An Interview with Chicago's Own OUTDrejas' leading man David Drejas

An Interview with Chicago's Own OUTDrejas' leading man David Drejas

By:  Coren E. McLeod

"OUTDrejas is an outrageous rock n' roll act that plays originals and covers. We are always looking to connect with music enthusiasts and play gigs."



I had the pleasure of working with the awesome group OUTDregas this past December at the great venue Double Door.  The group's performance really impressed.  I got to speak to the leading man David after the show and I got to know him a little better.



Here is what David had to say about his influences, what guitar picks he prefers and what fans could expect from one of his shows:

Coren:  Okay, tell me how you got your band OUTDrejas together...  What's the background? 

Dave:  Well, I started off playing bass in a metal band called Annoinnting of the Sick (yep 4 n's in Annoinnting).  It was fun, but I always wanted to be more of a guitar/singer, so I actually booked a show for a fake band at one of our shows.  We were at Mojoe's in Joliet (no longer exists), and I asked one of the people that book shows if my band OUTDrejas could get on a show.  I didn't tell them that no band existed yet by that name.  He booked it to a Battle of the Bands that was being held there and we were one of 10 bands in the battle.  That gave me a month to find a band, write a half hour set of original music, and partake in the battle to see how we do.  I gave my childhood buddy Stuart Graham a call to play drums.  He never actually had played drums before, but he's a kickass violinist, pianist, and singer with some acoustic guitar background as well so I figured a month should be enough time to learn how to hit things in rhythm.  His brother Tristan ended up being the bassist.  He had never played bass before, but he know how to play mostly punk rhythm guitar so it seemed like a good fit.  We did that battle and actually took 2nd OUT of 10!!!  From there, we've had some different band members but have never looked back.  Fun fact, our current bassist Matt Petrus actually let Tristan borrow his bass for that first battle.

Coren:  Explain how you came up with the name.  I love it btw...

David:  Someone in college used to say that I did some outrageous things.  One day he said I did some outdrejas things.  I decided to display it as OUTDrejas to try to drive the point home that it is a pun on my last name Drejas (DRAY-JUS).

Coren: The 1st time I saw you was at the Double Door on December 15th.  When you perform,  what do you want to bring to the audience? 

David:  There will always better a better guitarist, or a better vocalist, or a better drummer in the world, but our goal is to be the most fun and most entertaining band when we perform live.  We want to see people smile so we try to smile a lot and be goofy.  At the end of the day, you also need people's respect so we try to show the audience respect by playing to the best of our ability and acting professional.

Coren:  Your band has performed with some national acts...  What was your favorite show in 2016?

David:  I really enjoyed opening for Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace at Big Shots in Valparaiso, IN because he is one of my favorite musicians.  I went through a phase where I didn't change my Pandora radio station from Three Days Grace for over 3 months.  I also really enjoyed opening for Saving Abel at the BrauerHouse in Lombard, IL because the crowd was really fun on New Year's Eve and it was really cool to get pulled on stage to sing Addicted with Saving Abel.  We also really enjoyed opening for Puddle of Mudd, Trapt, Lacey Sturm from Flyleaf, Nonpoint, Buckcherry, and Adelita's Way.

Coren:  What brand of guitar do you play? What picks do you use?  :)

David:  I have three different guitars that I play a lot.  I play my Gibson BFG Gator when I need a screaming electric.  I play my custom OUTDrejas Moniker Hollowbody when I want that hollowbody sound.  And I play my Yamaha Acoustic whenever a song calls for an acoustic guitar.  I always use Mick's Picks guitar picks because I really like how they sound when I am playing chords as well as trying to shred!  If you are reading this and are unfamiliar with Mick's Picks, please do yourself a favor and check OUT mickspicks.com

Coren:  Who are your influences?  What music did you listen to as a kid?

David:  George Thorogood got me into music when I was 6 years old.  Then I went OUT and bought a guitar when I was 13 so I could be like Angus Young of AC/DC.  I started listening to the Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold and Dan Donegan of Disturbed to figure OUT which guitar tone I liked.  Then in college at the age of about 20 I saw Buddy Guy live and decided I wanted to learn to play like him.  I guess you could say I like rock n' roll new and old as well as the blues.

Coren:  What can your fans expect from OUTDrejas in 2017?  

David:  OUTDrejas played 34 shows in 2016.  We have the mentality that we get better every single show we play.  That being said, we are going to try to play 50 shows in 2017.  We also have about a half hour of recorded material that we think is golden.  We are going to continue to write and record until every single note on our debut album is perfect.  We have a 6 song demo OUT now that people can buy or listen to at OUTDrejas.com that we are proud of.  We had Ryan Smith master it (AC/DC, Coldplay, Adele), Matt Dougherty mix and track it (Disturbed, Pop Evil, Adelita's Way), Chris Sheperd engineer part of it (The Hives, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus), and Mason Bonner engineer part of it (Chance The Rapper, R Kelly).  We think it's really high quality for a demo.  We've been working with Matt Allison lately (Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, Rise Against) for a few new tracks and we plan on releasing this year.  We have no deadlines for our first official album so we are going to make sure every song really kicks ass before we release it (most likely in 2018).  We'll trickle songs OUT in the meantime as singles or exclusive web site only tracks.

Check out David's band throughout 2017 as they take Chicagoland by storm in 2017!!!!!

http://outdrejas.com/

https://www.facebook.com/outdrejas/?pnref=lhc

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