Slipknot frontperson Corey Taylor was interviewed by elementary schoolers during his guest slot on Craig Charles’ BBC radio show yesterday. The idea came to fruition after a teacher in North Dakota used the band’s music to teach fifth-graders about time signatures. Five kids from the class read questions for Taylor to answer. Listen on BBC Sounds from 1:15:50.
Asked if Slipknot have songs that change time signature, he responded, “We do actually. ‘Vermilion’ is actually a song that goes from three-four into four-four and kind of back and forth. I think there’s a section in there that goes from three-four to seven-eight, actually, which is very weird. And it all kind of ties together with a riff that could go either way. And it allows us to kind of flow back and forth between them.”
Another kid asked how he became a musician and a songwriter. “You know, it was just something that I instinctively just had a knack for,” Taylor replied. “It all started with singing when I was about 10 years old. And I realized that I could pick up a guitar and I could find the notes that were being played on the song that I was listening to, which, I then realized that I had what is called pitch. It’s not perfect pitch, but it’s darn close. And, after that, I realized that people liked what I did and just kind of leaned into it. I taught myself how to play guitar, so I could write songs. I had always written poems and whatnot, and I taught myself how to write lyrics. And then it was just a matter of getting people together to jam and have fun and dance. The rest is history. But it all stemmed from me just loving to sing, and loving to sing along to stuff that I liked.”
On what inspires him, he added, “Oh, man, everything really! I mean, life in general is the biggest influence you could ever have. There’s so many things that you can look around at, whether it’s the things going on in your life, the things going on in other people’s lives, the things that affect the culture, the things that affect us politically, geopolitically, sociopolitically. […] There’s so many things that, if you look around with the right kind of eyes, you can find inspiration, no matter what it is. And you can take anything and write a song to it. The beautiful thing about music is that it’s limitless. It has no end. All it needs is a beginning.”
Slipknot’s new album, The End, So Far, is out today (September 30).
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