KORN Guitarist Talks New Album

Kristen Dunleavy of myYearbook recently conducted an interview with KORN guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

myYearbook: How is the touring dynamic now that you're on the road with your new drummer, Ray Luzier?

Munky: You know what? It's so nice to have a drummer who has his heart in it. It's like a fresh start, with the new record coming out. For a few years, it felt like we didn't have our footing. There was no solid ground. Having Ray touring with us and recording the new record feels like we have a solid foundation to rebuild on.

myYearbook: What led to hooking up with Ross Robinson again for "Remember Who You Are"?

Munky: I'm friends with him and I hadn't talked to him in a while, and I just started calling him. I gave him Jon's [Davis, vocals] phone number, and he and Jon started talking. Then Jon called me and was like, "What do you think about Ross producing our next record?" Right away, I was like, "Fuck yeah!" No hesitation. We needed it. We needed to refocus and have a fresh start with someone who knows what this band is about.

myYearbook: Jon originally wanted to make this a concept album, but that idea changed as recording progressed. How was the songwriting process different in comparison to your past few albums?

Munky: We were being reminded that this is why we play music, because it's so much fun. It doesn't feel like a job. It doesn't feel like we have to pump out a record for some label. In the beginning, that's what it was like. We're playing this music because it's from our hearts and our soul. In the past, it was big record budgets and big record deals being like, "Where's the single?" We lost focus for a little while. We were trying to find a single that pleased the radio. With this record, we just had to please ourselves.

myYearbook: Your early albums had some very raw, emotional songs. How did the band channel those same emotions on this album?

Munky: Before we started recording the songs, we had these little sessions with Ross where we'd go around the room and say, "How does this song make you feel and why?" We were getting down to the core of where the music was coming from. He'd go around the room and do that with each of us so that we were all on the same level. Then we could record and get the most creative takes that we've ever had.

myYearbook: Do you feel the new album reflects back on everything KORN has gone through in the past few years?

Munky: Yeah, I think there's a lot of frustration you can hear in it. Just getting caught up and forgetting about the true meaning about what we're here to do. I feel like we're here to help people get through tough times. It reflects on some of the frustration and challenges, not only in the past five years, but remembering some of the challenges we had growing up in Bakersfield and the odds we were up against trying to get out of a small town and being able to play music.

myYearbook: Have you had the opportunity to play any of the new songs on the road?

Munky: We're doing the first song on the album, which is called "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)". We just shot a video for it, so we should be seeing that footage soon. I'm excited because we actually did go back to where we grew up and shot the video there in the town of "Oildale", which is a little town outside of Bakersfield. Again, it's with the theme of where we grew up, remembering who we are. I don't think it's Jonathan's original concept idea, but it does have a concept of the challenges we were faced with and I think we leave the listener with the feeling of the first two records.

myYearbook: What's your take on where the hard rock/metal scene is headed these days?

Munky: Music is evolving; it always has been and always will be. There are always gonna be subgenres of this style of metal and that style of metal. That's basically what we did. We took our favorite bands, like SEPULTURA, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, FAITH NO MORE, and just made a band that we wanted to be in. We used those influences and created out own subgenre of metal. We didn't know what we were doing; we were just played music that we wanted to hear. That's what's happening now, and it's exciting to see people trying new stuff. Some of it's good, some of it's not.

Read the entire interview from myYearbook.