Slipknot have lifted the veil on their impending new single “The Chapeltown Rag“. That song has been tapped to be first up from the band’s forthcoming new studio album, which they recorded with producer Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age). The track is scheduled to be given its live debut during tomorrow’s (November 05th) ‘Knotfest Los Angeles‘ festival, which Slipknot will be headlining.
According to a lengthy piece with frontman Corey Taylor and percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan over at knotfest.com, the initial inspiration behind the track came about from Taylor watching a documentary on the infamous serial killer Jack The Ripper. However, when an algorithm that recommended more serial killer documentaries afterwards, Taylor adapted his vision into the dangers and that social media and algorithms and cherry-picked narratives can have on people, offering:
“At that moment, everything was just kind of steering towards violence, or a history of violence. And it was just such a weird echo of social media. And the fact that social media tries to steer you towards violence or steer you towards the most toxic thing – the most toxic moment. So I looked at it from that standpoint.”
The lyrical direction was also in part due to Taylor having felt that he has presently exhausted his own supply of personal inspiration, having since pivoted to more universal themes for this new record. He said of that, “From a personal standpoint, I’m probably in the best place of my life. So it made more sense: to spin my viewpoint outward instead of inward.”
Speaking later of how this new song sounds, he added:
“It’s classic Slipknot and it’s frenetic. But lyrically, it’s coming from a point of talking about the various manipulations that can happen when social media meets media itself. And the different ways that these manipulations can try to pull us in different directions, in the fact that we’re all becoming addicts to it, which is very, very dangerous.”
Clown, also spoke of the material featured on the new album itself, offering “It’s way beyond Slipknot, it’s more like god music.” He also stated that the record ended “the eras of searching for ourselves.” The pair, who serve as the driving force behind Slipknot, also spoke about the loss of their former drummer Joey Jordison, who passed away in July of this year. His cause of death was not publicly revealed. When asked if he misses Joey onstage, Clown responded:
“Well, see, the old clown would have made sure that you weren’t allowed to ask those questions. But the new clown who’s focused in on… not redemption or salvation or any of that horseshit… I’m fucking human like everyone else: I’m on a life trip. And what I can tell you is that yeah, man, I’m greatly stricken.”
It was further revealed that Clown occasionally sees hallucinations of Jordison appearing onstage during the band’s live performances, though not while playing the songs themselves.
When asked about Jordison, Taylor offered:
“It’s been tough. You know, with Joey there was so much… you know, he was such a complicated guy. Probably one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. Maybe one of the most tortured. When I think about the good things, the tough things get in, and it’s still taking me time to process. But the things I do remember, there were so many good times, so many great fucking shows with him and just so many good memories of creating music with him. That’s the stuff that I’m really trying to focus on.”
Taylor also spoke of the band’s current mindset:
“It’s actually really cool, to be honest. We’re in such a great headspace lately. And again, I don’t know if it’s because we felt like we were taking everything for granted. And getting it back has made us come together even stronger as a band, or whatever. But we’re all getting along so well. It feels like it did when we first started touring. When we first started touring, we were really tight and we all did everything together. Then obviously, as time went on, our personalities got bigger and our addictions got bigger. We all pulled apart in a lot of different ways and it was hard to get back to that. But now, it almost feels like it’s come full circle.”
Tomorrow’s ‘Knotfest Los Angeles‘ festival will be held at the Banc Of California Stadium in Los Angeles, CA and select performances from it, including Slipknot‘s headlining set, will be livestreamed across the internet here.
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