TOAZTED - Interview with Paul Gray

c.Late 2004

Toazted

Q: Could you please introduce yourself?

PAUL: Uh Paul. Play bass in Slipknot. Number 2.

Q: Number 2.

PAUL: Number 2. Whatever. Yeah. Paul. The bass player.

Q: How are you doing?

PAUL: I am doing awesome. Doing awesome. Tired, but good. Yeah (laughs). 

Q: Why are you tired? 

PAUL: I'm getting over getting sick, that's why..I was...I've been sick for the last few days, so like you know, I'm still kind of bogged down. But you know, starting to feel a little bit better.

Q: When did you finish recording the new album?

PAUL: Um. Shit. Couple of...two weeks ago. Like, two weeks ago just finished...

Q: Recording?

PAUL: Yeah, recording and everything. Yeah, uh, their mixing right now, and uh yeah...we started, uh, not actual recording...but we went in and uh, started writing and everything, and on August 5th we moved out to LA and started working on the album, and yeah, we had some stuff written a little bit before that, but uh...

Q: How many songs?

PAUL: Ummm, we had...shoot...we ended up recording...twenty-nine songs...

Q: Twenty-nine songs recorded? 

PAUL: Yeaaah. I think so, twenty-eight, twenty-nine something like that, but uh, only thirteen or fourteen are going to be on the album. 

Q: Okay, but how did you come up with so many shit?

PAUL: It's cos we had a break for such a long time, yeah, we had some time off. Got to get away from each other for a little while, so we only...creative things were flowing you know. 

Q: What do you do then, at home? 

PAUL: You know I did a couple of other bands...I think a band up in Minneapolis called F.O.R, with a couple of guys from American Head Charge, and we did an album. Toured with a band called Unida, which is a couple of guys from Kyuss. Actually I took over for uh, Scott Reeder, who used to be the bass player for Kyuss. He was a badass bass player, and it was big shoes to fill, but I went out there, you know. Arthur, their guitar player is one of my best friends, and he asked if I would do it, you know, and I went out and did that. 

Q: Was F.O.R directly released by Roadrunner?

PAUL: It's not released yet. No, no, it's going to be released...it's a weird legal thing cos, uh, I'm on you know, Roadrunner, and the guys from American Head Charge were on a different label, so then it was like weird, weird legal things, but now, now we've got those worked out so the album probably will come out after we're done touring on the Slipknot album, so probably next year sometime...a year and a half it will come out. You'll get to hear it, and it's pretty cool.

Q: And then in August you entered the studio together with Rick Rubin?

PAUL: Uh Yeah. 

Q: How did it go from that moment on? 

PAUL: It was awesome. It was awesome. Uh you know, we just started writing, and uh, you know, we moved into this weird creepy mansion house...

Q: It's up on a hill, isn't it?

PAUL: Yeah, yeah it's pretty creepy. But my room was good (laughs)

Q: Do you have...did you live together then, in that house?  

PAUL: Yeah, we all lived there...we all lived there, and recorded. That what was cool about it, because you know like at three in the morning, we could start jamming music you know, and like uh...

Q says something about the sound engineer.

PAUL: Yeah, we had gear there, the sound engineers were there usually from around ten in the morning from until about two in the morning. So you know, um, not much jamming. At three in the morning we would do much like a little writing and stuff, but we did have a DAT machine and some of that, so we could just hit play, and go to town, you know? And any time we wanted...and uh, so we came up with a lot of different ideas, you know, about different stuff.

Q: Much more relaxing then, than recording the previous albums?

PAUL: It was pretty cool, yeah. It was like doing the first album. Because the first album we were together, and we lived up in...we did the first album with Ross Robinson up in Malibu, at uh, Indigo Ranch, and we all lived there, and you know, it was the same kind of vibe as that, you know. It was cool. Yeah.

Q: And, erm, then you were recording and Rick Rubin came along because uh, he owns the mansion, isn't it?

PAUL: Yeah, he owns the mansion, and wanted to produce the album you know, he uh...we met him when we were on tour with System Of A Down, and uh, you know, and he started talking about wanting to do the band then, and then finally when it came round to doing it yeah, we were like, yeah lets give him a shot... 

Q: You knew him, isn't it? 

PAUL: Uh-huh. Yeah, we of course...yeah, we'd met him, we met him...yeah, you know a couple of years before we actually did the album with him you know, and uh, you know um, cuz we'd done two albums with Ross, and we wanted to try something new...and you know like, Ross is still one of my best friends, and I love Ross, and Ross is doing new stuff...I think he's doing The Cure record right now so, it's gonna be awesome. I know it's gonna be good. And so you know, we tried something different, and it worked out really cool working with Rick. Yeah, it was awesome.  

Q: I heard some...last week, I heard six songs on the new record, and it sounds fucking awesome. 

PAUL: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't wait for you to hear the whole thing. It's a whole different thing you know, we threw the fuckin...we threw the fuckin' Slipknot rulebook out the window, and just fuckin' kind of went, and did whatever we were feelin' you know, and uh so, there's a lot...there's songs that are heavier and faster than Iowa. There's songs that are more technical, and like you know, like shredder stuff. There's songs that are beautiful, like you know...I can't explain it...like heavy, like a Johnny Cash kind of vibe, you know, I mean there's different shit all over the place.  

Q: Lots of technical stuff also, and melodies? 

PAUL: And melodies...we explored a lot more melodies, stuff like that, but it's definitely a Slipknot album, and it's the best work we've ever done. This is the most mature...we've grown up a lot as a band, and a lot as friends, and as a family you know, and we're back to being a family again. So you know, all those like rumors of people saying, "Oh, you know they're breaking up" and all that shit, is so bullshit, and I am so sick of fuckin' saying, "No, we're not breaking up", cuz we're not and this is not the last album, you know, this is the third album. 

Q: It's the beginning. 

PAUL: It's a rebirth, yeah, it's a rebirth, it's a new one you know...it's...we're going back to, like I said, we're going back to doin' you know, the last time we were doin' the arenas, and the big shows and everything, and this time we're like you know they want to go book the tours, and they' like, 'Okay. so you know you want to do this', and we're like, 'You know what, we want to go out and want to do some clubs', and so we went back to doing clubs. So we're gonna do some clubs for a while, you know, and like...  

Q: Just to try it out, some new stuff? 

PAUL: No, just to get back closer with the bands and the kids, strip all that shit down, fuck all the big fire and bombs and shit...we don't...I mean it's awesome, you know, and I loved it, you know and I tot..,and I, uh...you know, I was watching 'Disasterpeices', and we were playing 'Heretic...'

Q: God, great, great DVD! 

PAUL: Yeah, and you know we were playing 'Heretic', and the fires going off, and the bomb, and I'm like, 'Dude, that's some evil fuckin' Satan fuckin' ruined metal right there', 666 flashin', and I'm like 'fuck yeah', but you know what, we're like, you know, we're gonna strip that down and we're just gonna go back to fuckin' amps..us, kids, fuckin' craziness. You know what I mean? Kids getting up on stage if they want, and fuckin' go to town.  

Q: Isn't weird to watch a DVD like 'Disasterpeices' and just see you standing on the stage because lots of kids really worship you?

PAUL: It is weird, it blows me away. You know, I can't believe that I was, you know, fuckin' you know, seven years ago...eight years ago...I mean, I was still in Slipknot, but I was doing concrete, you know...I was fuckin' pourin' driveways and shit, and, and, and...yeah...

Q: Cleaning or something? 

PAUL: Yeah, and, and, and then...doing that's you know...pouring driveways. Seriously like, doing concrete, like fuckin' finishing concrete, and and then going to band practice after work, you know, all tired and dirty and and waiting for well, hopefully one day you know, maybe we'll get a chance to do something like this, and now we do, and I can't fuckin' believe it. Yeah, I can't fuckin' believe it you know, it's the most amazing thing in my life, you know, and I thank every fan that, uh, that allows me to do this. You know what I mean? They allowed me to live my dream. So, so fuckin' thank you, you know. Thank you to everybody who fuckin'...who supports our band. 

Q: The first single, what's it going to be called? 

PAUL: 'Duality'....'Duality'...and I don't know...

Q: What's it like? 

PAUL: It's heavy.

Q: But, lots of melody, isn't it?

PAUL: Melody in there too...

Q: Enhanced with an orchestra, isn't it?

PAUL: No...no...

Q: Isn't that, that song?

PAUL: No, no, no. That's 'Vermillion'. You're... 

Q: That's the song, 'Vermillion'?

PAUL: Yeah, 'Vermillion' is the one that...

Q: I haven't seen any titles

PAUL: Um, no, it's 'Duality', uh, it's it's uh, it's kind of like, oh, maybe like a 'Wait and Bleed' a little bit like that...kind of vibe...

Q: Yeah

PAUL: But uh, it's heavy still

Q: I want to go back. Two years ago there were side projects going on and shit, and Murderdolls with Joey, and Stone Sour of course. You with F.O.R, and I heard Chris had also something else...

PAUL: He had a band

Q: What happened in between? Did you...didn't you miss them?

PAUL: Of course I missed them a lot. You know, it's like uh...it's just doing other stuff to kill time, you know, until Slipknot got back together, you know. I mean we just needed...we needed to take a break from each other. We needed to take care of a lot of business that we had. That bad business stuff that we had going on with the band. Not with each other, but like people involved with the band, you know...like management companies and stuff like that, and we had to take care of a lot of that shit, so uh...so we got rid of all that and had to get, you know, had to get everything straight so we can get back to being Slipknot, and being...and not having to worry about all that other shit, and just worry about us being on the stage and kicking ass, you know, and fuckin' and turned down fuckin' shows, so you know, finally got to that point and here we are, you know, to write...write an album and get ready to go on tour. 

Q: Big tour is coming up? 

PAUL: We go on tour in two..three...weeks. You know...we're going on tour with Fear Factory and Chimera in the States...

Q: Jägermeister....

PAUL: Jägermeister doing club shows and yet, you know, which is what I'm sayin', doin' clubs which is awesome. And they're all sold out, their all sold out, they're selling out everywhere and it's like fuckin' awesome you know. I saw Burton* and uh, well I saw Christian last night, because they're here to... 

Q: For promotion? 

PAUL: Yeah, and I saw them last night and they're excited, we're just ready to go tear it up, you know it's gonna be awesome. And uh... 

Q: What did you go to yesterday?

PAUL: You know what, I got here and went to my room and lay down. I'm sick man. I'm fuckin'...I'm dying you know. I just like I want to get over this fuckin' cold thing and like go out and do something you know...but uh, did that, and then I'm uh...and then we come over here, and we're with Metallica, and you know, it's...

Q: Together with Korn?

PAUL: Korn's on yeah...Korn is on there too. I guess. I don't know if Korn is on the whole thing...are they?  

Q: I don't know if all of the dates

PAUL: Yeah, but I think it's just us and Metallica for most of it, but Korn's on some of it, and that's gonna be fuckin' awesome. I mean I...that's like a dream come true, to open up for Metallica. I mean, fuck...that's my, you know, that was my guitar teachers, you know, when I was learning how to play...that was like, I didn't have money for guitar lessons. I would get, you know, my Metallica tape and I would rewind it, and fuckin' listen, and play and rewind it until I got it right, you know. 

Q: You also played guitar then? 

PAUL: Yeah, I started off playing guitar, you know, and I switched to bass later you know, and so uh yeah, I actually write a lot of the Slipknot riffs, believe it or not... 

Q (laughs): Okay...

PAUL: A lot of the guitar riffs are, believe it or not, are written by the bass player...so, for all you people who think that yeah, that all the guitars is Mick and Jim, there's a lot of guitar that is Paul. 

Q: We got a scoop over here. 

PAUL: Yeah, okay, the inside scoop...yeah...Joey too, Joey writes a lot of guitar too. 

Q: Joey plays guitar in Murderdolls

PAUL: Yeah. I played guitar on the F.O.R thing with you know...I played bass too on...me and Chad, their bass player who also plays guitar, we can switch off back and forth, so...but yeah, I played guitar. I got guitars. I got fuckin you know B.C Rich's...

Q: The B.C Bitch's (laughs)

PAUL: And some...I got...I got..I got...a couple of fuckin' B.C Rich's, I got a couple of Telecasters, and uh, Paul Reed Smith, and uh, yeah, and uh some Mesa Boogie gear, and yeah, I write some guitar riffs, so a lot of the...a lot of the...a lot of the heaviest riffs you'll fuckin' hear, are written by me too, because I'm the only one who was in a death metal band, so the more death metal riffs you will hear...   

Q: The faster...

PAUL: The faster riffs a lot of the time are more me, but hey, that's cool. 

Q: Thank you very much. 

PAUL: No problem. No problem. Thank you. 

Notes

Burton: Fear Factory.