LOUD TIMES: Interview with Corey Taylor and Chris Fehn

c.1999

(NOTE: All Chris does is introduce himself)

COREY: We're Slipknot. You're watching LOUD TIMES Video Magazine. 

HEADER: SLIPKNOT

COREY: My name is Corey. I'm the lead singer for Slipknot.

CHRIS: Chris. Number 3. Percussion. 

HOW'S THE REPSONSE BEEN TO YOUR DEBUT ALBUM?

COREY: Well, the response the album has been getting has been overwhelming, I mean we're a fairly young band. It's been unreal. I mean, we've been touring the last five months, three months in support of it, and it has gone from un, just like a small hardcore group of people knowing about us to slowly generating a lot of insanity as far as like a lot of people go. You know, I mean it's like every town we go to more, and more, and more people know of us, or have heard of us, and want to see the sickness, you know? So I mean, uh, you know, it's it's having a definite reaction with uh, kids who are...they feel disenfranchised with the music scene which is going on today, which I am the same way. I think music today is (except for like a few) certain examples, is crap. I think it's fucking bullshit, and I think people should stop buying into that. I think they should stop listening to the corporate gut, and start listening to their own. So, I think, uh, the message that we are putting out is helping the album, and helping kids find us. So, I think it all goes hand in hand that way.

SO MOST BANDS TODAY SUCK. WHO DO YOU LIKE NOWADAYS?

COREY: The bands that are out there, who are really steppin' it up are uh, AMEN, ummm, really good friends of ours. Total family. Hed PE. Can't wait to hear their new stuff. Puya, we are complete bro's with them. Uhh..umm...System Of A Down, who I think are one of the few bigger bands who are really staying true to what they do. You know what I'm saying? As far as like doing something that they believe in, and not selling out to the cash cow. You know, I mean that's not kicking music out as a sense of product, but kicking out as a sense of self, and that's, you know, what we've been trying to do for the last three or four years. So, those bands are you know, along with us trying to keep it up to the point where music is still expression, and not you know, this weeks fuckin' talk of the month.

GIVE US A BRIEF HISTORY OF SLIPKNOT

COREY: Slipknot was started in 1995, by Shawn and Paul. We all knew each other through uh, playing in bands together around Des Moines, and the very idiotic music scene, cuz there really wasn't any. You know, we were basically playing to each other. So, we all got to know each other really well. You know, coalesced with our goals, and dreams, and what we really wanted to do, you know, and that when Slipknot started to form, like all these particles started to come together you know, like a star. When a star is being born like, all of it starts to suck all these things in, and contract and and and that's the way we were, man. I mean we we we all gravitated towards each other, and that's...that's when we all started to realize that we wanted to do this as a dream, like and the other bands we were in...it it...we were the ones that were basically kind of pulling the rope, kind of carrying the load, you know. This band is made up of every person that was in Des Moines, that really wanted to fight to make it, and not say, "Hey, we were from Iowa, that was an excuse". No. We wanted to do this, because we wanted to do it, and that's what we did, you know. So, we..we...brought our own ideals, and we brought our own beliefs into it, you know, and you know people left, people came in, and uh, the rest is history.

DOES EVERYBODY IN THE BAND SHARE THE SAME MUSICAL IDEAL?

COREY: We've all agreed uh, musically. That's...that's been a benefit of being in this band, we all want to make a difference, we all want to make a sick noise, we all want to make the best music that we can, and that's helped us as far as uh, you know, keeping it together, you know. We all know the common goal, we all know what we want to do, so I mean uh...it hasn't...people leaving hasn't been because of musical integrity. It hasn't been because of differences like that. It's been because we knew we were stepping it up, and people changed over the years, you know. And those people are still, you know, to this day, of the mentality of Slipknot. But, you know, they're no longer in Slipknot.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THE KIDS WHO LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC?

COREY: I tell you what man, it's hard for a kid today to really (sighs) understand what the hell is going on, you know? I mean, it's like people don't want to take the time to talk to anybody anymore, they don't want to take the time to help them realize what the hell is going on around them, and uh, adults today seem to feel like they need to shelter everyone, and that just turns...it turns freedom into safety basically, you give up a little more freedom every day just for the illusion of safety, and that is going to hurt a lot of kids in the future, they're not going to be prepared, like kids who grew up you know like ten-twenty years ago. They're not going to be prepared for it, because you've got totalitarian idiotic freedom fascists that want to come at you, and try to force beliefs on you instead of letting you develop them yourselves. There is no guide book really to develop what we've all had to go through, you know what I'm saying? I mean I'm...luckily, kids today are still fighting through it, but it's a hell of a lot harder than it was when I was a kid, you know? So, all I can say is just raise your middle finger, wade in head first, and don't give a fuck who gets in the way.  

WHAT'S WITH THE MASKS?

COREY: The whole reason we did this was because of, you know, going back to the music's product thing. Uh, music was basically a template for a bunch of fuckin' hot guys to get up and sell a bunch of records that don't mean anything a week from now, you know what I'm sayin'? So we were like, "all right, here, we'll put this mask on. You don't know who the hell we are, deal with that." We're not about our fuckin' faces. Then we put on the coveralls, we're not about fashion, or trends, or last name, or whatever. Here's my number. Here's my barcode. Here's my fuckin' tribal S. This is Slipknot. And that's what it's always going to be about. It's always going to be about the music first, and us later, and that's always what it's been about. Of course we're going to, you know, push...push that as far as we can you know. I mean, we don't give a fuck, if anybody follows us, we just want people to love our music.  

ANY POLITICAL ISSUES YOU WANT TO COMMENT ON?

COREY: No, we're not a political band really. I mean we...we keep in touch with what we need to keep in touch with, you know. We keep our eye on what's going on, but we don't try, like I said, we don't try to push our beliefs on anybody, you know? We just try to do, what we do. We are who we are, and that's all we need to fuckin' be, except for like make the best music that we can, and give it to people you know. As far as beliefs goes, I mean it doesn't really matter, because somebody's going to fuckin' make their own belief tomorrow anyway, you know? So, as far as political agendas go, I mean, some of us are whatever, some of us are the other hand, it's all bullshit when you come right down to it, it's either good music or not. It'd be like askin'...it'd be like askin' somebody on the street what their political beliefs are, you know? If they want to tell you, they'll tell you, if they don't, they don't.