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slipknot interview
metal is - interview with joey
slipknot behind their masks - interview with paul chris and jim
Metal-is' Martin Carlsson talks respect, controversy and black metal with Slipknot's Joey Jordison…Inside the monumental Pavilhão Atlantico arena in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, the hung-over members of Slipknot are running around like madmen. trying to sort out all the last minute details before their first show of the year in support of the soon-to-be-released sophomore album, `Iowa'. Their behaviour is as adolescent as you'd expect; at one point, DJ Sid Wilson takes a leak into a bottle, which the band then try to convince vocalist Corey Taylor to take a sip from, claiming it's nothing more than plain apple juice.
As chaos ensues backstage, I try to have a sensible conversation with drummer Joey Jordison - which is unfortunate, as he happens to be speechless. I've brought a gift bag from Swedish black metallers DarkFuneral with me. It contains, among other things, an advance copy of the group's forthcoming album `Diabolis Interium', plus a letter from guitarist Lord Ahriman. which begins with the greeting, “Hail Metal! Hail Satan!” Joey looks at the CD like a kid in a candy store, eventually exclaiming: “Now we've got the support band for the US tour! It's on! People don't know what's awaiting them - this is gonna be some sick shit.”
You seem genuinely shocked by the Dark Funeral package.
JOEY: First of all, Dark Funeral is the shit. If they read this, thank you so much for sending this over! I'd piss myself if I got to talk with Lord Ahriman! They're one of my favourite black metal bands. People never give me stuff like that, and it means a lot to me, `cause I'm a huge black metal fan. For them to recognise a band like us, which some of you might think is at odds with what we play, that is a very nice gesture. Mayhem, Immortal and Emperor are great, and (Dark Throne ' s) `A Blaze In The Northern Sky' is one of my favourite records as far as black metal is concerned.
I get the impression that you really want respect from people on the black metal scene.
Yeah, I do. Our new record reflects a lot of it, too. We really went for our old influences, as far as death metal and black metal is concerned. We've injected a lot of it into our sound. People talk about the rap thing, that there was a lot of it on the last album; all of it has been removed and none of it exists any more. As far as black metal is concerned, we want to get the respect, because we're such big fans and we played in death metal and black metal bands. A lot of them might think it's a sell-out or whatever, but I really don't think it is because of the heart and integrity we pour into the music we play with Slipknot. Even though it's not death or black metal, there are a lot of influences from those bands.
Does it bug you when they talk shit about Slipknot?
No. I understand where they're coming from. People have their opinions and you can't really slag someone for having that type of opinion as long as they're honest. The world is made of 50 per cent of people that are gonna love you and 50 per cent that are gonna hate you. If some of those guys dislike us, it's totally cool. You gotta have the people that hate you, too. You gotta have the balance.
What was the band's mindset when you started writing material for `Iowa'?
When we were thinking about the new album at the close of the last tour, basically all I know is that the music we were hearing in our heads felt really comfortable. Almost every band on their sophomore release, especially in the genre that we're in, branch out to radio and different audiences. I wanna make sure all of our fans that bought our first record like our new record, `cause they're the ones that followed us from the beginning. Our new album is way more dark than our first one. Any sort of jumpy shit has pretty much been removed completely. We wanna go completely the opposite way of the American movement of nu-metal bands. We get lumped in with that shit and I challenge any of those guys to play `(sic)' or `Surfacing' off our first record. None of those fucking bands can play that, ever. The guitar riff in the middle of `Surfacing' is pure death metal and we wanted to concentrate on that specifically. With our new record, we wanna get the fans into the underground, to seek out new and heavier bands.
You don't think you're shooting yourselves in the foot by becoming more extreme?
No, I don't give a fuck about that shit. We never ever thought about a radio song or any of that bullshit. `Wait And Bleed' got to be the big thing, but it was never conceived as the `radio song'. We wanna make sure that our integrity stays intact on the second album. We didn't feel any pressure, `cause the only way you can do something that comes out naturally is by being honest to yourself and following your own instincts.
You were set to do a short US tour in May, but cancelled those dates because you had problems with the album. What happened?
I hate cancelling shows, but that had to be done in order to take care of the album. The problem was that the guitars had to be more up here and the vocals had to be down there. I had to rehearse for those shows, so I couldn't be there the whole time. They're sending me stuff and every time I'd be, “This is wrong, go fix it!” But eventually it turned out good. Andy Wallace mixed it and what can I say? He did `Reign In Blood'! Kerry King called him the other day and he said we influenced them a lot for their new record, which was the best compliment ever. He's a good friend and I love that guy so much. Man, we drink a lot on tour.
Ross Robinson has produced both your albums, but he didn't mix `Iowa'. Why?
We didn't want the stress again. We worked two months on the mixes last time. Last time we couldn't get the big names, because we were such a small underground band. All the people went, “It's too heavy. Don't want it. No radio songs.” No one wanted to mix it and we couldn't afford it either. I like the technical excellence part of the mixing. I like shit to sound good. Performance and production is great with Ross. When it comes to mixing, give it to the dude who knows what the fuck's up. Last time we had to handle it ourselves and it was mental.
In interviews last year you said something to the effect that you expected someone to get killed at a Slipknot show and if not someone in the audience, then someone on stage. Because of that statement, Slipknot are now banned from playing Sweden's biggest festival, the Hultsfred Festival. What's your reaction to that?
Sometimes I say things and it's the initial reaction, and you read it in the press and go, “Shit, I shouldn't have said that.” I don't want anyone to get hurt even remotely at our shows. I don't like that at all. As far as the band goes, we're all dead. It's coming. The imagery and stuff, it's gonna go down for the band. The fans, though, I don't want anything to ever happen to them. I'm sorry if I ever said anything like that. It was probably an initial reaction, having a bad day or something. We do play violent music and it's a violent crowd, but I think it's a positive thing, like a punching bag for stress relief. The best thing about music is that if you've had a bad day, you listen to one of your favourite records and it makes things a lot better. We're there for our kids and no one else is supposed to understand.
You said, “As far as the band goes, we're dead.” What do you mean by that?
I think we're pushing the envelope really hard with this new record, because we have such mass appeal. The band has got this current amount of success, we're going so hardcore and Corey's lyrics on the new record are really extreme, so I think we might have to go through the same things that JudasPriest, Ozzy and MarilynManson had to go through. Something like that tragedy wise might happen to the band real soon. I hope not and I don't want anything like that to happen, but it very well could. With the mass appeal we have, we're gonna turn some heads with the new record and a lot of those heads are gonna be turned towards the controversy. It's gonna come and we welcome it. Everything happens for a reason.
So you really want to push the envelope?
Yeah, because if you're not making a difference or a change, even if some people view that as a negative thing, I think you're just wasting space.
As a contrast to the violent elements of the shows, you make the audience sit down during `Spit It Out', which is almost like a Ghandi type of non-violent statement. How did that come about?
The first time we ever did that, I remember organising it with the band at soundcheck in Montreal, Canada, during one of our American tours. Our show is so physical that it's the peace and calm before the real big storm. Everyone's sitting down and waiting, knowing that it's coming, and when those kids jump up, that's some insane shit. It's the biggest explosion of emotion. I think that for a band of our nature, to be actually able to pull that off during a show… like I said, it's about having the perfect balance. It's crowd control and I feel like we have the power. It's almost like those kids are so at one with us that when we tell them to do something like that, it shows you the loyalty.
What's the reason behind you changing your masks for this album?
A new campaign equals new masks. It's not like we've made a radical change. You can still see who is who and they represent the same personalities as before. We've taken everything to a new level and the masks reflect that, too. Everything is a bit more sick and I mean, how sick is the Clown's new mask? His brain is showing and it's just the fucking best!
Outside the venue today, a lot of kids are dressed up like Slipknot. Have you ever had any problems with fans getting past local security acting as members of the band?
Not recently, but in the early days, it happened a couple of times. I think it was on the CoalChamber tour. I think it's an insult, because we come and play for these kids, and they ridicule what we're doing.
A few minutes ago you and Shawn `Clown' Crahan were screaming at each other about the missing `Heretic' T-shirt. Are you the two guys in Slipknot that take on the role of leader?
With organisation, yeah. Can you imagine nine guys in a band trying to make a decision on a shirt? No. We leave it down to two people and they all trust us. It's all a big unit and everyone's equally important, but as far as handling all the non-music stuff goes it's me, Shawn and sometimes Paul (Gray, bass) that does it.
SLIPKNOT - BEHIND THE MASKS |
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Jim
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How did Slipknot get together - Was there a meeting of minds/musical sytles?
Paul: 'It all kinda started way back in '95 you know, we had all been in different bands together and other bands around town and stuff. The bands broke up and all the best
musicians ended up in the band right here, Slipknot and that was it'.
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Chris
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'There wasn't like a meeting of minds or anything it just seemed like a natural thing, you know everybody was kinda drawn to it and we just kinda built the band to the way we wanted to hear it. You know that's why we have the nine members, the three drummers and the DJ and sampler and guitar players and vocalists and stuff, it' just kinda built to where we want the sound to be'.
Jim: 'When we were looking for members you know it was like 'well this band you know
broke up and dude was a good guitar player whoever was a great singer whatever so we'll see
what they're doing now.' We grew up together pretty much'.
Paul: 'We're all friends so.. just different. We played shows for years in other bands together
and we've just all been friends for a long, long time'.
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Paul
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Were you al disenfranchised, frustrated with the whole music scene/life and see this as a way of breaking through? was it as much about having fun?
Paul: 'Well it's about both. You know if it wasn't fun we wouldn't be doing it. It's like being from Des Moines, Iowa which is the fucking shittiest place for expression, you know what I mean, it gets really frustrating. It gets really hard and we just finally said "Fuck It" you know and came up with this. It was kinda like the mask and the coveralls was kinda like, I guess, our maybe anti-image, it was our thing about not about our hairdos or how many tatoos I have or what kind of cool clothes I'm wearing but you know about our band and our music and what we're trying to put out so that's how it came about'.
What inspired the masks? were you all in agreement about it? do any of you not like your masks? which is the most popular? what would happen if you lost one?
Paul: 'There's a rule that if you lose my mask you die. So that one's that right there. The most popular - I couldn't tell you. As far as liking the masks, speaking for myself, I love and hate my mask. I hate putting it on, it's tight and it fucking makes my head hurt and everything else but it gets me in that special place to be in this band'.
Chris: 'Same here, I love it and hate it man. I got a bondage hood man that I got to wear pretty much all day long. But it puts you there man, I wear it, it doesn't wear me. Make it happen'.
Do you wear them in bed?
Jim: 'Negative. No'.
Paul: 'Sometimes'.
Chris: 'Depends on how hot she is!'
Where did you get the names from?
Paul: 'We were born like everybody else and our parents team up with them I guess.'
Do you ever get obsessed by your own images?
Paul: 'Obsessed by our own images? No'.
Chris: 'Obsessed by the music though'.
Paul: 'Yeah, obsessed by the music. You know it's not about any fucking image it's about the music. If I was invisible it would be better. It's all about the music'.
What do your parents make of your attitude?
Jim: 'My Mom always bitches to me about it. She knows I'm doing what I want to be doing so she's very supportive about it'.
Paul: 'My mom's happy because I don't have to bum money off her and live in her basement'.
Chris: 'My parents are totally cool about it. They've got a lot of questions about it and some shit goes down, you know but for the most part they're happy man. We're taking over the World'.
Do you pay more attention to music or image?
Chris: 'Music'.
Jim: 'I can't state it enough'
Paul: 'When you buy the CD you don't see the band. We've sold a shit load of CDs now and it's all the music. You listen to the music, you don't see the band playing when you hear the CD. People love the CD'.
How did your stage show come together? do you like it to be as digusting and outrageous as popular?
Paul: 'As popular? Our stage show is not kinda like a .. We just get up there and do what we feel and sometimes it can get disgusting and other times not. We just go out and give it 150% and just go for it. Slam our asses off and try to do the best we can and if some people consider what we do disgusting on some occasions then so be it'.
Chris: 'Yeah that's what's beautiful about it man. In this band you can do whatever you want, you don't have to answer to any band members, it's like whatever you're feeling that night that day - fucking do it man'.
Paul: 'You know if it comes down to like, I got to take a fucking piss, and I can't get off stage I'll piss on our singer, you know what I mean? Or fucking light somebody on fire, it doesn't matter. One day we're all just going to come out with fucking shotguns and blow our fucking heads off right there and it will be over. End of band'.
dotmusic held a vote recently in which we asked if you were 'for real' or purely comical - comical was the verdict. How do you react to accusations that youre faking it?
Paul: 'All I can say is that'.
Jim: 'I think that's comical'.
Paul: 'Yeah that is pretty comical. Anybody who thinks we're faking it come to the show, come up on stage and we'll see what's up'.