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BD Exclusive Interview: Corey Taylor ‘Stone Sour’

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Bloody-Disgusting is excited to bring you this exclusive interview with Stone Sour and Slipknot frontman, Corey Taylor! After the jump you can read about the house that tried to kill Corey, some of his favorite horror movies, and quite possibly one of the funniest tour stories I’ve heard in quite a while.
Stone Sour just released their new album, ‘Audio Secrecy’, yesterday. Make sure to pick up your copy! Also, make sure to check out Stone Sour on the Rockstar Uproar tour with Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold. Remaining tour dates can be found HERE.

How are you doing?
Hey man! What’s up?
Not too much! Gotta couple of questions for you!
Alright, let’s do it!
It’s been four years since Come What(ever) May. How does it feel to be focused in the mindset of Stone Sour?
Oh dude, I’m stoked, I’m stoked, you know? I mean, we put a lot of time and a lot of effort in the new album and it sounds fantastic. So that, just bleeds into every day when we’re on the road, we’re getting to go out and play for all these people. It’s fantastic, man! It’s a good feeling, it’s good to see just all the good vibes and see everybody react to the new stuff and sing along to the old stuff. It’s a good feeling. 
Where did the inspiration for the lyrics of Audio Secrecy come from?
Basically it’s a road map of the last five years of my life. I went through some tremendous changes in my life which, all for the good basically, you know? I went from a dark relationship to meeting my wife, my new wife, in five years. And it was all sort of a rollercoaster ride and it went down on paper and it all came out, just talking about various things, you know? All the things I’ve seen in the last five years. When you’ve got a life like mine, it comes pretty easily [laughs]. 
Two tracks that I really enjoyed off Audio Secrecy were ‘Digital (Did You Tell)’ and ‘Say You’ll Haunt Me’. Side by side, these are two very different tracks. Are you at all worried that this difference in sounds in one album might alienate some fans?
No, no! Absolutely not! As a musician and a writer, you don’t want to play the one note wonder, you don’t want to repeat yourself musically because then you’re not making music anymore, you’re selling out to hamburgers, you know? So, to me, the exciting thing for me, especially in Stone Sour is that we write what we want! We start with our taste first and we go from there. And that’s the wonderful thing about it. We’re not trying to cater to a fan base, we’re trying to share something from our heart with the fan base. And if people aren’t into it, they’re not into it! At the end of the day, we have to be happy with the music. If we write an album we don’t like, then we’re stuck with an album [laughs] we don’t like! You gotta love your music first before you can share it with the rest of the world. If that that turns off some people, that they think it’s not heavy enough, well you’re obviously not listening to it in the right headspace. I’m not worried about it. I think people will really gonna dig this album. 
How’s the Rockstar Uproar festival going for you?
It’s going great man! Lot of great bands, lot of great dudes. It’s a blast! Plus, we get to jam every night. It’s just a good time. Something like this is always going to be like summer camp. You go out with a bunch of bands, half of which you’ve known for quite a while, and you just have fun with it. It’s been no different from the other tours I’ve been on and it’s a great time!
Have there been any funny anecdotes or crazy situations that have sprung up?
Well, the other night, we were having a few beers backstage and I was really trying to encourage everyone to go out and steal a city bus. I mean, I was convinced of it! I could see it! [laughs] It was gonna be awesome! I was gonna get Shawn Economaki, our bass player, he’s got a CDL. It was like, ‘Let’s steal a city bus and we’ll just go pick up drunk people. And we’ll just take them home!’ [laughs]
[laughs]
But we didn’t know where the city bus parking lot was and we only had about 45 minutes until bus call, so it was like, maybe we should revisit this idea when we have a little more time on our hands.
Alright, but your mindset was in the right place! It was out of the goodness of your heart! You wanted to help these drunk people.
Oh absolutely! I mean, it didn’t help that we were all kinda lit [laughs]. It would’ve been the blind leading the blind at that point. We would’ve been dropping these drunk people off at the wrong houses or something. So it’s probably a good thing that we didn’t steal a city bus.
It’s probably a good thing, but I’m telling you right now, that would’ve made for one hell of a story.
I know, right?! [laughs] Oh, good lord!
During the recording of Audio Secrecy Stone Sour lived in a creepy, old house. What was that like?
It was weird dude! I mean, I’ve never heard of a house that was built in the 80’s that was haunted, you know? It really had a very old decor to it. It was weird. Things were moving. Basically, the house was trying to kill us, straight up. There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There was a wasp infestation. All three A/C units broke down during the hottest period of the year, so it was like living in a blast furnace. It was ridiculous! But at the same time, it was kinda cool! We were all living together, we were all jamming together, we were all just hanging out, so it was us against the house and it was a great way to bond out of it.
That sounds like something out of a horror movie! Speaking of horror, are you influenced by horror, both as a person and as a musician?
You know, I don’t use it to write lyrics or anything, but I’m definitely a horror fan. I’ve been a horror fan since I was a kid. Honestly, since the first time I saw the original Halloween trailer. That’s one of those moments that sticks out in my head the most. I’ve been a horror fan ever since. 
The word around town is that you’re a big comic book fan. Are you into The Walking Dead series?
Oh yeah dude! Totally! That’s probably one of the best comics to come out in the last five years. It’s just fantastic! I’ve got all the trades and I try to keep up on it as much as possible, even with my schedule. But yeah, that’s some of the best writing I’ve ever had the privilege of reading. It’s up there with some of Ennis’ work, Warren Ellis’ work, and it’s just a fantastic comic!
Are you excited for the AMC TV adaptation?
Yes! I’m stoked! I’ve been trying to find a trailer on-line and I haven’t been able to find one yet. I keep getting sent links, then they’re pulled down, and I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’
Well you gotta come to Bloody-Disgusting.com! We’ve got all that stuff! [Editor’s note: Shameless promotion FTW!!!]
Oh, do you? I’m totally there! I’ll be there soon!
What are some of your favorite horror movies?
Oh man…god, that’s a good question. Obviously the original Halloween, as I’ve said before. But I’m more into the super crazy ones. I think From Dusk ‘Til Dawn is one of the best movies ever. It’s such a great blend of action road movie and then holy good lord crazy gory vampire flick. I’ve must’ve seen that six times the year it came out [laughs]. It was awesome! But then there’s stuff like the original Alien and then obviously Aliens. I’m also a huge fan of really, really bad horror flicks. My new favorite terrible horror movie right now is Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. It’s such a train wreck of a movie! It’s just so bad that I’ve been trying…it’s just so bad that I’ve got to turn people onto this movie! It’s amazing.
I’ve been in that boat. I’ve shown several people that movie. 
Right! Right! It’s up there with Ice Spiders and Komodo vs. Cobra. It’s so bad dude!
Alright Corey, best of luck with the album release, best of luck with the rest of the tour and I look forward to more from Stone Sour!
We’re looking forward to it too! Thanks man! Later!

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

Music

‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ – John Carpenter Announces New Album & Releases New Music Video!

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Lost Themes IV
(l-r) Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Photo Credit: Sophie Gransard

John Carpenter has been teasing big news for a couple weeks now and all has been revealed this morning. Carpenter is back with Lost Themes IV: Noir from Sacred Bones Records!

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

John Carpenter called the first Lost Themes album “a soundtrack for the movies in your mind.”

From John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Lost Themes IV: Noir is set for release on May 3 via Sacred Bones Records. The album pays tribute to Noir cinema!

In conjunction with the announcement, they’ve shared a music video for the album’s first single, “My Name Is Death”, a miniature noir film directed by Ambar Navarro, starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl). “Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema,” states Carpenter. “ We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death.”

Sacred Bones previews, “The scene-setting new single marks new territory for Carpenter and his cohorts, propelled by a driving post-punk bassline that is embellished by washes of atmospheric synth, pulsing drum machine, and, at the song’s climax, a smoldering guitar solo.”

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’ Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films. But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”

Sacred Bones notes, “Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV ‘noirish’ is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it.”

“It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that became the initial Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts,” the label explains. “Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. It helped that they grew up in a musical environment. Daniel’s dad is The Kinks’ Dave Davies, and he would pop by the L.A. studio – the same one the Lost Themes records are made in today – to jam, or to perform at wrap parties for John’s films. That innate free-flowing chemistry helps Lost Themes IV: Noir run like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:

1. My Name is Death
2. Machine Fear
3. Last Rites
4. The Burning Door
5. He Walks By Night
6. Beyond The Gallows
7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
8. Guillotine
9. The Demon’s Shadow
10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

The following physical variants will be available:

  • Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • CD
  • Tape

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!

Lost Themes IV Noir

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