know. I never had a problem with the line because there is no line. There’s nothing I won’t talk about, there’s nowhere I won’t go, let’s put it that way. If you feel like you’ve gotta hold back then, what are you holding onto?” It’s a valid question which there isn’t room to discuss here. But it is still worth ruminating on; especially as different artists have different limits regarding privacy and personal emotions. It’s on Audio Secrecy that we finally see some of the real potential of this amazing band, especially on the huge, sweeping heavy soundscape that is Threadbare. It’s darker, more exploratory and evocative than anything else they’ve put to disc. “I’m just glad we got to make an album like this. It was a long time
coming,” says Corey. “There’s a certain point where you stop looking behind you and start looking in front of you and this album had so many different types of just good music. It was a great opportunity to slowly put away the screaming and really show the world what I can do melodically. I’ve been threatening to do it for a long time and this was just a great time to do it. The album in general I’m really proud of.” Inevitably, the success of a record for these guys isn’t just how much they
achieved when making it but just how well their music has done commercially, something which a lot of UK artists will shun for one reason or the other. It doesn’t seem crass though, more genuine pride and perhaps even humble shock.
“The cool thing is we just heard that (lead single) Say You’ll Haunt me is Number One in the ‘States for the fifth week in a row and for the second week in a row on another chart. Everything’s just building towards something huge and I love being in the middle of that. It feels really good and for the album to do as well as it has when we were away for four years, that’s just testament to just how good this
out, we turn left or we turn right. You must be able to risk everything to gain it all. You can’t hold anything back. You’ve gotta go for it.” As for any band worth its salt, playing live is increasingly becoming an
important part of their revenue stream, and though it’s arguable that live shows were always more important than records, the decline in sales has driven that point home more than anything else. But, perversely, this is where Corey seems to abandon talk of success and focuses more on the personal regarding the live show. “It’s a weird experience for me live anyway. There’s a million different
emotions that cross my mind. Yeah maybe they (the crowd) don’t understand the context of the song (from the lyrics) but it doesn’t matter because they’ve found something that makes sense to them and just to see the emotion out of them is fantastic and it gets me going and it gets so I can’t even hide that and it’s just cool. It makes you want to write better songs and create better music. People sometimes cut themselves off from that. It’s very dry these days. In a production sense there’s so many bands where you can’t tell the difference. You should want to be able to hear the difference and that’s very important to us. If you can’t give them that, then you shouldn’t be in this gig.” Having discussed his love of playing for tiny crowds, like at Dingwalls tonight, or to huge arena and festival audiences, it’s no surprise when Corey is asked for advice, that he stresses the importance for musicians to play live. “Play as many live shows as you possibly can because it teaches you the
“I’m just glad we got to make an album where we can really show the world what we can do!”
band is and how good the album is,” gushes Corey. The band’s and new albus widescle acceptance speaks volumes. What was initially knocked, in some quarters, as an opportunist side project is now taken seriously as a devoted and impassioned rock band in its own right, unafraid to deviate from where fans may have expected them to go. “If we dig something we’re gonna go for it. It’s when you start to second guess things that things start faltering. That’s when it gets weird. And for us we’ve always leapt with our heart first no matter what. There’s a Chinese proverb that goes ‘Before one looks brilliant, one must look foolish’ and that to me is a great way to sum up this band. Once you think you’ve figured us
craft, it really does,” he says. “So many of these bands today don’t play their first show until they play at a big festival. There’s something to be said for doing the work and the more you do it the better you get at it. I’ve been doing gigs since I was 16 or 17 so by the time I got signed I already had years of experience.
My advice is just: cut your teeth, do the work, figure out what you wanna do before you do it and if you’re gonna do something, work to be the best at it that you can.” Splitting his valuable time between two of America’s most popular modern
rock bands hasn’t diminished Corey’s fire or passion, and neither has his commitment damaged either band. Stone Sour are driven by like minds and devotion, which is not just refreshing to see but rewarding in the sense that following your own path can eventually lead to a level of success we’d all be happy with. As Josh puts it towards the end of our time together: “Stay true to yourself, regardless of what people say.” PM
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