PAPA ROACH Frontman's Vocal Scare

Matt Bishop conducted an interview with vocalist Jacoby Shaddix of Californian rockers PAPA ROACH when the band played at Crocodile Rock Café in Allentown, Pennsylvania on July 2.

When asked about PAPA ROACH's current tour, Jacoby said, "I got some messed up news today, actually. I'm kind of bummed out. I went to a vocal specialist. I have what's called a node that's forming on my vocal cord, so it's like a callus on my vocal cord, and so it's fucking with my top range of my vocals for the last week, so I've actually been pretty bummed out. Hopefully… I took some steroids, and that'll help the swelling and hopefully that'll help it go away. But if it doesn't get better, it's one of those things where you have to get surgery and do the whole thing. And I'm like, 'Fuck, we've got a record coming out. Oh, shit.' . . . [But] I should be fine [in time for the Uproar tour in August]. I mean, I hope so…"

On the topic of PAPA ROACH's forthcoming album, "The Connection", which is scheduled for release on October 2 via Eleven Seven Music, Jacoby said, "It's fucking banging — I think best album yet. Once it's released, then it's up to the fans to come to their own conclusion, but I'm allowed to come to my own conclusion as well, and I think it's the dopest shit we've come up with yet. I think our fans are gonna love it. We kind of went back and looked at the history of our band and really thought about… Creatively, what evolutions have we gone through? When we came in, it was, like, metal and hip-hop and nu-metal, and then we kind of got more into straight-ahead rock and then we added pop elements to our band. So this record just encompasses everything we've done from the beginning to where we are currently as a band; it just kind of connects the dots of all the elements of our sound over the years. We've got this first single, called 'Still Swinging', and it's got old-school P-ROACH written all over it. But it's got a new-school flair to it; it's not, like, rehashed, like, 'Oh, we're going old school,' 'cause that's just fucking boring. You know, when a band tries to re-emulate something that they did. But to take those influences and flip them around and freak them out and see what they come out as now, that's the sound of who we are. It's like we took our band and put it in a blender, pretty much."

"The Connection" was recorded at the band's hometown studio, The Red House in Sacramento, California, and was produced by rock veteran James Michael (SIXX: A.M., HALESTORM) and John Feldmann (PANIC AT THE DISCO, THE USED, ESCAPE THE FATE).

The first single from "The Connection" is a track called "Still Swinging", which many fans may have heard during last night's Major League Baseball All Stars Home Run Derby on ESPN. The track will be featured by ESPN/MLB in select games/events for the next few weeks.

"Still Swinging" officially impacts at radio on July 24.

A snippet of the track and behind-the-scenes footage of the band filming its video in New York City with David Brodsky of Brooklyn, New York's MyGoodEye Music Visuals (HELLYEAH, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, GOATWHORE, MUNICIPAL WASTE, SUFFOCATION) is available below.

Interview: