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X-Fest Countdown – Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag

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An Interview With Jacoby Shaddix From Papa Roach

In Vacaville, California, a city nestled in the Northeast corner of the San Francisco Bay area, two friends (Jacoby Shaddix and Dave Buckner) met up at a football game and the two fell into a conversation about music. Later on, they were joined by a trombonist by the name of Ben Luther and bassist Will James and they all decided to enter the school’s talent contest, where they performed a version of Jimi Hendrix’s Fire…which is hard to imagine being performed with a trombone accompaniment. It didn’t matter much as Ben Luther was replaced by a lead guitarist by the name of Jerry Horton. The band called themselves Papa Roach, which was culled from the nickname of Jacoby’s step-grandfather Howard William Roatch, who would later, in 2006, commit suicide. In the early days, Papa Roach toured around the bay area in a van nicknamed Moby Dick, honing their skills, getting exposed to various genres of music and garnering fans.

Around 1994, the band compiled and recorded an EP titled Potatoes For Christmas and remained on their grueling tour schedule. They followed up that recording with a demo call Caca Bonita, which was cut in 1995. Will James became more involved in going to a church camp, making it impossible for him to attend gigs and practices, so the group replaced him with their roadie, Tobin Esperance. In ’97, the group recorded their first LP, Old Friends From Young Years, which they supported by touring with the likes of Incubus, Powerman 5000, Hed PE, Snot, Far and Static-X. In 1998 and 1999, Papa Roach recorded Five Tracks Deep and Let ‘Em Know, respectively, and while it sold well and garnered some interest from a high profile record company, the boys at Warner Bros. Took a declined to sign the band, passing up songs like Infest, Last Resort and Broken Home.

DreamWorks Records picked up the band in 1999 and, upon some reworking of older material and laying down the tracks for some new material, Papa Roach released their major label debut album on April 25th, 2000…and it sold 30,000 copies the first week.

The passing years has seen Papa Roach emerging as a distinctive force in the rock and roll arena, morphing from their nu metal rage into something that you cannot easily put your finger on. It’s almost like you can see the band with their eyes, ears and fingers straining to take in the ambient sounds of the world, melding it into a streaming stream of satisfied angst, borrowing elements of electronica, the glitter bands, the arena rockers, the anthemic masters and twisting it into a new sound. In listening to the tight live tracks and the crunching electronic loops on their new album, Time For Annihalation, it seems that Papa’s got a brand new bag indeed.

I was lucky enough to be able to get an interview with Jacoby Shaddix, lead singer of Papa Roach, before their appearance at X-Fest in Dayton, Ohio.

J.T.: Hey, how are you doing today? (static) Are we on?
Jacoby: Yeah, can you hear me?

J.T.: Just barely. Can you hear me alright?
Jacoby: Can you hear me?

J.T.: (line clears up) Ah! There we go. That’s better. How are you doing today?
Jacoby: Fine, man. We just got done with the European tour and we flew in yesterday, so I’m just hitting the ground running, you know? We’ve only got a short time before the new album comes out.

J.T.: What date is that due to drop again?
Jacoby: August 31st.

J.T.: Okay. So that means everyone’s going to be all over it right when you get to X-Fest here.
Jacoby: Oh, hell yeah.

J.T.: Now, how many times have you guys played the Dayton area?
Jacoby: As far as X-Fest, to be honest, maybe once or twice before, but I know we’ve been in Dayton a bunch over our career.

J.T.: With the new album, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about is that, especially when you listen to other bands, Papa Roach seems to have matured rather quickly in comparison. Was that intentional? Was that like everybody in the band had the same vision and focus?
Jacoby: I mean, yeah, for us, years and years of being a band and making music together really…we weren’t going so much for more of a mature sound, but more about letting the music take us where it’s going to take us. With our first record, we came in with Nu Metal and rap metal with things like Last Resort and Between Angels And Insects and then, over the years, it kind of evolved into into a more straight ahead rock band. We really enjoy that: me in particular to prove myself as a valid rock and roll singer. I think over the past two records, we really been able to secure ourselves as a staple of rock music and earn some respect over the years and backed that up with a lot of touring and we’ve put out a few records now, so it’s not our rookie year no more and we’re here to stay. That’s what’s up.

J.T.: Yeah, You know, a lot of bands spend their whole career striving to create a “signature sound,” and you guys seem to head in the opposite direction and just follow what interests you at the time. Has that alienated any of your fan base?
Jacoby: Oh, I think, really and truly, that that has really afforded us an opportunity maintain our relevance as a rock and roll band. I think that if we had just done the same thing over and over, we would have just been a one trick pony and become a parody of ourselves. I really just don’t see that happening. I grew up listening to bands like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Led Zeppelin…particularly Led Zeppelin was one of those bands that just always evolved. They had elements of folk in their music. They had elements of metal. They had elements of rhythm and blues and just straight ahead rock and roll. They had a lot of different influences in their style and, yeah, they were a rock band, but they experimented a lot with their sound. We look at that and go, ‘Alright, I want to do that! I want to evolve!’ Not necessarily to sound like Led Zeppelin, but just to have the freedom to explore different sounds.

J.T.: Well, with these festivals or on some of the larger tours the band has been on, does it kind of get you out of the vacuum and you hear things that other people are doing and spark your brain into going in another direction?
Jacoby: Oh yeah, definitely. I think sharing the stage with a lot of different types of bands…we just went to Europe and we did shows with metal bands, but then we did shows with super alternative bands like The Sound and even hip hop reggae groups, which were killer, so we hear that and I’m like, ‘Fuck! That would be cool to just funk it up again!’ I mean, who knows? I do really enjoy playing with a bunch of different styles of bands though.

J.T.: Well, whenever you guys have a new release and it hits the radio, I’ll listen to the song and then the DJ will be like, ‘…and that was Papa Roach!’ and I’ll be like, ‘Really?’ Usually I can pick up on who a group is by vocals and style, but even your vocals change up, which is amazing.
Jacoby: Yeah, we always try to push it, man. We always try to do something different.

J.T.: Well, like with the new one, the live tracks that are on it…I’ve never heard a live album that made you feel as if you were there. It was just so crisp and such a good balance of the band and the audience…
Jacoby: Well, pretty much the way we recorded the show, we obviously put microphones on the instruments and did that whole nine, but also, we put a lot of microphones in the crowd. That was the goal. We wanted to make the listener feel like they were a part of this experience going on and I think we captured the energy of the crowd sing-a-longs and stuff like that. That’s the one thing: we always involve our audience with our show and I believe that it’s a live record that will inspire the fans to want to come to see the show.

J.T.: So do you think, with the album dropping so soon before X-Fest, are you guys going to be riding that in?
Jacoby: Oh yeah! We’re going to be playing new stuff as well as the classics, so it’s going to be a bangin’ set.

J.T.: Well, I am guessing that you are on one of the press junket marathons, so I will try and cut this short for you…
Jacoby: Oh, I got some time…what’s up?

J.T.: Okay! Well, what do you think about Kick In The Teeth…that has kind of that throwback, old style anthem rock vibe to it…
Jacoby: It’s kind of got sort of a Gary Glitter vibe to it.

J.T.: Yeah!
Jacoby: We heard that and it’s kind of got that anthemic thing to it and it’s different and we kind of twisted it up. We listen to other bands and it inspires us to write our own shit. It’s just got that arena rock/anthemic thing to it that we like and it’s got that killer crowd sing-a-long stuff. When we were working on that song, it was apparent that it would fit really well in the ‘live’ realm, like in front of an audience. That’s what it’s about. We’re really proud of that song. I think Burn is another song that is a little more…we also wanted to go with a little more modern sounding stuff like with a distorted violin loop and stuff like that and just mix it up and have a good time, and that song Burn, I think is another big rock anthem. We’re going to go shoot a video for it here in a minute, so I’m excited about that too.

J.T.: Yeah, I love that song. When I got the album, that was the first song I homed in on because I thought it was a cover of that Nine Inch Nails song.
Jacoby: Yeah! That’s that song off the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, right?

J.T.: Yeah.
Jacoby: Yeah, that’s a bad ass track right there.

J.T.: Well, coming off of this album, are you already looking towards the direction of the next one?
Jacoby: Oh, well, when we go out on our next headlining tour, we’ll start writing new material. I think it will be interesting with songs like Burn that has those keyboard sounds and loops and stuff like that, we kind of want to keep going down that path. That is kind of the direction that we want to keep going in and I think that knowing that now will really help us focus in and make it easy for us to create the sound that we’re going for.

J.T.: You know, I just spoke with Chris Stein from Blondie and some other musicians from that CBGB era in the seventies and I just kind of submerged myself in that scene. There’s a lot of music there that seemed to miss at that time, but feels like it would hit with some of the technological advances in music and production that we have now. It’s almost like it needs to be revisited.
Jacoby: Oh yeah, that is some great classic punk rock.

J.T.: I think Papa Roach’s music seems to embrace a lot of that early, raw sound.
Jacoby: I think, for us, that is a sound that has a lot of raw power and energy and it’s something that we’re drawn to and strive for. It think that the early punk rock is the most honest sound. I mean, those guys were just wearing their hearts on their sleeves and that is a lot like Papa Roach. Do we actually sound like an early seventies punk band? No. But the spirit is definitely alive within our music.

J.T.: I remember reading a quote from you that you said you would never do the nu metal/rap type music again. If it came up and fit in the writing of a song, would it be something that you would pursue?
Jacoby: Oh I mean, at any point in time, anything goes. I think we went with achieving a goal and proving ourselves as a valid rock band and now that we have, the playing field is really open now. I will never say never.

J.T.: Cool. Is there anything out there that I haven’t asked you that you want out there?
Jacoby: Um…that’s pretty much it. That’s what’s going on in our world right now.

J.T.: Well, I guess send a message to Dayton and have them come out to X-Fest.
Jacoby: Dayton: Anybody coming to X-Fest, you better wear your diapers because we’re going to rock the shit out of you!

J.T.: (laughs) That should be a t-shirt for your merch table.
Jacoby: There you go, baby!

J.T.: Well, I thank you very much for your time and…
Jacoby: Well, hopefully I’ll see you in Dayton.

J.T.: Yeah, hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with you in the press tent at X-Fest then.
Jacoby: Alright. Take care and if you see me, tap me on the shoulder and tell me that you’re the guy who interviewed me.

J.T.: Okay, cool. I sure will. I’ll talk to you later.
Jacoby: Okay, take it easy bro’.

Papa Roach will be joined by Shinedown, Seether, the Sick Puppies, Drowning Pool, the Dirty Heads, Redline Chemistry, the Paper Tongues, American Bang and Janus on September 12th at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds during X-Fest. The festival begins at noon and you can purchase tickets at any Ticketmaster outlet for $35 or at the gate the day of the show for $40.

X-Fest Countdown – Tongues Untied

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An Interview With Paper Tongues’ Guitarists Devin Forbes & Joey Signa

The Paper Tongues began organically, coalescing from within the Charlotte, NC music scene in 2007, eventually releasing their debut album on March 30th, 2010. The future members of the Paper Tongues drifted into the orbit of Uptown Charlotte, where those who had something to play and wanted to be heard go. It has been misquoted at times that the Paper Tongues created something called The Improv Music Experience. It was nothing so formal as one might infer from the misquote. It was more in line with a jam session with different musicians joining the fray at will. Yet, it did serve an important function as it introduced and nurtured those who would eventually form the Paper Tongues.

It is a rare thing for a band to meet, meld and mature in such a short span of time. Going from performing impromptu jam sessions, then laying down demo tracks and promoting them on MySpace, which gained them an immediate moderate notoriety and jump started their journey through the world of the club circuit. Fast forward a short time later and we see the group as polished performers, introducing the masses to their music through their self titled debut album, which ran up to #110 in the Billboard charts. The spotlight began to shine more intensely on this seven member group and they began touring with the likes of Flyleaf, Everclear and Switchfoot and, at various times, sharing the stage with Anberlin, 30 Seconds To Mars, Rise Against and Muse.

Describing the band’s sound is impossible. They have, in other interviews, described it as “club rock,” but that is an oversimplification. While their music does possess the incessant hooks and danceability that is a requirement of the club scene, but there is more depth to their lyrics and more of a layered texture to their rhythms and melodies. All seven members of the band bring various influences to the sound of the whole and almost every conceivable musical genre becomes can be found lurking within the band’s tracks. From the pop-hop, maniacally insistent song Ride To California to Trinity, with its roughly apocalyptic R&B vocals set against a backdrop of electronic elements and a symphonic wall of guitars.

Aswan North possesses a beatific face framed with spiraled curls and a voice that runs the gamut from harsh hip hop to intensely burning R&B. He possesses a shamnistic stage presence, like a hip hop Jim Morrison, his body becoming another facet of his voice, interpreting the lyrics with an animistic wave of emotive motion. The other members of the band are a constant surge of movement and sound with Cody Blackler working the keys of his Fender Rhodes, Devin Forbes and Joey Signa laying down the guitar tracks while Daniel Santell wields his bass guitar, creating a running rhythm on each song. Jordan Hardee keeps the beat behind his drum kit, producing a percussive drive behind the band while Clayton Simon utilizes his synthesizers for flourishes and persistent rhythms, holding together and expanding the sound of the band.

I have been able to interview two of the guitarists from the Paper Tongues (Devin Forbes and Joey Signa) prior to their appearance at X-Fest to ask them about the roots of the group, their diverse fan base and their plans for the future…

J.T.: This is kind of a multi-tiered question: With bands like Switchfoot, Flyleaf, Muse and yourselves, there is a vastly shifting terrain within the music industry. It seems like the whole industry is changing and your group is on the forefront of this change in terms of marketing, performances, venues, etc. Do you see this change as bringing the fans and the group closer together as opposed to the “supergroup” days when fans filed into an arena, the band played their set list and then everyone went home?
Devin Forbes: I really hope so. Not that we don’t want to reach as many people as possible…we would love to play arena’s if we got the opportunity…but the band/crowd interaction is so important to us. The first thing Aswan does at the beginning of every show is jump out in the audience to shake as many hands as possible. We love hanging out after the show to meet people and actually make some kind of connection beyond the performance. As far as things changing from the “supergroup” days, I really don’t know what it’s going to look like a year from now or five years from now. We’re just taking life as it comes and trying to be as prepared as possible for changes that are inevitable.

J.T.: Have these changes affected the way your music is created, possibly giving you more freedom to write and create works that reflect the really, real world?
Devin Forbes: I think that there has been so much music in the past however many years that is extremely fun to listen to, but doesn’t really have a message. People are ready to hear something positive that actually hits on deeper issues. Granted, I listen to just about anything and there is obviously a time and a place for every kind of music, be it hip-hop, rock, dance, club, funk, folk, or jazz. We write about what means the most to us and hope that it touches somebody in a real way.

J.T.: With the Papers Tongues penchant for playing with other acts (usually in tours consisting of more than three or four bands) or playing the various festivals, like X-Fest, do you feel the band picks up influences from the music being played around them?
Joey Signa: Every chance we get to watch and hang out with other bands we do, because we have so much to learn from them. Bands that have been around for a long time, and our contemporaries. Bands that are in the same place as us, figuring it out just like we are. We get inspired by all different ways, and one of them is definitely seeing how other bands move us.

J.T.: On that same note, do you feel that the band has been able to grow and mature quicker by being in such close proximity to more seasoned bands, maybe avoiding pitfalls that other groups have had to endure?
Joey Signa: There is no doubt we have gotten to see what the “other side” looks like when it comes to bands who have been through a lot more than we have. We are not ashamed to ask for advice. There is no formula to this thing, but a lot of bands share the same experiences so its nice to hear what they have to say.

J.T.: Your music is such a fusion of so many different influences, from hot hip hop beats and hooks to crushingly heavy riffs; does this endless well of energy make it difficult to create a signature sound or does the sound kind of create itself?
Devin Forbes: It has been somewhat been creating itself. When you put 7 musicians from completely different backgrounds in a room and tell them to write a song, the outcome is a complete mystery. There are so many influences floating around our group and showing up in songs where we’d least expect it. There really is a piece of everybody in our music which gives it a sound we’re not sure what to call. It’s hard to define, but it hasn’t been hard to create our sound; it’s just a combo of all of us. Of course we are still trying to figure out what exactly our sound is. I think it will always be a collage of different styles.

J.T.: From reading blog posts and various newspaper articles about the band, it seems as if you are drawing quite a fan base from some really radically different demographics that kind of mirrors the facets of the band’s various personalities and tastes. Does the band kind of feed off of that fan base, pushing themselves to take on broader musical influences?
Joey Signa: Absolutely. I love seeing parents and their children at our shows, both equally excited to be there. It is so inspiring to get to see the people who are grabbing on to our music in a deeper way than, ‘Oh, its a cool hit song.’ We always want to be there for our fans, in every way. They are the reason we tour so much and hang out after every show! Our songs aren’t personal, they’re ‘For the People.’

J.T.: You can feel a lot of the essence of each member of the band’s personality and essence and contributions in each of the songs Paper Tongues has performed. Does that ever leave any of the members of the group feeling emotionally drained or vulnerable?
Devin Forbes: Of course! Performing in front of people is the most naked and vulnerable you could ever be. When we write these songs, we’re in a room to ourselves and we have the freedom to explore anything we want with music without being judged. When you play in front of people, it’s taking something you have written, an expression of you innermost being, and putting it up for judgment. The audience has every right to simply say, ‘Eh, this really isn’t that good,’ but you just spent a month working on wording it just right. It’s hard to put that much personal emotion on the line every day.

J.T.: With seven members, does it become a logistical nightmare to tour incessantly as you do?
Devin Forbes: Yeah, it’s insane trying to get seven people on the same page every single day. Being on time for sound checks, interviews, radio performances, shows, signings, etc, is a nightmare in itself. We do our best and truly love what we do. We love being busy and touring all the time. This is our passion and we do it with zeal. It’s hard, but worth every minute.

J.T.: What is the next step for the band?
Joey Signa: Tour. Tour. Tour. Touring is so important and we will continue to tour as long as we can. We want to meet come face to face with as many fans as we can.

On September 12th, The X (WXEG) welcomes Shinedown, Seether, Papa Roach, the Sick Puppies, Drowning Pool, the Dirty Heads, Redline Chemistry, the Paper Tongues, American Bang and Janus to the Montgomery County Fairgrounds for the fifteenth annual X-Fest. Tickets are $35 through any Ticketmaster outlet or $40 at the gate the day of the show.