Stone Sour's Corey Taylor Featured in Revolver!

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Corey Taylor Talks Stone Sour, Slipknot, Fans, And Music Rebellion on Bloody Disgusting

Tomorrow sees the release of House Of Gold And Bones: Part 1 (stream the album here), the latest album from hard rock/metal band Stone Sour. In anticipation of this release, Bloody-Disgusting is excited to bring you an exclusive interview with singer Corey Taylor. In it, we discuss Corey’s history with music, his views on the music scene today, Slipknot and Stone Sour fans, and much more! Check it all out below!
You can pre-order HOGAB:P1 here. Make sure to read Sammy Key’s editorial on Music And Rebellion.

Bloody-Disgusting: Hey Corey, how you doing?
CT Taylor: I’m good, man, I’m good! Just workin’ on the demos for the next Stone Sour.
BD: Oh, cool! I’m really excited to hear that, how are they turning out?
CT: Oh, dude. (laughs). I’m telling you right now it’s gonna piss a lot of people off.
BD: You know what, then you’re doing your job right!
CT: (laughs) Yes, exactly.
BD: Well Corey, thanks for taking the time to talk to me about what’s going on. I have a contributor who’s writing a piece about how teenagers use music and also touching on rebellion and how rebellion has changed, and I thought this was something you would have a lot of insight about. It seems like something you would have a lot to say about.
CT: I’m ready!
BD: When did you start to feel that music was becoming a significant part of your own life?
CT: Uhh, I guess it really started to come together at probably about ten or eleven. Really early on. I started to find that music was something that really brought a lot of joy into my life, and it was sort of cool because I discovered that I had a gift for it, too. So the stuff I would listen to I could play along, I could sing along. I tell this story about singing “Separate Ways” by Journey in front of my family. I was forced to do that, actually (laughs). I was like nine or ten and my cousin Lisa just shoved me into the corner and was like “Do it, do it!”. So I sang this song in front of my aunts and uncles and they were just like “Jesus Christ!” You know? So that was kind of like my first performance. From there it just got to be more and more, to the point where if I couldn’t do something musically, I would force myself to learn how to play it. So yeah, from a really early stand point in my life, music has been very, very important.
BD: So what’s your take on the musical styles of today versus the styles 5 years ago, 10 years ago, maybe even further than that?
CT: It’s kind of depressing, man. (laughs) It really is. There’s so much that’s just glossed over these days. It’s almost like this weird cross between the 60s and the 80s. It’s like singles were very big in the 60s. And then all the really weird, crappy, forced upon pop music of the 80s. So now you’ve got people who don’t really have the skills, because technology hides it, going out and putting these crappy singles out, and because that’s all there really is, people basically eat it like hamburgers. It’s become very, very commercialized. Which wouldn’t bother me as much if people actually had talent. When I listen to something and the first thing I notice is that it’s been turned into crap, I shut it off and throw it out the window of my car. Like it’s the most offensive thing to me. I was just having this conversation last night because the Grammy’s were on, and I would say 3 out of 4 people nominated were all autotune artists. At that point, you shouldn’t be allowed to be nominated in anything that has a vocal category. You should be nominated in an instrumental category because the computer did all the work for you. If you sound more like a keyboard than a human being, you shouldn’t be allowed to walk away with one of those trophies. Of course I’m in the minority when it comes to that, which pisses me off even further.
BD: I actually wrote a rant about that on Bloody Disgusting where I said that it’s wonderful that Adele won all these awards, but rather than celebrating her victories, we should be mourning that she was basically our only choice. And that there wasn’t anything else.
CT: Absolutely. I was really happy when they honored her, because she deserves it. I mean, she’s such a huge fucking talent. I don’t care who you are, when she sings it’s just gets all into you. But I completely agree! It’s like you’re hoisting them up because it’s like, in a sea of shit, you look for the one person who’s got a life preserver, you know?
BD: Yup. And then there was the acceptance speech by Dave Grohl, which I thought was fantastic, where he said, “Winning this award proves that it’s people with talent and that it’s okay to make the mistakes as long as you’ve got it in your heart and in your head and you show your talent and you show your worth, that’s where awards should be given.” But then at the same time, later in the show, he played with David Guetta and DeadMau5 and there was a lot of computerized music, a lot of autotune going on right at that movie.
CT: Well, with something like that, that’s kind of what Mau5 is known for. He takes shit and he shreds it up. He’s kinda like Skrillex in that where you kind of expect that to happen. But for me it’s more about the pop stars, these quote unquote pop stars. The American Idol War Machine is what I call it. Because they keep cranking out this mediocre fuck heads, shoving them in the studio for 10 seconds and then they basically autocorrect everything. With something like what he did with DeadMau5, because I didn’t see that part, because I shut it off after a while like, “Jesus”, when they started with the tribute to Whitney Houston. I mean, what did you expect? She smoked fucking crack. Okay? When you smoke crack, you’re going to die! I’m a cynical fuck. But to me, I think that with something like that [Foo Fighters and DeadMau5] that’s trying to show that there’s some kind of unity in music. I think that’s him trying to do something where it bridges the gap. But you’re absolutely right. It’s kinda sad that you put somebody up there like that.
BD: So, do you feel that today’s teenage generation is lazy or easily persuaded and how to do you think that bodes for the future of the industry and the future of music itself?

CT: I think you’re always gonna have half the generation that’s lazy. But I think it makes the other half work that much harder. I think this generation that’s growing up really enjoying this pop music is gonna be the same as the people who grew up really liking Rick Astley. It’s passing fancy, as far as music goes. But I think because technology is so badly ruining music, it just breeds a generation that’s going to be completely 180 from that. I think the hungrier generation is just going to completely destroy any thought of trying that. I think we’re gonna have a lot more home grown rock n roll coming out soon. I’m hoping. Between the autotune pop and all these fucking hipster indie bands who are on every commercial, it’s kind of depressing in music right now. But, I think it’s kind of like me. When I was growing up in the 80s, a lot of that pop shit was just like, “What IS this?” And then I found my music in the thrash scene, in the hardcore punk scene, so I had that background and that made me want to make the sort of music I make today. So I think that half of the generation is going to come to the surface in the next five years.

BD: Okay. So how has the work that you’ve done with Slipknot and Stone Sour reflected what music means to you?
CT: I guess it’s reflected in the fact that I can still do it. If I hit a flat note, you’re gonna hear it. I’m really proud of the fact that anywhere, at any time, I can make music. A lot of people can’t do that. I just did a tour where it was basically just me and a guitar, and if I fucked up, I totally knew. And I let the audience know. I think the human side is reflected in the music I make, both with Skipknot and Stone Sour. You have to have that. For all the machines out there you have to have a soul. You have to have some place to come back. And I know there’s a lot of metal bands that use technology to hide shit because 9 times out of 10 you can’t tell one band from another because of it’s mixed, because of how the drums are being portrayed, because of how stock the guitars sound. So I know it’s a problem that really infects every facet of the industry. But for every 9 of those bands, there’s a band like Slipknot or Stone Sour that really tries to stand apart. If it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t. So for me, the way I make music is just a reflection of how I think music should be made. Where you sit in a studio, and you make music, and you use technology to your advantage, not to hide all the blaring mistakes.
BD: Myself, I know when I hear those little errors on a CD it makes me love it that much more, because there is that humanity in it.
CT: Yeah, yeah! It’s one thing to hope for perfection, because you can get really close, and still have that human spot, and it’s a masterpiece. It’s another thing entirely to expect a song that is completely fucking homogenized and just canned and tuned and lifeless. I think at this point the music is pushing us closer to AI than any of the technology Apple is putting out.
BD: Do you feel that your fans are responding to music in a different way than fans of other music might respond?
CT: I would hope so. We put a lot of pride into what we do, I mean we don’t even try to hide shit. There are moments of brilliance on a Slipknot or a Stone Sour album that’s followed by just this, flub that felt great. I think the fans expect that because we’ve sort of trained them to expect it. We’ve shown them that, “Look, we’re gonna throw you for a loop on every album. But you need to know that it’s us. It’s not some engineer typing coordinates into a fucking computer screen. It’s us!” I think they expect that level. Because I think they know that when we put that much effort into it, our potential for excellence grows a thousand fold. I think that’s why people still get excited for Slipknot albums, because they know they’re going to see more of us than they will of any other artist. I mean when you’re looking for a house, you’re not looking for a house that’s perfect. You’re looking for that house to have character. And I think it’s those little bits of humanity they come from the music. That’s what the music brings out when you have that, it brings out the character of a song. You go back and listen to 30, 40 years of music, and all the great, great songs that we’ve had in our lives, they all have that character. They have that human nudge, they all have that human relation. You can relate to it. When you listen to a song like, I don’t know, “Ready Steady Go” by Generation X, you think, “Man, I could do that. That sounds great, that sounds fun,” You listen to it, you’re having fun, it’s making fun of the generation before it but it’s embracing the generation that’s coming after it. You don’t get that feel these days. No matter how hard the record industry or any of these canned artists try to shove it down our throats, you don’t get that sense of continuity. It’s more of a fucking factory at this point.
BD: Now, in your mind do you think music and rebellion go hand and hand, or do you think it takes the musician and the listener to form the relationship between the two?
CT: I think it’s both, honestly. I think it has to be both. Because you can be the angriest fucker in your basement, your whole life, and nobody is gonna give a shit. You need that response from the fan to fuel your sense of musical rebellion. It’s a cycle. I’ve always seen it as a cycle. Especially in a live sense. If you’re at a Slipknot show, and you’re feeding that energy to the audience, they then give it right back to us. So it’s very symbiotic, it’s very cyclic in a way. You can’t have one without the other. So I think the rebellion is reflected in the audience, but at the same time, the artist has to have that passion too. And I think once you’re a fan for life, you feed each other’s sense of passion and rage and whatnot. You really can’t have one without the other.
BD: I know you said that the new Stone Sour is gonna piss a lot of people off. For me, a lot of times it begins with the musician, but the moment that message hits the fans, they take it and go with it and make something new. It’s almost like you’ve raised a child, they’ve gone their own way, and now you just nurture them along.
CT: Yeah, yeah. People try to make the argument for being a role model and not being a role model. With me I walk a very thin line with that. On one hand, the stuff I write is, for me, to kind of get out, but I also know that people are going to interpret things in different ways, so I always try to make sure there’s a positive edge to what I’m saying. Whether it’s a song like “Heretic Anthem” or a song like “True Blast”, I try to make sure it’s a positive thing. You know, rage can be a positive thing. Feeling something like that can really not only empower you, but it can also let you let go of shit. I always try to put some sort of happy ending in there. Because I know that people are going to listen to this music, and if it’s too bleak, then what’s the fucking point? There’s a certain amount of responsibility there but there’s a point where if I feel like I’m catering to a certain kind of person then I’m not gonna get what I need out. So it’s really sort of like throwing something at a wall and hoping it sticks. With the new Stone Sour, it’s a concept album that deals with a person’s past, trying to move on in his life. He’s at that cross roads in his life where he either stays where he’s at, stagnates, doesn’t evolve at all becomes one of these perpetual adolescents. Or, he moves on to evolve into whatever he wants, a parent, a good person, a mature human being. There are those stages in life where you’re almost terrified to jettison the engines, you know? But you have to get to the next level, or you’re gonna get stuck where you are for the rest of your life. And that’s really what these CDs are gonna be. And the shit that I’m saying is gonna piss a lot of people off, because I think a lot of people are comfortable staying where they are in life. I’m saying, “Fuck that.” I’m challenging you to find the rest of your life, and to be a better person and move on.


Originally posted at: http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3199275/interview-corey-taylor-talks-stone-sour-slipknot-fans-and-music-rebellion/

Corey Taylor Describes His Inspiration for "House of Gold and Bones" on FUSE

After Fuse finished following Corey Taylor at New York Comic Con this past weekend, we sat down with the Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman to talk about Stone Sour's new concept album The House of Gold & Bones, his comic book (also called The House of Gold & Bones) and Pink Floyd. The whole video's worth a watch but some highlights:
On the origin of The House of Gold & Bones: "I got it from a book called Team of Rivals, which is a book about the Lincoln administration. It was from a letter describing Lincoln's balance between melancholy and positivity . They described him as being made of gold and bones, and I was like, 'That's brilliant.' I love the visual of that."
On Gold & Bones's theme: "At its heart, it's a morality play. It's about choices. It's about decisions. It's about the journey to find out who you are in this life and who you want to be. That’s something we all go through."
For more about The House of Gold and Bones, including Pink Floyd's influence on the album, check out the full interview:

 

Originally posted at: http://www.fuse.tv/videos/2012/10/slipknot-corey-taylor-lincoln-biography

Corey Taylor On Fuse!

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Stone Sour's Corey Taylor Featured in Metal Hammer!

Corey Taylor Interviewed on The Beat!

Originally posted at: http://blog.kptmkxvo.com/?p=832

Corey Taylor Talks New Stone Sour Music, Knotfest, Slipknot’s Future + More

 

by Full Metal Jackie

Slipknot / Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all the hard work Stone Sour put into their double concept album ‘House of Gold & Bones – Part 1’ and ‘Part 2,’ as well as this year’s first installment of Knotfest and how long Slipknot fans will need to wait for new music. If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Corey Taylor:

Let’s talk about Stone Sour, a double concept album described musically as Pink Floyd meets Alice in Chains and with a corresponding comic book it sounds like a major creative undertaking. What got the ball rolling?

This was something I was actually thinking about when we were making ‘Audio Secrecy’ and honestly it came from all the little bits and pieces that were kind of left over after we were done with the initial recording for ‘Audio Secrecy.’ I had a story wrapped in my head for a while and I just started really trying to envision what it would be like especially in this day and age when everyone is so single minded — absolute pun intended there.
I was like, “You know what, screw the industry. If I wanted to make something above and beyond a piece of art but also great music and something that could really fire on every artistic cylinder, what would it be?” I really started flushing the story out early on, then obviously certain things happen that really drew me away from anything artistic – Paul [Gray] died and then about a year later Roy [Mayorga] had a stroke so everything really went topsy turvy for me for a bit.
Right around the middle of the Sonisphere shows we were doing with Slipknot, I was really thinkin’ about Stone Sour for some reason and that’s when I really started to put a lot of pieces together. I flushed the story out on the road and a lot of the songs that I wrote for the albums I wrote on the road. So by the time I got back it was chomping at the bit to do some demos and what not and that’s where it started from.

Looking back what part of doing a concept album were you least prepared for?

I got to be honest, I was pretty set to do whatever it took. The thing I really had to remember was that the lyrics were a narrative – that’s really where I had to focus and make sure I was telling the story the way it should be told. Basically the songs are the internal dialogue for the characters that are in the story itself so when you listen to the music and read the story you almost get this 3D kind of experience – you’re reading the story but you’re also getting what they’re thinking.
For me the real challenge was to maintain the integrity of that and make sure each character has their own little bit to say and have their own little hero moment and that everything that we tried to do musically and creatively was a nice reflection – that everything enhanced the story. It was so much fun, I mean it was a lot of work but it was so much fun as well. Working with Dave [Bottrill] he was really able to pull all of this great material out of us – basically doing two albums in the space it takes to make one. So I mean it wasn’t a lot of work, it was just a lot of fun at the end of the day.

Now that you’ve got the experience of recording a concept album, does that open the door for Slipknot to maybe try one, too?

Maybe. [Laughs] I don’t know. This was a lot of work, If it was a single concept album, maybe. It was almost trying to play basketball on a trench – you know what you want to do and you know what you want to try and do but you’re already four feet in the ground. It was like running against the breakers basically. The end result is so satisfying – so maybe, I hate to say “Never” anytime because the more you announce your plans out loud the more you make God laugh. So to me it’s more about waiting and seeing what happens. I can’t say that doing it with five guys was a kick in the ass I don’t know what the hell would happen with nine.

I got to talk to you about Knotfest, which recently happened. You’re in Iowa, home to Slipknot, playing there for the first time without Paul, it was also Randy’s [Blythe] first gig after being released from prison. How wild was your range of emotion at that first Knotfest show?

It was pretty crazy. I drove up there on my own and the whole way there – first of all you’re going through the practical emotions of “God, is anybody gonna be there?” it’s your own gig but it’s bigger than your own gig. You’re trying to start something, you’re trying to set the stage for something that can live for a few years after you’re done. The only thing I’m worried about is “Is there going to be anyone there?” So when I was driving in and I saw all the people I was immediately like “Oh thank God.” [Laughs]
Randy was the first person I went to try and find when I got to the gig and knowing that this was his first taste of it back. He was so stoked, I ran up and gave him a huge hug and we talked a little bit and he was just like, “Dude, I cannot wait to get on that stage and just let so much go.” They put on one hell of a show, I was so proud of him and the band to be able to rise above everything thrown at them in the last couple of months.
I kind of had to turn my mind back to the business at hand and basically realize that this is the beginning of something that we’re trying to build. We want Knotfest to become its own household name when it comes to festivals kind of like the way Ozzfest is. There was a lot of anxiety on my part but then you go out onstage and that audience just rolls that positivity back at you and you just eat it up. We went above and beyond for the kids and I think Paul would’ve been proud.

Speaking about this being you’re very first festival that you guys put together, did you take your experiences from all the festivals you’ve been on over the years? You’ve been on all of them.

Oh yeah, definitely. That was one of the things that got us thinking about wanting to do our own festival in the first place. We’ve been extremely lucky to have been a part of a lot of really good festivals – everything from Ozzfest here in the States to Soundwave in Australia, all the wonderful festivals that are over in Europe. We would walk around and go “This is really cool, but if we were gonna do one…” and then that was seriously an eleven year conversation. Everytime we’d be on one of those things we’d be like “You know what this is awesome and really cool but if we get to do…”
So it was really something we’d been talking about for a long, long time and about a year ago we found ourselves surrounded by the best people in the business to help us really achieve this. One thing led to another and then all of a sudden all of the things we talked about are sketched on a piece of paper or written down on a napkin and all of these crazy ideas just came rushing to the surface.
I can only take a little bit of credit for that, 99 percent of credit for everything that happened in Knotfest creatively that was all Shawn Crahan, that was all the Clown. Day and night he put so much work in and I was proud of him when we got there and saw it all physically. I was just so stoked that we were able to pull it off, I gave him a huge hug and was like “Well here it is, if we’re gonna make a mess this is the way we’re gonna do it.” It was great everything from the Slipknot museum to the crazy Pagan fire everywhere it was just insane but it was a blast. I was really proud to be a part of it.

What can you tell us in terms of a timeline and what we can expect between the two bands for you?

Stone Sour is going to dominate the next year and a half to two years for me, obviously. We’re going to have two albums coming out, right now flushing out an outline for the comic books that we’re gonna put out. I can’t tell you the company because we’re waiting for a big reveal on that but it’s going to be really, really cool – getting all the artwork together, trying to hit as many territories as possible, two or three times just to be able to get a real album cycle out of this and hopefully have this lead to something even bigger and better for that.
Probably in the next year or so we’ll start talking musically with Slipknot and seeing where it’s at. I know there are some demos here and there that are floatin’ around but nothing solid. I’ve been jotting down some ideas and whatnot but the next two years are solid, solid, solid Stone Sour. Will there be the random Slipknot show here and there? Probably but no major tours – the more stuff we do with Slipknot the closer we get to that next step in being able to walk into a studio and feel okay about it. It’s going to be very daunting but when the time is right, we’re gonna do it.
Other than that I’m workin’ on my next book and working on this damn film company with Shawn and just – Oh my God, you’d think I’d leave enough time in the day for me to sleep at some point.

Do you feel uncomfortable to have nothing going on, is that why you fill your time with 20 different projects?

I must be one of those dudes that just – but it’s my own damn fault. I have ideas everyday and if I’m not carrying a pad of paper, I’m typing it into the notes thing on my iPhone and it’s just ridiculous – idle hands or the devil’s plaything and I can’t be the devil’s plaything. I got to be the devil, I got to be the guy making it all happen.
Full Metal Jackie will welcome the very legendary Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead on her next show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.

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 Corey Taylor Talks New Stone Sour Music, Knotfest, Slipknot’s Future + More