Jonathan Davis: Queen of the Damned: Shoutweb article by: Daniel Williams (shoutweb.com) It's a very different role for Korn's Jonathan Davis. In between albums he's taken some time to work outside of the band, and while looking for a solo project he was approached to score for the movie Queen of the Damned. His writing for the soundtrack takes a different approach from what Korn fans are used to, and includes the talents of a 92 piece orchestra. While in Los Angeles the week of the premiere I talked with Jonathan about his role in the project, the difficulty of giving up the soundtrack to other artists, and what's opened up for him for the future. Shoutweb: Hey Jon, how are you doing? Jonathan: I'm good man, how are you? Shoutweb: I'm good. Thanks for calling. Jonathan: No problem man. Thanks for doing this. Shoutweb: Let's get under way. Can you tell me how you got involved with this project? Jonathan: First of all, I started writing music on the bus when I was on tour because I was bored and had nothing else to do. There were a whole bunch of instrumental pieces and I was just trying to figure out what to do with them. My manager said I should start trying to score movies. I was down for that and he thought it would be good if I hooked up with someone who could compose the background and had done movies. Someone that could show me the ropes basically. That's when I hooked up with Richard Gibbs. Me and him hit it off great, and we started working on stuff together. He was doing TV shows and TV movies and other stuff. I'd go over to his house and hang out and watch him. We just played off each other. We really liked working with each other. This was going on for a couple of weeks when we got approached to do ! this Queen of the Damned thing. Shoutweb: Were you friends with Richard Gibbs previously? Jonathan: Yeah, we just started working together. I met him when we had a meeting at my manager's office. We'd known each other for about two or three weeks when we got this call about doing the original music for Lestat and doing the score for the movie. So that was really exciting, because I thought it would be a great opportunity to be able to write original songs for somebody else, other than Korn. Someone to bring an orchestral element to my music, and then actually me throwing my musical influences into orchestral music, scoring with Richard. Shoutweb: How was the experience of writing for the film, versus writing for Korn, or what you're used to? Jonathan: It was a totally different world. When writing rock songs, they basically lay out really easily. You have to write a verse. You have to write a chorus, a bridge, or a B section, or something like that, and then you repeat that. But when you do an orchestral score, you're painting a picture of the music. You're trying to bring out what's going on. There is no verse-chorus thing. It's just all one continuous piece of music and it was difficult. It was fun. It was challenging learning to do that with orchestral instruments. It was totally apart from what I was used to. Ultimately, it made me a better musician. Shoutweb: Can you tell me about the inspirations for writing the songs? Jonathan: First I got in my head. I listened to the vampire Lestat in Queen of the Damned. I read both those books and tried to get a feel for what was going on with Lestat. Those books are totally different from what the movie was about. So, I just wanted to get a feeling for what was going on. The general theme of the books is how Lestat was very lonely. What would it be like to be a vampire, you know? You've been alive for say five or six hundred years. You'd have nobody to love you because they'd all died. To live, you'd have to kill someone every night. You couldn't go out in the sun. It just seems like a really lonely, miserable existence. So, I just put myself in that headspace and went with it. Shoutweb: It sounds morbid. Jonathan: Yeah, it was really morbid. Shoutweb: Word has it that Munky and Head provided guitars. Jonathan: Yeah, I wrote the songs. We had the songs done. We had players come in and play what we wrote. So, I had Munky and Head on a couple of songs and Sam Rivers from Limp Bizkit, the bass player, play bass on a couple of the songs. Vinnie Colaiuta and Terry Bozzio played drums. They're my favorite drummers. Shoutweb: Did you ask them to be involved or did they come to you? Jonathan: Yeah, I asked them. Richard had the idea of bringing Terry and Vinnie in, and I'm like "hell, yeah, I'm down!" So, I brought Munky and Head to play guitar, because they're my favorite guitar players, and I love the way Sam plays bass. It was basically pick anything. There was no limit. Shoutweb: Was it a dream team band? Jonathan: Totally. It was just about sure musicianship. It was just, "What do you want to do?" (laughs) It was cool. I never got to put Munky and Head in a studio musician role and they look at me like, "What do you want me to do?" It was really cool. It's a different way to record. Shoutweb: Is it a coincidence that the song "Redeemer" sounds like it was written for Marilyn Manson? Jonathan: Yeah, it was a coincidence. When we did it it was like an 80's gothic kinda of thing and it's just what fit. When we were going through picking the artists for the songs, I'm all, "Well, that's a Manson song, totally." Shoutweb: How was it working with him after all the feuding that's gone on in the press over the last few years? Jonathan: It was great. I'm glad that we finally made up and are friends again. We were friends for a long time there, and some of the bullshit went to his head. It was just a weird thing. It was cool that he wanted to do this for me. We made up and now we're friends again. Shoutweb: Would you like to have to sung for the soundtrack? Jonathan: Would I liked to have sung the soundtrack? Well, hell yes! That was my baby, man. I was so upset when I couldn't be on it. But the ultimate goal was that I wanted to be a composer and songwriter and that's what I did ultimately by having them on there. Shoutweb: Was this project in place of your solo album? Jonathan: Basically, yeah. I needed an outlet to go and create and do stuff on my own. I love writing with Korn and that's great what we do in Korn. But there's some things in Korn that I can't do that I want to do. So, this was a perfect outlet for that. You know, maybe in the next seven years I'll do something solo but not right now. I love Korn, and I love what we do. We've worked really hard in what we've done. I'm writing an orchestral score so maybe some time in the future. Shoutweb: What appealed to you about this project when you were looking for something to get involved with? Jonathan: What appealed to me was that I get to write my own songs. It would basically be my own solo, with Richard. The fact that I could write for a 92 piece orchestra. (laughs) I mean, it was a rush. They're recording the orchestra. It was the greatest thing I've ever seen. That many musicians playing what we wrote, in Richard's little studio. Shoutweb: I heard Richard taught you to conduct an orchestra? Jonathan: Yeah, but I chickened out. I was a pussy. I didn't do it. (laughs) I wasn't confident enough yet in my reading skills. I didn't want to go up there and look like a hack. So I have to brush up on reading music. I can read music, but it takes me a bit. I'm not like right on, boom!, like they are. It's just professional courtesy to the musicians. (laughs) They don't want to stand there while I'm going, "Ooooh". A couple of scores down the road, I'll probably conduct. It'll be cool. He gave me some lessons. Shoutweb: What else can you see this project opening up for you in the future? Jonathan: Well, the whole reason I got into it was so I could score movies. Shoutweb: Is it something you want to continue doing? Jonathan: Yeah, I want to continue doing it. It was the whole thing. I loved scoring movies, producing bands, and all that, which I'm doing. This whole project opened a whole can of beans for me. (laughs) I totally got the producing bug, you know, signing bands for my label. I love to movie score. I love to write songs for them or whatever. Shoutweb: The movie comes out today. Have you seen it yet? Jonathan: No, I'm gonna go see it today. I mean, I've seen it like 800 times, but not everything in it. Shoutweb: Have you made any special appearances? Jonathan: There wasn't really that many. There was no premiere, out of respect for Aaliyah. No, there was no big special appearance for it. Shoutweb: Can you tell me about your short appearance in the film? Jonathan: (laughs) It was fun. They asked me, and I'm like, "Ahh fuck, what the hell, fuck it." (laughs) I tried it, and it was fun. It was cool. It was just the right amount of time. I mean, I don't want to be a super actor, but it was just thrown in there. People who know me are like, "oh hey, was that.. woah!" It was that quick. Shoutweb: So, might we see you in any movies in the future, or just on the soundtracks? Jonathan: I don't know, maybe. It just depends. Shoutweb: Is there anything you can tell me about the songs lyrically? Jonathan: It's hard, because all the songs are basically written from the standpoint of being a vampire, and giving up vampire spirits. Basically, Lestat was starting a vampire revolution for all the vampires to come out and walk among the mortals. So, I did the whole thread going through all the songs, saying, "Hey, I'm a real vampire" and calling out to all the other vampires around, like, "Hey look, this is how we can live. Fuck you if you don't like it" and that kinda shit. Shoutweb: Anything else you could add? Jonathan: Go check out the movie, and listen to the music. (laughs) Shoutweb: I think the songs are great. I'm looking forward to what else is coming soon. Jonathan: Thank you. I can't wait to do some more projects. People were very apprehensive that I could do this with Richard. And now I've done it, I think it will be easier for us to get more gigs. Exciting! Shoutweb: I look forward to seeing it. Jonathan: Great, man. I'll talk to you later, Daniel. Shoutweb: Thanks again for calling, Jon. Jonathan: You're welcome! Questions? Comments? E-mail me please. [email protected]