When Korn released its debut album in 1994, the emotional rawness and hip-hop undertones sparked talk of the birth of a unique genre, “nu metal.”
More than two decades on, nu metal may no longer be new, but Korn remains prolific, with a fresh tour starting Thursday and an album in the works for next year.
Singer Jonathan Davis, famed for his intense performances, said there was a simple reason for his robust output — music, for him, is therapy.
“I’m going crazy. I’ve been at home for a while, we haven’t been playing much, and I need my therapy,” Davis told AFP as he prepared for the latest tour.
“I go out there and get that aggression out, and that’s how I’ve managed to be happy in life,” he said.
The therapeutic aspect of music also explains how Davis can go nightly before strangers and perform songs of extraordinarily personal nature.
“Daddy,” the final track on Korn’s 1994 self-titled debut album, is a nearly 10-minute remembrance of being molested as a child, the song steadily building in anger as Davis screams and sobs.
“Faget,” another autobiographical song on the album with the power to make a listener uncomfortable, describes the bullying Davis endured growing up in the southern California city of Bakersfield where he would wear eyeliner in the New Wave style of the 1980s.
Korn is performing the album in its entirety on the monthlong US tour that opens in Chicago. The shows follow extensive US and European dates since 2014 to mark the 20th anniversary of “Korn.”
“I look at that record now and think it’s cool, but it’s our first record… and I think we’ve gotten a lot better,” said Davis, who is 44.
But Davis felt that the album struck a chord lyrically with fans, many of whom who “were going through a hard time and needed a way out from it.”
– From growling to rapping –
Korn toured for nearly two years incessantly to promote the debut album, with the band’s success confirmed when it opened for metal legend Ozzy Osbourne.
But Korn diverged from the heavy metal prevalent in the 1980s by incorporating the introspective attitude of alternative rock scenes as well as vocals that swung from metal growls to rap.
“It was an important record and we had no idea we were making it,” Davis said.
“At that time, the ’90s, there was a lot of rock music, a lot of hip-hop. Everybody listened to all kinds of music, so it was for us just to incorporate all that,” he said.
Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Evanescence also were often described as new metal, finding particular success in the late 1990s and 2000s.
– Love of electronica –
Korn has put out 11 studio albums and Davis said that the band would work on a new one after the tour with the aim of a mid-2016 release.
Davis said the next album would be “heavy” with “more of the traditional, old-school Korn sound” but would also feature electronic elements.
One recent album, 2011’s “The Path of Totality,” showed growing experimentalism as Korn brought in dubstep beats — rhythms borrowed from a type of electronic dance music that originated in South London.
Davis himself has gone further into electronica in a side career as a DJ with the stage-name JDevil.
In contrast to many metalheads’ disdain for electronic dance music, Davis is full of praise for the fast-growing genre.
“I really like the electronic scene. It’s like the hippies — it’s all about love and dancing,” he said.
Electronica is not the only side genre for Davis who says he also writes songs daily that include jazz. But he won’t share most of his music.
“I don’t ever want to stop making music,” he said.
“I have so many projects and so many songs that I never put out.”
Davis relishes that he can still play songs just for himself with no risk of a house guest recognizing them.
“Because the minute I put it out, it’s not mine anymore.”