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Interview
by SashaS
9-10-2004
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| Slipknot: the muthas of Des Moines, Iowa |
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DV8 Alliance
Slipknot: and then there were eight…
As ‘The Unholy Alliance’ tour rocks selected Euro-lands - Slipknot co-headlining with Slayer plus Hatebreed and Mastadon in support - currently burning through the UK, surely raises pulses of maggots beyond saturation points via dispensing with so much energy to power few towns, they do it one member short. Sample-man Craig Jones was rushed home to Des Moines just a week into the EU dates - for emergency dental surgery. It is the first time in the band’s 10-year history that a member has missed a show.
“We’ve made it through 10 years without a member of Slipknot missing a single show,” the band’s statement reads. “Craig has been sugaring incredible pain and has been unable to eat or sleep properly. Therefore, a decision was made for him to return to the States for emergency surgery.”
“We made a band decision to continue the tour without Craig and to not let our European fans and friends down. We expect to have Craig rejoin the tour within the next three-to-four weeks [i.e. toward end of October], but until that time Sid Wilson will be handling the majority of his parts. We’ll miss him on and offstage and wish him best a safe return.”
Touring ‘Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verse)’, we caught up with the surreptitious metalheads to shake out few persistent rumours and discover a bit more of - behind the makeup and uniforms. Our out-of-character man with answers is Chris Fehn, #3, on customised percussion duty with the Iowa‘s bad muthas. Talking about badness, it appeared to rise its ugly face of discontent within the ranks just before recording the current album… But, first, as they approach London for a couple of shows…
There can’t be any doubting your enjoyment of touring with Slayer but, do you guys have time to hang out, swap road stories of sex, drugs and Rock’n’Roll?
“We love Slayer and it is a privilege to tour with them, they are one of our favourite bands… We all our busy but, of course, we hang out together after the shows and shake s**t… We do that with all the bands we tour with, exchange stories but not about sex and drugs but Rock’n’Roll. We talk about songs, recordings…”
“We are all fans of music and it is interesting to find out who wrote what, when and why it took certain amount of time to do this and that. We have our heroes and we are all pretty much musicians, so we like to know things like that.“
Brotherhood of riffs
Recording ‘Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verse)’ was preceded by a very uncertain period within the band and it did look like you were going to implode; almost a year after finishing studio work, have things settled?
“This album is really a great record, from the front to the back - it sits well… It came after a long break from each other and at times… We found new love for Slipknot and I feel it shows on this record.”
After the album was done, Joey [Jordison, drummer] talked about the sessions bringing “bonding & unification”; how much has your producer, Rick Rubin, contributed to the whole process?
“Yeah, ihe did just that; as you said, there were internal problems, everything was really confusing and it was time to bring these things into the open and take care of them. We got back together and back to what we do best, and that’s - Slipknot. Rick was one of guys who told us, ‘You are a very extreme band and you sound very extreme; why don’t we try and open some other doors and really express the talent of everybody in the band? Make sure we get sonically what we want on this record, from everybody?’”
“When you work with Rick Rubin you get the best people in the business, engineers and everybody, so - he’s the father of the record.”
You paid him big bucks, so he did the job! A couple of the band’s songs were used on a soundtrack, ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’ [‘Vermillion’] and ‘Headbangers Ball Vol. 2’ [‘Duality’]; do you regularly take part in decision making?
“Whatever appears anywhere, it is with our agreement. That’s one thing with Slipknot, we keep a tight reign on our music and what our music is used for; we don’t want it to end up in something cheesy. We don’t want anything bad to reflect on us or our music, we don’t do it for a quick buck… Actually, you don’t make that much out of it, anyway. So, we wanna be on cool stuff.”
Bunker or green
There are two video-clips for the next single, ‘Vermillion’ - an aggro and a mellow version. Fehn explains it by claiming “there being a need for two”, and “song parts demanding it”, before concluding that next time there may be even three songs combined. Is this a training ground for a rock opera? [Should we be told?]
For three December weeks, Joey will be subsidising for Frost [due to a visa problem] on Satyricon’s tour of the USA; what is the rest of the band’s plan? Writing-partying-resting…?
“There are no plans for Slipknot to do any writing and I’ll be taking it very easy, spending time with my family and friends during the Festive season. Corey [Taylor, singer] may be doing something with his StoneSour, the Clown [Shawn Cahan, unofficial leader] will be doing something as he always has something up his sleeve… The rest of the band will take time-off because next year is going to be very busy.”
“With touring, touring, touring… Keep going with this record as everyone still wants us playing it, so we’ll keep on keeping on…”
As you have to go get ready for the show… How long does it take you, now? Have you cut down on time you need to get geared up?
“Oh, 15 or 20 minutes. I have a certain ritual of doing things but, yeah, everybody is different and still it takes just about 20 minutes. And, only about one minute to wipe it off because it generally melts away.”
After all the brutality onstage, not a surprise, and always a great show!
“Yep, and we enjoy it too!”
And then this maggot walks away...
~
Remaining UK tour dates [followed by shows in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland, France and Spain; then - Far East]:
08 October - International Arena, Cardiff
09 October - Hammersmith Apollo, London
10 October - Hammersmith Apollo, London
SashaS
9-10-2004
Slipknot’s single ‘Vermillion’ is released 18 October 2004 by Roadrunner
Slipknot’s album ‘Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verse)’ is available now on Roadrunner
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