Slipknot

Ozzfest - June 1999

How has Ozzfest been so far for you?

It's fucking nuts. What's really fucking cool is that from handing out samplers and stuff, people are singing along and I hear the chorus louder than I do the monitors on stage. It's just the coolest feeling. Fucking incredible.

Any bands you have gotten to see yet, or have been waiting to see?

Slayer and Sabbath. Total fucking inspiration. Jeff Hanneman wrote one of the most godly songs on the fucking planet. I got to meet the guy who wrote Angel of Death. I ate lunch with Bill Ward. Ya know, it's surreal. And they're all really down to earth and cool.

I've heard people compare you to anywhere from Pantera to Korn...

[chuckles]

to Insane Clown Posse...

[laughs]

How would you describe your style?

I don't. I've always found that funny. Three years ago I would hear people just draw from what they know, they'd say "Yeah you guys sound like Rage Against the Machine meets Pantera", because usually to your average fucking kid, Pantera is the fucking heaviest thing they've ever heard. Or Metallica. If it has distorted guitar and its not really nice, then it must be one of these two types of bands. I don't see any similarity. As far as ICP goes, the only reason they'd draw that conclusion is that there is one guy in our band that wears a clown mask. In fact we've been doing this shit for so long, it's taken us 3 and 1/2 years to get out, which really isn't all that long for a band to be on Ozzfest, but we've been doing it for a long time. What was ICP 3 1/2 years ago? Fucking Shawn had his clown mask fucking 15 years ago, you know he wore it in a band previous to this, 7 years ago. So it's not like we draw from anything like that. As far as musically resembling that? No. Korn? Absolutely not. Anyone who wants to make the Ross Robinson comparison needs to fucking listen to it themselves, before they talk. Because I hear a lot of that "Ross Robinson turned these guys into Korn", well listen to the fucking CD.

So you guys have been together for 3 1/2 years?

Yeah we were all in bands together over the years. Me and Paul, the bass player, used to be in a death metal band together. Our sampler and drummer and former rythym guitar player used to be in a kinda speed metal/thrash band together. We've all known each other for years and years.

What was it like working with Ross Robinson?

Ross is the fucking coolest. He's fucking nuts. He's histarical. He's probably nothing like you'd expect him to be.

Do you feel he influenced your sound?

It depends on the band. A lot of bands have a producer come in, and the producer guts what they have and turns it into the producers. Ross isn't that way. I've heard the comparison of Sepultura starting sounding like Korn when Ross did it. Well they wanted to achieve that kind of sound. So that is why they enlisted his services. The main thing he did with us was strip down some shit, mainly in the drumming department, so it's just straight fucking power, instead of where there might be 16ths worth of kicks, just slow it down, so it's more driving and powerful. That and the second percussion, get rid of the more technical stuff, like the rolls, which get lost in the translation live anyway. Basically the riffs didn't change, just stripped down the sound...

Cleaned ya up.

Right. Yeah, where as a lot of producers will come in and go "yeah well here is where we'll put your chorus...", and that wasn't really the case for us. The guy is the biggest fucking inspiration. I mean you can go to our webpage (www.slipknot1.com or www.slipknot2.com) and you can download video of us recording, I mean we were like [we are] in the show. Full on fucking slamming. It's a very live sounding recording. What you see me do on stage is what I did in the studio, just without my shit on. I mean I'm still slamming, it's the only way to get the vibe there. You can sit there and play lightly, or you can just bash the fuck out of shit, and it definately translates.

Have you ever thought about doing a show without your costumes on?

No. Haven't really thought about that.

But you never know.

Yeah. Never say never.

[Shawn, #6, pokes his head in and says he's going to shut the door to the back of the bus, so he can get out of costume]

Who does the writing for the bands?

[Shawn, #6, pokes his head in again and asks me to grab the sleeve of his jump suit so he can get out of it, and Mick laughs]

It's usually a band effort. Things tend to happen. You just can't sit down and consciously write a song. Everyone contributes.

Basically it can come from any angle.

Exactly, especially when you have nine people in the band and alot of us like similar things. Nobody cops somthing "Yeah I like this band so lets do something like this". Shit just happens. For the most part, Me and Joe and Paul do most of the core stuff, guitar/bass/drums, and the other shit always falls in place.