While the opening refrain of ‘Oh-ah-ah-ah-ah” from Disturbed‘s platinum-certified 2000 single “Down With The Sickness” firmly put them on the map, it’s also become somewhat of an inescapable shadow the band’s vocalist David Draiman. During a recent appearance on ‘The Jesea Lea Show” (see below), Draiman weighed in on the origin of how his simian-like yelp made it to the band’s debut record “The Sickness” and his hopes that it doesn’t follow him to the grave.
Elaborating on how he come up with the part, he offered:
“It was just improvisational, man, you know. The first time we ever started writing the song, at first, when we first came up with it, that first section where that first ‘Ooh-ah-ah-ah-ah’ began, was just a pause for dramatic effect. It was just dead space before the whole band kicked in, and that beat, the rhythm, that primal, tribal vibe that it had, I just, one time, improvisationally just tried it! And, literally, the guys stopped the song.
They didn’t know what I was doing. They all looked at each other, like, ‘Is he OK?!’ Like [I was having] maybe a seizure or something. They all looked at me like, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know! But just humor me, there’s something to it.’ And it stuck, and after all these years, I think my only fear is that when I am finally laid to rest, on my headstone it’s gonna say, ‘Here lies David Draiman, Ooh-ah-ah-ah-ah!'”
He later elaborated on what also helped to inspire him to go in that direction:
“All the little noises came after me being a part of Disturbed. The rhythms. And there were so many people in the genre – Jonathan Davis in particular, who, ever since I heard that first Korn record, there are so many parts of his beatbox-ish kind of, gibberish rapping that he does, that were very inspirational to me.
Him, Chino Moreno from the Deftones, their first couple of records were incredibly inspirational and seminal for me. Just understanding what more could be done with rhythm, and how the voice could end up becoming a rhythmic instrument in of itself. It really just helped me focus myself in that direction.”
