Behind the mask
Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor reveals the ‘underbelly of the beast’ to Jack van Beynen.
FOR a band who famously wear horror masks, Slipknot sure lay it bare in their latest album. Called .5: The Gray Chapter, the 2014 record deals with the death of the band’s late bassist Paul Gray.
Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor says making the album saw the band start the ‘‘grieving process’’ after losing Gray, one of the band’s founding members.
‘‘[ Chapter] is probably the most personal we’ve ever been in such a different way. This is showing the underbelly of the beast, it’s showing the soul of it, and letting people understand that even we get hurt, but we also come together.’’
That’s pretty soft talk for the frontman of a band so metal it calls its fans ‘‘maggots’’. But beneath the mask, Taylor is actually kind of a softie.
When we call, he’s cooking dinner while fending off the advances of his two-year-old daughter. Despite those distractions, he’s eloquent and engaged. He also seems genuinely excited to be coming to New Zealand.
The band plays Auckland’s Vector Arena next week. ‘‘It’s been a while since we played New Zealand, so we’re really looking forward to it,’’ Taylor says.
Last time the band visited – back in 2008 – the Kiwi audience was ‘‘off the hook’’, and he’s looking forward to more of the same.
‘‘A band like us, we thrive on the energy of the audience, we thrive on the give and take of that energy.
‘‘Especially when it comes to a place like Auckland, where we don’t really get there as much as we’d like to, so when we do get down there the audience just goes above and beyond, they’re ready for every song that we throw at them and just make it something so special and exciting.
‘‘They make us feel like we’re from there, which you can’t buy, you can’t expect something like that because it’ll never happen, so the fact that we get that is so special, man.’’
.5: The Gray Chapter, like most of Slipknot’s work, has seen the kind of commercial success you don’t usually associate with metal bands, hitting the No. 1 album spot in the US, Canada and Australia, and No. 2 here in New Zealand. The band is an unlikely success story; if you were to ask any record company executive what their formula for musical success was, they wouldn’t say horror masks and songs about death and decay.
Taylor seems genuinely bewildered by the band’s success.
‘‘Honestly, I have no clue,’’ he says. ‘‘I think it has something to do with the fact that we embrace our own insanity, our own creativity, we try to make people a part of it. It’s not just a band standing on stage playing at an audience, that audience are as much a part of us as we are playing for it.
‘‘For me, it’s always the audience that has kept us where we are, and has helped spread the word, and has made this so much more than we could even have realised. Trust me, we did not expect any of this. Every day we get to do this is such a gift.’’
Part of their success could be to their relentless focus on the music. While making .5: The Gray Chapter, Taylor says the band tried to phase out all distractions and expectations and concentrate on making the kind of music they wanted to make.
‘‘The reason we’re still here is because we’ve never worried about what’s popular, or what people were going to like or not like. We just shot from our own hearts. We made music really for us, and if people happen to like it that was cool. I think that’s the secret, I think that’s the secret for everyone who is looking to make music and do it for a long period of time.
‘‘I think it comes down to just never forgetting why you do it in the first place, you know what I’m saying?’’ ● Slipknot play Auckland’s Vector Arena on October 26.