Papa Roach Defy The Critics By Rockin' Out

08/26/04 5:30pm

by David Missio (CHARTattack)

Jaccoby "Coby Dick" Shaddix epitomized what every single hardcore band from high school tried to become. Filled with an angsty rage from social, emotional and societal rejection, the embodiment of an outcast's frustration was amped up for a sympathetic and understanding collective who clung to their every word and their every riff.

From their humble beginnings in the early '90s, Papa Roach went on to headline festivals and sold out theatre tours around the world on the power of their 2000 monster release Infest. Having clawed their way up from the grungiest of clubs to gigantic, cavernous venues packed to the rafters, their follow-up album, Lovehatetragedy, spawned several hit singles, though critics were quick to pounce.

Now, four years after Infest launched Papa Roach into the stratosphere, their new album Getting Away With Murder (due in stores this Tuesday, August 31), has them right back where they started. ChartAttack spoke with P. Roach drummer Dave Buckner about getting back to basics, their critics and some GN'R rumours.

"We're doing these deep, dark, dank sweaty clubs, these little teeny tiny places, these little holes in the wall," Buckner says with almost absurd pride. "The whole point of this tour was basically to get back to our roots, to get back to where we came from, right there in front of those people. A really intimate little place, people just crammed into the corners, everybody just sweating all over each other, just dripping and it's loud and it's hot and the intensity and the vibe is just all right there."

Much of Papa Roach and Buckner's enthusiasm for the scaled down venues seems to come directly from the audience themselves. Buckner says that Papa Roach are a band that understands the importance of their fans, as they try to always get out and make that connection. Of course, the biggest connection with the fans is through the music itself.

"The energy level in these places is probably the highest its ever been at for any of our shows ever. That's coming from us, it's coming from the audience," Buckner says. "I'm sitting back, like, five feet from the kid in the front row and we're staring at each other right in the eye, and he's going crazy and I'm going crazy and the girl next to him is banging her head off and it's awesome. It's just amazing energy in there."

The first single off of the new album is actually the title track, "Getting Away With Murder." Though most people were first exposed to the song through the Chronicles Of Riddick trailers, it was those that heard it live that ensured the band's confidence in the track.

"'Getting Away With Murder' received the highest reactions, each night. At the end of the song, Coby runs off with the song where he's singing it a capella and the whole place would just be singing it along with him by the end," Buckner says. "It was just us playing it live, so these people were hearing it for the first time ever and by the end of the song, we knew, we got 'em. When we were thinking about what was going to be the first single, we just knew, it's got to be 'Getting Away With Murder.'"

As for the next single off the album, the process was much simpler than audience trial tests. What did the band base the selection of "Scars" on as the second single?

"That is based on the fact that that song is a hit," Buckner says matter-of-factly. "There was something about, when that song was being created that we just sort of had this gut feeling about, and we almost had to let the song write itself. I just had this weird feeling in my gut, man... and I've got a really big gut, so it's a big feeling."

Despite the smaller venues on the current tour, Papa Roach will not shy away from the big stage for too long. From August 19 to the 24, the band will be in Belgium for the giant PukkelPop 2004 music festival, featuring the likes of Velvet Revolver, The White Stripes, The Streets and a whole lot more.

"I'm really stoked to be playing with Velvet," Buckner says of the overseas festival. "We've done quite a few shows with Stone Temple Pilots who were influential on us... we sorta almost felt a kinship in a way to Stone Temple Pilots. It'll be cool to see Scott again. We played a show with Guns N' Roses, but it wasn't the Guns N' Roses that had Duff and Slash in it... it was the Axl, Buckethead incarnation, which, I heard a rumour, that their album will be coming out by the end of the year..."

Back on topic, Buckner asserts that Getting Away With Murder is not simply just another album for the band as they attempt to reclaim their throne on top of the mount, rather it is a statement and the height of what Papa Roach is all about.

"This whole record is just a big 'fuck you' to all the naysayers who thought we were going to be a one hit wonder because our last record didn't match the commercial success of Infest,'" Buckner says sardonically. "Y'know what dude? Fuck you, we're not going anywhere, this is our best record ever, these are the best songs we've ever written, this is the best sounding stuff we've ever made and you're going to like it."