Slipknot percussionist and creative director M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan has spoken with The Escapist about his life-long passion for video games and his lust for creativity. Those pursuits have recently led him into launching his own custom ‘Minecraft‘ server, ‘Vernearth‘. According to Crahan, who began his journey in video games back with the Atari and Intellivision, his vision for the server isn’t monetarily driven, but rather a “spiritual” need in his continued pursuit of creative exploration and expansion.
Crahan cited numerous games as having allowed him to scratch that itch over the years, ranging from modding first-person shooters like ‘Quake‘, to the chaos and freedom provided by the ‘Goat Simulator‘ series, and the sense of community found in MMORPGs like ‘World Of Warcraft‘.
In this discussion, Crahan described ‘Vernearth‘ as, “the biggest art piece I’ve made in my entire life.” He went on to explain that, “It obtains music. Scoring and music. It obtains coding, utility, vision. It’s right in my own culture… it’s like a meet and greet, but instead of you go, I get to hang out with you all night and build a tunnel.”
As for opting to use the ‘Minecraft‘ platform, he stated:
“I come from nothing but respect and love for the genius of ‘Minecraft‘. I have four children who grew up on it… I was in the mall and bought ‘Minecraft‘ the first day it was released. I’ve watched all the updates.”
He further relayed that the sense of wonder and ability to shape things as he saw fit in the game also helped him in part process the grief of losing a child. While ‘Vernearth‘ served as the central focus of his chat, the conversation also saw Crahan weigh in on the prospects and worries associated with AI.
While Crahan admitted he’s aware of the concerns about the evolving technology, he thus far has chosen to embrace it, offering, “The way I look at it, it is a professor in my pocket who only wants to do what I ask it. Its only job is to make me happy, me, not you, not the world, no one.”
He went on to explain a scenario where he could take thousands of poems using his words and feed them into AI and be provided with entirely new ways to sing them. He also joked about how the benefits of that could potentially put out some producers out of a job:
“What’s the difference between me pulling out my pocket producer… or me trying to get a famous producer that might not even work with me and could potentially cost me $150,000… who will only give me one or two ways – I’m not mentioning any names!”
One would assume that Crahan‘s comment was a light jab at legendary producer Rick Rubin, who Slipknot worked with on their 2004 album “Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)“. Members of the masked metal band have in the past spoken less than enthusiastically about their experiences working with Rubin on that record and the hands-off approach he employed.
Further arguing for the merits of AI in this new interview, Clown stated:
“Our generation is going to hem and haw about AI. Do you think some kid in fourth grade who’s grown up on it agrees with you and I about how horrible AI is? This is the implemented tool of life today.”
He added:
“You and I will never have enough money or power to sway anybody away from what life is doing. Life is moving forward. And AI is part of it.”
“AI is the least of our worries on this planet. We currently are the worst of our worries and have always been the worst of our worries.”
