COREY TAYLOR Talks New STONE SOUR Music, 'Knotfest' And Future Of SLIPKNOT
SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor was interviewed on the September 14-16 edition of Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show. You can now listen to the chat using the audioplayer below.
To see a full list of stations carrying the program and when it airs, go toFullMetalJackieRadio.com.
Interview (audio):
Full Metal Jackie: Let's talk about STONE SOUR. A double concept album described musically as PINK FLOYD meets ALICE IN CHAINS and with a corresponding comicbook — it sounds like a major creative undertaking. What got the ball rolling?
Corey: This was something I was actually thinking about when we were making "Audio Secrecy", and honestly, it came from all the little bits and pieces that were kind of left over after we were done with the initial recording for "Audio Secrecy". I had a story wrapped in my head for a while, and I just started really trying to envision what it would be like, especially in this day and age when everyone is so single-minded — absolute pun intended there. I was, like, "You know what?! Screw the industry. If I wanted to make something above and beyond a piece of art but also great music and something that could really fire on every artistic cylinder, what would it be?" I really started flushing the story out early on, then obviously certain things happen that really drew me away from anything artistic — Paul [Gray, SLIPKNOT bassist] died and then about a year later Roy [Mayorga, STONE SOUR drummer] had a stroke so everything really went topsy turvy for me for a bit. Right around the middle of the Sonisphere shows we were doing with SLIPKNOT, I was really thinking about STONE SOUR for some reason, and that's when I really started to put a lot of pieces together. I flushed the story out on the road, and a lot of the songs that I wrote for the albums I wrote on the road. So by the time I got back, it was chomping at the bit to do some demos and what-not, and that's where it started from.
Full Metal Jackie: Looking back what part of doing a concept album were you least prepared for?
Corey: I've gotta be honest, I was pretty set to do whatever it took. The thing I really had to remember was that the lyrics were a narrative — that's really where I had to focus and make sure I was telling the story the way it should be told. Basically, the songs are the internal dialogue for the characters that are in the story itself, so when you listen to the music and read the story, you almost get this 3D kind of experience — you're reading the story, but you're also getting what they're thinking. For me, the real challenge was to maintain the integrity of that and make sure each character has their own little bit to say and have their own little hero moment and that everything that we tried to do musically and creatively was a nice reflection — that everything enhanced the story. It was so much fun. I mean, it was a lot of work, but it was so much fun as well. Working with Dave [Bottrill, producer], he was really able to pull all of this great material out of us — basically doing two albums in the space it takes to make one. So, I mean, it wasn't a lot of work; it was just a lot of fun at the end of the day.
Full Metal Jackie: Now that you've got the experience of recording a concept album, does that open the door for SLIPKNOT to maybe try one, too?
Corey: Maybe. [laughs] I don't know. This was a lot of work, If it was a single concept album, maybe. It was almost trying to play basketball on a trench — you know what you want to do and you know what you want to try and do, but you're already four feet in the ground. It was like running against the breakers, basically. The end result is so satisfying — so maybe, I hate to say "never" anytime, because the more you announce your plans out loud, the more you make God laugh. So, to me, it's more about waiting and seeing what happens. I can't say that doing it with five guys was a kick in the ass. I don't know what the hell would happen with nine.
Full Metal Jackie: I've gotta talk to you about Knotfest, which recently happened. You're in Iowa, home to SLIPKNOT, playing there for the first time without Paul. It was also Randy's [Blythe, LAMBOFGOD frontman] first gig after being released from prison. How wild was your range of emotion at that first Knotfest show?
Corey: It was pretty crazy. I drove up there on my own and the whole way there… First of all, you're going through the practical emotions of, "God, is anybody gonna be there?" It's your own gig, but it's bigger than your own gig. You're trying to start something, you're trying to set the stage for something that can live for a few years after you're done. The only thing I'm worried about is, "Is there going to be anyone there?" So when I was driving in and I saw all the people, I was immediately like, "Oh thank God." [laughs] Randy was the first person I went to try and find when I got to the gig and knowing that this was his first taste of it back. He was so stoked. I ran up and gave him a huge hug and we talked a little bit and he was just like, "Dude, I cannot wait to get on that stage and just let so much go." They put on one hell of a show. I was so proud of him and the band to be able to rise above everything thrown at them in the last couple of months. I kind of had to turn my mind back to the business at hand and basically realize that this is the beginning of something that we're trying to build. We want Knotfest to become its own household name when it comes to festivals — kind of like the way Ozzfestis. There was a lot of anxiety on my part, but then you go out onstage and that audience just rolls that positivity back at you and you just eat it up. We went above and beyond for the kids and I think Paul would've been proud.
Full Metal Jackie: Speaking about this being your very first festival that you guys put together. Did you take your experiences from all the festivals you've been on over the years? You've been on all of them.
Corey: Oh, yeah, definitely. That was one of the things that got us thinking about wanting to do our own festival in the first place. We've been extremely lucky to have been a part of a lot of really good festivals — everything from Ozzfest here in the States to Soundwave in Australia, all the wonderful festivals that are over in Europe. We would walk around and go, "This is really cool, but if we were gonna do one…" and then that was seriously an eleven-year conversation. Every time we'd be on one of those things, we'd be, like, "You know what?! Tthis is awesome and really cool, but if we get to do…" So it was really something we'd been talking about for a long, long time, and about a year ago we found ourselves surrounded by the best people in the business to help us really achieve this. One thing led to another, and then all of a sudden all of the things we talked about are sketched on a piece of paper or written down on a napkin and all of these crazy ideas just came rushing to the surface. I can only take a little bit of credit for that. 99 percent of credit for everything that happened in Knotfest, creatively, that was all Shawn Crahan, that was all the Clown. Day and night, he put so much work in and I was proud of him when we got there and saw it all physically. I was just so stoked that we were able to pull it off. I gave him a huge hug and was, like, "Well, here it is. If we're gonna make a mess, this is the way we're gonna do it." It was great everything from the SLIPKNOT museum to the crazy pagan fire everywhere. It was just insane, but it was a blast. I was really proud to be a part of it.
Full Metal Jackie: What can you tell us in terms of a timeline and what we can expect between the two bands for you?
Corey: STONE SOUR is going to dominate the next year and a half to two years for me, obviously. We're going to have two albums coming out. Right now, [we're] flushing out an outline for the comic books that we're gonna put out. I can't tell you the company, because we're waiting for a big reveal on that, but it's going to be really, really cool. [We're] getting all the artwork together, trying to hit as many territories as possible, two or three times just to be able to get a real album cycle out of this and hopefully have this lead to something even bigger and better for that. Probably in the next year or so, we'll start talking musically with SLIPKNOTand seeing where it's at. I know there are some demos here and there that are floating around, but nothing solid. I've been jotting down some ideas and what-not, but the next two years are solid, solid, solid STONE SOUR. Will there be the random SLIPKNOT show here and there? Probably. But no major tours. The more stuff we do with SLIPKNOT, the closer we get to that next step in being able to walk into a studio and feel okay about it. It's going to be very daunting, but when the time is right, we're gonna do it. Other than that, I'm working on my next book and working on this damn film company with Shawn and just… Oh my God, you'd think I'd leave enough time in the day for me to sleep at some point.
Full Metal Jackie: Do you feel uncomfortable to have nothing going on? Is that why you fill your time with 20 different projects?
Corey: I must be one of those dudes that just… But it's my own damn fault. I have ideas every day, and if I'm not carrying a pad of paper, I'm typing it into the notes thing on my iPhone and it's just ridiculous — idle hands or the devil's plaything, and I can't be the devil's plaything. I've got to be the devil, I've got to be the guy making it all happen.
DEFTONES: New Song Available For Streaming, Download
"Leathers", a brand newsong from DEFTONES, can be streamed using the SoundCloud player below. The track is also available for freedownload at Deftones.com.
"Leathers" comes off DEFTONES' seventh studio album, "Koi No Yokan", which is scheduled for release on November 13. The group worked again with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who helmed 2010's "Diamond Eyes" and has also worked on albums by RUSH and FOOFIGHTERS.
"Koi No Yokan" track listing:
01. Poltergeist
02. Romantic Dreams
03. Leathers
04. Swerve City
05. Entombed
06. Graphic Nature
07. Tempest
08. Gauze
09. Rosemary
10. Goon Squad
11. What Happened To You?
Speaking to AOL's Noisecreep, DEFTONES frontman Chino Moreno stated about the songwriting process for "Koi No Yokan", "We were coming out of a tough time, obviously, and our goal was to kind of rebuild what we created over all the years. I felt like we had to prove ourselves. We'd taken so much time between records, had some inner turmoil, and our records were starting to get pieced together versus really being created together, so for us it was a chance to get back to basics. We didn't have an idea of what sort of style we wanted. We just came in fired up and motivated to do something great. It was all very positive. We had more songs than ever, tons of ideas."
SHINEDOWN Guitarist And FOZZY Singer Are New BFFs
The latest episode of Shinedown TV's "ONEonONE" featuresSHINEDOWN guitarist Zach Myers as he conducts a question-for-question interview with FOZZY frontman and WWE wrestling superstarChris Jericho. Check it out below.
SHINEDOWN and FOZZY are taking part in this summer's edition of theRockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival. The third annual rock extravaganza — which boasts a main stage lineup that also includesGODSMACK and STAIND — got underway on August 17 at the CricketWireless Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, Kansas, and continues through September 30.
SHINEDOWN's new album, "Amaryllis" debuted atop Billboard's "Rock Albums" chart and at #4 overall on The Billboard 200 — SHINEDOWN's biggest chart debut thus far — with over 105,000 units sold its first week out.
FOZZY's new album, "Sin And Bones", sold around 3,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 143 on the Billboard 200 chart. The CD landed at position No. 1 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
METALLICA Dominates Rolling Stone's 'Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time' Readers' Poll
Four of METALLICA's classic LPs were voted among the "The Greatest Heavy MetalAlbums Of All Time" by the online readers of RollingStonemagazine.
In announcing the results of the poll — which was launched last Friday — the editors of Rolling Stone wrote, "Metal fans are a very passionate bunch. They're also very opinionated, so when we asked them to vote for their favorite metal albums we expected a huge response. We also expected a big debate about the very definition of 'heavy metal.' Some metal fans say that groups like LED ZEPPELIN and GUNS N' ROSES are metal. Others think that's completely insane. We aren't here to settle these debates. We're merely here to count the votes."
"The Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time," according to the onlinereaders of Rolling Stone magazine:
01. "Master Of Puppets" - METALLICA
02. "Paranoid" - BLACK SABBATH
03. "BlackSabbath" - BLACK SABBATH
04. "The Number Of The Beast" - IRONMAIDEN
05. "...And Justice For All" - METALLICA
06. "Reign In Blood" - SLAYER
07. "Appetite For Destruction" - GUNS N' ROSES
08. "Metallica" - METALLICA
09. "Led Zeppelin II" - LED ZEPPELIN
10. "Ride The Lightning" - METALLICA
Amy Lee Looking to Take “Break” at End of Evanescence’s World Tour
It appears that Evanescence will be going on hiatus again. Frontwoman Amy Lee has revealed that she wants to take some time off after the band wraps up their world tour supporting their 2011 self-titled album.
“I'm really not sure what I'll do next,” Lee tells NME. “At the end of any really long tour you need to get your head in order. I think at the end of the run we'll go on a break for a while and figure things out."
Lee added that she plans to make another album with Evanescence sometime in the future, but she’s not quite sure when that will be. “Taking long breaks is seen as a bad thing, but I don't think it's a bad thing,” explains the singer. “People have the idea that you have to keep putting stuff out while people remember you. But I'd rather make something that's awesome and then make people remember again. I hope it doesn't take five years, but I don't want to put a timeline on it either."
Members of Flaming Lips, The Black Keys Collaborate with Ke$ha for WARRIOR
A star-studded lineup of rock artists have contributed to Ke$ha’s new album, WARRIOR, which is due in stores on December 4. The pop star’s upcoming release will feature collaborations with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, Iggy Pop, drummerPatrick Carney from The Black Keys and Ben Folds.
“I’ve been working for a year on this new record and have collaborated with some of my idols,” said Ke$ha in a statement. “This process has been long and intense and I couldn’t be more stoked to share this music.” WARRIOR also includes a track co-written by fun. frontman Nate Ruess, titled "Die Young," which will be the album’s first single. You’ll get your chance to own the song when it arrives at all the usual digital outlets on Tuesday.
Papa Roach Explains Meaning Behind Title of Upcoming Album, The Connection
While Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix recovers from corrective surgery to remove a nodule on his left vocal cord, the band has released a promotional video for their upcoming album, The Connection.
In the five-minute clip, Shaddix explains how he came up with the title of the new album. “The record, it’s about all the connections I have in my life,” notes the singer. “My connection with my band, my connection with God, my connection with our fans. When you’ve got something that you can latch on to and become part of something, that’s the connection.”
The video also explores how the band came up with the artwork for the upcoming release and why they chose Six: A.M. lead singer James Michael to be the producer of the album, interspersed with scenes from their recently-released music video for “Still Swinging.” The Connection will arrive in stores on October 2.
