FAZERMAGAZINE.COM reports:

Interview with KORN

Conducted on tour bus

April 6, 2010

By Mike Bax

Photos by Mike Bax

One of my favourite bands from the 1990’s is Korn. A pioneering band of what was quickly deemed nü metal by journalists and music video hosts throughout North America – Korn have managed to outlast the majority of their compatriots from this metal sub-genre, and are soon set to release their newest album Korn III: Remember Who You Are in the coming months.

I found out I’d be able to interview somebody from Korn a few weeks before their Jagermeister sponsored Ballroom Blitz (Slamming Room Only) tour played it’s final date in Toronto on April 6th. It struck me that Korn were likely going to be the biggest band I’ve gotten in front of to date, and I set my expectations low for the outcome of this interview. While this could be perceived as a bit negative on my end, my attitude came from these two things: One – Korn don’t really NEED to be talking to me. I’m of the opinion that as bands get bigger and achieve success on a global scale like Korn have, taking the time to talk to a small website is likely very beneath them. Two: I’m a total Korn fan – the last thing my fragile ego needed was to get my expectations so elevated that I’d wind up ultimately let down by my inexperience as a journalist mixed in with my utter excitement at getting my ass onto Korn’s tour bus for ten minutes of Q&A. I really just wanted to have a few questions that wouldn’t me look / sound like a total goof.

As I was led onto (one of) Korn’s swanky tour bus(ses) by their tour manager, I was told I’d be chatting with Ray Luzier (Korn’s new permanent drummer) and James Shaffer (Munky). Munky was tied up at the back of the tour bus doing something or other. Luzier hung out at the front of the bus with me, and we chatted with Munky’s guitar tech for a bit about their two days off in Toronto preceding the night’s concert. Luzier said he loved Toronto and that the band got to kill some time sightseeing and relaxing. He quickly peeled out his iPhone and showed me a video of himself backing off the glass floor of the CN Tower in a crab-like position, using his hands and feet to move him to solid ground while looking ANYWHERE but down. Luzier said he didn’t realize he was scared of heights prior to the experience.

Munky walked up the hallway to the front of the bus, shook my hand and sat down next to a customized Jagermeister guitar (still mostly wrapped in bubblewrap with just the face exposed – I’m assuming to be autographed) beside Ray, and we started to chat.

Mike: Korn have a lot of news on the go right now; new album details; two new tours (that I know of) and a new record label.

James: Yup, all this came about when the new record came close to completion.

Mike: When’s the record actually due to come out?

James: I think its looking like June at the moment.

Mike: It’s going to come out through Roadrunner?

James: Yes

Mike: Are you going to do more than one version of it? Typically a Korn album will come out with a bonus DVD or some extra cuts….

James: We have footage from all the songs that were filmed during recording. The director filmed every time we tracked a song, every time we did anything, he was right there documenting it. He edited it together in a really cool kind of raw video style.

Ray: Yeah it’s really cool; he filmed close up to us all while each song was being recorded. We hope to do something with this footage.

Mike: Nice. How about this current Jagermeister tour? I’m assuming these shows are some pick-up dates because we’re not getting a Mayhem Festival date in Toronto this year. I think the only one we’re getting in Canada is Montreal in July. So these Jagermeister Ballroom Blitz dates are allowing us to check out some live Korn shows in regions that won’t see a summer Mayhem Festival?

James: I think things kind of got pushed back, because we were trying to figure out what to do with the record. We were trying to find a home for the album. And now we don’t have a video prepared. The video is going to come a little later. The new single is going to go to radio first, so it kind of delayed things; there should have at least been a single on (the record) but since we were trying to figure out what to do with a label, if we even wanted a label, it kind of pushed things back a tiny bit.

Mike: Did Korn consider doing a self release? Was there a conscious decision to say, “Do we do a label or do we just try and push it ourselves?”

James: Yeah, we wanted to kind of see if we could do something like “Radiohead” or “Nine Inch Nails” did. It didn’t make sense for us right now, we needed the distribution and we needed a good team like Roadrunner to get behind it and market it; we didn’t feel we had that sort of muscle behind us like Roadrunner does.

Ray: We know that they are knowledgeable. They understand distribution. Just look at what they did for Slipknot.

Mike: Roadrunner do have a really good track record at working with bands and getting them out in the market place.

Ray: Some labels just kind of throw it out there; they don’t even really know the band that well. I know that Roadrunner knows…

James: They know metal.

To date, Korn have released 33 singles (17 of which have charted). The band has filmed 32 music videos over the years. Korn have sold in excess of 16.5 million albums in North America and have earned six Grammy nominations. Of these six nominations, they have won two; ‘Freak on a Leash’ won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video in 2000 and ‘Here to Stay’ took the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2003.

Mike: It’s interesting that you just mentioned making a video as well, how much does that matter to a band now, as compared to ten or fifteen years ago? Videos go up on “You Tube” and people clock them online, but if you’re on your computer or your iPhone, the quality doesn’t really have to be super high-res or anything.

Ray: Well, it should be somewhat of a professional video shoot.

Mike: I guess what I’m saying is most televisions now are broadcasting at 1080 pixels high definition such that you can see facial hair and acne on most people. In 2010, most folks are watching their music videos on the internet and I question the integrity of what they’re actually looking at online compared to what’s going to be broadcast on a music television show. And with so few dedicated music video outlets available these days…

Ray: Well it’s definitely a different era the way things are presented to people. We were sketchy about planning the new single, because we know it’s instantaneous now. Tonight the iPhones are going to go up and it’s going to be on the internet fifteen minutes after we play it. That’s just the way it is.

Mike: So you guys are playing new material now? Are you going to drop some new songs tonight?

James: We’re going to do one. I’m ninety nine percent sure it’s going to be the single that will be released called ‘Leave Me Alone.’ It’s also known as ‘Oildale’… ‘Leave Me Alone Oildale.’

Mike: Oildale?

James: Yeah, it’s a small area outside of Bakersfield.

As I was sitting in front of these two guys chatting, it struck me that the last time I’d seen Korn play live, David Silveria was still playing drums for Korn. Tonight would be my first time seeing Korn material performed with Ray on the kit.

Mike: Ray, this would be your first full studio album working with Korn, right? This is your first time recording with the band proper. How was that for you? When you auditioned, you learned the material, you got to play with Korn, and now you are recording and bringing your own flavor into the band. How did that gel? Did you guys find it pretty seamless?

Ray: I have always been a Korn fan and I’ve appreciated their music since they first came out, so just being part of that legacy now is great. This is my third Korn tour. In October of 2007 we started doing some dates, and in January 2008 we pretty much hit the globe. Being a part of it all and seeing the fan-appeal for Korn worldwide, there isn’t anything like it. You can read about it, and try and prepare for it. But to experience it, it’s hard to articulate. To be in the studio and especially bringing back Ross Robinson as the producer (he did the first two recorded Korn records), they’re like family. They go way back. So that was a whole other thing this time around, getting to work with him in the mix.

Mike: When you auditioned with Korn, you learned the back catalog and secured the job. Now you are recording and bringing your own ideas into the bands creative process. How did that gel? Did you guys find it pretty seamless?

Ray: Just getting us four in a room like that with Ross in the middle was amazing. We recorded in a really tiny room in Hollywood. Just feeling that energy and writing stuff off the cuff and tracking it very quickly later; there’s no quick tracks. We did the two inch tape thing for this album. I recorded the drums on two inch tape, we went old school. To be honest, I’m getting a little tired of some of these modern records – they all sound too perfect for me, everything is placed so perfectly. It’s not organic enough.

Mike: It doesn’t sound live.

Ray: No, and this new record is definitely raw. It sounds like we are just in a room jamming. I think it was an amazing experience.

Mike: Cool. A lot of the preamble that I’m reading on this Korn III release says that it’s a return to form. With Ross back in the fold and the type of heaviness that the album is going to deliver, it’s going to appeal to a lot of old school Korn fans. Is that accurate?

James: I think it will. Through the years, after recording you honestly get tired of doing things the same way so you start to branch out and experiment; experiment with technology; experimenting with your craft to get better. You start experimenting with gear and try things just to keep it interesting creatively. We kind of stepped back after fifteen years and looked at our body of work and said “okay, where are the high points here?” and it seemed to be towards the beginning… for delivering something that’s real, you know?

Mike: Yeah.

James: We wanted something from the heart that was real, I think. There may have been successes among other albums, like maybe we were trying to make a successful move instead of trying to make a record that felt good to play. That’s what we did on the first two albums, and that I think for us this new album was more of a success personally and creatively.

This evening’s Korn performance was originally scheduled for Arrow Hall. Korn had scheduled a string of smaller theatre shows around their upcoming new album in the USA, and the Toronto venue was switched to The Sound Academy a few weeks ago. I heard speculation that poor ticket sales prompted the show to be moved to The Sound Academy. Personally, I liked that James had talked about returning their roots for the new album, and I had high hopes for the evenings performance to feel like a revitalized Korn, and not something that would come off as being phoned in. I couldn’t have been happier to see them play a theatre this size. I’ve seen Korn multiple times, and this show would be the smallest room I’d ever see them play in.

Mike: I think through the years you have managed to keep your core audience, regardless of the experimentation you’ve tried on assorted releases. As you tried different things, it’s not like all of your fans from your first few albums said, “Well, that’s it, I’m gone.” They’re here tonight, for sure. You can tell in the line up outside the venue already, they are pretty stoked that they’re seeing you in a theater this size for sure. Hell, so am I! I didn’t find out you were playing Sound Academy until yesterday. I thought I was going out to the airport for this interview right up until yesterday. Have you been in there before (Arrow Hall)?

James: Yeah, we played there.

Mike: It kinda sucks. It’s just a big metal box.

James: It doesn’t sound good.

Mike: No

James: It’s just a place to put more people in.

Mike: I’ve seen one band play in there where it actually sounded okay and one band only. Even then, the sound echoed significantly and you had to stand in a certain spot half way back from the stage and the back wall to get the sound right, otherwise you were getting a lot of bounced echoing.

James: Every time I’ve told anybody (because we have been here on some down time for a couple of days already) that we are going to play here (at Sound Academy) tonight, they are like, “Oh cool, it’s a nice place to see a band.” So we’re pretty excited to play tonight.

I actually wound up jumping ahead on my interview – I was supposed to do my interview after Jagermeister did their own video interview for their own usage. The videographer was late, and I do my interviews low-tech with a digital recorder and a pen and paper, so I was popped in to do my press first. I noticed that Korn’s tour manager had just poked his head around the corner, and gave me the open hand to wrap it up in five minutes as the videographer for the next interview had turned up.

Mike: How does a tour like this Jagermeister tour come about? Do you guys decide that you want to do live dates and then bring on a company or an endorser like Jager? Or do they approach a band like Korn and they say, “We want you to go on the road for two or three weeks and we want to sponsor it?”

James: No, we kind of start looking around for sponsors and something that makes sense. Jagermeister had experience promoting rock bands and rock tours; we started to kind of bounce ideas back and forth, and it made sense. I don’t know who approached who, that’s a management question I never know the answer to. It’s cool, they have been great and it works.

Mike: Cool. What do you think is the most challenging thing for you guys as musicians in 2010, for trying to make new music and market new music?

James: I think selling records. We can make a record from our heart in the studio and give it everything we got, and yeah, we want everybody to hear it around the world. Reaching them all, that’s the most challenging thing.

Ray: Especially in this day and age when people are just ripping everything online.

James: I try not to do it and I catch myself doing it all the time. It’s like: “Oh dude, check out this CD!” And there I am pulling it off the web. I’ll try to find a place to download it and pay for it and try to stay legit. Most of my library, I’d say ninety percent, is paid for, but there’s that ten percent of it…… like when we were with Sony, they were like, “Hey, come on by the office,” and I would be dumping CD’s into a bag and I would actually upload those CD’s into my library and label them all before they had the database that you can go on. Now you put the CD in your computer, it uploads it and labels it. I must have hand loaded and labeled about 200 to 300 CD’s back in the day.

Mike: I’m not a video gamer so I haven’t checked out Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but are you represented on those games?

James: I think we do have a couple of songs. I don’t play video games; it’s definitely a Jonathan question.

Mike: I talk to a lot of bands and they say: “We’re getting popular because our song is on rock band.” Like Lacuna Coil – they’re doing really well with the track that went onto one of those games; it’s almost like that’s radio play for them.

James: That’s another medium for them and it’s interactive which is great. We’re working on an App for the new album; it’s called “Mix Me In.”

Mike: An iPhone app?

James: Yeah. It’s a little interactive, it helps listeners to get some insight on what we do and how things are layered and put together, how we mix it and decide what parts are going to go where. It’s more of a fun, toy thing.

Mike: That’s really cool; I’m looking forward to it.

Ray: It’s really cool, you can sing along, you can play pieces of the music yourself.

James: Yeah, you can record your own vocals.

Ray: You can listen to what the drum parts doing with the guitar parts and you can mix it up.

James: There are alternate parts that were created for it too.

And that was it. I did my time with two members of Korn. I nabbed a quick photograph of Ray and James before being shuffled off the tour bus. Two hours later, I was watching them play the best live set I’ve ever seen them play. I know Korn have seen some of their audience slip over the past five years, but if the Sound Academy show I got to see last week was any sign of what’s in store for Korn fans in 2010, be prepared to be humbled. Korn III - Remember Who You Are stands to be a real return to form for the band, and I can’t wait to see it released upon an unsuspecting music community in a few short months.

Much thanks to Fazer Magazine!!