.
Paul Simon, too, has become a fan. “I was surprised…it was a pretty moving performance,” Simon said on the BBC’s “Later…With Jools Holland” of the “Conan” performance.
Disturbed’s last five albums have hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and their version of “Sound of Silence” has sold 660,000 downloads to date and has been streamed more than 54 million times, according to Nielsen Music.
Covering songs on an album isn’t a new thing for the band. On prior records, they’ve covered Tears for Fears’s “Shout,” Genesis’s “Land of Confusion,” and U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” In choosing “The Sound of Silence,” the band wanted to get away from the ’80s and go further back in time. They also ditched the guitars in favor of a piano.
“We had always had it in the back of our mind that this was the track on the record that was special,” Draiman says. “[But] we didn’t know if it would be convincing enough.”
Warner Bros. got wind of the cover in January 2015, when a few executives went to a private listening session in Las Vegas, where the band, on hiatus at the time, played them a few songs including “The Sound of Silence.” Xavier Ramos, a senior vice president of marketing for the label, left thinking it would resonate wide.
“It was pretty much a game changer,” Ramos says. “Both for their fanbase and expanding their fanbase.”
Still, Warner Bros. decided to roll out with two singles ahead of “The Sound of Silence,” songs that were more in the classic Disturbed vein of heavy guitars and charging rhythms. But the Simon & Garfunkel cover had steady individual download numbers after the record’s release, and Draiman says the label seized upon that.
“All of a sudden, the people at Warner Bros. started seeing what was going on organically and they reacted,” he says. “Where there’s smoke, sometimes you can help make a big fire.”
Warner Bros. credits the song’s popularity to the video for “Silence,” which was launched in early December 2015. To date, it’s gained more than 56 million views, a record number of views on YouTube for the group. Ramos says a majority of the video’s viral outbreak occurred through fans sharing it on Facebook, where people who weren’t typically fans of heavy metal or hard rock fell under its spell.
Draiman also says the band’s approach to music helps with its crossover appeal and the growing number of fans who have discovered the group through their Simon & Garfunkel cover.
“We pride ourselves in being rhythmic and aggressive, but we also have been intensely melodic,” he says. “Any of our root melodies, you could pull from our bed of music and place in any other bed and it will make sense. There’s still big hooks and I think that’s what they are discovering.”
“I’m not a screamer, I’m a singer,” he adds.
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