KoRn: Ready to Pop

  Who really knows why certain new bands rise almost instantly to the top of the rock heap while others fall just as quickly into the hellish abyss of public neglect? If people really did know the answer to this question, no record label would ever lose money, no A & R guy would ever get fired and no group would ever miss out on stardom. Ahhhh... what a wonderful world that would be!

But wake up! This is the '90's, buster—certainly not any rock and roll band's vision of a musical dream. As the old saying goes, it's a jungle out there, and only the strong survive. Dozens of new hard rock releases emerge each month, with most falling immediately by the wayside. But occasionally, as if by some sort of divine intervention, a band comes along that seems to break all the rules. They don't appear to fit into any preconceived notion of musical accessibility or commercial appeal, yet for some borderline-mystical reason, their star quickly manages to ascend in the rock and roll galaxy.

Welcome to KoRn—one heavy, nasty, ugly band of muthas who just so happen to have a self-titled debut album out there that seems on the way to becoming one of the year's major success stories. Recently we caught up with vocalist Jonathan Davis (who along with drummer David, bassist Fieldy and guitarists Brian Welch and James "Munk" Munkey comprise KoRn (Note: I left this this here just because it's a funny mistake!) to learn as much as we can about this impressive new outfit.

Hit Parader (HP): Tell us a little about KoRn's background.

Jonathan Davis (JD): The band's been together for a little more than two years, but I didn't join until they had already been together for about eight months. Brian and Munky knew each other from school, and they were the ones who put everything together. It all kind of happened quickly because two weeks after I joined we were playing a live show in Anaheim, and about six months later we had a record deal. I don't want to make it sound like it was easy, because it wasn't. Maybe we've been a little lucky.

HP: Your music has been described as everything from hardcore, to metal, to punk, to alternative. How do you classify it?

JD: It's probably all those things in one form, yet it's different. I really don't like trying to classify our music because that instantly limits you—it gives people ideas of what to expect and what not to expect. We don't want to set up any artificial boundaries on ourselves if we don't have to.

HP: Does the instant success you've attained due to songs like "Blind" present any unusual problems for the band?

JD: No, because we certainly haven't had to deal with any real measure of success. We're pleased by the way people have responded to the record, but it's not like we're facing a chance to sell millions of records. All we've really accomplished so far is to open the door so that people know who we are. "Blind" has gotten some good airplay on hard rock stations, but the album really hasn't taken off yet. But we're patient. We know it could take another six months or a year before something really big happens.

HP: Your debut album came out late last year—when it ran the risk of being overlooked among a host of big-time releases. Why did you choose to have it come out at that time?

JD: It was part of our strategy. It's true that very few new bands have their labels release their album in the last quarter of the year. That's a time usually reserved for the year's biggest albums, the stuff that comes out in time for the holiday season. But we felt it was very important to get our album out there as early as possible. We believed that we had the chance to beat other new bands out by a number of months, and that could give us a head start on things. I know it was kind of risky, but it's worked out okay for us.

HP: So it seems like you have a solid working relationship with your label.

JD: Yeah, we do have a good relationship with them because they understand us. Before we signed, there were a lot of labels that met with us, and a number of them seemed really cool. But there was always an attitude—even if they never came out and said it—that they'd expect us to conform to meet their needs. That was really true from the major labels. But then the people from our label, Immortal, came along, and they seemed to really get into what we were trying to do. They shared our vision of what KoRn was trying to do. They didn't want us to conform to anyone's needs. For us it was great because we had a label that was small enough to really focus on us, yet one that was part of a giant major label so we knew the promotion would be there when we needed it.

HP: How important is commercial success to you?

JD: I think we'd be lying if we said we didn't want to sell records and have people hear what we had to say in our music. What's the point of making records if people don't hear 'em? We know that KoRn isn't the kind of band that's gonna get hit singles and massive airplay, so we're willing to do whatever we can to make things happen. We love touring, and we've already played a lot of shows in America with everyone from House of Pain to Sick Of It All, and now we're planning our first shows in Europe. It's all kinda exciting for us.

HP: Your second video for "Shoots and Ladders" is very unusual. What made you decide to make that clip?

JD: We weren't really that pleased with our first video, which was for "Blind." It just didn't project the band the way we wanted. So when we got the chance to make a second video, we felt we really wanted to do it for "Shoots and Ladders" because it lends itself real well to a lot of visual concepts. The song has a lot of really wicked nursery rhymes in it, and the whole effect of the video was cool. We're learning a lot about how this business works, and how we can use things like videos to really help make people understand what we're about. We're enjoying all of it; it's fun.

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