Songwriting UK — Winter 2017

27

ignorance and with feeling instead of with

information, and that’s the tough part.

“That’s one of the reasons why I just

say what I say and get out of it - because I

know a lot of people are going to hit me

with their ignorant emotion when it comes

to defending the shit that that fucking man

says. And I’m not gonna have it. It’s like the

facts blatantly contradict everything that

you’re saying about our president. And I’m

not gonna try and convince a rock that it’s

a shrub.

“The worst thing you can do on the

planet is try and get involved in some one-

sided argument where the other person

has already decided you’re wrong. It’s like,

‘well, OK, then we’re done here.’ I just kind

of stand firm, hold fast, and batten down

the fucking hatches!”

Tell me about the comic book for

House Of Gold & Bones. What made

you decide to get involved with that?

“That was something that was actually

brought to me. It was something that I was

spitballing to begin with. I had the story

for the two albums and I’d written the

short story and put it in the album so that

people could read along, to try and tie the

narrative together.

“Then my management really were the

ones saying, ‘how do you feel about coming

at this from a visual standpoint?’ And I said

that I would love to give it a shot.

“We were able to get a really good deal

with Dark Horse going. I’d never written

a comic book but I’d read them, I’ve

read them my whole life, but never

written one. I have so much respect for

scriptwriters, there’s a lot of work that

goes into putting those things together.

“So for me it was a real learning

experience. It enriched the way that I

devour my entertainment now, just the

amount of attention to detail that goes

into it. I’m really proud of it. I knew it

was going to be a short one, Dark Horse

were really cool and supportive of it and

said ‘let’s do this and let’s do it right - we

don’t need a long term relationship, let’s

just do something really, really, cool.’

“So, yeah, I’m pretty proud of that and

it is one of my favourite things that I’ve

ever done.”

You’ve got many more years ahead

of you, but what do you think your

legacy as a songwriter will be?

“I guess I would love for my legacy to

be the longevity of it. The fact that I was

able to produce so much quality for so

long, with so many different projects -

whether it was with Slipknot, or Stone

Sour, or the various guest appearances,

or side things that I’ve done in the past.

“I think that’s what I would like my

legacy to be. To be someone who wasn’t

afraid to risk, but who wasn’t afraid to

write a song. Sometimes that’s all you

want to do. People just think they’re so

smart that they want their own way and

they’ll walk all over a song just because

they think they know what a song needs.

The song just needs to fucking breathe -

sometimes the song just needs to be the

song that it was meant to be.

“As much I’m a songwriter I’m also

a facilitator. Sometime I just get out of

the way and don’t try to do too much

because that might detract from what

you’re trying to say.

“So I guess that’s really the key isn’t it,

to trying to stick around as long as you

can, that you hope to, by not overstaying

your welcome in the medium that you’re

trying to work in. So yeah, longevity,

quality, and hopefully I wasn’t too much

of a jackass!”

INTERVIEW: DAMIEN GIRLING

Stone Sour’s sixth studio album, Hydrograd,

is out now. To find out more and keep up to

date with the band’s latest news, head to

stonesour.com.

“I’D RATHER

WRITE SOMETHING

I’M HAPPY

ABOUT

AND FAIL, THAN

TO WRITE

SOMETHING

SUCCESSFUL

THAT

DIDN’T COME

FROM MY

HEART”

INTERVIEW: COREY TAYLOR