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Talking Issues with Kurt Loder:
MTV Article
Kurt Loder: All right, why the Apollo? There were some great acts that recorded here over the years, like James Brown and stuff. Is that what drew you here?
David Silveria: James Brown drew us here.
Fieldy: Actually, it was our manager Jeff Kwatinetz' idea.
Jonathan Davis: We originally wanted to do it at Radio City, but it wasn't available.
David: Or Carnegie [Hall], but they wouldn't have us.
Jonathan: So we were trying to think of another venue, and the Apollo came up. [There's] a lot of history [here]. This is a historic place, so to play here is, like, an honor.
Fieldy: I wanna rub that little tree.
Jonathan: Yeah, we wanna rub the stump.
Loder: I think we're having somebody bring it up. Now, the album title is "Issues." What are the issues you're trying to ventilate here?
Jonathan: "Issues" is the story of what I went through when "Follow The Leader" broke really big, and all of a sudden the pressure was on us. It affected the whole band, and it's basically a story of what I went through, dealing with everything. There's a whole lot of issues in there, and this guy came up with the name, and I was like, "That's perfect for it," because we all have a lot of issues. Yeah, it's a story.
Loder: You guys have tracks on there like "Beg For Me," which are so deep and so bass-y, I mean, do you ever reach a point where we hit the bottom here? Or do you think there are new horizons--
David: Still looking for the heaviest. Maybe we'll find it on the next record. It just gets better, hopefully.
Loder: Are subsonics the next direction to go?
Fieldy: I don't think we really try to get that. It's just our sound, and the way we're tuned, and [David's] 808's. Whatever, it's just our sound.
Jonathan: I don't think we can get any deeper.... I think we're as low as we can possibly go.
David: We'll try, though, if you want us to.
Fieldy: We'll try to go lower.
Loder: [To Jonathan] On "Dirty" at the end [of the new album], there's a part where you're almost singing in a straightforward way. When you started singing in bands, did you start out that way, as a singer's singer?
Jonathan: No. I never started out as a singer, period. I just opened my mouth one day, and someone said I have a voice. I just started singing, screwing around, and that's how it got started, from me just messing around.
Fieldy: When we had first met this guy, we were, like, we were just looking for a singer, and he called me, and he's like, just started singing, and he's like, "Yeah, I like the kind of music you guys play, because you don't even have to sing in key."
Loder: [Laughs] A promising attraction.
Fieldy: I was like, this guy is not gonna work out. Then we tried him out, and he was in key.
Jonathan: I didn't know what I was talking about.
Loder: What's the last year been for you guys? Have your lives changed entirely? Bigger houses and bigger cars or...
David: Yes, yes, and yes. And busier, and more stuff to do, and it just gets better and better, I guess.
Fieldy: None of us would have bigger cars if it wasn't for all of them damn rap videos.
Loder: Your new video seems to concentrate a little on child abuse. Is that...
Jonathan: Ongoing thing that deals with the band. Fred [Durst] came up with it, 'cause he directed the video and came up with the concept. It was shot really well, and just stuff that kids go through, just showing it, and the whole thing of the video is to just see their salvation, basically. Our music is a release or salvation for kids to go to when they're feeling down. [The video] kind of portrays that.
David: But doesn't support it, once again.
Loder: Do you think this generation of young people has a worse problem with this thing than generations past?
Jonathan: Yeah. I think generations now are just more screwed up. Now the generation we came from, our generation and the next generation, come from the '70s and '80s, when basically hippies and cokeheads where raising their kids, so we're kinda screwed up, unlike the generation before that. It was more like, I don't know what you call it... straighter edge.
Loder: So the [baby] boomers have screwed up the world?
Jonathan: Yeah. The boomers have screwed up the world. Basically we're products of all that. It's not their fault they [had] no manual to raise kids or anything. It's just not their time.
Fieldy: This generation is violent.
Jonathan: Yeah, we're all about violence...
Fieldy: ... and killing people. And trying to get paid.
Loder: Do you have a new show worked out for next time you go on tour?
David: We're working on it, building it.
Loder: Is it going to be really elaborate?
Jonathan: We're going to try. Big and elaborate.
Loder: Big and expensive, right?
Jonathan: Exactly.
Loder: Who are you thinking of going out with? You're going out in February?
David: We're still working on it, actually.
Fieldy: We're looking.
David: It's hard... there's not that many bands that would [be] compatible with us, that we'll match up with. But we're still trying to find somebody that would work.
Fieldy: And timing. A certain band will already be on tour, but whatever. We have something lined up for the summer that's going to be the probably biggest tour of all time.
Loder: Would you like to tell us about it and blow it?
David: Nope. Can't tell ya.
Fieldy: Every single kid in the world is going to want to go. It's going to be off the meter.
Loder: Do you look around now and see a lot of bands coming up that sound an awful lot like you guys? Do you notice the influence you had?
Jonathan: I see the influences. Some are just blatant rip-offs, but some are influences. That's cool. I have no problem with influences, but blatant rip-offs suck.
Loder: Some people find it odd that at a time when Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys top the charts, here comes you guys, and you guys are doing it too. Do you think it's a schizophrenic thing in the audience out there? Or is it just a big market?
David: It's two different worlds, different markets. I'm sure there's some kids that like both bands, but a lot of them are probably split.
Jonathan: Most of those markets selling the Backstreet Boys and all that, those are little teeny kids buying those albums. New record buyers, so...
Loder: They'll be coming to you in a year or two.
Jonathan: Yeah.
David: We're working them our way.
Loder: Were you surprised when you took over the world like this? Did you think this would ever have happened five years ago?
David: I don't think we took over the world, but I think we made a big mark in music.
Jonathan: Yeah. We're surprised.
David: A lot of hard work paying off.
Jonathan: It's saving music right now.
Fieldy: [Miming devil horns] Rock and roll music.
Jonathan: Rock and roll music, brothers.
Loder: We never asked you on-air about the bagpipe thing. Does that key into your past somehow?
Jonathan: Yeah. I went to a high school that had a pipe band, and I used to compete and play.
Loder: Do you have your hands on a sporran [a leather pouch on a belt worn over a kilt] or something?
Jonathan: My sporran, that's my purse. Yeah, and I did that in high school. [David] told me to pick [the bagpipes] up and play them in the band... and it just worked.
Loder: When you look back at this year in music, would you say [it was] a pretty good year overall?
Jonathan: Horrible. I hate it. I hate this year. I mean, it's good that rock made a comeback, with [Limp] Bizkit and Kid Rock and other heavy bands coming up, but the whole pop-teeny-bop-boy-band thing, it just, I can't see past it. I hate it. Other people may respect it... it's still an art form, but it's just, uuungh.
Loder: Do you think it's going to pass on, because it's pop and it's a trend?
Jonathan: I think we know how it's going to end out. It's probably a trend, I don't know.
Loder: New Kids, Backstreet Boys...
David: Hard to say. Some of them are hanging in there pretty good.
Questions? Comments? E-mail me please.
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