Wishing

Album: Dealing With Demons I (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Dealing With Demons I is a concept album where DevilDriver frontman Dez Fafara bares his soul about his life. Each track on the record explores the purging of a different demon; "Wishing" illustrates the theme of losing a loved one and wishing they would return.
  • Fafara wrote "Wishing" about what he imagined it might be like if he ever lost his wife and manager Anahstasia. The couple have been together a long time and raised three children.
  • In the fall of 2019 Anahstasia was diagnosed with invasive malignant melanoma, a dangerous type of skin cancer. Fafara told American Songwriter: "When I finished writing the song, we found out she had cancer so I must've had some premonition of what was going on, so this is the demon of loneliness."

    Anahstasia was given a clean bill of health around the 2019 Thanksgiving holiday following a successful round of cancer surgery.
  • Fafara dipped into his Goth roots and love of post-punk bands like Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus for his brooding vocal delivery on the verses. They mark Fafara's first clean vocals in DevilDriver history. He told American Songwriter the clean verse "is reminiscent of what those bands would do."
  • The dreamlike music video places each DevilDriver band member in a nightmarish state, trying to reach their loved ones just to have them disappear once they've nearly grasped them. Each band member filmed their own footage in separate locations; the finished product was directed by Vicente Cordero of Industrialism Films.

Comments: 2

  • Jyin475 from TexasAgreed Nik3 i honestly thought it was soilwork with DevilDriver I really do get a soilwork kind of feeling in the song.
  • Nlk3I was curious if it was his own clean vocals or a featured artist. Like Randy Blythe (though 7 years earlier on Lamb of God's "Resolution"), Dez isn't known for doing clean vocals and did them well for what his style is.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Adam Young of Owl City

Adam Young of Owl CitySongwriter Interviews

Is Owl City on a quest for another hit like "Fireflies?" Adam answers that question and explains the influences behind many others.

Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Kim Thayil of SoundgardenSongwriter Interviews

Their frontman (Chris Cornell) started out as their drummer, so Soundgarden takes a linear approach when it comes to songwriting. Kim explains how they do it.

Female Singers Of The 90s

Female Singers Of The 90sMusic Quiz

The ladies who ruled the '90s in this quiz.

P.F. Sloan

P.F. SloanSongwriter Interviews

P.F. was a teenager writing hits and playing on tracks for Jan & Dean when he wrote a #1 hit that got him blackballed.

Randy Newman

Randy NewmanSongwriting Legends

Newman makes it look easy these days, but in this 1974 interview, he reveals the paranoia and pressures that made him yearn for his old 9-5 job.

Ramones

RamonesFact or Fiction

A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.