Shazam Meets… Corey Taylor
Corey Taylor is the charming and tattooed all American front man of hard rock band Stone Sour. The band have their third studio album ‘Audio Secrecy’ scheduled for release later this year on September the 6th. Shazam caught up with lead singer Corey Taylor at London’s Hard Rock Cafe to chat about the new album, playing live and presenting the Kerrang Awards.
Your new album is called ‘Audio Secrecy’ are you really excited about its upcoming release?
I am really excited, I’m really proud of it so I’m excited for people to hear it. The people I’ve played it to so far have been blown away so I feed off of that – there is a part of you that records for yourself and also there is the entertainer in you that wants people to enjoy what you do.
I always start making records for me and if I’m happy with it then that’s all that matters; but eventually you get to the stage where you are like “does anyone want to be my friend and like my music?”
This is your 3rd studio album. How does this one differ or in what ways is it an extension of your previous work?
Well, I think the really cool thing is it’s a little bit of everything. The first Stone Sour album we made it for us, we didn’t know if anyone would dig it so we just put it out there. We discovered then that we had a really good fan base and so we pushed it further on ‘Come What(ever) May’ and we expanded on the first album – then it kinda blew up and we were like ‘holy s**t!’. So this time round we said screw it, lets just do everything we ever wanted to do; so we put together the best songs we could and really worked on them, hammered them down.
So listening back to the new album I think we have achieved a cohesive and layered sound and yet it has a good live feel to it. The performances are great, the music is great….the singer is s**t but hey, he is good looking so you gonna have to let him off!
Having said that, this feels like our time and it’s really exciting. We have been working a long time on this. Stone Sour is the first real band I was ever in. It was the band I left to join Slipknot and it just made sense to reform when it was time to do something else and we have never been afraid of hard work.
You have been around a while. Three albums is a good track record a lot of bands don’t even make that many. Are you surprised by your success?
I think a lot of people at first, realistically and cynically, may have just assumed that people would like us just because me and Jim were in Slipknot – and that’s fine, we have to kinda embrace that. But after a certain point you want people to come in and discover you because of the music – not just because of the “other” band.
Overcoming the stigma of being in a different band previously is hard but I think now people know we are for real and it’s taken a long time to drive that home; but we are a separate entity. We are not a side project, we are the real deal. People talk about us now without even mentioning the other band.
The album title ‘Audio Secrecy’ could mean many things but what came first, the title or the songs?
It was the latter. I didn’t come up with the album title till we were in the studio and we were laying the tracks down, so we had it all written except the intro, which I had an idea for; but we didn’t have a title. I had a whole list of ideas but none of it really fit with what we wanted to say. I’m a big fan of playing on words, acronyms and things and I was trying to find a play for ‘idiosyncrasy’. I came up with Audio Secrecy and I liked it. So you can get all intellectual and philosophical but I just thought it sounded cool. So the music was there before the title – but once we had the title it all started to come together.
The title suggests the undertones, the inferred tones, the things you hear that you don’t even know you hear. It’s the rust in between the metal or the dirt in between the cracks. So to me Audio Secrecy is the secret that makes a song sound amazing or classic even, that is where my mind has gone with it but its open to interpretation.
People have responded to the title well….and this might be the most someone has talked about an album title ever!
How much do you want to talk to the fans through your album? Is communicating an important part of what you do?
I want them to relate to it. I don’t think you can get up and write songs about calculus if you want people to embrace what you’re saying, but at the same time I’m not going to take them by the hand and walk them to the meaning. One of my least favourite things is talking about what songs are about. I hate it. I feel like I’m giving away the secret to a magic trick – the prestige if you will, because whether I say it means something or I say it doesn’t mean something people are going to take it and run with it anyway; so I would rather put it out there and leave it open to interpretation. At the same time if I know what I’m talking about then I’m ok with it.
The older I get, the more I have got away from the real ‘angsty’ stuff; I can only write where I’m at in my life and right now I’m a father, I have a son and the biggest part of my day is making him breakfast and hoping he eats it – because he doesn’t eat it always and it bums me out – He will only eat it if it’s made of sugar and if he dies they know where I live so I’m like “please eat!!” So my reality is less romantic than people probably imagine!
Sonisphere festival 2010 in the UK: you are playing a solo set. Are you looking forward to it?
Doing acoustic gigs is one of my favourite things ever. It really is! There is something about it that means I get so much out of it; it’s so stripped down; it’s just you and a guitar! And you are either good or you blow it. So there is a nervous excitement.
I just did my first real acoustic set in Vegas a few weeks ago and it was rammed. I played for two hours. I had to play everything I could think of! It was three times past capacity and people still couldn’t get in. But I think it was the best I have ever played or sounded!
Nervous energy? Interesting! So are you nervous about presenting the Kerrang awards?
God no. It’s a piece of piss. I quit drinking again so ill be laughing at everyone else drunk. The thing about these kinda gigs is you are basically reading a scroll and you hope you are entertaining – but it’s not about you.
I get to wear a special suit too….I have a big plan for this year! It’s on a par with last year (laughs) When are you people gonna figure out I don’t give a f**k!
So the gig in Vegas was that part and parcel of the display case they recently made in your honour at the Hard Rock Cafe there?
They booked me to do the show and then spoke to me about the case so we tied the two together. I gotta be honest, it’s the coolest thing – it’s awesome. And all credit to my wife here. She went above and beyond to make it look perfect; she took charge of it and made sure that it represented me well. So thanks to her and the hard rock it looks fantastic. Seeing a chunk of my history is weird – cool but weird. And I’m proud, I guess.
It has an outfit from each album and a mask. And there is a plaque highlighting each albums success including when ‘Vol 3’ came out and Avril Lavigne kept us off the top spot. I think there is something shady going on there….she is doing commercials now! Also the puppet from the ‘Wait and Bleed‘ video is in the case too. I saved it and stuck it in the case.
I was like, get this stinky shit out of my house! There is salmonella in that mask . I have children! (laughs)
So one last word, you are on tour in the UK later in the year with Avenged Sevenfold. Tell us about it?
We are really excited; we are great friends too. I know Matt and Zacky; I have watched those guys come up and have amazing things happen. It will be great doing a co-headliner because we didn’t want two of the same band; so I think with us and them we have a good mix. Its two different tastes and the reaction’s been awesome. I think we are adding dates, it’s sold out so quick! And I’m all about that. I’d tour England for a month and a half if I could, I’d hit every town!
Pre-order the New Album ‘Audio Secrecy’ now on Itunes.
