Slipknot’s Jim Rootrecently caught up withMusic Feeds to talk about life is in Slipknot camp, how the new members are fitting into the band, and a potential Australian headlining tour (after Soundwave of course!)
Music Feeds: New album, new tours, new members. Hows life in the Slipknot camp at the moment?
Jim Root:Life in the Slipknot camp is pretty damn good right now. I used to be really hesitant and reluctant and resistant to say such things [laughs] Actually, everythings pretty cool. But I dont want to jinx it and I dont want to. usually when I feel like everythings going good thats when something really fucked up happens. So, Im gonna say its all shitty, everything sucks, blah! [laughs]
MF: Was there a particular song or perhaps a moment during the writing process where it felt like youd regained or picked up momentum?
JR:No, not really. Its kind of weird, I mean, I was feeling pretty good about everything that was coming out even in the raw demo phase when it was just me sitting in my garage. I could really hear it and I had a good vision for everything and everything seemed to make sense. So if everything makes so much sense to me right now, it can only get better.
About the time that the rest of the band showed up to the studio and we really started hammering through things is when everything really, even given the circumstances, started feeling very normal.
MF: How do you feel the new members acclimated to the Slipknot recording process?
JR:I think they did really well considering the circumstances that were thrown at them. We threw the book at the drummer, we fuckin put him through the wringer. He did not have it easy. But he was up to the challenge with everything that we threw at him. He took it all and props to him for that.
The bass player was a little bit of a different situation, because we kind of had a little bit of a revolving door of dudes coming in and out and trying things. Even Donnie came into the studio for a while and it just to a point where we were struggling looking for somebody and then the right guy presented himself sort of at the last minute. It worked out pretty cool.
MF: That brings us to Soundwave. It seemed like we had the official announcement for the album and the Soundwave lineup drop within a short space of time. Did you guys know you wanted to return to Australia as part of that tour?
JR:Absolutely, we always wanna come back, or at least I always wanna come back to Australia. Australias one of my favourite places on this planet to visit. And tours like Soundwave, theyre an experience to not just be able to play most of the major cities in Australia, but to have a couple of days off in all of them too when youre on tour, you dont get a chance to really absorb the places you go.
But because of the way that tour was routed I was able to go snorkelling in the Indian ocean and I was able to take a ferry across the Sydney Harbour or whatever and go out to an island and eat dinner. I mean, theres just so much you can do when you have that amount of time and its really awesome and it made me pretty passionate about Australia.
MF: Was it a band decision to keep exclusive to the festival? Can Aussie fans expect a return for a headline tour at some point?
JR:I definitely wanna come back there for a headlining tour, because Ive heard and Im not sure if this is true, but Ive heard that Perth is not happening anymore for Soundwave.
MF: Thats true, yeah.
JR:Yeah, which I think is kind of a bummer, because I really like Perth a lot. Obviously, weve got a couple years at least of touring ahead of us so Im sure the powers that be are putting their heads together to figure out how we can make it cost effective to be down in Australia and do a proper headlining tour on our own and make it so were not just spending money to be down there.
Fuck, I would love to do that. I mean, we havent been able to do a headlining tour down there in quite some time. Probably, shit, since the first record cycle, you know? So every other time we come down there its always a festival. Id like to do both, that would be ideal.
MF: Coreys described the new album asVol. 3meetsIowa. Would you agree with that summary?
JR:I dont know if I would agree with that, because I dont like to compare anything we do to anything that weve done or necessarily to anything else. I think that creates an expectation, you know what I mean? And I dont like to put those expectations out there.
I know when I was younger, bands would say, Oh, were coming back out with a new record and its gonna be like our second record, and Id hear their new record and it wasnt anything like their second record and I was a little bit disappointed and Im like, Well, if they never wouldve said anything, I never wouldve had this expectation.
So I dont know what I would compare to this record to, I would just say its an evolution and its sort of a testament to where were at right now.
Check out the rest of the interview atMusic Feeds and make sure you’ve pre-ordered your copy of.5 The Gray Chapter from the Maniacs Store!
