KORN Drummer RAY LUZIER: 'We're Really Stoked' About Our New Album

Thomas Crone of St. Louis magazine recently conducted an interview with KORN drummer Ray Luzier. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

St. Louis: Talk about your role in the creating the new album and your relationship with the producer.

Luzier: With Don Gilmore, we're all really happy. Everyone always says that "this album is our best stuff ever." But this really is the strongest KORN record in quite some time. Having worked with [producer] Ross Robinson a lot, and then many producers on the last one. Don's got a good influence on the sound. He's good at what he does, without pushing you over-the-top. No matter what the material is, a great producer's job is to really get inside the vocals, or make the drummer play something he's not used to playing. He's done a great job of pushing us and we've gone in and tracked 20 songs. The songs are so strong. Sometimes, you hear one or two great songs on a record and know that they're great. But we're getting to songs seven and eight and our jaws are still dropping. There's no filler on the record, no B-sides. We're really stoked about this record.

St. Louis: With the last album, "The Path Of Totality", you worked with quite a few different producers, with a lot of them coming from electronic backgrounds. How did you feel fitting into that recording?

Luzier: I'm an old-school drummer. I love to play as real as possible. But I also love technology and how these DJs are bringing their sounds to life. Jonathan's [Davis, vocals] such a big fan that he turned us onto that style. He had me really checking a lot of those acts out. Initially, I thought that we were working on a side project for him, but it wound up the KORN record. I did play everything live on there, but the programming was so massive that there are times when it's just my live cymbals on the track, or a fill. But that's what that song called for and I'm a team player in that respect. I play everything from that album live. But every records's so vastly different. It's really cool that the band is so adventurous. With this record, especially, when we got back in the studio last July or August, there was no writing session when we weren't all represented. I might be playing a groove and they'll join in, or they'll bring riffs. We're all about the music these days. None of us are 22, none of us are messing around. I was never into the party scene, but now everything's focused on family and music, which is great.

St. Louis: I have to go ahead and ask about Head's [KORN guitarist Brian Welch] rejoining the band. I'm guessing you heard a lot of stories, but hadn't worked with him before. What's your relationship with each other?

Luzier: He's just awesome, I love to have him along. The way he attacks his guitar is amazing. He and James ["Munky" Shaffer, KORN guitarist] have this thing. When they're together, they're able to play off of each other in a way that you generally don't hear from two guitar players. It's a really special thing they have. Since I'd been in KORN, I'd only met him a couple of times. But I always wanted the band, ever since I joined, to be me and the four original members upfront. Which is what we have again. Since he's rejoined, there's been no attitude or issues, from anyone. I can tell him to drop his tunings an octave, or he can say that my fills are getting a little busy. There's never, "Hey, man, that's my part," which is really cool. He and James are two great players with strong personalities. And when they're playing the old songs, the ones that stand out, the rehearsals get really wild. The fans, when they hear these old songs, are going to freak.

Read the entire interview from St. Louis magazine.