Korn‘s decision to work with pop-rock songwriting/production crew The Matrix on their 2005 album, “See You On The Other Side” was a mixed bag for some. However, while not the most lauded entry among the pioneering nü-metal band’s discography, that record has delivered some fan favorites. Chief among those tracks is second most streamed single on Spotify as of press time, “Coming Undone“, as well as “Twisted Transistor“.
The pairing of that trio (Lauren Christy, Scott Spock, Graham Edwards), known for their work with pop stars like Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera and more, seemed liked an unlikely union. As Christy recently recalled, their time with Korn also got off to a rocky start.
In a clip making the rounds lately from Christy‘s time on the ‘Behind The Wall‘ podcast, Christy recalled working with Korn as some of the hardest songs she ever wrote. She said of that [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“That was just a really interesting blend of us being brought in to work with them and almost being thrown out of the room [laughs.] Like when we got there I think they just thought, ‘Oh, these guys are like pop guys.’ And so quickly, Scott and Graham and I were like, ‘What should we do? They don’t like us.’
We said, ‘Let’s let them play and we’ll just record them.’ We listened to them playing and they came up with this [hums riff]… And that night, we went home and our engineer Chris Holmes and Scott stayed up all night cutting up Korn and all the pieces that they played and made it into kind of a traditional pop song, and we wrote this song “Twisted Transistor“.”
She continued:
“In the morning, we came up with like the, ‘Hey you, hey you, devil’s little sister.’ We went to the studio, they were like not really looking at us. And I went up to Jonathan [Davis, Korn vocalist] and I said, ‘I’ve got something to play you, listen to this.’ So I played it for him, and he said, ‘What the fuck is this?’
And I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ And he loved it. They absolutely loved it. So I said to him, ‘Hey I just want to slip an idea into your head,’ and I said, ‘If you want, we could just make a record.’ That night they called us and said, ‘Yep, come on in, 3 weeks, let’s do it.’ And so we made 23 songs in 3 weeks with Korn.”
And they did this huge deal with Live Nation, they were on Capitol before and they were up for a new deal. And there’s an energy when a band’s looking for a new deal. Even though it’s Korn and they were huge, there was just this energy, and we had the best fucking time with the band.
Like I love Jonathan. Those guys, Fieldy, Munky, all of them. They’re so awesome, we’re still friends to this day. I still work with them. It was just a happy moment, where we just took it, and we were like, ‘Let’s do this this!’, and it all worked out.”
She later added:
“I mean, Jonathan writes all his own lyrics.” So for for me to walk in and say, ‘I’ve got this idea for this song.’ And he was really open to it. You know, in more recent years he just does everything himself and I just help with melodies. But back then he was he was cool with us, with me, like doing lyrics with him.
Like he’s crazy. He took me into his lyric writing room and it was like a full-size altar with Jesus, like a life-sized Jesus lying on the altar in a loin cloth. I was like, ‘I can’t write the lyrics in this room. I’ll write them in my car outside the studio.’
…We collaborated on it together and Graham and Scott helping with melodies. Scott, came up with that, ‘Wait, I’m coming undone’. I was like, ‘Whoa! That’s so awesome.’ And you know, it was just a really cool combination.”
