KORN LIVE

by Mike Kratochvil

Korn know their audience, they know what the 'kids' want and have thus become one of the must successful hard music acts in recent times. Ironic, as Korn consider themselves as just kids. Their patented street-core groove is now influencing hordes of bands around and fast becoming the next big thing.

Mike Kratochvil: How do you feel about being successful in a place like Australia?

Fieldy: We didn't even know how it happened. When our record company said "You have a gold record in Australia", we're like, how? We don't even know, then they tell us about how it is doin' on the charts and we're like, well that's cool - I guess we gotta go there now. I guess it's going to be a different kind of tour there because I heard we are going to be flying city to city because they are so far apart. Normally we are on a bus. It's kind of hard to do a tour like that, we did it in Europe before once. You're up at weird hours and you're always in the airport - it's kind of hard. Maybe they are going to try and make it more convenient for us but sometimes it's not possible. We're just hurtin' the whole time but luckily it's only ten days or something.

M.K.: Korn have got such a distinctive sound that when any bands are influenced by you guys, it really seems to show. How do you feel about bands having that "korny" with a k style?

Fieldy: I hope that the bands continue to come out - there are at least a good handful. People need more music and more Korn-sounding bands to come out. I guess the more powerful we can become and play bigger places and maybe take over this next kind of music to come out. We have had the rock, the metal and the alternative - I think we are ready for the next step.

M.K.: What would you call the next step?

Fieldy: I'm sure they will make up something.

M.K.: What would you come up with to describe this kind of style?

Fieldy: I don't know, I guess the industry comes up with that. But if I had to name a name for it.... shit I don't know. I don't even know.

M.K.: Come on man, you're the bassist!

Fieldy: ....Heavier metal. I don't know.

M.K.: You guys aren't shy about showing your hip-hop influences - I think you and the drummer really bring that forth.

Fieldy: Pretty much I'm the one. I don't even listen to anything heavy - I only listen to hip-hop and that's it. I like MC and The Mad Circle, Ice Cube, West Side Connection. I just got the idea from the type of hip-hop that I listen to - that it's kind of heavy and it's kind of like scary sounding. We can use that but make it heavier without the rap in it - all real instruments. Without taking it overboard to where we sound like a rap band or something.

M.K.: I mean it can easily get cheesy, can't it?

Fieldy: Yeah, you can totally cheese it out. We got many demos where I've heard some crap and it's a joke. You have just gotta be able to do it right. Limp Biscuit did it.

M.K.: Do you guys use a sequencer for all the stuff you do live?

Fieldy: Everything is real man, we do everything. There are no effects, there is no nothing - you can get anything out of a guitar. The only thing we use is an 808 - the drummer uses an 808. It's a low boom and that's it.

M.K.: Have you guys ever toured with any hip-hop bands?

Fieldy: Yeah, our first tour that Korn ever did before our record was out was with House Of Pain and when Grave Diggaz came out, we did a little bit of dates with them. We brought The Far Side on tour with us. We did a show with Cypress Hill. It was good, we tried to do a tour with Ice Cube but he was doin' a movie. We are actually going on tour with Snoop Doggy Dog, you know, the Lollapalooza tour. It starts in June.

M.K.: What sort of people do you see in the audience?

Fieldy: A bunch of people wearing some Adidas clothes and Head's (guitarist Brian Welch) hairdo. I would pretty much say that's our audience.

M.K.: It's not just the metal kids that turn out to your shows....

Fieldy: It was kind of hard for us because when we started out we took a lot of metal tours - we did Megadeth, Ozzy, Danzig. So to start out with, a lot of our fans were like metal heads, dirt heads or whatever you wanna call them, and I guess finally we are starting to get a lot of our fans. So either a lot of those fans cut their hair and changed their clothes or we are winning a lot of new fans. You can tell that the audience is lookin' a little better because when we were starting out, doing these tours with Megadeth, Ozzy, Metallica - every metal act you can name - I remember calling my girlfriend a couple of times and saying like "You should see this crowd." I don't know man, it was like they were out of the eighties.

M.K.: So you think metal is something that is kind of eighties?

Fieldy: Well, this is the nineties and it is time to move on. We need to start a new generation, because if you are living in the eighties you have to make that next step. If you don't you will just die away, you have gotta keep it goin'. Somebody has to take a chance.

M.K.: To me, fashion has always seemed to be a part of the band's image - do you think you guys would have had the same success if you had been wearing K-Mart tracksuits in the promo photos?

Fieldy: I guess to me and the whole band, we always remember like being kids and when you go see a band, it is important to see an image. I mean you don't wanna go to a concert and see like.... Weezer. When you go there you want to hear the music but you want to look on stage and you want to see an image and a show. We just all think it's important to have some kind of an image going on. We have always pretty much dressed the way we dressed, so we just got in the band and dressed this way.

M.K.: You guys have been setting the trends and fashions.

Fieldy: Yeah, I think we have made Adidas a lot of money.

M.K.: Speaking of A.D.I.D.A.S., that song has a great video clip going for it. Tell us about how that came about.

Fieldy: The director.... it was his idea. He just did the Shaq video with the helicopter and he did the West Side Connection video for them. He has had pretty much all hip-hop crap. Then he came to us with his idea - he knew that Jon used to work for the morgue in the coroner's office and all that crap - so we liked his idea and we're like "Lets do it".

M.K.: You guys liked being turned into corpses?

Fieldy: It was fun. The only thing that I didn't like too much was being zipped up in that body bag, and I didn't like putting the contacts in my eyes. I guess the worst part of the video was towards the end of the video when we were laying on those tables - we had to lay on those tables for about five hours. It fuckin' sucked man! I don't really think I would ever have the patience to act.

M.K.: You guys also have your own home video going around?

Fieldy: We just wanted to put a kind of video out like that because when we play live, we don't say anything on the mike or anything. So we are like, when we put a video out we know that kids wanna know what we are like. We always picture ourselves as kids, you know, and when I was a kid I wanted to know all the inside scoops about a band. So I was like, put a video out and let these people know that we are like not miserable people walking around. We have a good time.

M.K.: You guys seem to explore some of your darker sides on the recordings and generally get pretty worked up. Do you guys find it hard to recreate those emotions in a live environment?

Fieldy: Yeah, that's why we drink so much. It helps us.... I guess that's part of the deal, it's part of the show. I mean it's not as emotional as it is like in the studio. Live it's more intense, it's like when you are on stage for an hour and ten minutes it's like being on a roller coaster for an hour and ten minutes. It's just intense the whole time, some times I'll be walkin' off stage and I'll be like throwin' up - I've thrown up a couple of times on stage too. It's just because it's so intense being up there. Sometimes I will be throwin' up before we play too.

M.K.: Are there any plans for a remix album in the future? I know you guys have done some remixes on the singles and a 7".

Fieldy: Yeah, I think it would be a great idea to remix the whole record, but it would have to be done so phat and so good. I mean, I've heard some remix records and they didn't impress me at all.

M.K.: Who would you like to remix your music?

Fieldy: Um, I guess if I had a choice, I'd wanna give the record to a couple of people and see what they did, but I think Dre is a good producer to do something like that. And I think the Dust Brothers - everything they have ever done is so good. Probably just between those two. I think kids would total dig it if we put out Life Is Peachy remixed. It's a good possibility. I think I might make it happen now that you mentioned it.