Papa Roach's New Album Won't Be Radiohead

05/29/01 7:00am

by Martin Popoff (CHARTattack)

Triple platinum nu-metal rockers Papa Roach are just starting their European dates in late May with Alien Ant Farm, as well as for Ozzfest dates throughout the summer. The rest is necessary most pertinently for Dave (Buckner) the drummer who is suffering from a wrist ailment, possibly carpal tunnel syndrome. But thoughts about the follow-up to Infest are well within the band's frame of reference.

"We are currently working on the new album on the road," explains lead singer Coby Dick. "We've got a Pro Tools rig and we've just got so much stuff compiled up in our heads. Tobin (Esperance) and Dave have just been sitting there putting verses and choruses and bridges down. We're not really writing songs but just getting ideas down as fast as we can before we forget them. And then after that we'll go home in November, probably take a month off, write a little bit in December, but that's Christmas time. And then in January we'll try to hit it hard, focus the record and try to get it out, I dunno, maybe around when school gets out?"

In terms of the style or sound, Coby figures that "it might be just a little more rock 'n' roll, more energetic and punk rock in attitude. But we'll still focus on being real people, lyrically deal with real life situations. It might not be so gut-wrenching but it will still have that real raw emotion that we're about."

Some possible song titles include "The Tyranny Of Normality," "Digging In The Dirt I Found Mud" and "Eat The World," and in terms of a producer, it looks pretty definite that the band won't use Jay Baumgardner.

"We've thought about some people. We're still in that push and pull between do we want to go with the big dog who's done a million big records or should we go for the new underdog kind of guy? Because we did that on the last record. Jay Baumgardner was pretty much nobody and we went with him and learned things with him but we're ready to move on to a new producer. Should we go to one of those classics like a Brendan O'Brien-type or somebody who hasn't produced too many records but is really creative and is more underground? Jay was good, but we just want somebody a little more creative, more of a musician, someone who can actually play a part in the song, someone who will push us as artists and musicians, rather than just say, 'O.K., take that part out and get straight to the verse.'

"Jay was kind of like, cut the fat out of the songs and make it more focused, a pop song. And we kind of want to break some rules on this next record. We're not going to go in and try to be fucking Radiohead or anything, you know, 'This is our second album and we need to prove to the critics that we're worthy of critical acclaim.' Fuck that, you know what I'm saying? But we want to be able to push ourselves."