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GW Jim, how has playing with Stone Sour affected what you do with Slipknot?

ROOT It’s kind of weird. To me “Snuff” sounds like a Stone Sour song. If we’re not going to draw a line between what the two bands are, then why do we need the two bands? Right now they’re two different animals, but the more they start to overlap, the more difficult it becomes to know what will hold. “Snuff” was done almost exactly the same way that Stone Sour’s “Through Glass” [from Come What(ever) May, 2006] was done. Corey had an acoustic guitar idea with a great vocal line and amazing lyrics. He recorded the basic tracks with him playing acoustic guitar and singing along with it. Then Joey went in and played drums on it. Then I got to go in, and it was like a playground. I retracked the acoustic guitars with this Martin that I have. I added and layered all these parts on the song. The more we do stuff like that, the more I wonder what’s the difference between Slipknot and Stone Sour. I guess we’ll see what happens.

GW Every time Slipknot finishes an album, rumors start spreading that it may be the band’s last. It seems to me that the tension between the different members actually inspires this band.

ROOT I agree, and as a result I think that the next Slipknot album needs to be made differently. I don’t want to make another album the way we made this one; I just don’t think it’s a good way to make a record. It seems real disassociated, and it doesn’t feel like we’re a band. I might as well have stayed at my house in Florida, and we could have FTP’d files back and forth.

I’m old school—I like everything to be organic and cohesive. I like standing in a room with really loud amplifiers and drums and bouncing ideas off of everybody, getting mad at each other and throwing shit. That’s where a lot of the emotion comes from. You can really hear that on our first two records. We skipped over that stuff with this process and took things to an all-time extreme. For better or for worse, this album is what it is. It’s a testament to where we’re at right now.

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