Rockezine.com interview with Slipknot on Mar 06, 2004

with Chris Fehn on Mar 06, 2004

May 24th sees the release of `Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses` album from Slipknot, followed by a stadium tour with KoRn and Metallica. Just before the interview I was given a listen to six songs that are ready for mastering. What I heard sounded promising, the guitar solo makes a welcome return in one of the tracks, there`s more singing from Corey than roars and the percussion is as tight as ever. I was speaking to Chris Fehn, better known as #3 about the new album, upcoming tour and the songwriting process. "That is a great fucking album man!" was his fist reaction on seeing my Carcass `Heartwork` T-Shirt. Things were going well...
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		Have you been in Amsterdam long? I got in last night.
		Do you ever get to look around the city that you`re in or do you stay in the hotel? We usually try to spend an extra couple of nights in Amsterdam. We went to the van Gogh museum last time we were here. Not into art as far as paintings and stuff but I went with some people and I asked them what`s the deal and they explained it to me and I’m like `oh, okay`. You know that guy went through some shit man, that guy is kind of Slipknot in a way. He was doing some stuff that nobody was doing and kind of went out there a little bit and I can relate to that. I was like, `cool`.
		Just heard a couple of the new songs, never heard so much diversity in the first six songs, in the second one I got some late Carcass riffs going on... And the guitar solos are back in.. It`s been a while. Was that discussed in the band? It wasn`t discussed very long, you know it was like, let`s just put a guitar solo in there, let`s just do it.
		When you first came out you fucked the whole song structure, you guys just completely broke that up.. and now you`ve got the solo back in there; it`s a nice return. Totally, we wrote music that we like, we like guitar solos, we like heavy riffs, we like the chaotic, but yet the organised chaos. We`re all fully schooled in metal so we know what we like to hear and what was good in the old and what`s good in the new. We kind of mixed it all together.
		How does that go with 9 people in the band? (was in a band myself and it was hard enough with just 4 people). It`s quite easy you know. Obviously I don`t sit down and write guitar riffs, but I know what sounds good. You just speak your mind. If you don`t like it later on, well then hey man you should`ve said something if you had a better idea, lay it out. We`re all a little bit more experienced.
		Do you speak out on the percussion side of things then it strings together, or suggest something you`ve come up with. I’m really interested in how a song gets written. A lot of it`s in practice. During practice Shawn and I will play whatever we want and you can tell by the looks, by the feel during practice that `yeah man, that`s where that part goes and that`s how that pattern should be played...` And also you gotta remember that I have Joey in my band and he`s amazing. He`s like instead of doing that, make it a triplet, and we`ll play triplets and we`ll be like, yeah that does offset you, and that`s where it makes it badder, more cool. And trust me, all the guitar players, they go with our drumparts too. They`ll be like `hey Joey do the Carcass blast, or do some other type of blast that we have names for`. You know, or try to do just a single kickbeat. Stuff like that.
		You actually have a Carcass blast? Oh yeah man, we whip out every band man, you know, it`s like whatever! Whatever it happens to sound like. Dude, do more of a Slayer-type fill, you know. Of course it`s not the same because he`s so good that he makes it his own. Everybody works between each other on everything. It`s just all good man, we know that if you start being a bitch about it, it`s just not the way to go.. and we try it and if it doesn`t work, it doesn`t work man and nobody sits around crying about it..
		But somehow between 9 of you, you all manage to come to the same conclusions..? Yeah it`s pretty crazy.. having 9 different ideas is unbelievably good.
		What`s the strangest influences you guys have? If you listen to `mate feed kiil repeat` there`s a lot of jazz on that record you know. A lot of that kind of stuff. Because jazz is fuckin trippy man! Especially for a drummer. Sometimes just to find the 1 in there is impossible!
		When you’re learning drums, within two months you can lay out a steady rock beat but with jazz.. The piano`s doing some other crazy shit you know.. and you`ve just got to sit there and lay it down man. But we have 9 guys and we branch out in to those musical tastes.. it`s just endless dude. Joey can come in and say check out this CD and then Nick comes in with something underground..
		But have you gotten into another genre of music through your band members? Uhm, I got turned on to Kyuss by Klown, stoner rock stuff, I dig it man, especially for a drummer. And you can lay back in those riffs man and just go there. It`s like fuckin so awesome!
		But is there anything outside of metal or rock that you guys listen to? My mom is actually an amazing organist. So I went to one of her concerts and it was full on like, a whole orchestra, so I’m sitting there watching the guy on the chello and then some lady busts into a violin thing and it just blew me away man.. I don`t listen to it in my car by any means, but yeah it`s fucked up man there`s just so much going on, for someone to write all that is just amazing to me man.
		Some of my friends are surprised to see Slipknot on the same line up as KoRn and Metallica. Do you really give a shit if people think Slipknot should be playing with a death metal band or bands in that genre ?. No man, first of all it`s like a Metallica tour dude! So we`ll be playing in front of a lot of people every night that might not ordinarily get to see Slipknot. So that`s definitely a benefit of it. And speaking for myself, I’m a Metallica fan dude. I can remember hearing Master of the puppets and going: what the fuck is going on! That`s one of my favourite records ever and it will never drop out of my top five.
		I had the same but started with "And justice for all", went a little downhill after a that though.. But you never loose that and that`s why we think it`s a total honour to be playing with those guys man. A fuckin trip!
		Does that still happen nowadays when you meet bands like that? Totally. I’m still a fan man, still a kid. I can`t help it, those guys are something more to me than just another band.
		Is there one band where you go.. -does god-worship movement- Slayer dude! We played shows with slayer and I was just like...-jaw drops- I remember one of the most special times in my life man, we played a festival in Italy and it was us and Testament and I was shitting my pants and I’m sitting there, the crowd hates us and we were like `what are we going to do..` Methods of Mayhem played and the crowd threw everything in the world at Tommy Lee, the bands quitting after playing two songs and we’re up next and we we’re like holy shit! Then we went out there and we kind of won them over a little bit, because we`ve got some fast stuff, some good shit so they were like, okay you can at least live.. Then when slayer came on, I went out and I was watching Hanneman, kind of warming his hands up and I lost my fuckin mind! Terry King came back out with his spiked bracelet and I was like `fuck dude`! And when they busted into a song, I think it was `Hell Awaits`, it was unbelievable!
		You see some bands doing the intro to south heaven just to warm up a crowd, Deftones and KoRn for example done it for a while as well. I would NOT do that. If my guitar player did that in my band, I’d beat the shit out of `em. dude! You just made our whole show suck.. (laughs). But I’m definitely still a music fan.
		I there any new stuff out today that has caught your eye? Any new bands? Not really dude, I’m kind of bummed out about the whole situation.
		For me,The Dillinger Escape plan seem to be the only new/fresh thing around since you guys. Do you feel the scene had been diluted a bit? Yep, I really do man. Pop and R&B is just so massive man. Straight up, it bores me.
		How do you feel seeing that going on, new bands with talent trying to make it through. I think you`ve made it you can say. seeing that going on while your still on the scene. Do you try to push new bands yourself ? Yeah. It`s kind of weird right now because I’m fully into Slipknot since we’re back. But it sucks because there`s downloading going on right now and stuff like that. And the record industry is in the toilet a little bit at the moment. It`s hard for them signing a new aggressive band.
		But if they don`t take a chance there`s not going to be any new stuff or something special. They can`t afford to do that. It doesn`t make any money and it`s to big of a gamble for them. They need to put the band`s together almost. They just pick them out: oh, he can sing, oh he`s good-looking, cool. We`ve got our band! It`s crap because back in the old days man, I was like if the cover even looked evil I was buying it dude. Totally. That`s how I found Sepultura. Slipknot hopefully can change that this year. crossover a little bit and get more people into heavy music. Heavy music will never die. It kind of stays underneath the radar and it has been there for a long frickin time.
		Underground is quality. Yeah it`s timeless. Because from `Show No Mercy` to the `Iowa` record it`s the same thing. Metal, power, everything that is not supposed to be..
		Censorship differences between here and America In reference to the uproar about Janet Jackson’s tit. Does the US` sensitivity affect your band as well? We don`t get that in the major press, they don`t want to give us that attention and don`t want us to be that big. They reckon that if they say too much more people might start buying our records. But we also have Marilyn Manson who takes the brunt of a lot of things, you know. Who knows, it might eventually be that way. It`s sad man, because Janet Jackson`s tit is not a big deal. I thought it was cool: that`s what it looks like? Sweet!
		Do you come across that kind of bigotry or prejudice? Have you been refused anywhere? Utah does it, it`s very Mormon there. There`s a lot of protestors there trying to shut down the show and the army comes in and that shit. I feel good cos I’m like, we`ve made that big of an impression that people actually take time out of their day to see these guys from Iowa.
		How are you hailed back in Iowa, are you the heroes from Iowa? The only major act to come out of there. Yeah. It`s pretty laid-back. They`ve tried to make a special day I think but the city was like no! So, whatever. We like to stay with our families when we go back, it`s nice to be off the road.
		Do you get much time off? Not when were on tour, a few days. We know not to make any plans after we finished the album. Because were going to go on tour.
		A question about the masks i`m afriad. You`ve got a level of security on the street that other performers don`t have. How does it feel not to be hassled? I don`t know any different, I’ve never really been hassled or picked out. Especially me. Some of the other Slipknot guys you can tell that they might be that person because of their hairstyle or sideprojects you know what I mean. I’m kind of under the radar too. I totally dig that, I love my privacy.
		How do you feel about the new album? I’m so excited, it sounds so good man!
		Do you guys hope everyone will like it, or do you think, I’m proud of it so I don`t give a fuck ? Well if they don`t like we`ve got the songs of the first two albums that we can play..
		Are you afraid that they`re going to say: the first and second were killers but the third sucked ? That`s inevitably going to happen. But we don`t concern ourselves with that. We concern ourselves with getting back on tour and rippin it up! That`s what we love to do and that`s what we`re working on.
Thanks for your time dude. Thank you man. (Mark Gilchrist)