Jason: I remember seeing you guys way back in 1999 on the 'Livin La Vida Loca' tour. Really where you first got started on a major tour in front of fans and there was nothing like you guys then, and that was only 4-5 years ago and obviously the success of your band has opened up a lot of doors for other bands, I don’t want to say copy, but express themselves as much similarly as you guys did and what was it like back in 99 being slipknot versus now in 2004 where it’s a little more accepted and more mainstream to just get as crazy and as wild as you guys did?
Chris: I think it’s the same for us. We don’t really like compare ourselves with other bands or anything like that. We go out there and do what we do and play honest music and throw down every night that we can. We just continue to raise the bar for everything we do, whether it be our look, our video, our music and anything like that. We definitely work very, very hard at trying to improve this band and if that makes other bands work harder to improve then it’s better for everybody to get better music out to people.
Jason: You mentioned that you could play arenas and much bigger shows, but your deciding to play smaller venues and get back to the roots so to speak. Are you ever surprised at the success this band has had?
Chris: Not really. Once I heard the music, I just knew it was good. I mean, even though it is our band, we might be a little closer to it, of course you think your own band is good, but it’s like just the two song demo that we put out, our first demo, you knew there was something special out of this band, of the talent of all the players, the look and everything was pretty unstoppable. So I always knew it was going to be a success.
Jason: Again, this time around there was a long hiatus from the last tour to this one and some of the guys went on and did some side projects. whenever that happens the rumor mill just goes crazy.
Chris: Yeah, absolutely, the press, if they can make a story or raise controversy they will. That’s what this world is pretty much based. If it doesn’t make you go, "Oh, my god." Then it’s really not worth writing about or talking about. It’s crude but as they say, any press is good for us right?
Jason: As long as they spell your name right, isn’t that the old saying?
Chris: There you go.
Jason: And the great thing about those other projects is that everybody got to go and do a different thing from Slipknot, do you think that brought something back to the band after they did that?
Chris: I think it brought back the band back together. That they were able to do that, get it out of their system. I’m always telling the guys in the band that it’s tough to hold ‘em back and so I think it just brought back a fresh outlook on themselves. Like, "Okay, I did that, I know I can do that." I’m very grateful that the other projects were a lot different from Slipknot. Nobody went out and did their own Slipknot. They’re my bros and there’s no problem because they did something different and everything each of them did was awesome.
Jason: You’re doing these smaller club shows and obviously this summer you’re going to be out doing the major arenas and amphitheaters. Is there any difference in how you approach either of the two shows or is it pretty much just the size of the stage and the number of fans but what goes on is the thing.
Chris: For me personally, I’m a little more excited to play smaller shows cause I mean the fans are right there, man. It is hot and there’s no room at all and the whole crowd, the way they move together in the pits, I mean it’s the thing, it beautiful. It’s so hot in there it’s like basically just the way we grew up on the scene. It’s like the old days. It’s definitely a little more special to play those places. Once you get into a big arena, sometimes in it gets a little lost, a little, not fake but it seems surreal. I don’t know, it’s a hard question. There’s a magic that happens in small clubs that doesn’t quite get across in arenas. An aura and electric energy that comes from being so close to the fans.
Jason: I remember when I interviewed you guys back in '99, I think it was, Corey or Shawn that you said that playing each night of Slipknot is like a playing a year in any other band. That what you guys do on stage is like taking a year off your life.
Chris: Yeah, definitely.
Jason: Do you think with that being said is that one of the reasons that everybody needed to step back and allow it to pace down a bit just to rebuild their energy and rebuild...I couldn’t imagine doing that every night.
Chris: Yeah, you’re fucking right, man. It’s physically demanding and it’s mentally demanding. I mean you wake up in the morning and your not even sure what city your in yet, you have to put on a seat and puke filled mask for a photo shoot every day. Then there are interviews and radio appearances. Not that I am complaining one bit. But there’s a lot of things that people don’t understand, and how taxing it is on you. Nobody ever backed out in this band and that’s one good thing, we bust our butts for the whole of slipknot. That is the one thing I can say about this band. We are all in it 100 percent and no one has backed out, no matter how demanding it was on each of us personally or the band as a whole.
Jason: The one thing about Slipknot is the band could have easily been just a theatrics band like Kiss, but you spend so much time on your music.
Chris: Yeah, definitely the image of the live show is second, that’s the only way we are where we are today is good music, I mean anybody can put on a mask or face paint or anything like that but if the music sucks then it’s like hmm, they suck. You might buy the poster because they look cool but your not go to the show or buy the record. Definitely first and foremost we’re musicians and there’s a lot of musicians that are trying, there are a lot of influences around but we know what’s good and we know what’s bad as far as what we want to play and record and stuff like that. Thank God we have so many talented guys to bring so much to the table and we are so serious about our music. I mean, that is the time where we work very, very hard. To make sure that everything is just right for that record. We understand how hard it is to play live shows and how much energy we have to put out but we definitely want good songs behind us to make it better and to find that energy every night in every song. Because it would suck if we went out there and played songs that we didn’t like and your doing that. It wouldn’t stay together so, it’s definitely cool.
|
