 |
| |
|
| |
Interview
by SashaS
14-2-2003
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| StoneSour gigging near you shortly |
|
More mouthfuls of air
Corey Taylor on a life Slipknot-away
During our conversation last summer Slipknot’s singer Corey Taylor said he expected to bring his side project, StoneSour, for a Euro-tour before the end of 2002. Well, it didn’t happen and it is only now that the band is coming over to present their self-titled album live. Slipknot-fellow Joey Jordison’s outside project, Murderdolls, flew over a couple of times.
An interesting news-item emerged in meanwhile: Taylor reckons the next Slipknot album, their third, will be their last, because he feels it has run its course. He’ll be concentrating all his efforts on StoneSour, playing songs that obviously not only suit his voice better but also is the actual music he truly loves. And, he wasn’t planning it, it grew out of a former member, guitarist Josh Rand, approaching Taylor with a view of writing some songs.
“No, I don’t know whether I was thinking of doing something solo before this opportunity presented itself… Perhaps but, at the time it wasn’t a big deal for me and it was something I could do when I’m home, so I can keep doing music, keep playing… Once we got done with ‘Iowa’, I was really, really burnt out, on the whole, you know, brutality thing. When I first started doing music, I didn’t use to do anything as crazy, as brutal, as intense… I needed to get away from it and, luckily, I had this. It just worked out fine for me.”
Swanky web
‘StoneSour’ contains a lot of tunes to share with one’s girlfriend, such as ‘Bother’ that was also featured on the ‘Spider-Man’ soundtrack. Then, ‘Omega’, a spoken-word piece Taylor delivers with deadpan panache, to introduce further facets behind that mask.
The first fruits of the new StoneSour chapter were heard on the ‘Spider-Man’ soundtrack; quite a feat for a ‘new’ band?
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Corey almost laughs. “That was a song that I had written years ago… I’ve got tons of songs like that; I did that one in 1995. But, it’s pretty much for me, I’ve never gone out of my way to showcase that. We were doing demos for this album, just me and Josh, and it was a song I didn’t have a recording of on me but decided to do a demo anyway and that demo ended up in the hands of people who were putting the ‘Spider-Man’ soundtrack together and one thing led to the other and all of a sudden I was on a plane to LA to re-record the songs…”
“The irony is that I was trying to get on the soundtrack,” Taylor is a speed-talker, “I’m a huge ‘Spiderman’ freak and when they called me and told me that ‘This is probably the best songs we’ve heard and we’d like you to be part of it’, I was like ‘Yesss!’ So, it was a good time for me, man, and it was kinda the first taste of people that I can actually do something other that f**king scream my balls off! It was the first kinda showcase, which I think, if I hadn’t done it but gone right to this album, people wouldn’t have been ready for it.”
Are you interested in pursing a parallel movie career?
“I’d love to be in a movie, but it’s not a big call for me… Right now I’m glad to do occasional soundtrack but right now it is music, that’s my priority. But, if some movie came along, and I had the time, I wouldn’t really worry much about it. It’s not like I’m getting headshots and getting an agent! It’s something that might happen if destiny decides so.”
“We did a couple of soundtracks with Slipknot and we did ‘Rollerball’… I had a lot of people tell me that (Slipknot’s cameo) was the best part about the movie. I did see the movie and it was rather poor.”
Other avenues
StoneSour had a couple of albums released during the 1990s but only locally, meaning – Iowa. Taylor left the band after five years, in 1997, to join Slipknot and his fellow StoneSour-er, guitarist Jim Root, followed into the masked ranks twelve months later.
Does it concern you that public has a problem distinguishing artist from an act?
“Some of the fans, when we meet them,” Taylor sounds puzzled, “tell me how they thought we’d be this maniacs, crazy muthaf**kers and I have to ask them – why? That’s what people have to recognize, that we aren’t what our image is, what’s on stage… it’s only a show, entertainment. “
“Like you think Jack Nicholson is like that, a nutcase walking around the house? His does his thing on screen and goes home to be Jack in private. Going to basketball matches regularly, shopping, the usual, normal things…”
“If anything, StoneSour is attest to that: it’s much more mellow, it’s got attitude but it is much more accessible. It’s got riffs, it’s intensity but also melody to go with it. It opens other avenues.”
Has the response to and success of ‘StoneSour’ contributed to your statement that Slipknot would be no more after another album?
“Now, now, that’s a loaded question and I really don’t know the answer. If I ever get to that position, I don’t know what I’d do… But nothing is written in stone… I’m sort of a person who likes to deal with the real situations rather than speculate… But, I think it is possible to do both, if there is a demand.”
StoneSour’s song ‘Get Inside’ has earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance and they’ll have to overcome challenge by Slipknot (‘My Plague’), Korn, P.O.D. and Rob Zombie.
*
Tour dates:
19 Feb – Barrowlands, Glasgow
20 Feb – University, Newcastle
21 Feb – Academy, Birmingham
22 Feb – Academy, Manchester
24 Feb – Rock City, Nottingham
25 Feb – Academy, Bristol
26 Feb – Astoria, London
SashaS
14-2-2003
StoneSour album ‘StoneSour’ is available now on Roadrunner
|
|
|
