PAPA ROACH INTERVIEW WITH JACOBY SHADDIX Jacoby Shaddix from PAPA ROACH was nice enough to take the time to do a phone interview with me. It was prior to his show that I went to at Lupo’s. I have to say it was one of the best real rock shows that I have seen in ages. His energy amazified me. He is that awesome that I invented a new word for him. Seriously, though he has the whole package and maintains it through the entire show. His voice is just so crisp and haunting. I love seeing a show where everyone on stage is having fun. The world has enough cranky and pretentious rockers who walk around with pictures of themselves on their shirts that seeing a band like PAPA ROACH is, dare I say, a breathe of fresh air. Yes, there was NO stinking going on, on that stage. If you have not seen PAPA ROACH live yet, what are you waiting for? LL: Your sound has evolved over the years what has influenced you to change it? Jacoby: Pretty much just our lives, what we have been listening to as far as music goes is always changing and I think it is just natural for this band to evolve and try new things. LL: Who is your favorite present day artist? Jacoby: My favorite present day artist, man.. LL: That’s a tough one? Jacoby: Yeah, my favorite present day artist is Social Distortion. Are you talking about music or just art? LL: Whatever you would like to answer. Jacoby: I would say Social Distortion is my favorite band. LL: What is your favorite song to perform live and why? Jacoby: My favorite song to perform live? Well, I love all of our songs but if I had to pick one I would say FOREVER is probably my favorite song to perform live because just they way that the song is so dynamic it brings something new to our set. It has those peaks and valleys that I think really work in a live setting and especially the vocals are very dynamic and I get to explore my range which is cool. Plus it is such a kick ass song! LL: It is my favorite song, too. Actually, it works right into my next question which is what inspired you to write FOREVER? Jacoby: FOREVER, we wrote the chorus of the song before we went to the Paramour to finish writing the record and it was just like a melody that I wrote over a drum beat and then our bass player, Tobin, was working on it and he said cool I got the riff for it and the band was working on the song while we were living at the Paramour and I was having a little bit of writers block and I went down to the gravesite. There is a lady named Daisy that is buried on the property of the Paramour and I meditated down there and I came out of my meditation and started to writing and I just wrote like five pages, you know, just like a stream of consciousness. I just put the pen to the paper and just wrote. You know I was all excited about it and I just went back to the house and the guys were working on the verse for FOREVER and it was just had a really kind of moody, eerie, dark sexy vibe to it. It was funny because the first lyrics that I wrote coming out of my meditation was in the brightest hour of my darkest day, which is the first lyrics of the song and it just all seemed to work and those lyrics just came from that. That song is pretty much about booze, drugs and women and the crazy shit that they make you do and the crazy things that it does to you if you let it get a hold of you. It the end, in all three relationships it’s like something that either you are going to deal with forever or you are going to try to not do forever or you are going to do forever. LL: Well, that makes sense. Why did you choose to record in the Paramour Mansion? Jacoby: At first, it was just time to shake things up and try something new and we figured going somewhere and just eating, breathing and living music for an extended period of time and not being disturbed by the outside world was just the best thing for the band to do and as it turns out it was. It was just a really inspiring time for the band and really helped us push our sound in a new direction, by which no means are we not proud of what we’ve done in our past but I think evolution is the key to keeping us excited about what we do, you know? LL: Of Course! Jacoby: You know it’s like sex. If you do the same thing with the same routine with the same repetition over and over with the same person and the same deal it’s going to get old. You have to switch it up and try new things and liven it up. That’s what we have to do with our music. LL: How excited are you that your music is used in the WWE? Jacoby: Oh, it’s cool! The promo people called up our management at the label and said that they heard the song, TO BE LOVED, on the radio and they wanted to use it on Monday Night Raw and for us that’s huge because that gets our music out to so many people. It’s such a huge show and you know for me growing up I was a huge fan. I was a total wrestle maniac when I was a kid. I was into Hulkamania. I was all into it and I think that extreme sports and rock n’ roll really go hand in hand so it was an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up. LL: Of course, not! Now, do you get to wrestle any of the stars? Have they allowed you to get into the ring? Jacoby: Oh, hell no! You’ll never get me in the ring. LL: Yeah, it looks like it hurts. Jacoby: Ah, yeah! LL: I don’t care how padded anything is. Jacoby: I watched a movie about wrestling called, Beyond the Mat, and it’s a movie about wrestlers and what goes on behind the scenes and that’s an intense sport. I know it’s sports entertainment but those guys really brutalize themselves for the fans, it’s crazy. LL: Oh, yeah. Speaking of that, what member has the most scars? Jacoby: That would have to be me or my drummer. My knuckles are all bashed in, my forehead has cuts all over it, my arms have..ah..I was crazy for a while. I was pretty insane for a few years. Very self-destructive, actually. LL: That’s not good. Jacoby: Yeah, I was trying to send myself to the hospital on a nightly basis. I really went through a cycle of trying to destroy myself and it was pretty sick. LL: Well, you look great now. Jacoby: Yeah, I got healthy. I got clean and sober and just kind of switched up the path of my life and really fell in love with my music again and really wanted to take care of myself and really be a more positive force in this world. That’s the path I am walking now and it feels so good. LL: That’s so good. Do you enjoy doing the SCARRED show on MTV? Jacoby: Oh, I have a blast doing that show. You know the MTV production people approached me about doing this show. They came to me about a couple of other shows but they really were not up my alley but this one was just like ok, cool, extreme sports, kids fucking themselves up and skateboards. I’ve skated for years of my life and I still skateboard occasionally myself. I think it just goes hand in hand and for the opportunity for me to step out and try something new and have fun on camera was just a cool experience. I went and did it and it just worked. My one rule was that if I’m not having fun then I’m not going to do it and we went and shot the pilot and I had a blast and I really liked the people that I was working with. It’s definitely something that I don’t regret doing. LL: I love it when the people on the show admit how stupid they are trying things. Jacoby: Oh yeah, I’m like, you are going to try and jump a 15 foot gap on rollerblades. You’re an idiot but that’s the whole thing about being passionate about a sport or being in a band, you always take everything to the extreme. LL: What clip on that show really turned your stomach? Jacoby: There is this one kid named Fat Tony and he did this thing, a really basic simple trick on a handrail on his bike, and he came down and ended up just smashing his face on the concrete just so fast. His teeth were busted out and his whole nose was bloody and it was just disgusting. LL: That sounds like a good time! Jacoby: Yeah, sounds lovely! LL: Do you have a secret formula for writing hit songs? Jacoby: I don’t know. A little bit of tragedy, a lot of passion, good melodies, honesty and conviction. That is about all it comes down to and it’s not like we set out to write hit songs it’s just over the course of the years we just try to write the best music that we can. It has to get us off because if we can get off I’m sure our fans will, too. LL: Well, you guys do a great job. Jacoby: Well, thank you. LL: Can you tell me a bit about your fan community, RIOT. Jacoby: Oh, yeah, P Roach RIOT, which reminds me I have to go blog on that damn thing. I have not blogged on that thing in a couple of weeks. I’ve been lazy. I’ve been home for awhile though. It’s an on-line community that we have where we can answer fan questions and we post what has been going on with us on the road. We post photos and have some video stuff that is going to be added into the mix here and I am really excited about it because in between touring we are going to start making another record and it’s going to be a really good way to stay in touch with our fans while we are off the road. It’s a cool place where you can go and talk all you want about PAPA ROACH and also meet some kids from across the world because there are kids from the UK, Germany, South America, America and Canada on our board. It’s definitely bringing a lot of different people together and it’s just our own little world. We love to take care of our people and connect with them through it. LL: It’s great. It is very important that musicians do that for their fans. Jacoby: Oh yeah, most definitely, it’s 2008 and in the music business the way that you keep in touch with your fans is changing so rapidly due to the internet and it’s an opportunity to provide information right off the bat and that’s what kids feed off of right now and I think it’s a great opportunity to keep kids dialed into what we do. They want it all and they want it now! LL: Yep, they don’t want to wait for anything nowadays. What are your future plans? Jacoby: We are about to head back on tour with Hinder for a couple of weeks and then we are breaking off and doing our own headlining for a few weeks with 10 Years and a band called Meriwether. We are rolling through, I think LUPO’S in your town. LL: Yes, and of course I will see you there. Jacoby: Yes, we have that headlining date and we will annihilate that and then at the end of the tour we will go home on Dec 9th or 10th and we are going to take the holidays off. When January rolls around we are going to go and move back down to the Paramour and live there for about a month and a half and start writing our record and then we bought a recording studio in Sacramento and we are going to move everything back up north and record our record at our own studio which will be really cool and then we will be back on the road next summer. LL: Great, I guess that’s it. I won’t keep you because I know you have another interview to do. Jacoby: My little boy got some webs caught on him with a little spider and he’s freaking out. LL: I don’t like bugs either, so I am with him. Jacoby: We like insects not bugs. LL: That’s right, your name. Jacoby: That’s right, baby! LL: I don’t want to visit any roaches. Jacoby: I had a roach collection for awhile. LL: Oh, did you. Were they alive or dead? Jacoby: Live cockroaches. LL: Oh, yuck! Jacoby: I had them in an aquarium and it was pretty crazy. LL: I have hamsters and a chinchilla. Jacoby: Yeah, disgusting I know. That’s us boys. That’s who we are. LL: Oh yeah, all you guys! Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Jacoby: OK, cool, you have a great day and I will see you when I see you. LL: I will see you on the 13th. Jacoby: Cool, see you at the show. PEACE!
Papa Roach - To Be Loved
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