Slipknot stands as an impressive nine man unit, intense with an intimidating presence in their numbered coveralls and psycho-killer masks. If the sight of them wasn’t enough to get you interested then give them a listen. Songs like ‘Eyeless,’ with its semi-techno syncopation and freeform flipped-out guitar should hook you. You’ll be theirs by the serenely eerie ‘Prosthetics.’ Frantic super-kinetic energy pours from every orifice of this giant nine member machine and what you hear is only a fraction of what you get in a live performance.

Assembling musical components that are commonplace on their own but collectively are astounding, you only think you’ve heard this all before. Lyrics spewed over the melodies in a rap-core flavor, scorched down-tuned guitars; so you think that’s familiar? ……. Hold on, stir in a bit of sampling and a turntable tech, and three percussionists to bring you closer to the deep end of the abyss. Slipknot takes all those elements breaks ’em down and reconstructs them in to a new metal arrangement all their own.

The power of their assault is in the percussion, so brutally forceful it will beat you into submission. The Scene got to peek into the mind (but not behind the mask) of drummer Joey Jordison. Here are a few insights shared by the man who is the heartbeat of the insanity.

O to 8 questions with Joey Jordison ("1" in Kabuki Mask)

0. How did you get into the band?

I was in touch with Paul, our current bass player, and Sean (the clown), and I always wanted to play in a band with Sean and Paul. My band had broken up and their bands were broken up. We all used to play together previous to Slipknot, and we all had been talking about forming something completely out of the ordinary, all f**ked up with extra percussion and samplers, extra guitars and extra heaviness. We wanted something kind of experimental with extra noise to make the sound bigger. I went to watch Paul and Sean play with another guitar player. They had an extra percussionist/singer at the time. I really liked what I saw. I said to myself " Man, I either have to get in this bad or destroy it." I got in the band and started playing the drum kit. At the time Sean was playing the drums, then he moved to percussion. At the time we only had three percussionists going, then we started adding guitar players and members accordingly to fit into the sound we wanted. We went through a bunch of different people. We started getting real tight when we added our vocalist Corey, and we started to really enjoy the music. We started to develop the style that we wanted to play.

1. Slipknot is bringing metal to new levels, and breaking new ground with your sound. When and how was it decided to incorporate turntables and samples and the extra percussion into your music?

   We didn’t approach it as "lets add those particular things." We were looking for a certain sound and those are the members it took to get the sound that we wanted. It was a sound that I was hearing in my head that I wanted to do. I would throw out suggestions like "what about this, or what about that," and the guys would give feedback about whether it would work, or say "let’s try this, or I know this guy." We all knew each other for ten years before, so we all knew exactly who it would be, but it never really occurred to us before. We never thought we’d need to over compose the sound of music all in one band until now. So basically, when it came time for it we just added members accordingly. It was just a sound I was hearing in my head along with the other guys. We wanted that sound. We didn’t say, " Lets have a sampler, let’s have a DJ," that’s just what it took.

   
   
   

2. What is the band’s musical philosophy?

   Our musical philosophy is not really any sort of label or statement or any certain outlook as far as what we think people should do. Our philosophy is, basically, believe in yourself as far as a musical entity, take your own aspirations, your own feelings and emotions, and the integrity within yourself, and even if you’re scared to do it, do it anyway. That’s the best exercise you can do as far as trying to make yourself an artist, or trying to make yourself emotionally fit as a musician. That’s basically what we do. I think a lot of people, when they get into bands they’re scared to do certain things. They’re afraid of what people will say. Being misunderstood is the greatest form of art, we get misunderstood a lot. When people hear the record they may only understand certain parts, and when they see the live show they’ll understand certain parts. You really have to see our band a couple of times, and listen to the record a few times, to really understand us.

3. With nine members it seems like collaborating on songs would be almost impossible, but the CD credits you all with writing the songs. What is your songwriting process?

   I played guitar before I played drums. That was my main instrument, so I help write a lot of the guitar riffs. I help to come up with a lot of the words. Everyone helps. Mic and Paul help come up with the lyrics. Corey writes most of the lyrics, actually. The rest of the guys, what they do they bring to the band, they kind of write their own parts. We kind of have a system. Like with percussion we all work together. The same with the samples and the DJ, they work together really well as far as coming up with things that are complementary to each other and the song.

4. Part of what makes the Slipknot sound unique is the sheer impact of sound that comes out of you. Drums and percussion are a big part of your powerful sound. Tell me a bit about your drum technique.
   
   
   
   

   I play in fours and eight’s completely straight through, and they play in threes and sevens. Then they have to cut out major when it comes to fills and sh*t like that. We play in up-tempo, fast tempo to where it’s like a techno-style tempo. Super fast. Most bands aren’t playing like that right now. They’re playing more half-time, more straightforward. We like to play where the percussion really pound through, and really accent the guitars.

5. What is the significance behind your number and your Kabuki mask?

   Everyone basically has a lucky number. Then there’s a number that actually fits into the position that they play in the band. Those two factors led into the number assignment. Everyone picked their own mask because they felt that’s what reflects their personality. That’s the actual person that they are inside. People are always saying "you guys wear masks" and we’re like, "no, we don’t," because it feels that real to us

Sorry, to bring the damn millennium into this, but with the new century approaching it’s hard not to. Where do you see the future of heavy music going?

That’s a hard one, I don’t really concern myself too much with what other bands are doing, I just try to concentrate on what we’re doing. I know that our next album will be way more disturbing than the album we have out right now. It will be far more disjointed, the song structures will be more mathematical than our first album. It’s just a natural progression for us. We want to get heavier and more f**ked up than our first record, but doing it with musicianship that a lot of bands don’t incorporate these days. I think people will keep expanding themselves and trying to do something different with heavy music. Look what happened with the whole grunge thing. It was supposed to make music more open-minded, but it became more closed-minded than ever. Still, heavy music persevered and came through, and look at the way it is now. Maybe it will die down, maybe it will shoot through the roof, maybe it will stay the same. I don’t know. The main point is to have bands with the creativity and the integrity to make heavy music last with longevity, and I think it will. There are a lot of good bands out there.

What are your thoughts on the state of "popular" music today?

I don’t really concern myself much with it. I know I don’t have anything in common with those types of bands, so I’d never really listen to it. I really wouldn’t know who’s who. I know that on the first week of our video coming out, we beat out both Ricky Martin and Shania Twain. Other than, that I don’t know much about it. I don’t watch MTV, I just concentrate on the fans. They’re the whole reason we’re here. They are the base, they keep us going. They’re what keep us moving and that’s what I think about. I have to thank them for out current success. They are without a doubt the reason we continue to do this.

Back in ’95 and ’96, before the fame, what was it like playing the clubs in Des Moines?

Before they would be there with their jaws dropped to their knees, and they didn’t understand what we were doing. Because we were so different, people would start to come out in droves, which had never happened before. They’d hear about this band that had three drummers, two guitar players, and a DJ and sampler. People started getting interested. There was actually something starting to go on in Des Moines that wasn’t country or regular top 40 rock and roll covers or bar music, you know, lounge music. So that’s where the appeal came from. Now when we play there we play at a place called "Super Toad Ents. Center," and we totally sold out our home-town. They oversold the show by about six hundred tickets. There were about twenty-four hundred people there in an eighteen-hundred club venue. It was pretty crazy! Now in the end, we’re pretty proud, and we’re very thankful to everyone in our home town who helped us get here. We’re gonna continue with it and I hope we’ll make a better record. We’re thankful to everyone everywhere, like Milwaukee, L.A., or Sioux Falls, Miami, or in Texas and everywhere they’re all mad Slipknot fans. We’d be nowhere without them. They’re the sh*t!