KORN // Got The Nike

A band like Korn seriously needs no introduction.

The forefathers of nu-metal have paved the way for music discovery for at least two generations, and if you’ve heard their latest album, a third is likely. Korn harnessed the energy of old-school Korn to create The Serenity of Suffering, resulting in the band very much being back in their own arena, figuratively and literally. Korn will be the main attraction at the inaugural Australian Download Festival next year, and ahead of their arrival, we caught up with the band’s drummer, Ray Luzier.

Ray: I just love the country. I love the vibes of all the different cities. I mean we’ve been there, to Perth, and Brisbane, and Adelaide, and Sydney, one or two others and it’s … Every place has its own cool vibe about it, and every place is very appreciative of the American music, we just really like it.

Hysteria: I think that’s one of the defining qualities of Australian music fans is that we are appreciative. We might through shoes at artists, but you can’t get that confused for a negative action. We throw shoes when we’re really happy and enjoying ourselves. Just in case you were ever confused about that.

I’m glad you clarified that because it might have messed us up a little bit.

Yeah, no if you see the shoes flying, keep going! You’re doing good, that’s what we wanna see.

What if there’s tomatoes flying at us, does that mean play another song?

Well, that will likely never happen in Australia. We’ll probably just eat the tomatoes if we bought it. We are pretty lazy in that respect, but we’ve got this new thing, which I should actually probably warn you about. Have you heard of a “shoey” yet? Has that made it your way?

No, what’s that?

There’s no substance abuse, there’s no drama, there’s nothing in our way. It’s all about music and family now. That’s all we live for.
[RAY]

Oh God. Okay, so it’s probably gonna happen to you and I apologise it’s just our culture. You’ve just kind of gotta smile and nod. But basically what it is, is when someone fills their show with beer and then drinks the beer out of their shoe.

I’ve heard of that, I just hadn’t heard it called that term before.

We call it a shoey here, and it’s become this thing. Probably during your set at some stage you’re gonna start hearing “Shoey! Shoey! Shoey!” You’ll probably be off the hook, cause you’re gonna be behind a kit, so you’re gonna be fine, but one of the other guys is probably gonna be on the spot.

That’s one great thing about being the drummer, I get to dodge flying objects.

it’s gonna be super cool to see you guys perform considering it’s been a bit between shows for your Australian fans. And now with Serenity of Suffering is fairly fresh still, I’d be interested to know kind of what you guys are planning for us. You’ve got so many albums now, there’s really more than 20 years worth of music under the Korn belt. So how does it go selecting the set list for festivals now?

Yeah, it’s really hard. This is my 11th year in the band, and they’ve been around for, it’s almost pushing 24 years now. I mean, I’ll tell you, it’s hard to please everybody. You’ve gotta do the hits and then you have to play the classics for die-hard fans. It’s really hard with 160 plus songs now.

Wow.

It’s very difficult, but we try to accommodate everybody, and we try to do the best things we possibly can to please everybody. Several years back we even came up with the Korn Medley, we did about eight songs in 12 minutes just to give you a sample of them because we wanted to play them all.

You mentioned you’ve been in the band for 11 years now. Personally, for you, what’s your favourite era to play?

You know, it’s weird because getting into the band, and being a fan obviously of it. Never in a million years figured I’d be a member of the band. I bought the first few Korn records … Follow the Leader was actually my first Korn record I actually purchased, but I’ve always admired the first two as well.The sound always appealed to me, and getting into it and creating music and writing with the guys and getting into a room, and we’ll be on the road and Jonathan will come up with a riff or something and say “guys, come over to my bus. I’ve just come up with this really cool thing” and everyone’s just so excited and jazzed about it now.

There’s no substance abuse, there’s no drama, there’s nothing in our way. It’s all about music and family now. That’s all we live for. I think that really shows at our shows. We give it all we’ve got. Other bands with especially as much success as Korn has had, they’re kind of over it, and they’re out to make a paycheque, and they’re out to just pay some bills. We really just get high off the music. We really live for it and we can’t wait to start another record.

To answer your question, I’m a big fan, I’m the biggest fan of Serenity of Suffering, our latest record.

Right on!

Yeah! We put so much work into that and just had the right lineup of everything. I love Nick Raskulinecz, the producer, I’ve always admired his work with the Foo Fighters, and Deftones, and Alice in Chains, and he just gets it. He gets what the band’s all about, he gets what the sound’s all about, the feeling. And then with Josh Wilbur mixing it, it’s a really hard thing to do with the frequencies and getting it all lined up. I love playing the new stuff to be honest. Of course, I get off on playing Blind and all the classics, but when we kick in the Black Is The Soul or Rotting in Vain or something off the new record, something … Man, there’s just nothing like it.

You’ve got a lot on your plate, but is anything written down yet for the next record? Are e-mails getting sent back and forth? Where’s the next album at?

Yes. Complete country, big-band jazz covers.

Excellent.

No. We are talking about it. We are talking about getting back in and writing. There’s so many things we need to cover and to me I wish we recovered a lot of what went wrong with SOS. Getting out there. Not to say we’re done touring the cycle, but we are gonna take some time. This band is one of those weird bands that never really has a touring cycle, it kind of just keeps going. We’re off ’til we come and see you guys. Until March. We’re always writing and doing other things, but it feels good to take a little breather too.

Listen to the FULL interview with Korn’s Ray Luzier at Hysteria Radio!