Paul Gray

Interview:

Hailing from Des Moines, Iowa, where the leading form of entertainment takes place inside the local strip clubs, come nine guys who would like to change the fact that not one singular rock ’n’ roll act from their home town has achieved worldwide fame. Perhaps I should say – ever since their self-titled Roadrunner record-label debut was released last summer – they are in the process of changing that fact. While Slipknot was in Sweden on its current world tour, I spoke with bassist Paul Gray about the band’s recent success.

    NYROCK:
Tell me about the clown masks and outfits. How did the band's stage persona come about?

          PAUL:
It came about as our "anti-image" message. You know, we're not really worried about what cool hairstyle we have or what cool clothes we're wearing. We're about our music first. With the coveralls and the masks it takes the emphasis off of a "cool-guy," "rock-star" image.

    NYROCK:
Do you think that message is getting across or do think it has taken a whole different turn?

          PAUL:
A little bit of both. Our anti-image has turned into our image.
You can only stare at a clown mask so long. After a few minutes it's no big deal anymore. So people start paying attention to the music instead of what the clown is doing, or what he is wearing, or how cool his spikey hair is.

    NYROCK:
What's it like to perform in the outfits?

          PAUL:
Really hot. It's taken years off of our lives.

    NYROCK:
Do you consider changing the image?

          PAUL:
Not any time soon. But we don't want to block ourselves in a corner either. If we feel like changing it, we will.

    NYROCK:
It must help to identify you from the myriad of other bands out there.

          PAUL:
Yes, we definitely stand out. Nine members too.

    NYROCK:
Yeah, that's another question I had. How did that evolve? Did the band start out as nine members?

          PAUL:

We built the band that we wanted to hear. We added members until it sounded right. In the beginning, we had the idea around the three percussionists. We got the two guitar players, bass player, singer. We used sampling, so we got a sampler, and a DJ. We built the band that we wanted to hear and see live. It was all for us. If it was a band that required twenty members, and we thought we needed it... or two members.... We never had any set plan. We just kept doing it until it sounded right.

    NYROCK:
Do you all have musical backgrounds?

          PAUL:
Yeah. We've all been in different bands for years. We've all been friends forever. That's one thing that makes this band so fun to be in. Everybody in the band is our best friend. Our sampler has played guitar. I've played guitar in a band.

    NYROCK:
What's it like being from Des Moines, Iowa and having this opportunity to see the world?

          PAUL:
Well, I'm not really from Des Moines. I'm the only one who is not. I'm from Los Angeles, but I moved to Des Moines nine years ago. I had never really gone anywhere besides LA and Des Moines, so it's amazing. It's the best thing in the world. To get to come to a different country and play your music and actually have people there wanting to see you and hear your music. It's just mind blowing to me. I'm totally thankful to every kid that comes out to see us.

    NYROCK:
Do you think it makes a difference being from Des Moines, than, say, being a band from New York?

          PAUL:
We probably had to struggle a little bit more. We have no clubs where you can really play. Not much of a music scene. No other bands that are bigger in Des Moines that we can look up to or get help from. In that aspect it was really hard. No record companies wanted to come out to Des Moines to see a band.

    NYROCK:
Tell me about the process of getting signed?

          PAUL:
We started sending our stuff out to everybody. We got one somehow to Ross Robinson. He came out and saw us. He was gonna do the album no matter what label we were on. We started getting labels to come out. Once one comes out, they all come out. They have to make sure they're not falling behind.
We had a lot of different offers. Major labels offered us deals. But we went with Roadrunner because it's more of a family kind of thing. It's a matter of having a label with less bands on their roster so they can actually pay more attention to their bands.

    NYROCK:
What number are you? [Rather than relying on the conventionality of names, the band members assigned numbers to each other to represent their identity. 0 - DJ Sid Wilson, 1 - drummer Joey Jordison, 2 - bassist Paul Gray, 3 - percussionist Chris Fehn, 4 - guitarist James Root, 5 - sampler Craig Jones, 6 - percussionist Shawn Crahan, 7 - guitarist Mic Thompson, 8 - vocalist Corey Taylor]

          PAUL:
Number two.

    NYROCK:
What's it like being number two? How do you identify with it?

          PAUL:
Joey is our drummer and he is number one. Bass and drums are the backbone of the music; so that's how I got number two, I guess. For me, it's good. I like being number two. I can't complain, you know. I'm in Sweden.

    NYROCK:
The inner sleeve of your CD jacket reads, "Fuck it all. Fuck this world. Fuck everything that you stand for. Don't belong. Don't exist. Don't give a shit. Don't ever judge me." Can you elaborate?

          PAUL:
That's the lyrics to our song "Surfacing." That's the chorus to the song. Basically, we dedicate it to the kids as their new national anthem. It's our way of saying don't worry about everybody else. Just worry about yourself. Don't worry about the people judging and the people coming down on you and all the fake crap. Stick to what you believe in.
You'd have to get Corey to get his full meaning since he writes all the lyrics.... A lot of the stuff we like to leave it for people to decide anyway.

    NYROCK:
What kind of music do you listen to?

          PAUL:
I listen to everything from Neurosis to Steely Dan. It depends on what kind of mood I'm in. The last CD I got was David Bowie.

    NYROCK:
Who are your influences?

          PAUL:
Black Sabbath, Kiss, Black Flag, the punk rock stuff, the Dead Kennedys…. But all of music has shaped the way I think about it.

    NYROCK:
Your music is often referred to as new metal. How would you say that differs from metal?

          PAUL:
The only thing I could see about it being new metal is because we're a new band. But our stuff is actually what they consider old-school metal. I think new metal is like the Limp Bizkit sound. Personally, we have more of a death-metal thing going than a Limp Bizkit thing. They always have to put some kind of categorization on it that a lot of people don't get. So, whatever. They can call it new jazz for all I care.

    NYROCK:
What's coming up in the year 2000?

          PAUL:
Tour, tour, tour. We're going to play our asses off.

    NYROCK:
Anything else you'd like to add?

          PAUL:
I would personally like to thank every single kid who has supported this band. Without them there would be no band. We wouldn't be able to do any of this. They've made our dreams come true and we won't let them down. We work 200 percent every time we play. We pride ourselves on working hard to make it worth it for the fans. So nothing but love and respect to everybody who comes to the shows, buys the CDs, and gives the band a chance.