Drum Media
18-24 November 1999Click goes the brain boys...
Click... Click.. Click.
Compiled by MURRAY ENGLEHEART
Korn singer, JONATHAN DAVIS gives us an insight into
what makes him go click. Interview by MURRAY ENGLEHEART
Rewind to January 1999. The dressing areas for the Marilyn Manson and Hole camps at the Sydney leg of the Big Day Out were like military compunds.
Both were surrounded by fencing which was in turn covered by material to make sure that not only could no-one get in, but no-one could see in either. The Korn plot on the other hand was nothing more than a dressing unit
with no extended privacy or perimeter fencing. All that changed about 2.00pm. A load of scaffolding was desposited outside and within a matter of an hour or so a fence was up securing the area. It wasn't so much a
matter of one upmanship as simple need. Or maybe containment.
The band arrived en masse at about 4.30 with an assortment of partners and prams and no less than three bodyguards one of whom was a mountainous
Special Forces Vietnam Vet like did. Singer, Jonathan Davis swaggered goofily into the area all in black with a pencil thin moustache and a Stetson hat he'd bought on the Gold Coast a few days earlier. He wandered about
innocently and seemed like he didn't have a care in the world. Outwardly anyway.
Cut to the Melbourne Big Day Out three days later. An hour before stage time there was a net chat to do. A cordoned off
corner in the VIP tent was set up and Davis and guitarist, Munky were led in much to the disbelief of the fans who had a clear view of the area through the perimeter fencing. The session ran for about 10 or 15 minutes
by which time some fans had somehow managed to get into the area and not curprisingly wanted to press the royal Korn flesh. Davis stayed only briefly. He just seemed to need to be somewhere else. Somewhere quieter,
probably safer and much less exposed.
Korn's fourth album, Issues isn't that protective compound. In fact it's not secure or secured in any way at all. It was never really meant to be. What it is is a front
row, neck ligament earing wide screen view into the demonic personal hell that the highly likeable Davis has been agonising over the past few years. Over the course of 16 tracks which range from the curshingly heavy to
the just plain crushing - often both at the same time - Issues finally shows what's under the stage kilt of the man who again welds his bagpipes on the album's opener, Dead with it's desperate and telling whispered
mantra "All I want in life is to be happy".
"I knew it was going to be a concept thing," Davis says of the album from his home in Laura Canyon, California. "about how I went through
all the hells when Follow the Leader came out and we did (the) Family Values (tour). Me having bad anxiety problems and being an alcoholic and all that shit I went through. The whole thing's based on that one long story.
"The other albums are more pissed off, mad, angry shit. This shit was more gurt than emotional because I wanted to kill myself man because I didn't know what the fuck was wrong with my head. I thought
I was totally going insane! I thought I was going crazy! I thought I was losing mind and it just fucking freaked me out. I wanted to kill myself for the longest time."
Thankfully, the album doesn't
just document Davis' mind torment but marks the beginning of an entirely new chapter in his life. "I got on this medicine to help me out with anxiety and all that stuff and a door opened up to me. I'm going to
start driving again. I realised I wasn't happy in my relationships. I just had to move on again and do shit for me now. I channelled a lot of that into this album. This album is a big transformation in my life and it's
me just writing it all out, getting it all out."
With painfully self explanatory song titles like Beg For Me, Make Me Bad, Am I Going Crazy?, Someboby Someone and I Wish You Could Be Me, Issues could
almost be a Davis solo album if it weren't for the very obvious supportive presence of his band mates. "All my albums have been really personal." he says clearly stamping his identity on the band's recordings.
"This one's different. It's got depth to it. I'm singing more and it grabs you and rubs you a different way to the other ones."
The groundwork for the general theme of Issues was laid by songs
like the Follow the Leader album's BBK (Big Black Kock). Rather than reference to some poor soul's more than ample appendage the song was actually Davispeak for Jack Daniels and coke in a tall glass and a firm cross
reference to his alcoholism. The singer once told me that his horrifying and totally debilitating anxiety attacks seemed to be triggered in apart by that alcohol intake.
"All it is is a defect in my
brain that released a chemical that makes me panic for no reason." he explained at the time. "It just happens. My brain just goes, Click! 'Oooohhhh! That panic? Your brain releases that chemical. My brain does
it for no reason. It's that horriblest feeling in the world. You feel like you're going to die. I don't with that on anybody. Even my worst enemy. It's the most fucked up feeling. You can't even imagine.'
I'd rather not even try thanks. On a much brighter but not less skewed note that album's first single, Falling Away From Me was launched in revolutionary - but for Korn - fitting fashion on South Park. "I'm a big
fan of South Park. I watch it all the time. I love it. I think a lot of South Park fans are Korn fans so it's going to go really well." As it happens the South Parkers were the only "guests" that were in
any way involved with the Issues album. There was simply no need for the assistance of outsiders this time around, "No, this was all about me and my shit" Davis laughs. "My Issues."
