Quiet Riot singer James Durbin learned to deal with his Aspergers and Tourettes syndromes
Quiet Riot singer James Durbin learned to deal with his Aspergers and Tourettes syndromes
New Quiet Riot lead vocalist James Durbin was recently interviewed by Rock Revolt just prior to his first show with the iconic ’80s metal band in Wichita, Kansas, USA on March 18, 2017.
Durbin was asked how does he do everything while dealing with Tourettes and Aspergers and just being himself and not letting anyone get to him about it, to which he replied: “That’s a great question. That’s actually another thing Idol taught me. I mean I’m pretty good at being able to hide it. I’m good at holding it in to just offset my ticks and my awkwardness and kind of let that happen on my own. When I’m alone, yeah, I probably do it a lot more. I’m able to if I need to not show… If I’m on camera and I need to be on, even if it’s on stage, it goes away. I was diagnosed when I was ten, so that’s when I was started become fully aware of what I have. So for eighteen years I’ve been learning who I am and understanding when I do things, how I do things, why I do things. So at this point I’m having a much easier time controlling it; I guess is the best way I can put it.”
In terms of whether he started recording his vocals for Quiet Riot‘s new upcoming studio album Road Rage, Durbin stated: “I have. I am currently writing. It’s very interesting. Also I’m glad we did The Maps To The Hollywood Scars thing because I wrote all of those songs in such a short amount of time, within a month. Not just the songs from Volume One, the songs on Volume Two as well. And we recorded and released. So I’m very happy with the quality of the songs on Maps To The Hollywood Scars. It’s kind of got me in this mode of marathon writing so to speak. Already for the Road Rage album, I’ve written five songs and have another five to go. The rest of the album is already recorded or is having final touches being put on. So for the convince factor I will be recording my vocal tracks here in Santa Cruz where I did my last album, Riot On Sunset. So that’s really cool for me as well as my engineer, who is very very excited to be working on this. His name is Rick Riviera, and he is the owner of Rocker Studios in Santa Cruz. It’s very cool that someone I started working with last year I’ve developed a great friendship with. So it’s great to bring him onto this project when he helped me out so much with mine.
So yeah we’re really really excited. I’m excited because not only do I get to be a part of the Road Rage album but the first official Quiet Riot album release in ten years of new material since the passing of the late great Kevin DuBrow. It all goes back to what I was saying earlier. Every five days there’s a new thing. It’s like oh man! There’s no time to react. There’s no time to really let this all soak in without the next thing popping up. But I’m definitely up for it. I’ve pulled the sword from the stone, so it’s my duty to deliver. And so far, the first five songs that we’ve written for Road Rage are extremely kick ass, and they embody that Quiet Riot spirit and that energy. There’s just some great vibes on this album so far.”
You can read the rest of the interview with Durbin at Rock Revolt.