KORN Guitarist Says Recording With Producer ROSS ROBINSON Again Is 'So Much Fun' - Oct. 28, 2009
On September 12, 2009, Altitude TV spoke with KORN guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer about the songwriting and recording process for the band's next album. Watch the four-minute clip below.

On how the songwriting/recording process is coming along:

"Right now we are in the studio making another record. We are doing it with Ross Robinson; he's producing it. It's so much fun to be recording with him again, 'cause he has such a passion for what we did on the first two albums. That, for him and us, that kick-started our careers; for him as well. And he just keeps putting out platinum albums.

"We didn't drift apart, but we wanted to try other producers, we wanted to kind of experiment, but it just feels like we've been on a long journey and we've come home again."

"The whole record's all organic — it's all guitars, bass, drums and Jonathan's [Davis, vocals] raw emotion, and it's just... man. Some of the stuff that Ross is pulling out of Jonathan, it's just like, 'Wow!' You can feel the energy, the pain, whatever it might be he's singing about that day. It's cool 'cause we're in a room no bigger than this, and we're jamming. It's like a one-car garage and it's covered in carpet; it's a 15-year-old's bedroom or something. And you can hear it in the songs when you play it back. And we're going all analog to tape. It's cool."

On KORN's current label situation:

"We don't have a record label. [Laughs] We're unsigned. It's kind of cool because there's so many options. I don't know at this point. I don't know if we wanna sign with a record label. The good thing about signing with a record label is that they have money to put into promotion and tell people about it. There's talk about us releasing it three songs at a time in a period of over three months. And then there's talk about us releasing it on only a USB key — you know that little chip that goes in your computer. And maybe we'll do all three. But we're thinking about a February release."

On working with the band's newest addition, former ARMY OF ANYONE/DAVID LEE ROTH drummer Ray Luzier:

"When I come up with a riff, or Fieldy [bassist Reginald Arvizu] comes up with a riff, [we'll be like], 'It's OK.' And then Ross will say, 'Keep playing it. Try to develop it more.' And then when Ray steps in and puts his beats down, it could be the crappiest riff ever, but he starts playing to it, and it's like, 'Bam!' It turns it up on ten."

Regarding the new KORN album's lyrical concept — which singer Jonathan Davis previously identified as the five symbols he feels will be the downfall of man: drugs, religion, power, money and time — the frontman recently told AOL's Noisecreep, "It's turning into something else. I was going for that, and I was writing lyrics and stuff around that vibe. And other stuff started coming out, and I can't control what's coming out on my inside. So, the music's ... it always changes. I can start out with a plan, but it's just turning into different stuff. We've got 13 or 14 songs, and the guys are taking turns doing bass and guitars. The drums are all recorded. It's our most diverse record, and I think it's going to make all of our fans happy, and they'll all be very surprised."