Interview: Papa Roach

Papa Roach Questions Answered By Tobin (Bass), David (Drums), Jerry (Guitar). 10/05/00 Interviewed by Brian Webb

Related Links: Official Website

PRP: Since we last talked the band have pretty much taken the world by storm selling double platinum and playing incredibly huge tours, how hard has it been to cope with all the new found fame and success?
Tobin: Basically we maintain our dorkiness and our geekiness and we laugh and we have good fun. We don't let it get to our heads where we're at, because it could be gone next year you know, so we might as well enjoy it while we can.

PRP:  How did you find the MTV awards?
Dave: Yeah it was kind of surreal because for years we'd watched it on TV and then to actually play it it was kind of weird but fun. It was a great experience for us all.
Tobin: We really didn't feel like we belonged their, but then again, everyone else who was there probably felt we did. That's what's weird about it.

PRP:  Does it feel odd that your debut has outsold bands that you guys had once looked up to perhaps or listened to growing up and considered your peers?
Tobin: There's a lot of good bands out there that aren't even signed or bands that got dropped. Shit just happens, I don't know what to say about that.
Dave: We just did a couple of shows with the Deftones and they've been really cool with us. When we were leaving the hotel in Atlanta to come to London Chino was like "hey man go represent for Sacto". Its good to feel the love.

PRP: Was it a shock to debut and subsequently chart so high on the Billboard charts, or were you guys kind of expecting it due to the large internet fanbase and heavy radio play?
Jerry: Yeah, we knew right away that it was going to go triple platinum.
(Laughter)
Jerry: For a new band its a good thing to sell 10,000 in your first week and we did 30,000 in the first week. We thought it was some kind of fluke but little did we know that it was a pre cursor to the rest of the year. Course we didn't expect it. Even before the record came out we were like, OK well we're not really a radio band so we're just going to go out there and tour and tour and put the work in. I mean we're still putting the work in, but we've had support from radio and MTV.
Dave: Like Jerry was saying, we never really considered ourselves a radio band, but its like the climate of radio swung in our direction at the right time. Just right before our album came out look who's starting to make waves on the radio, like Static-X, System Of A Down and even Slipknot being on the radio. We always thought that we were too hard to get on the radio but since those bands were able to get on the radio it kinda like made it easier for us, all of a sudden we weren't so hard anymore. I think we were fortunate in that way that the climate of radio swung our way just at the right time.

PRP: On the latest album, some fans feel as though you've streamlined your songs for radio play and have lost the rawness of the past, what would you say to that?
Dave: For anyone that thinks we've lost our rawness, all I gotta say is come see us live. It's still there. If you look at Nirvana "Nevermind", obviously they had a producer who toned down their sound and made it a little more clean and tight and that's kind of what happened in our record. But when you come see us live all the rawness is still there. In fact yesterday we just did a session for the BBC, we did like 4 songs live to tape. It was just crazy and intense to hear the playback and go that's how these songs sound live, that razor raw edge is still there. I guess the producer we worked with trimmed the fat, cleaned up the tones. You never know where we are gonna go on the next record. The way I'm thinking is that I'd like to go a little bit more raw on the next record.

PRP: The band have had a whirlwind of large tours recently, but have also stayed close to the smaller bands as well, how was it touring with Korn as opposed to say Taproot?
Dave: If you look at the first part of the Infest tour in April we took Taproot out with us and it was a great tour. Now that we are done with that we are ready to move onto the Anger Management tour with Limp Bizkit and Eminem and we're stoked with that and we're looking at it as an opportunity to play to mass audiences and get our music out to a lot of people.

PRP: So do you still get nervous before shows?
Dave: I do get nervous like every now and then, not so much as back in the day but there's still those butterflies where you feel that energy in the pit of your stomach before a show sometimes.

PRP: The track "Between Angels And Insects" has already been set as the next single, have their been any plans for the follow-up to it?
Tobin: I think we are gonna try and put out as many songs as we can on this record because I feel like there's a lot of good songs that would be good singles, and they're all different. I think the label are saying "Dead Cell".

PRP:  The band has discussed the possibility of releasing the older material in the past, with the immense fan base and other bands like Staind and Incubus putting out their indie stuff, is there any firm plans to release your older recordings?
Tobin: Oh yeah definitely, we plan on doing that as a matter of fact. We are working on it right now, it's like a chance to let people know that we have been around for a long time and let people see how we've developed and grown as a band. Yeah definitely we are gonna put out our old stuff.

PRP: Which band member is most likely to "Infest" the toilet with a stinky dump?
Tobin: Coby, definitely Coby, he talks about it constantly.

PRP:  What bands would you love to tour with?
Tobin: Snapcase would be great. We toured with Sevendust and they showed us a lot of respect.
Dave: I'd like to tour with Korn again.
Tobin: Deftones, Incubus.

PRP: Alien Ant Farm?
Tobin: Alien Ant Farm of course, that's definitely gonna happen next year.

PRP:  It was reported that the band would be working with Timbaland, has this compilation taken place yet and what exactly is the story behind the track?
Jerry: Timbaland called up Coby and was interested in having us work on a song with him but our schedule didn't permit. We'd like to do something in the future though, he's definitely a great producer.
Tobin: We think Timbaland is dope, he's definitely an influence on me. Hopefully, even though it didn't work out how it planned, maybe in the future we can work with him. But right now we are kinda just concentrating on doing our own thing, just Papa Roach. Not trying to like pop up here and there doing other things. Just P Roach you know.

PRP:  Do you guys keep in touch with the fans through the internet?
Tobin: It's harder to keep in touch with everyone because the masses are just growing. I mean we do what we can, Jerry lets the fans know what's going on every night by tour diary.
Jerry: Well I still keep in touch with old fans from back in the day, but things have gotten so out of hand right now, with record sales and everything. We had our e mails on the site for a while but it got a little too crazy so we took them off. That's why I started the tour diary so people could have a window into what we're doing out here.
Dave: Me personally, I still pop up in chat rooms around the internet. I check our bulletin board. Just know that we are still behind are fans 100% and we want them to be there for us and we still pay attention. Its not like we are out here living on our own little world, we still check up on what there doing as well as letting them know what we're doing.

PRP: Although you guys will be on the road for some time yet, have you been writing new material while on the road?
Dave: Yeah we plan to. I'm not sure how much we are gonna get done out here, because obviously we are busy with playing and press. Tobin's always got music flowing through him.
Tobin: I've been working on some stuff since we got on the road and a lot of ideas I have in my head.

PRP: Is there any timeframe set yet for when the band will begin recording the next album?
Dave: We'd like to get in the studio like as soon as possible after we are done with this record. A friend of mine told me the time to start thinking about your next record isn't after your first record is done but while your still on tour with the first record. Obviously that's something that's in our mind constantly everyday, not just the fact that we need to get out a new record because of the label, but that we want to get out a new record. We have more music to share.

PRP:  Do you stay in touch with old bass player Will James, and how does he feel about your success?
Dave: Yeah a little bit here and there.
Jerry: Whenever we're in town we hook up with him. He's one of our boys dude. He's doing his own thing, I think he's playing with some other band locally in the area, doing his thing. He'll always be a friend.
Tobin: Homey Will!
Jerry: He doesn't like to be called that anymore, he's just Will. He's doing his own thing and we hang out whenever we come back home. He's part of the crew. That's crazy that you know about that.

PRP:  Have the band bought Dave some duct tape considering he lost his drumstick during the Late Night With Conan O'Brien performance?
Dave: Actually, you know what happened was one of the very first hits the stick literally broke in half, so I had to toss it. I didn't lose it, I had to toss it and grab another one. Luckily I didn't miss a beat. Pretty cool.

PRP: After the David Letterman performance, Coby kind of disappeared quickly, did he have to pee?
Dave: Heheh. There's a story behind that. I said to Coby backstage somehow you should make this special. I'm like dude, as soon as you're done throw down the mic and run out to the crowd up the stairs and out the door. And he was like yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna do that. I found out later he got confused and he didn't know where to run, so he ran off the side of the stage and David Letterman was like "is that kid o.k?"

PRP: The band maintain a fairly positive image, yet you guys are included in Backstage Sluts 3, what's the deal with that?
Dave: What's not positive about throwing lunch meat at a porno girl!
Tobin: Basically you live and learn by doing stupid things like that. At the time we were in the studio and they approached us and we thought it would be funny. If we had known that people were gonna use it against us and call us a sleazy band we definitely wouldn't have done it. I don't think we're the type of band that tries to get a photo like that in Spin Magazine. We'll never do it again, we thought it was funny at the time but it wasn't so funny when you look back. Actually it's still funny, I don't give a fuck. It was funny. We respect women but when they want lunch meat thrown at them, what the hell!
Dave: There wasn't anyone that was there that didn't do anything they didn't want to do. Obviously that girl was getting paid to stand there and we spoke to her afterwards and she was having fun. She did her "job" with the actual sex part. We weren't part of that we just did the lunch meat tossing. What we did was innocent enough for rock 'n' roll I think. We had fun. You can't have regrets. We did it, It was funny. I think it was fucking hilarious.

PRP: You guys have been on the road for a long time, are there any plans for a home video?
Jerry: yeah we want people to know who we are and see behind the scenes.

PRP: What weird experiences have you had with fans of the band?
Tobin : People come to shows with big fuck off cock roaches that are like 10 inches long.

PRP: Coby is rumored to do a guest performance on the upcoming album Alien Ant Farm album, any truth to this?
Tobin: Yeah he is.
Dave: Shall we let the cat out of the bag?
Tobin: Actually he's not.
Dave :Dude can I let the cat out of the bag with that?
Tobin: You know?
PRP: I think the cats out the bag to some extent

PRP: Any shout outs?
Dave: Shoutout to the Pimp Rock Palace and to Wook again.
Tobin: Shoutout to Pimp Rock Palace, Alien Ant Farm, Korn, Sevendust, we haven't talked to those fuckers in along time, I hope they're doing well. All the bands we've toured with, Taproot, (hed) p.e. keep it going, Orgy, they are cool motherfuckers. All the people we've met on the road.
Dave: That's it, we are glad to do our follow up interview. Its funny because if you read our first interview and this interview, there may be mass differences because our life has been thrown up in the air and here we are, we've landed on our feet and we hope to keep it going from here but we're still the same old guys. See ya later Pimp Rock Palace, we love you guys.

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