Interviews

SLIPKNOT INTERVIEW

Slipknot's latest CD is entitled Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) and it rocks! Any player looking for a lesson in tone, style, and monster riffing will find it all on this CD. From full-ahead speed metal to acoustic textures, Vol 3. has it all. FPE sat down with guitarist Jim Root to find out a bit more about the recording process. Please read on!

FPE: What about this album is most different than your previous recordings?

Jim Root: "Well we used Pro Tools on this one, that was probably the biggest difference. Another was the chance to really dive into the guitar tones and experiment with different amps and cabs and guitars."

The guitar tones are awesome. What did you use for amps?

"The main amp I used was a Bogner Uberschall... I also used a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb, a Mid '80's JCM 800 (moded), and a Lee Jackson Ampeg. The main cabs were a 1970 Orange 4x12 and a Marshall 1960 B."

The riffs on this CD are infectious. What was your writing process like?

"It varied quite a bit on this record. We had a lot of time in the studio, and different places to record around the house. At anytime someone had an idea we could go to a room and put down an idea that would most likely become a song."
Do you and Mick trade off solos in Welcome and Pulse of the Maggots? And if so - which side are you left or right?

"If you are looking at the stereo, I'm out of the left side."

What where your favorite tracks to record?

"Vermillion Pt.2... Vermillion... Circle... Blister... 3 Nil... Danger... The Nameless... pretty much the whole record... It was the best recording process for me yet."

Who wrote the intro lick to Opium of the People?

"I think Joey or Paul wrote the basic frame, Then Mick and I added the "fast" guitar work."

There are lots of speedy runs and riffs on this record. Do you use alternate picking or downstrokes for your riffs?

"Down picking and alternate... It depends on the application."

There are many moments of unique guitar interplay between you and Mick on this recording. What role do you feel you are playing?

"I'd say the organic... Liquid role. Less Technique and theory, more feel and vibe."

What are your strengths as a player?

"I try to be a well rounded player... But there is always something to learn."

What acoustic guitar was recorded on Circle?

"Ah... That was a beautiful instrument. It was a 1967 Gibson Humming Bird... A great guitar, I wish it was mine but it belongs to Rick (Rubin). It was also the guitar I used on Vermillion PT. 2"

Circle is very Pink Floyd sounding. Who played the solo? What pedal was used?

"It was me, I'm guilty... Dave Gilmore is one of my favorite guitarists. That was the Marshall with a 1957 Gold Top re issue."

What pedals have you acquired recently?

"Let's see, a Maxon AF-9 filter, Maxon Overdrive OD-9... wow, I've got a lot, I can't think of them all right now."

You tune down quite low. What gauge strings are you using?

Interview with Jim #4

Debbie Seagle for) Rocknworld: So, with Ozzfest in full swing right now, you got any insider stories to share with us? Any moments for your touring scrap book?

Jim: No, its been a pretty tame tour for us so far. I mean, I’m not really partying right now, so as far as party stories or anything like that, no. The most exciting thing I’ve done is set out in the front with one of my best friends and watch Sabbath.

RNW: Anything to learn from being around Sabbath?

Jim: All the experience?

RNW: Yeah, Sabbath, Manson, etc.

Jim: I just get a kick out of watching Ozzy make faces at Geezer Butler. That’s always fun to watch.

RNW: With your new CD “IOWA” coming out, at the end of this summer or early fall, are you sweating out a lot of the tracks at Ozzfest?

Jim: Yeah, we’re doing like four of them. We don’t have enough time to do any more.

RNW: Which tracks are they?

Jim: We’re doing “Disaster Piece,” we’re doing “Heretic Song,” we’re doing, what else are we doing? I’m having a total mind fart right now.

RNW: So far, Heretic Song is the only one I’ve had a glimpse of.

Jim: Yeah, that’s all anyone has heard so far. I guess that’s going to be like the main single type of thing.

RNW: That will be the first single coming out?

Jim: Yeah.

RNW: What’s the fan reaction been to those songs?

Jim: It’s been good so far, which is amazing since we don’t have a CD out yet, which really is a drag you know? It would be nice to have something for people to get acquainted with other than just the radio version or whatever edit we’ve got out of Heretic Song.

RNW: What are the obvious differences between the first CD and the new one? We’ve heard that its even more heavy than the first if that’s possible.

Jim: It’s heavier, it’s a little faster, sonically I think its going to be a little better.

RNW: Did you try some new things?

Jim: A little bit, yeah. Clown and Chris really got to experiment a little more with the drums, you know? Different rooms and different sounds and different things to hit the drums with and you know, different things to use as drums.

RNW: I can only imagine!

Jim: Yeah, you know, and recorded it in a different place too.

RNW: Well in a studio, you can just let your imagination run free.

Jim: Yeah, and it was really cool, so hopefully this one will, I mean obviously the songs are Slipknot, its what we sound like, but this one’s a little more straight forward as far as the metal I think. But you see, I can’t always say that either cause there’s also songs like “Skin Ticket” and “IOWA” which are on the other side of the spectrum. Skin Ticket actually is my favorite track off the album right now.

RNW: Really?

Jim: Yeah.

RNW: And why is it at the opposite end of the spectrum?

Jim: Well its just the opposite end of the spectrum from, you know, like where Heretic Song is like straight forward metal type of song, Skin Ticket is more experimental. There’s a little more going on there than just straight forward – this many times of this arrangement, you know, with the drums straight forward. It’s a little more thought provoking.

RNW: There have been some subtle changes, I noticed, to Sid’s mask recently. He’s gone with the white thing and we’ve heard other in the band say that you are always thinking about new things to do with your masks. Will that be going down when the new CD hits, and if so, what will the changes be to your mask?

Jim: Well, yeah, we’re evolving. That’s sort of what bands do. That’s what we do. Everything Slipknot has ever done has been an evolution. Obviously the masks are going to evolve. Not everybody’s are evolving, but I know I’ve made some changes with mine and Clown has and Sid has and Paul has. But basically mine’s still the same theme of what it was before, its just little more refined.

RNW: I’m always interested in what makes you choose the mask you have. Whether it’s a showing of some inner personality thing or a statement about society. What made you choose your mask, and is there a story behind it?

Jim: There’s really no story about it. Basically I was wearing a latex bondage hood and it was very painful and it sucked so I went out and found a new mask, you know?

RNW: So it didn’t take that long for you to decide that wasn’t the mask for you?

Jim: No, it took one show. It took like a day of photo shoots with Dean Carr and one show and I was like, you know, this thing sucks. I’m fucking getting a new mask. I went out and found something that I was into.

RNW: What about your number? (4) Does it mean anything to you or have any significance, or did you all just get lined up and someone said okay, 0-1-2-3-4, etc.?

Jim: Well, everybody kind of picked a number, cause it just kind of fell in. Nobody really argued or fought about it, but since I replaced Josh who was number 4 before me, I took on his number.

RNW: What’s it like when a nine person band sets out to write a song?

Jim: Its really cool. Its actually not as complex as you would think. You’ve got main riffs that you go off of, and then everybody just kinda puts their two cents in. It just kind of all falls together.

RNW: Who usually starts it out?

Jim: It depends. It could be either Paul or Joey or Mick or I or Clown actually started one. It just depends. Who ever has got something, we’ll just go from there. And if the vibe is there and we’re into working on it at that particular time, then it will end up being a whole song. Like Skin Ticket, the song I was talking about before, that’s how that ended up being a song. And then, there’s always the cachet of riffs, the surplus I guess you could say, of riffs from years past. Those will get brought in and used or changed around or whatever and they’ll end up in songs as well.

RNW: The title of your new CD is “IOWA.” Iowa is the band’s home base, right?

Jim: A-huh.

RNW: I assume you went back there to work on your material. Is Iowa any sort of an influence for this next work, or is it just a title?

Jim: Well, obviously, yeah its an influence in the fact that that’s where we were. Its where we’re from, so that’s the type of values we have. That’s the type of nothingness we went through, and that’s the shit that we had to deal with growing up, you know? So, in that aspect, I would say yeah, that’s the influence of it. That’s why the title is that.

RNW: Is life different for you now when you go home, now that you’ve attained the level of success of recognition you’ve attained?

Jim: A little bit, but not really. Its still pretty . . .

RNW: I think its kind of cool that you can remain pretty incognito.

Jim: Yeah, I mean I can go to the grocery store without anyone messing with me. But it hasn’t really changed at all. I go home, the only thing that’s changed is that obviously my style of living has improved a little bit. I actually have a place of my own for the first time in my life, you know? And that doesn’t suck, but other than that, its just home. It’s a place where you can go and you can relax and you can just get in focus. Its not like the rat race.

RNW: Not like the LA scene?

Jim: Yeah, its not like a big roller coaster ride. You can go back there and you can really sink in, you can breathe. Okay, this is home, I’m comfortable here. Now I can write, or I can, you know, go drive my car or ride my bike or I can do whatever it is that’s my outlet for that day.

RNW: So it sounds like Iowa has a very positive influence in that respect.

Jim: I guess you could say that, yeah. I think it’s the center of balance, its both.

RNW: How are your family and friends doing with your success? I know its kind of hard sometimes on family.

Jim: My family, it doesn’t really effect them. My mother has been very supportive, so she’s just tickled to death that I’m doing what I’ve always talked about doing since I was begging her to buy me a guitar when I was 13 years old.

RNW: 13 huh?

Jim: Begged her and begged her from the time I was about 12 till the time I was 14 I begged and begged for a guitar and finally they bought me one for Christmas and it was a Memphis. It was a Memphis Les Paul Jr. copy.

RNW: Wow. You did a lot better than I did . . . I had some old chump dime store acoustic guitar . . .

Jim: It was a pawn show model, you know?

RNW: Hey, that’s okay. You know Slash started out with a guitar with one string!

Jim: There you go!

RNW: If you could tell your family what’s meant the most to you about your success, what would that be?

Jim: What’s meant the most? I’d have to say it would be all the people that you get to meet doing this. Cause you know, growing up and doing all this stuff before we got to the level of success that we’ve had, these people are surreal. They’re just pictures in magazines or images on a television or on a CD cover. Everybody – Disturbed, Sabbath, (head) p.e., Machine Head, all these bands that we’ve gotten to meet. Its really cool that they’re actually cool people. That’s probably the best thing.

RNW: Actually, I could kind of say the same thing myself. Just getting to interview a lot of you folks. I’m in the media tent, just kind of looking around going okay, I’m supposed to interview Jim, or Paul, or Mick. But I don’t know what the hell they look like! But coming in here and sitting down with you, its cool.

Jim: Its weird cause it like a circus that you are thrown into and some things catch you off guard and some things you just don’t expect. I mean, I didn’t know what to expect going on tour. When Shawn called me up in 1999 and he told me, hey we’re going to be on Ozzfest, we made it, Steve got us on the tour. I screamed and I was freaking out. And then the bus showed up and I remember the first time the bus showed up at Shawn’s house I was just like – it sunk in right there – like, wow. We’re really doing this! I just had that tickled butterfly feeling, jumping up for joy, you know? It was just an incredible feeling.

RNW: So how did you get ready for that first Ozzfest? Did you go out and get a new tat and some new threads?

Jim: No, no. I went out some luggage and I kicked drinking pop because everyone was like saying, man you gotta get healthy because touring really tears you up and da-da-da-da-da. So I tried to eat better and all this crap and . . .

RNW: It is rough on ya.

Jim: Well, basically, it just so surreal, it still hasn’t really sunk in yet, what we’re doing and what’s going on. Cause everybody, I always thought it would be like me, hanging around with a bunch of famous people. But everybody is so cool and on the same level. Its just like, hey, they’re people.

RNW: News flash – you’re a famous people now too! (laughing)

Jim: Yeah, you know, and it doesn’t seem like it. I don’t think of myself like that.

RNW: Do you think it ever really does seem like it? Even to people that we think are really, really famous? Do you think it ever feels like, wow, I’m really famous?

Jim: Well, I’m sure there’s some people who tend to use that as . . . I’m sure there’s somebody out there who’s like, I’m famous, treat me like it. You know what I mean?

RNW: You’re right. I’ve met a few like that.

Jim: I haven’t met anybody like that yet, but I’m sure there’s that guy out there somewhere.

RNW: Yeah, I guess they’re out there. Definitely out there . . . Thanks for not being one of them, and for taking some time to talk with me today!