STONE SOUR : Cocktail on the rocks

-JR : Actually, it started in the end of 92 and the beginning of 93 with Corey Taylor, drummer Joe Elkman and shortly after the bass player Shawn Ekonomaki was added. Over the next couple of years, they went through a lot a guitar players, myself included, till 95 and 96 when Jim Reed was added. That line up stood the same up until 97 when Corey Left to join Slipknot. Basically, two more years, near and Corey got together at the beginning of 2000, we’ve got more materiel, he wrote more lyrics and we recorded it on my home studio equipment, and now basically it’s gone back to what is was, we spend the rest of the year, just the two of us writing stuff and when it ended with some demos, we decided it needed to be an actual band, not just the two of us, all the former Stone Sour members were pretty much called back, because all of us know each others for years, we are friends and that seemed natural to bring them in.

-Where are the members of the band ?

-JR : There are in Des Moines : Shawn is actually working on designing our web page, Jim is kind of doing some other business stuff, and Joe’s probably at home drinking beer !

-Could you present the stone sour music to us ?

-JR : We’re just basically good hard rock band : we were influenced by Alice in Chains and Metallica, and a lot of people turned that around, and kind of said that we’ve got along in fashion and we sounded like them. Of course, we’ve influenced by them, but I think we cover a wider audience. I wish you could have heard the sampler, ‘cause it’s easier to get an example. Actually, ‘I get inside’ is probably the heavier song on the album, and there’s some really melodic stuff too, we cover everything in between, we writes what feels natural, we didn’t decide to do one genre of music, we play what we wanna play, what feels comfortable and what sounds good to us.

-Where does the inspiration come from ? Is it a general inspiration for this LP ?

-JR : Our own experiences are the main inspiration ; Corey writes all our lyrics, so for the things which touch him, I really can’t tell you, but the music that I bring, when I write it is kind of where I am at that point, my mindset : sometimes you’re aggressive, you’re pissed off, and that’s where the heavier stuff comes from ! Some of the mellower depends on how I feel, we’re just driven off on one another !

-And the name of the band ?

-JR : It’s actually a cocktail : I wasn’t there for the beginning, but I’ve been told that Joe actually was at a bar, drinking a cocktail maybe, somebody came in and said that he heard we were looking for a name, so he brought down a couple of it and Corey and he loved Stone sour, so that’s where it comes.

-And the previous name of the band was ‘Closer’ ?

-JR : Yeah, actually this band went through several names : it originally started of as a project which was Corey and me by ourselves, and then we became an actual band, an organic band, we had ‘Super ego’, we did two shows under that name, and that was taken by some tour company we’ve never heard of. Then we were ‘Closer’ for about a week. Not many bands have a record contract and an album done completely, done and recorded and on its way to mastering and almost released before they have a name, and all of us were ‘born’ Stone sour’, so it seemed natural to come back to it.

-Will you have guests on this record ?

-JR : There’s actually two guests : Sid Wilson, N° O in Slipknot an dj, he actually scratches on three songs and a guy from the studio where we were recording and who plays keyboards and organ on a song called ‘In hell’.

-Is it more a side project for you or a full time band ?

-JR : It’s a full time band, we’re gonna get out, we’re gonna tour : when Corey and Jim go back to Slipknot, the remaining members of Stone Sour will start working on the second Stone Sour album as well. So...

-We have heard that you shoot a video during a concert recently ?

-JR : Yes, in L.A, we shot a video for ‘Get inside’ ; for me, personally, I was very stressed out: the show was awesome, but the equipment, the gear had problems, I went into two amplifiers, my guitar shorted out, Corey shorted out my pedals with a bottle of water. For me, it was a nightmare working on this, but the people enjoyed it, so that all that matters, after all ! It was not a secret concert, it was advertised for a week, ‘come that way, we’re gonna shot a video’, but it wasn’t made out to be a big spectacle

-Did you have some friends in the audience ?

-JR : Actually, one friend from DesMoines and it’s very weird : she’s in the video, in the moshpit and it’s just kind of really cool looking back at it, cause nobody knew she was there !

-And before, did you do many shows in DesMoines ?

-JR : We played three, two under the name of Superego, one as Stone Sour, that one day before we came to L.A, which was just crazy.

-Down The Sun played with you ?

-JR : Yes, back in DesMoines, just before going to L.A ; they opened up for us : they are good friends, we obviously grew up together : this was the first time with played as Stone Sour as it was the first time they’ve been able to play home too, that was very cool

-In your concerts, you don’t wear any masks or make up : is it delibarate ?

-JR : That was definitely Corey’s and James’s choice : for them, to bring the masks over to Stone Sour would be ridiculous, that’s the Slipknot identity, and to make both bands and try to make them both successful wouldn’t work. The two people realized that we didn’t wore masks in Stone Sour before, which was formed before Slipknot. As far as it’s cool, yeah, we’re gonna do like that, and it have never been cooler, except for the last show we did in DesMoines

it was so hot inside there! When we got offstage, Corey actually passed out when we were walking off. It was unbelievable : every time we stopped a song, the whole band was like scattered over to the side of the stage to get water : it was that hot in there, is was crazy !

-Is it right you made concerts with ties ?

-JR : Actually, for the two Superego concerts, we were in suits : that was a mistake, let me tell you ! It was Corey’s idea, and, at the time, it was a cool idea, but the rest of the band didn’t have the luxury of being able to strip down

we are five guys getting together to play music that they like, we didn’t wanna have an image : we just show up and play with the same clothes as we wear when we’re home.

-The album is not released yet : are you afraid of the reaction of the Slipknot fans ?

-JR : I’m not worried about it, I think a lot of Slipknot fans will actually like it ; the fans that like the slower stuff like ‘Left behind’, ‘My plague’, ‘Wait and bleed’, but the other fans, the die-hard fans will maybe absolutely hate it : that’s their opinion, that’s up to them. I’ve had older people come in that would not come at a Slipknot’s concert. The object is to get your music out to as many people as possible and to play to a bigger crowd : we didn’t set out to do that, but the more people come, the happier I’ll be !

-Is Stone Sour your first band in Des moines ?

-JR : Actually, Stone Sour is my first band ; basically, I have just always wrote in my basement and did those songs with Corey. Our music catalog is very big, starting all the way back in the nineties to where it is now, and now that stuff is coming out !

-Are you afraid Stone Sour could change your life ?

-JR : I love to play, and obviously the band opened doors ‘cause I’m over here doing an interview with you, guys ! I’m gonna see a lot of the world. But, in the same time, I’m married, I have a three years old daughter, and heaven, it sucks ! If I become rich, I can afford to take them with me ! It’s been so busy that I’ve been focused on why I’m here, but at the same time, I finally called home last night, and I can’t wait to get home, just when I heard my 3 years old in the background, my family. She’s just my world ! She’s my inspiration, why I do it.

-Did you dream about to be a rock star when you were younger ?

-JR : I think everybody’s goes to, dreaming to be a rock star, model or movie star, one of the three !

-What bands did really impress you ?

-JR : There’s three I actually was very found of and probably had the biggest impact : Old Kiss with the make up with the four original members, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Metallica, those four bands really sticked out to me. Metallica is still my favorite band, they have been since I was 12 !

-Did you practise guitar in your bedroom at the time ?

-JR : Yeah, when I was pretty young, I tried to play ‘Detroit rock city’ on a tennis racket ! ! !

-What new bands really kicked you ass ?

-JR : Actually, I got a bunch, an entire book bag pack upstairs full of stuff that you can’t get in the States, cause there, basically if you’re not Korn, Limp Bizkit if you can’t sell a million records in the States, they don’t even wanna care of it, they can’t make money out of it, so it’s really hard to get stuff over there. I listen to pretty much everything I grew up on. I’m just in that phase, it’s hard for me to listen to newer bands, for some reasons.

-Will we see stone sour live in France ?

-JR : We hope to come over here in the end of this year of early next year.

Official Website : www.stonesour.com

Interview : JP Coillard & Mister X