I want to kind of pay back what was given to me,” he says of starting the label.The performance, part of the MTV Unplugged series, took place in MTV studios in Times Square, New York City on December 9, 2006, in front of a crowd of approximately fifty people. (Navarre is handling distribution.) He hopes to release both albums in early June, and that “in 10 years I’ll have 40 bands on the roster. So far he has signed two bands, Monster In The Machine and Droid, and plans on putting together an eclectic roster. In between his Korn commitments, Munky has been working on his own record label, Emotional Syphon Recordings, since last July. And that’s something you have to do, because you have to have the drummer visible. “If he was like a backup drummer, I don’t know how much we’d have him onstage,” he says.
But Munky says Bozzio will be onstage with the band during the next tour. Since guitarist Brian “Head” Welch left the band in 2005, Korn has performed live with a second guitarist offstage handling Welch’s parts. Temporary replacement Terry Bozzio has helped co-write Korn’s new album. However, Korn drummer David Silveria is still on hiatus, which Munky attributes to needing a break from the grind of working a record. This would dovetail with Korn’s European tour dates that have been announced for the beginning of June. The band wants to finish recording by March 15 so it can release the album in late June or early July. Asked to compare this album to “Other Side,” Munky says it’s “pretty close to the same lines, but I think it’s more refined. Korn reteamed with Atticus Ross and the Matrix, who co-produced Korn’s the band’s last studio album, 2005’s “See You on the Other Side” Ross’ brother Leo has also joined the team. Munky says the band is finished writing its next album and is about halfway through recording it. “But after rehearsing a couple times, that just went away.” “I had a lot of fear about handful of people that weren’t gonna dig this, and I think I was just scared not to be behind the big amps and distortion pedals and effects,” he recalls. It keeps our creative level interesting.”Īt first Korn was reluctant to do it, and Munky admits he was the most resistant, knowing the risk involved in possibly alienating fans. But “as creative people, we want to keep experimenting with different stuff and trying new things.
He says that 10 years ago Korn would never have considered such an endeavor. “It was just an honor for them to want us to do it.” “When said we could do it, it was really exciting, because you think of the classics, like the Alice In Chains and Nirvana the Cure did one, and Eric Clapton,” he explains. Munky says Korn never prepped for a gig like it did for this one, rehearsing for 10 hours at a stretch. “It almost breathed new life in these songs.” While rehearsing for AOL, Munky says the band discovered “the song structures were good and the melodies and harmonies were still very good” when stripped of the heavy production heard in the original versions. The idea evolved from Korn doing an acoustic Sessions AOL performance. And “Freak on a Leash” is led by a piano and cellos, with Evanescence’s Amy Lee contributing guest vocals. Instead of “Blind” being a sinister call to arms, it now has a strong Latin flavor that’s close to flamenco. 23 (an accompanying album is due March 6 via Virgin). Korn drastically revamped its dark music for the “Unplugged” episode, which premieres Feb. Coupled with downtuned guitars and a menacing atmosphere, Korn’s hits like “Blind” and “Freak on a Leash” could skewer top 40 songs on contact. Its lyrics were saturated with a primal fury and despair that made you wonder about singer Jonathan Davis’ psyche as he screamed like his innards were rupturing. Korn’s early catalog was the first music to put a scare into parents since the PMRC’s ’80s heyday. “‘What? Korn unplugged?’ That doesn’t really compute with people,” he laughs. Korn guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer succinctly describes fan reaction to the news that his band taped an MTV “Unplugged” session in December.