SLAYER Frontman Talks About MARILYN MANSON Tour, Songwriting Process

David Priest of OnTrackMagazine.com recently conducted an interview with SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

OnTrackMagazine.com: There seemed to be a little bit of animosity that you guys were goin' on first (before MARILYN MANSON) and that you would even be on tour with somebody like MANSON to begin with, being that his music's very different and not something that the average SLAYER fan would embrace.

Tom: Yeah, it was an odd bill, and we got the audience I figured we were gonna get and that was an audience that people didn't come to see us; the same with MANSON. A lot of the people that came to the show I think came because they wouldn't come to see just MANSON or SLAYER, but since they were playing together, "Let's go check it out." And I think a lot of our crowd was that; we got this kind of crowd on this entire tour. So it did well for everybody because this is our third time now goin' through and we were doin' really well, as far as merch sales we did the same. We did the same amount the last time as this time so we did really well; it showed good numbers for us. We had a really positive growth and response. So it worked out really well for us. Like I said, we were on prime-time, 8 o'clock. The only thing is, like you said, a lot of people just assumed that we would headline, and that was the one thing that we let it be known a long time ago: this is a co-headline bill — but — we're gonna kick his ass every night. (Laughs) We're gonna open up and kick his ass every night. That's by his choice! (Laughs)

OnTrackMagazine.com: Absolutely! Now the rumor backstage, talkin' to some of the people afterwards that had been to some of the earlier shows, especially the L.A. crowd I guess, said the MANSON camp, some of their people, tend to be a little controlling and uptight about the way everything was being handled back there. I guess even your manager had some problems being told he couldn't smoke in certain areas.

Tom: Well yeah, just in general period. For a co-headline, we're the kind of band that if you allow access for somebody… we don't mind not having too much access but if you're wearing the proper credentials you shouldn't be stopped and you shouldn't be questioned and you shouldn't be told you can't go because you don't have the right whatever, you know what I mean? And there was a lot of that going on on this tour and to us; well we're not like that. You got a laminate that says all access, well then goddamnit I guess you're all access, you know what I mean? If you have a VIP that says you get to these areas and you can't go beyond that area, that's great, but they kept changin' the rules, it wasn't our camp. There were issues like that were goin' on through the entire tour and that's one of the reasons why it'll be a one-time run. (Laughing)

OnTrackMagazine.com: (Laughing) Ah, right. I was gonna say chances are this probably won't ever happen again.

Tom: Oh yeah. It's like why? Why would we ever wanta go through this again? It's like, f*ck you. We've been doin' the business that we did with MANSON… we've been pretty much doin' the same business everywhere where we've gone and done it: Unholy and played ourselves, we've done basically the same business. So… to me, I wouldn't want to do that again. (Laughing)

OnTrackMagazine.com: Right on. Now I noticed there was some criticism on the writing of the CD. In my travels I've spoken with quite a few fans that would really; really love to hear more writing from you and Jeff, I know Kerry pretty much did most of what was on this album.

Tom: Yeah, musically, Kerry writes a lot and lyrically, lately, Kerry likes to write to his own music, that's one of the reasons why you don't see me writing to anything that Kerry has musically done because he pretty much writes his own songs to his own music. But I've written songs, actually for "God Hates" I've actually had five songs written on that album; four that I had pretty much complete and one that I was startin' to work on, an idea that I started workin' on, but they didn't want to use any of my ideas. They used two of my melodies, but not any of my song ideas. On past records I've had songs that haven't been used at all, so it's not like I haven't been writing, I have; they just don't use 'em.

OnTrackMagazine.com: (Laughing) they just don't use 'em.

Tom: Yeah they don't, they don't. Me and Jeff, it seems like whenever we collaborate on a song, we tend to write the songs that become favorites. But me and Jeff seem to, whenever we collaborate we click on ideas and stuff and they just kinda fall together whenever we start workin' on 'em. Like "Jihad" was something that just kinda fell together. "Eyes Of The Insane" was something that he had musically and he had some stuff written for a song and then I read an article and the song came to me in the middle of the night. I looked at him and I said, 'Listen, listen, I'm gonna steal this line and I'm gonna title the song "Eyes Of The Insane". And he's like, "Oh, OK." "Yeah, I wanna steal this phrase right here." And then I wrote the song and then put that phrase in the song, you know what I mean?

OnTrackMagazine.com: Right. It's always great when it works that way and it gels that way.

Tom: Yeah. A lot of the stuff that me and Jeff have worked on together just kind of falls into place, which is kinda cool because then I guess we're kind of both "in sync" with our idea of the final vision of the song, you know what I mean? They tend to fall in place and, like I said, Jeff leaves it open for someone to help write or assist; Kerry doesn't, so that's one of the reasons why you see a lot of that. And on this album, the recording process and the writing process, was very similar as to how we did "South" and "Seasons". That's why you can hear the similarities because the writing and the recording processes were very similar on those. The records in between there, they started stepping away from that.

OnTrackMagazine.com: Right, right yeah.

Tom: And to me, you can hear it in the melodies of those albums, you know what I mean?

OnTrackMagazine.com: Yeah I think one of the things that I've noticed on the last few albums is that your vocals have been a bit more aggressive, y'know, heavier and you've kind of toned down on the melodic aspect that was more prevalent on some of the earlier SLAYER material, especially during the "Seasons" era. Is this a conscious decision on your part?

Tom: No, that was, trying different vocal styles is something that we've kind of done period. We've tried different things but it's usually very open. Like on "Divine", that was a conscious effort at changing my vocal style. The same with "Diabolus", "Diabolus" was doing something different. And then on "God Hates", "God Hates" was the only one…, I would have done a lot of the stuff different on "God Hates", vocally. You can hear 'em when we do 'em live. The songs that we play that are off of "God Hates", when we sing them, when I do them live I sing 'em how I would have recorded them. That's how I would have recorded them in the studio 'cause they're done differently. I would have done that whole album, let's just say there are a lot of songs where I would have done things differently, and that's the one album to me that was just so far off-base as far as what we were as a band; when it comes to the studio and being creative in the studio. That, to me, I found was trying to mimic other bands that were screamin' and yellin' and that wasn't us.

Read the entire interview at OnTrackMagazine.com.

Watch SLAYER performing the song "Cult" on "The Henry Rollins Show":