BIOGRAPHY
Real name : Jonathan Davis -DOB : 01/18/71
Lives(d) : Bakersfield, California
Real name : Reginald Arvizu -DOB : November 2, 1969
Lives(d):Bakersfield, California
Real name : James Shaffer -DOB : 06/06/70
Lives(d) : Rosedale, California
Real name : David Silveria -DOB : 09/21/72
Lives(d) : Bakersfield, California
Real name : Brian Welch -DOB : 06/19/70
Lives(d) : Torrance, California
Jonathan - vocals, bagpipes
David - drums, percussion
Fieldy - bass
Head - guitar
Munky - guitar
KoRn is one of the Greatest Bands Ever! This is how they came about...
Korn was formed in 1993 with the dissolution of two bands:
Sexart and LAPD. Sexart was the band that Jonathan Davis
had led during his years as an assistant coroner (because
he was an assistant coroner he got scared of driving), and
consisted of Jonathan Davis on vocals, DeRoo (David
DeRoo) on bass, Chaka (Ray Solis) and Ryan Schuck on
guitar, and Denis Shinn on drums. Ty Elam, now with
Cradle Of Thorns, supposedly only sat in to jam with the
band, but is listed as sharing vocal duties with Jonathan on
SexArt's only officially released song on "Cultivation '92", a
complilation album. There are various SexArt tapes floating
around Bakersfield to this day, although there was no real
demo tape produced.
LAPD was the band which included Richard Morales
(vocalist), James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy Snuts"
Arvizu, David Silveria, and on tour only (not on the album)
Brian "Head" Welch. When asked about LAPD's material,
Munky said: "Me, Fieldy, and David recorded it when we
were about 18 or 19. You might even hear some Korn
parts. That's when I played rippin' solos." They released
only two recordings: the three-track EP "Love And Peace,
Dude" in 1989, and "Who's Laughing Now" in 1991, both
on Triple X Records.
The future bandmates first crossed paths when Munky and
Brian were in Bakersfield one night, and they went to this
bar where SexArt happened to be playing. According to
Munky: "We were getting ready to leave, and just as we're
walking out the door... Jon was the singer in that band, and
we heard him sing and me and Brian both turned to each
other and our jaws just... (drops jaw) oh my God. And so
we turned around and went back in and watched the whole
set."
Soon after SexArt's appearance on "Cultivation '92",
Jonathan left SexArt to go to LA, and Smily (Brian Armer)
joined SexArt as the new vocalist. At the time, Smily was
singing in a band called Brother From Another Mother. All
of SexArt loved his style, and he was their first pick to
replace Jonathan. Although they had now found a
permanent singer, SexArt continued on for only several
more months before going their separate ways. Smily
formed the band Glass Cut Eternity, and DeRoo and Chaka
ended up in Huntington Beach with Denis and Ryan in a
band called Supermodel, which featured Richard (who had
left LAPD) as their frontman. Currently, the ex-members of
SexArt are doing various things. Ryan is now in Orgy, Denis
is a music producer in Southern California, and Chaka,
DeRoo, and Smily are now in Juice.
At this point, LAPD had disbanded (thus the loss of Richard
to Supermodel). Not willing to give it up, though, they
reformed as Creep, with Brian joining on indefinitely.
However, Creep still needed someone to fill Richard's
shoes. It was during this time, when Brian and Munky were
living in L.A., that they saw Jonathan at that fateful show in
Bakersfield. They approached him about trying out for the
fledgling band, but initially Jonathan didn't want to do it.
However, a psychic had told him that he would be stupid if
he didn't, so he went against his better judgment and tried
out anyway. It was during this audition that they realized
that Jonathan was the perfect singer for their new band. As
Munky put it: "We just clicked."
After deciding upon the new frontman, the band needed a
new name. Jonathan described the short decision making
process: "We were trying to think of a name and this...
"Korn" popped in my head, and I'm like 'What about
"Korn"?' ... and we're all like, 'Fuck yeah!'" When he was
asked about the name, David said: "To me it kind of means
that it doesn't matter what your band's called. Name or not,
the music makes a name, you know... 'cos "Korn", that's a
dumb name, but once a band gets established, then it makes
a name cool."
Korn later recorded their first demo tape, "Niedermeyer's
Mind", which featured 4 songs: "Blind", "Predictable",
"Daddy", and "Alive". Although "Predictable" remained
basically the same in the transition to the self-titled first
album, both "Blind" and "Daddy" were strikingly different,
though the basic progression is the same. The demo version
of "Blind" was much less rap-influenced, and featured more
metal riffs. Although "Alive" was scrapped before the debut
album, a few parts were ressurrected and transformed into
"Need To".
After garnering a small following, Korn raised a few
eyebrows at various record labels. Although many appealed
to them, there was always a lingering fear of having to
conform to the label's needs or desires, rather than being
able to do what they wanted. Then Immortal Records came
along: "They seemed to really get into what we were trying
to do. They shared our vision of what Korn was trying to
do. They didn't want us to conform to anyone's needs."
Soon after, Korn was signed and the rest, as they say, is
history....
In the early '90s, heavy music looked to be going the way
of the dinosaurs: Well-heeled Brit-pop and well-scrubbed
pop-punk were thoroughly dominating the guitar-rock
landscape, and the few surviving old-school metal acts
seemed hopelessly unable to adapt.
But somewhere within the vast, murky Southern California
wasteland, a dynamic new species was being born, a
forward-thinking beast that disregarded the mistakes of heavy
bands past while meshing dark, urban rhythms and low-tuned
guitar sludge with violent, expressionist blasts of hip-core noise.
That and the wildly emotional vocals of JONATHAN, which
alternated between a bourbon-smooth croon and a viscerally
sharp howl, made for a revolutionary mix that redefined heavy
rock better than anyone had in a decade. The result was a
monster 1994 self-titled debut album that went solid platinum,
and by the time 1996's LIFE IS PEACHY was released, this
beast had a fanbase over two million strong--and a legion of
musical imitators so large it threatened to saturate the planet.
It was time for a change of rules.
Hence KORN's latest, greatest slab, aptly titled FOLLOW THE
LEADER. From the broadened musical and emotional scope to
the much beefier production values to the stunning cover art
courtesy of Spawn-creator Todd McFarlane, FOLLOW THE
LEADER is indeed an ambitious and deeply satisfying outing for
the band. And while there is considerably more hype
surrounding this rightly anticipated disc, JONATHAN is quick to
put things in perspective.
"Our only goal was to take our time on this album," he says.
"Because I knew we had it in us to do something great. To full
integrate both (previous) albums and put out a record we could
be proud of...we wanted to do some phat shit."
"I think working with a new producer and going into a new
studio helped us grow musically as a band," adds guitarist
MUNKY. "All of us really have that fire again about being
excited about a record...We all feel like we grew, like when you
grow out of some old shoes; your feet are all crammed in
forever and you know you need to buy a new pair, but you need
to save up the money to do it. We kind of saved up our
confidence and made that leap into our new shoes."
Fans of old-school KORN needn't despair--the new shoes kick
just as much ass as the old pair. "Freak On A Leash" is a
molotov cocktail of scathing, psychedelic guitar runs,
hypno-groove bass grind, hip-hop jungle drumming, all sliced in
two with an ingeniously placed scat line reminiscent of
PEACHY opener "Twist." Then there's "Children Of The KORN,"
title courtesy of legendary gangsta rapper Ice Cube, who
contributed an arresting series of verses to the tune, as well as
a mallet-blunt mantra that speaks for every fed up kid in
America: "Stop fuckin' with me!" Check the epic closing track,
"My Gift to You," one of the band's heaviest songs to date, rife
with the sort of lyrical honesty that's earned JONATHAN true
street cred with the kids--and dismay from the parents. Which
is just fine with him--KORN, after all, speaks directly to those
disenfranchised with a world of spent opportunity and violence,
due in large part to the short-sightedness of generations past.
"Yeah," says JONATHAN, "I am pissed off that I inherited it. I
wish sometimes that I was born back in the day. But today's
society is so fucked up...we gotta thank the parents for doing
that to the kids."
Yes, they still rock. But FOLLOW THE LEADER also
illustrates just how much JONATHAN's vocal and lyrical
abilities have broadened from the "straight fuckin' cathartic
rage" of KORN and PEACHY to a level that communicates a
full range of human emotion, from regret ("It's On!") and
empathy ("Justin"), to lighthearted if incredibly vitriolic banter
("All In The Family"). The band's musical growth is also well
evident--from drummer DAVID's successful integration of
D-Drum sampling to FIELDY's ever-more-percussive bass
playing. Meanwhile, twin guitar towers MUNKY and HEAD have
made their joint stylistic fusion nearly seamless. "It's like we're
one person," adds HEAD. "We're one guitar player thinking. It's
weird." The end result is an album that could well be KORN's
swan song--and one that's sure to find the band's ever-growing
throng of musical imitators scurrying back to the chalkboard.
Although FOLLOW THE LEADER will not be officially released
until August 18 on Immortal/Epic Records, MUNKY considers it
a mission accomplished: "I think we've already achieved
success on this record," he says. "We're all 100 % happy with
all the songs. That was the personal goal for me."
In the making of FOLLOW THE LEADER, KORN's also been
busy with their ground-breaking live weekly Internet program, as
well as the formation of its own record label, Elementree
Records. Its first signing, California "death pop" outfit Orgy, has
already drawn critical acclaim for its debut CANDYASS
(Alternative Press enthusiastically endorsed the record, saying
it displayed enough "smart melodies, head-banging crunch and
electro-kicks to impress even the most fickle music fans").
CANDYASS will hit the shops the on the same day as
FOLLOW THE LEADER. As for Elementree itself, FIELDY
offers up the band's business philosophy accordingly:
"I think we'd all like to sign some bands that everybody's scared
to sign. And of course to make them as big as KORN, if not
bigger. I think where we're at in '98, the whole decade is really
hurting for some good music."
In addition to the new record and the new label, KORN has also
put together its own answer to Lollapalooza: the "Family
Values" tour, an eight-week U.S. tour which will feature Ice
Cube, Limp Bizkit, Orgy, Rammstein and, of course, KORN, in
addition to a throng of breakdancers, fire-eaters and a myriad of
other cultural oddities. Why would an already overworked band
want to tackle such a monumental task?
"There are all these festivals that have weak links in them,"
says DAVID. "It's not easy to put together a big festival
because there are a lot of people involved--but we thought we
could give it a shot and do something better."
1998 is proving to be an intensely creative year for the band. An
ambitious new record that redefines the school KORN defined
in the first place--that's already garnering massive airplay for its
first single ("Got The Life"). An ambitious new label that's
already undermining the alternative world. And an ambitious
new tour showcasing some of the heaviest acts of the day. No
surprise. KORN has always been about ambition--and much
more often than not it's paid off.
"We're not out to change the world, just music."