Anyone who has listened to a radio or watched MTV in the last two decades is familiar with a few things: 1) Nu-metal is an angry genre of rock, 2) MTV doesn’t show music videos like it used to, but when they did, 3) Korn was king of MTV’s nu-metal era. The omnipresent Bakersfield quintet is the biggest nu-metal group to come out of the early '90s and has steadily dominated the world over.
Twenty years after the release of its critically acclaimed eponymous album, the band began touring and playing the record in its entirety with the first set of shows starting in 2014. Ahead of the band's Tempe date, guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer took time to talk with me about actually enjoying the tour, the new album in the works and missing master versions of tracks.
How’s the tour going?
It’s going well, man. We’re having fun actually.
Why do you say “fun actually?”
Sometimes, tours become kind of regular, but for this run of touring we’ve been seeing people we haven’t seen in a long time. It’s just cool that we’ve been going to cities that we just haven’t been to. People are definitely enjoying this a lot more than I expected.
Which is great considering that you guys are one of the few guitar-based bands that can do an international tour like this.
It feels very liberating to be able to know if we come across a weird chord or a dissonant sound to be able to say “Oh, that’s Korn,” then use it. I think it’s the result of pushing the envelope year after year and widening the perspective people have of the instrument and integrating other genres into our music.
This tour has to be especially meaningful as a 20th anniversary tour of your self-titled. It must feel like a dream.
It’s unheard of. We feel like one in a billion that we have the ability to experiment as much as we get to.
Like “The Path of Totality” album.
We definitely went out on a limb there. At that point, we wanted to do something really different because nothing was really exciting to us anymore. Jonathan (singer) really got into electronic music and brought me a Skrillex record and what I thought was, “Wow, this is so dope.” After so many years, you kind of have to trust someone’s inspiration and when that person gets excited. Even if that doesn’t pan out, it can be the spark for something exciting and great.
Coming from that album and looking back at the self-titled, are there any moments that still excite you? Things you wish you could change?
Both. Every night (of playing them live). There’s maybe an extra verse or an extra part that goes long and it feels like the energy starts to leak a little through the bubble that is that song, but I have to respect that’s who we were at the time and fans. Some of the songs sound really dated and some of the riffs sound really cool and it’s fun to play. The song “Clown” is really fun to play. It’s a tricky part.
I imagine going back, there were some moments where you had some difficulty figuring out how you played certain riffs.
Yeah, there are a few moments on the first and second record that are difficult, but mostly it’s tones. I don’t know how we made some of those guitar tones other than messing around with old amplifiers and peddles. I don’t know even how to go back. We tried to get a hold of a V Kemper Modeler and try to go back and find the masters, but someone lost them.
That’s something I’ve heard a lot from bands.
There is probably some weird guy sitting in a loft with everyone’s masters laughing.
He’s probably just waiting to sell them and make a fortune.
Yeah, but he’s probably too crazy to do anything with them. If he gets found out, then he’s getting sued.
Since those masters are gone and you’re working on a new record, what can you tell me about that?
We’re right in the middle of writing. It’s still Korn regardless of how we’re trying to push the envelope. At the end of the process, this record will take on it’s own identity, but ultimately it’s Jonathan’s voice. It’s our playing doing weird sounds and we’ll try to make it sound great. We’re about halfway through writing before we record.
For the first album, did you guys just go jam and call it a day?
It was just jamming out and then we’d go, “That’s the song, next!” We had a three-song demo that we shopped around to labels and we started playing shows at six songs and we got signed off that. We only had that material when we got signed to Immortal and they ask for five or six more songs so we went in and jammed them out.
After 11 albums, you have such massive catalog of songs that you’ve been getting requests for your encore. What song has been popping up the most?
“A.D.I.D.A.S.” because we don’t play that. It’s a cool song with a good melody. “Trash” from “Issues.” Love that song. We might try to work that in. There’s a really old song that I love called “Justin” that we wrote about a fan that had cancer.
Do you like playing that song because of what it means?
Yeah. It was the first Make-a-Wish foundation person we met and hung out with. We bonded with him. After that it wasn’t long after that he passed away so that really moved Jonathan to writing.
The fans really love Korn and everything you’ve done over your career.
I always have fans that come to me with tattoos of our name or our signature with stories of how they met us here or backstage at a meet and greet. It’s amazing at how much a positive impact our music gave people. When you mentioned that I’m "living a dream," that unconditional connection with the fans really brings happiness to my heart. I’m extremely grateful.
Korn will be playing its eponymous album in it's entirety Thursday at Marquee Theatre. You can buy tickets here.
Related Links:
Great vibes, sick tunes forecasted for Pot of Gold
Metal music’s concert etiquette
Reach the reporter at dloche@asu.edu or follow @DMLoche on Twitter.
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