Here is an interview Myself and Craig conducted with Shawn and DJ Sid from Slipknot
on sep 2nd in corpus Christi TX.
I think that this is one of there most revealing interviews they've done for press. Here it
is.
Nath - After hearing your independent release of "Mate, Feed, Kill, and Repeat," I was astounded
to notice the massive transition made from that record to your new self titled debut release. I know you had a different lead
singer and that Ross wasn't involved... but I thought I was hearing a different band... explain.
Shawn - "Mate, Feed, Kill, and Repeat" was a musical journey, that's all it ever was, we were
in hiding for a year making music and we decided to release it. Its one thing being in a basement making music and vibin off
each other and it's another thing going home by yourself and listening to what you personally created and that's what "Mate,
Feed, Kill, and Repeat" was. We spent 30,000 dollars on that record. We went through a lot of different styles and a lot of
different things on "Mate, Feed, Kill, and Repeat." It was just to see what we wanted to do.
Nath - Like a stepping stone?
Shawn - Yeah, it's like any band who goes out and is independent by themselves. We're proud
of it. I mean I'm proud of anything we've ever created. The only reason we don't support that record is because of what you
brought up before, it has a different singer and a totally different lineup.
Sid - I wasn't even in the band yet.
Shawn - Yeah Sid wasn't in the band yet. We didn't have a DJ, Craig didn't play guitar on it,
in fact the only original members on that record are myself, Joey, and Paul. As you know the new album carried over three
songs from that album. "Sic" which was then called "Slipknot," "Tattered and Torn" which evolved greatly on the new record,
and "Only One" which also is different on the new release. We're not planning on selling that or anything because that was
us then and this is us now.
Nath - How did you hook up with Ross?
Shawn - Our manager worked at a radio station and she was put on in a radio event in Des Moines,
Iowa and one of the bands that she wanted to put on the bill just happened to be managed by John Reeves with Freeze Management
and it just so happened that John manages Ross Robinson. So we sent John the tape and he gave it to Ross and they checked
it out and liked it. We got Ross to fly out on the coldest day of the year and he saw us practice at my house and then he
saw us play a sold out show the next day and the rest was history. At that time we were having a lot of hard times with labels
because Roadrunner was interested and we had bigger labels that were also interested, but then they would come to the show
and get scared. (he laughs) The famous quote was "If that's the future of music then I want to be dead" and we would say "we
are the future and were going to fucking kill you.' It's always been our goal to not fall under a group of bands but to be
at the forefront of the music scene. I think one of the greatest compliments is when you see a group of kids playing music
and you are walking and you say "Hey that sounds like Slipknot!" That would be an extreme compliment if we're creating something
that's unlike anything else.
Nath - This CD is definitely one of the best CDs I've ever heard, and it has inspired me to
have faith in music again. I was wondering if on the next record you are going to incorporate more of the same sound or take
it to the next level?
Shawn - I'll be honest with you, we're one of those bands that #1 Does what WE want to do the
way we want to do it. I just talked to our manager last night, and one thing that I will not be apart of... I don't care if
the album goes gold, platinum, double platinum....
Sid - ...or if it sells five copies.
Shawn - Yeah or five albums. When the second album does comes along the band will take time
to write it and to record. Half the songs are already written anyway, but we are not going to be one of those bands that are
on some corporate fucking vacation where were really "hot" and were selling shows out and we rip out some piece of shit record.
That's just not us. It never has been and I don't care who the hell wants us to do that, it's just not going to happen because
a lot of us in the band just won't partake in it... we just wont do it.
Sid - We won't compromise anything for anyone.
Shawn - One thing that Slipknot has always done is grown together in theory, meaning as our
musical absurd journey that were fucking on... which it is... it rules in every aspect. Don't get me wrong, but it's very
hard. I always tell people, "be careful what you wish for it might come true." This is an extremely hard lifestyle but its
beautiful. You get to live out your dream, meet people on the road, do interviews, ride on a nice bus, I mean it's awesome
and we don't take it for granted. I think the albums are going to get more fucked up and more pissed off each time.
Sid - Everyone's skills in the band keep increasing as we go along. I'm two times if not three
time better now then I was when I did the album. I know so much more on my instrument. When we get ready to do the third album
our skills are going to have quadrupled and the album after that our skills will be eight times as that and so on...
Shawn - I like to think of it as... when you know a lot of bands record something and they
call it "experimental" and it won't really flow with the bands sound. I think we're going to be experimental but its going
to flow. He (Sid) uses a a lot of guitar pedals and shit on the record and we're thinking about actually going to classes
and going out and making our own pedals. All of our drum shit is all original, we made all that.
Sid - I mean he (Shawn) is the only guy in the world that plays on titanium drums.
Shawn - Yeah people look past that. On the new album we're going to take that extra step to
make things shine through.
Sid - When you a lot of these bands and you know when the DJ comes in and its like the hip-hop
part of a song. I'm going to try and do stuff where I'm actually playing along with the riff. On "Surfacing" I actually play
the same notes that the guitar does with my wammy pedal. I try and find ways to make it blend in more and make it an actual
part of the song rather then just a scratch thrown in there just for looks. I'm writing actual music... actual music notes.
Craig - I know that you guys get a lot of press do to the fact that you are from Des Moines,
Iowa, but I was wondering that if you guys were from somewhere else do you feel that your songs might not have been the same?
Shawn - Absolutely. First of all, we wouldn't be together.
Sid - That's the whole reason this bands together.
Shawn - It is. I mean, I get really burnt on talking about all the circumstances surrounding
that, but it is was it is, we're from Des Moines, we came from nothing and created something and that's it.
Sid - All you really got in Des Moines is churches, politicians, truckers, and farmers. That's
all you got and then you got your people that are lost and we're just trying to help them find there way.
Craig - When you go back there do you see that there's a lot more bands that are playing
heavy music?
Shawn - Well let's put it this way... when Slipknot came together we were straight up metal...
'cause we are metal dude... fuck it, I don't give a fuck were metal. (he laughs) There was one venue that you could play and
do an all ages and show and blah blah blah... so I said fuck that lets go somewhere else. Lets get a whole new look as far
as the people that are going to come out to the show. So I conned this guy into buying a club in this horrible part of town
with a bunch of rednecks and a bunch of reggae clubs. But, it was fresh and it was new and I felt like it needed metal. There
were all these alternative bands that would say "whatever man we got this heavy band... blah blah blah" but we still played
true to what we were. As the years rolled along and we started selling out shows and bringing the people, people started to
catch on to us. Now I look back and all the bands in Des Moines want to be heavy. They all got DJs and samplers and they're
all caught up in image. It's sick dude... its pathetic.
Sid - One time Shawn came out to a show dressed in a barney outfit and was all happy and shit
and everyone's all "oh look its barney" and then he takes off the mask and its the clown and he was like "fuck you it's the
clown" and then the clown would get all nuts and beat you down. Back in those days people used to get a smile from that and
so we decided to take that away. Because nothing we ever did was supposed to be a joke. It was always supposed to be a mind
fuck, it was supposed to make you think. It was supposed to be demented humor. That's why we came up with our cover-all outfits
because we wanted to be one unified unit that was dedicated to one dream. And that we were a force to be reckoned with.
Nath - And the masks all have a reflection on each individual who wears them right?
Sid - Yeah its our inner demons.
Shawn - Clowns are clowns man. (he laughs) I'll tell you one thing, I ain't here to make you
fucking laugh that's for sure. I represent what a lot of people hide from and are afraid to admit.
Craig - I heard that in Kansas City there was a problem with the stage and you guys had
to cancel. What all happened?
Shawn - Well it was a lot of things. Number one, it was a brand new event and it had never
been done before. It was a radio birthday party for a pretty renown DJ in town and they were trying to do something new. Sometimes
when you do these kinds of things and you don't look at things from all angles, things get screwed up. What happened was that
the main stage they had was perfect, but the second stage was about four feet tall and it was made out of desks..
Sid - Like tables that you play poker on.
Shawn - And not only that but the stage was tilted and was held up by 2x4s. We canceled because
we know that we are a highly aggressive band and that the stage couldn't handle that.
Nath - Obviously you guys have created a massive buzz for yourselves just by touring and playing
Ozzfest and by word of mouth, but on mainstream levels like radio ... does that satisfy you?
Shawn - When we went after this dream we decided that we wanted the whole pie. Here's the pie
(has his hands folded into a circle) we just don't want a piece of the pie, we want it all. The reason is because this is
my life and there is a lot of things that I'm killing to make this happen. I'm killing my body, I've been married for six
years and I'm away from my best friend - my wife, I have three children that will grow up without a father, etc. So when I
say I want the whole pie, radio is included. Do I give a fuck about radio? Absolutely not.
Sid - But we care about CHANGING radio.
Shawn - And what a lot of people don't know is that its not the band that gets on the radio...
it's the KIDS that get the band on the radio. It's the people that get the band on the radio. If they buy the albums then
the radio is going to play it. Look at Kid Rock... he sold three million albums... radio is going to play Kid fucking Rock
because three million people went out and bought his record. And what I want kids to understand is that if Slipknot gets on
the radio or on MTV we are not going to change. There is no rock star in me, I can't change for anyone. We never got into
this to make money. Most bands go their whole lives without making any money. And, when I'm old I want to be living on a beach
and going "you know what... Slipknot changed this, Slipknot changed this, we were at the forefront of this movement..." I
mean look at our web page www.slipknot2.com, I designed that personally myself with our stage manager. He introduced the program Flash to me and I said "that is the
fucking way of the future" and I said we need to do this now. It thinks like my brain. So we made this site and now I can
show you so many sites that are copying us right now. I know that's why we are at the forefront of Flash.
Craig - Yeah that's funny that you say that cause me and my co-webmaster are making a
flash page right now and html never gave you that feeling that you were in control...
Shawn - Yeah, I always said that. I wanted to make a page where people felt like it was watching
you...That whole page is like 66k if you can believe that... where as Slipknot1 is like 25 megs or something. That's fucking
unreal.
Nath - This is directed more towards you Sid. I read in an article where you used to do raves
and DJ things like that. Do you miss that whole rave crowd scene or do you like the whole moshing crowd?
Sid - Yeah, I mean I miss it... but its always going to be there for me. Before I got into
raves and all that shit I was a punk rocker. My first rave that I went to I was wearing combat boots and had chains all over
me and I was moshing in front of the speakers. And everyone was looking at me like "what the fuck?" When you go to a rave
its basically all happy and shit, and you never get to have that anger outlet. The first Slipknot show I went to was the first
one Ross went to. I was there just watching and I felt a whole new side of me come out.
Shawn - The little fucker head butted me three times
Sid - Yeah I fucking head butted him and they were all "this kid is fucking nuts." When I'm
up there I'm in a totally different world. I put that mask on and I'm not myself. I'm number 0 and I want to fucking kill
the clown and want to fucking mosh up there and get with the kids. There's something about the 'knot man... once you're in
it, there's nothing else like it. It's hard to explain.
Shawn - It never can be duplicated it can only be copied. Its the most surreal thing that has
ever been created. It changes your life.
Craig - How was your head from that hit you got on Ozzfest?
Shawn - Ah man its only the beginning. Yeah we were in Seattle and the tour was winding down
and its like "man Ozzfest has been great and blah blah" and I remember Shavo from SOAD was like "hey Shawn come here" and
I was like "what's up?" and he was like "this is my girlfriend, I want you to meet my girlfriend" and I meet her and I was
like "hey what's up" and then he was like "we're going to come out and watch you guys play" and I told him that I was feeling
violence that day, something fucked up is going to happen today... and he said "something always fucking happens on a slipknot
show" and I knew there was some violence in the air... sure enough on "Eyeless" during that riff (starts singing it) I threw
down my mike stand and started banging my head against the drumhead and my eyes were closed I wasn't paying attention to anything
I was just feeling it and then all of a sudden I felt like someone had shot me and I got up and blood started pouring out
from my face and I was like "what's going on?' and I kept on drinking all this blood and I was like "I'm fucking dead, I got
shot in the head" and then my legs buckled and I crawled over to my stage manager and he was like "oh great what did you do
this time" he thought it was heat exhaustion and I looked up and then all I remember is just falling down and I guess I was
unconscious... they said the only words I said were 'where's my mask... and save the bloody towels.'
nath- What have been the bands biggest musical influences?
Shawn - We don't really say because when we started Slipknot the idea was to go into the basement
and whenever anything sounded like anything else it went out the window. But you have to understand that we listen to EVERYTHING.
I mean everything except country and pop.
Craig - Do you have an opinion on mp3s?
Shawn - The internet is a wonderful, wonderful tool... but everyone needs to wake the fuck
up and take it by storm. And what's happening is that mp3s are so massive and so revolutionary that record labels need to
take it under fire right now and learn how to incorporate it... for themselves. Where stores close at like 9:00, the internet
is open 24 hours a day. Record labels need to wake up, take control of it, and realize that its the future of music because
there's no stopping it. I do not condone people when they are ripping off art, period. So as far as mp3 today - I fucking
hate it, but as soon as people get there shit together and they can come up with a system and it's locked down, then it can
become a good thing, but until then its not.
Nath - What's on your your bus these days?
Shawn - Lots of movies man, in fact Corey is watching 'Forrest Gump' right now. We just watched
'Alein 4' the other day we got old movies like 'Cemetary Man' and the 'Exorcist' and we're starting to get into DVDs a lot
also. We play a lot of video games too, we're playing this Nintendo 64 game called V3 Racing that's pretty cool as well.
Nath - Any three people you could have a conversation with dead or alive...
Sid - JFK, John Lennon, and this kid Aaron who died in a car accident right before one of our
shows and all he wanted to do was see us play because he had never seen us play before. I never met him but could feel the
pain.
Shawn - Edgar Allen Poe, and both my grandpas. Definitely Edgar Allen Poe... anyone that writes
shit about locking people up and shit... he's a sick mother fucker... He's twisted man..
Sid - There's too many people man it's too hard to sum it all up in three people.
Craig - The Future for Slipknot?
Shawn - World domination buddy, it all comes down to that...
Nath - I heard that Corey did a track with Sticky Fingaz.
Shawn - Yeah he did a track with him... it's fucking awesome man.
Craig - When is it going to be released?
Shawn - I don't know. I know that Sticky
was totally feeling Ross and Corey and might use him to record his whole record... so who knows... we might see more Slipknot
on Sticky's record.
