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Slipknot Feature - http://www.guitar.com >>



What began as a side project for a bunch of headbangers has mutated into a nine- member metal monstrosity. And in case you're wondering, the outlandish, mask-wearing tactics that Des Moines, Iowa-based Slipknot employ on stage (which you may have seen them wearing at [Ozzfest] this summer) date back to the band's more innocent early days. Guitarist Mick (no last names please) recalls the group's New Year's Eve show in 1995, the year they tied the Knot: "I went on stage with a Little Bo Peep costume that I rented."

But the masks Slipknot now sport in concert, and on the cover of their pummeling yet intricately woven self-titled new album, certainly aren't cute. Take, for example, the court jester mask covering the face of guitarist James, who joined the group in January. "I've puked through it a few times," he admits. "It's got boogers stuck in it and my roommates are pissed at me because it stinks up the whole house."

Even though Slipknot's producer was Ross Robinson (Korn's first two albums), Mick (who now performs in a leather bondage mask) and James claim their band has nothing in common with the ever-growing, hip-hop-flavored new-school of metal. "Pffff! Please," says Mick, who handles bestial, death metal-inspired riffage as well as eerie effects (as in 'Surfacing' and 'Spit It Out'). "I grew up listening to fuckin' Morbid Angel and Deicide, okay? I come from stuff like that, not Korn."

So as you might expect, Mick and James wouldn't be caught dead playing seven-string guitars, which Korn's Munky and Head-and all their little disciples-champion so vehemently. "Seven-string guitars are gay," says Mick, who used a custom Jackson on Slipknot. "You have this humongous neck that's considerably harder to navigate—and I have big fuckin' hands." But like many Korn songs, Slipknot tunes like 'Scissors' and 'Prosthetics' deal with disturbing subject matter. Even so, Mick chooses not to reveal any exact themes. "I'd rather not talk about them," he shrugs. "I usually leave it up to (the listeners) to work it out for themselves." While listening to the alternately harsh and melodic "Wait and Bleed" or the twisted and roaring 'Eyeless,' you might wonder how a band with nine members can achieve such a surgically precise roar. Indeed, things could have gotten mighty messy.

As it turns out, not every member (the band also includes singer Corey, bassist Paul, drummer Joey, percussionists Chris and Shawn, turntable-ist Sid, and sampler Craig) plays on every song. "Things never get cluttered," Mick says. "We only use shit that fits. If there's a song in which Shawn and Chris' percussion has no place, then it's not in there."

During the band's bombastic stage shows, however, each member always has a key role. "If some don't have (musical) parts, they run around and fuck with everybody else in the band," says James, who played an ESP LPD Horizon on the album. "Sid and Shawn tend to get into fights, and sometimes that spills over to the other guys. And sometimes it spills out into the crowd."

IGN For Men - NOW SERVING NUMBER SEVEN (Laying It On The Line With Mick) >>

IGN For Men: I've never been to Iowa.
Mick: It all sucks.
IGN For Men: But isn't it all relative to your point of reference?
Mick: Well, that's what's really interesting. I grew up, I mean fuck, I live a mile and a half from the hospital I was born at, you know? So it's like you don't get out much and then you go out and see the US a few times and go to Europe and shit and then come back and it gives you some awesome perspective as to just how completely retarded it is where you live.
IGN For Men: Yeah, but your cost of living has got to be mad cheap. I mean I could probably come out there and buy a really cool house for really cheap.
Mick: Well, there again, really cheap is you know...My roommate is from a small town in Iowa and he thinks what we pay in rent is high. And I laugh because it's like...I just went out two days ago and started renting a house and it's like twice what our rent is at our apartment.
IGN For Men: What are you paying at the apartment?
Mick: Umm, 400 bucks.
IGN For Men: And you're now paying $800 for a house?
Mick: Yeah, 3-bedroom, 2-story house with a basement.
IGN For Men: Dude, I'm paying $400 for a small, small room in San Francisco with no parking.
Mick: That's what I heard. And in LA you pay like 1100 dollars for like a small efficiency.
IGN For Men: It's the same here in SF and even worse in New York.
Mick: See I've got a nice full basement with a shower and shit. I've got a deck and a garage.
IGN For Men: Oh, you're stylin'.
Mick: Yeah! But him being from a really fucking small town, he thinks our 400-dollar a month apartment is just outrageous. I'm like 'Man, get over it!' I'm from the suburbs, where it is considerably a little more expensive out there, but...an evil product of the suburbs.
IGN For Men: There's more of us out there than you realize.
Mick: *laughs* Yeah!
IGN For Men: Jim told me that you don't wear your masks in practice, but do you still practice all hunched over and head snapping and flailing?
Mick: No, that's what's funny. Obviously I get into it and I feel it. When I walk out on stage and the look in people's eyes and shit and the crowd yelling 'Slipknot!' for 10-minutes before you come out, I mean that gets you really jacked. I mean the thought of walking into a town where you've never been before and there's people fucking yellin' your name and shit that are there to see you, it's the greatest feeling on earth. I mean it's amazing. I mean no one could ever imagine that that would ever happen in their life. Certainly not me. I don't know, it's the coolest. So you get really psyched up. And then you come out on stage and see the fucking look on people's faces when you walk out and I really feed on that. Sometimes when we've rolled into a place and they've never seen us before, this is going back a ways before you could go look at us on the Internet and you could get the CD anywhere. Each town took two shows, basically. The first show they'd stand there and watch like 'What the fuck is this?' Like it was a train wreck or something. And then the second show we'd have lots of pits. I mean the first shows would have some pits, but most people were standing there like 'Huh?' And it was always frustrating to me 'cause I really feed off the crowd and if the crowd's just kind of standing there I just want to throw my guitar down and start smacking people.
IGN For Men: Hey, is your music derived from your nightmares at all?
Mick: I don't really have any nightmares. I don't know. Everybody's different and that's just me. It's just very natural. Fuck, I guess being on the outside and not knowing where things come from it might...there's a lot of people who talk about things being scary and I watch tape and I'm kind of sick looking on stage, but it is very fitting. The music is definitely a side of my personality that is there and it gets to come out.
IGN For Men: Hell, we all have our dark sides.
Mick: Yeah, some bigger than others.
IGN For Men: I talked with Clive Barker a few weeks ago and he mentioned that if he didn't have his writing as an outlet he'd surely be locked up in the loony bin.
Mick: Well I've said before if there wasn't such a thing as masturbation there'd definitely be a body count *laughs*.
IGN For Men: Jim was talking about his Playstation fixation on tour, what about you?
Mick: No, I had my 64 out on the road like two tours ago. I bought Knockout Kings Boxing. I played like probably 30 straight hours of that until I beat Muhammad Ali with three or four different guys that I had created. Then I kinda grew tired of it.
IGN For Men: So have you been leaving the console at home lately?
Mick: Yeah, yeah, you know, people beatin' the shit out of your stuff. Somebody else can bring their 64, 'cause I don't like watching my controllers get thrown.
IGN For Men: You'd rather play in the safety of your own home, then?
Mick: Oh yeah, I'm a puss. I'm like 'Dude, you know, you break my controller, it's your ass.' I'd rather not even have it come to that, so I'll leave it at home. But I run through phases. Sometimes I do that [play N64] a lot more and sometimes I'm just like 'Ehhh, I'm burnt out.' And those kinds of times I usually just do a lot of sleeping.
IGN For Men: So do you guys roll as fat as John Madden, the king of open road travel?
Mick: Oh yeah! Especially are new bus that we just got. It's a 2000, total rolling palace. Oh fuck, it's potential is yet to be realized. We've got virtual reality goggles in every bunk. You can like lay in your bunk watching TV, strap the shit on, it's got the headphones and total wraparound. So I think I'm gonna be partaking of that a little bit more.
IGN For Men: Man, you're just gonna be a vegetable between shows.
Mick: Exactly. Not only that, we've got a satellite and the satellite cards, so we've got all the channels...
IGN For Men: You'll get to watch Japanese Death Match Wrestling and cool stuff like that then you lucky bastard.
Mick: Oh yeah, that kind of stuff is awesome. Man I got to watch the Holyfield/Lewis fight before I went on stage. I was sittin' there 20-minutes before we went on and the fight was over. Then I had to run inside and quickly get changed. But we've got like the three hardcore porno channels and I've never experienced that with the virtual reality goggles. What's cool about that, too, is typically I'm a connoisseur of fine pornography, but I don't dig watchin' it around dudes, know what I'm sayin'? You walk in and there's four guys sittin' there watchin' some guy taggin' some plastic titted strumpet and I'm like 'What's wrong with you guys?' I mean this is activity for one, as far as I'm concerned.
IGN For Men: So you never watch porn with your lady?
Mick: I've never done that. I don't need that shit, anyway, 'cause it's not like anything in porno...I get a little bit more creative than that. Besides, my whole thing is my girlfriend lookin' at other dicks thing. Like nah, nah, nah.
IGN For Men: Ahh, penis envy, so to speak.
Mick: Well not envy. It doesn't matter smaller or bigger or whatever, she might like it more than mine. And I couldn't possibly live with that, you know?
IGN For Men: Have you ever considered a gig in the adult film world?
Mick: Well, I've always said, as a joke, that my guitar playing is simply a stepping stone to my porno career.
IGN For Men: What would your porn name be, then?
Mick: I don't know. The good ones like Rip Hyman and shit are already taken. Hmmm, yeah, I don't know, that would definitely take some thought and I've never really put any thought into the name, but my God, I've thought about what I'd do. But I've got a girlfriend. And some people have girlfriends, but it's just some goofy bitch that they're porkin'. But I actually fucking love and care for mine. It's one of those things, I just couldn't do it. But you know, if everything fell apart I'd like to lend my woodsmanship to a video sometime in my life. But if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.
IGN For Men: Well it's always wise to have a back-up career option, you know?
Mick: Yeah *laughs* I didn't go to college, but I can fuck. Just don't tell my mom *laughs*.

Mick interview with http://www.guitar.com >>

 

It's hard to imagine Slipknot guitarist Mick Thompson, more commonly known as 7, getting teary-eyed over a ballad like Ozzy Osbourne's 'Good-Bye to Romance,' but somewhere under the hockey-player-from-hell latex mask is a man with a soft spot for melodic eloquence, and a hard-ass guitar teacher. Before Slipknot's wave of success began to swell, Thompson worked at Ye Olde Guitar Shoppe in Des Moines, Iowa, where he cultivated his playing technique, a fervent love of gear and a guitar pedagogy that was actually surprisingly sensitive to his students' needs. The 26 year old characterizes himself as an anti-social, obsessive shredder, so it's something of an irony that he wound up making a name (or at least a number) for himself as part of a nine-piece ensemble that's built a following with primal, grinding rant-o-ramas that have more in common with the minimalist rumblings of the industrial underground than the epic scenarios of prog-rock. But Thompson is the missing link between the two worlds, attacking Slipknot's raw music with the refined sensibility of an artist.



Guitar.com: Is there a method to the madness? Is Slipknot an art band?

Mick Thompson: No. We just do what we do. That's what's funny. A lot of times people think we're really contrived -- like we sit down and have band meetings and decide what we're gonna do. Everything just evolved over the last five years. We could never know that we were going to get a record deal. No one in Des Moines ever got a record deal, so it was never even a consideration. It's always been just to make ourselves happy. That's what's cool about it; it's honest. We could have never predicted the kind of fuckin' success we've got. I thought we'd be lucky to sell 100,000 records.

Guitar.com: Did you have trouble building a following locally?

Thompson: Noooo. We had a sick following. Our fans have always been fanatics. Nobody's a wishy-washy Slipknot fan. You love us or you don't. That's what's good - there's a lot of emotion wrapped up in that.

Guitar.com: Being a guy who was so heavily into shreddage, do you ever feel cramped by Slipknot's music because there isn’t much room for you to groove?

Thompson: See, we used to have leads back in the day. They got cut out in pre-production. '(Sic)' used to have a big long shredder lead where I got to do sweep arpeggios and harmonic minor runs and all this kind of shit. It was a lot of fun cause people would get a little taste of it. It wasn't the whole show, but they'd be like, 'Goddamn, you can play.' But now I don’t really have that. I get a little sweep thing on a song called 'Me Inside' but the way it ended up getting mixed was it got panned out about half way through so you can't hear that I'm doing minor diminished sweeps. Plus we put a phaser on it. '(Sic)' doesn't need a lead in anymore. While I love doing that stuff I wouldn’t want to do something that wasn't positively affecting the song. Admittedly I was pissed off for a while -- the wind was kind of pulled out of my proverbial sails a little bit -- but I'm not mad. And who knows what's going to be on the next record? Probably no fuckin' shredding, unfortunately, but the stuff we're working on for the next record is definitely more technical.

Guitar.com: When you were in your most obsessive phase of guitar playing, was it some kind of spiritual quest a la Steve Vai?

Thompson: No. I just did what I did. I never took any cues from anybody. I never copied anybody. I've always just played 'cause I have to. Every day I'd drive home from work, I wouldn't clean up -- nothing. I used to have this big dark spot on my wall where I would lean across my 100 watt Marshall half stack I had in my bedroom and hit the power switch and every day sit down filthy on the edge of my bed and play my guitar just 'cause I had to hear it. I'd end up sitting there for a few hours and then realize I had to take a piss and I was starving.

Guitar.com: Not to get all 'what color is your parachute' but they say that’s when you know you've found your calling. It's the thing that makes you forget time and lose track of self.

Thompson: That’s what I’ve always said about drugs. I don't even understand why you'd need it. If you need to escape from your bullshit world -- I can sit in my room and play my guitar and I'm not me, I'm not anything. I'm not aware of anything. In a way it's like meditation, but never intentional. I've never sought to do that, it just ended up happening that way and now I can look back and go 'Whoa, I just spent four hours sitting there and I don't recall seeing anything in the room.' I can't really remember any time I focused my vision on anything. I'm just gone.

Guitar.com: Who were you influenced by?

Thompson: That's such a funny question – like I'm supposed to sound like whatever bands I listen to. I was such a huge Hendrix freak. I still love Hendrix. But does my playing sound like Hendrix? No. You don't have to be a product of (your influences)...But yeah, definitely Hendrix. Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Couldn't Stand the Weather' was amazing. My dad got that when I was like 11 and I got to go see him when I was 13. I skipped a baseball game I had that day and went.

Guitar.com: Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the thing you love.

Thompson: Yeah, I'm glad I missed that game. I was supposed to pitch that night too. It was like, 'Sorry guys. Duty calls.' God what else? Flotsam & Jetsam's 'Doomsday for the Deceiver'. That was a huge inspiration speed metal-wise -- playing really fast and huge arrangements. Metallica, 'Ride the Lightning'. Suicidal Tendencies' 'How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today?' Anthrax, old Iron Maiden stuff -- 'Number of the Beast' and 'Piece of Mind'. Fates Warning. People think Dream Theater is good? Fates Warning smokes them… They are probably the greatest progressive metal band ever to exist. Very overlooked too… They’ll always do Dream Theater articles, but they never do any justice to Fates Warning -- and Dream Theater were hugely influenced by Fates Warning. John Petrucci's a great guitar player but I'm always left without much. I like parts of 'Awake' and a bunch of 'Images & Words' but after that it's like, 'Where's your soul?'

Guitar.com: That's a problem with a lot of high-end tech players.

Thompson: Yeah, a lot of times it doesn't connect. That's one thing I've always done in my leads, which you've never gotten to hear, but they're always very lyrical. I can play insanely fast, but speed doesn't mean shit without taste. That's the thing I love about Randy Rhoads and Johnny Winter -- old Johnny Winter back when he was still doin' rock stuff. 'Theme For An Imaginary Western' by Mountain has one of the greatest leads ever done on it. It's so tasty. That's the thing I always try to keep -- a theme. I can improvise but I prefer to write something [so] it flows. It takes you somewhere. Maybe something that reoccurs a little later in another form similar - melody-wise but people wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a melody in itself.

Guitar.com: A recapitulation.

Thompson: Yeah. That's the kind of stuff Randy Rhoads did. Listen to the lead for 'Good-Bye To Romance'. That song makes me cry. I'm sorry, but John Petrucci has never in his life touched the 'Good-Bye to Romance' solo. He's a much better technical guitar player than Randy Rhoads. In fact I'm probably technically a better guitar player than Randy Rhoads 'cause I pull off a lot of shit that Randy Rhoads never did.

Guitar.com: But he played with so much feeling.

Thompson: Oh my God. I would never even think to blaspheme and say that I could consider myself anything like Randy Rhoads. Technically I can shred arpeggios at the speed of light all day long and I never saw Randy Rhoads do that, but who gives a rat's ass? I didn’t write the 'Good-Bye to Romance' lead. That's so much more important. And a lot of people who say that kind of stuff say it because they don't have the technique and they can't actually play. That's their crutch. Like, 'That's real fast, but these four notes I play mean something.' I'm like, 'Yeah, that’s a nice excuse for not being able to play fast 'cause you know you would if you could.'

Guitar.com: Sour grapes.

Thompson: Exactly - Why not push yourself? I always told my students -- if you ever [believe] you're good, you're gonna suck. You'll get complacent. Kids in school kiss your ass 'cause you play the guitar and maybe you're not even very good at all but your buddies think you are. As soon as you start to believe that, where's your drive? Where's your desire? That's all gone.

7th Heaven JUNE 18th 2001 - Slipknot's Mick Thompson Shares his Gear Fetish >>



When Mick - 7 - Thompson says he's a gear freak, he's making something of an understatement. He not only knows the exact specs of every piece of equipment he plays, but blissfully divulges details about how they're made and who makes them. It's an intimacy born of experience. He worked and taught guitar for a Des Moines, Iowa music store for two and a half years before Slipknot took off.



Guitar.com: What do you play?

Thompson: I have custom-made BC Rich Warlocks that were all done up for me. They're all USA hand-mades with the neck contour I like, my fingerboard radius, the size fret wire I like, all ebony fingerboards with rock maple necks, mahogany bodies, maple tops. Fixed bridge with EMG 81 and 89 pick-ups. Everything dialed like I like it. One volume knob set way back out of the way. One three-way Tele-style switch for my pick-ups. Shit like that.

Guitar.com: You know exactly what you like. So many times in interviews with younger guitarists you get the impression...

Thompson: They're retarded and they don't know what they're doing?

Guitar.com: Well, if you want to be blunt.

Thompson: That's been my experience. I've played guitar for 17 years. I did all the repairs at the shop I'd teach at. I built guitars. I went to the NAMM show twice as a buyer for the guitar shop I used to teach at so I've played every guitar on earth. Being a gear freak, I'd spend three days at NAMM going to every fuckin' booth playing every guitar. I had a Jackson custom built for me and I've played tons of ESPs, Ibanez and Fernandez and I was talking to all those companies but when it came down to an endorsement even though BC Rich might not have the money some of those other companies do, their product is way better. I might not get as many ads in magazines and I might not get cash for playing their guitar but it's what I want. It ain't about money. If I gotta pay for the shit I'll pay for the shit. Same with amps.

Guitar.com: What's your amp set up?

Thompson: When I did our record I had a Rocktron Pirhana pre-amp that I was running into a power amp that I was EQing the shit out of – a little too much, hindsight being what it is. Then I switched and I've been using a Marshall pre-amp, but I just got a deal with VHT who make the baddest fucking amps. I was in London and played a Pit Bull. I had to change my shorts. I freaked out. And I don't ever freak. I am the pickiest motherfucker on earth. Everybody thinks I hate everything, but that's not true. I like what I like. I'm just very discriminating. So they're making me some amps. I cant wait to get those 'cause I'm gonna A/B em with my Marshall.

Guitar.com: Effects?

Thompson: What's funny is I'm not an effects guy. When I play lead stuff I don't drench it in reverb, chorus and compression. Nothing like that. It's just my guitar. 'Cause I can play. I find all that shit to be a crutch. You can hand a 14 you old that can't really play a guitar with a lot of compression and verb and delay and chorus and it actually sounds like he's doing something. Technique's out the window. To prove this, turn all that shit off, roll your gain down, play through a single coil and then try some ripping lead. If you can get the notes to come out, and have any sort of sustain then you have technique. Otherwise, you're cheating. I do all the effect stuff that's on the record and I do all the shit that's live -- that tapping thing at the beginning of 'Surfacing' I do with a pitchshifter and an auto-wah and a little bit of delay. The beginning of 'Prosthetics' -- that’s a ring modulator with some delay. The beginning of 'Spit it Out' is me with my processor and some crazy shit I hooked up in it.

Guitar.com: What kind of strings do you use?

Thompson: My whole life I used Boomers, and then Ernie Ball sent me some strings some months back and I hadn't played 'em since I was about 11 and I musta broke one or something and thought that they sucked because my whole life I thought they sucked. They actually last a lot longer and seem a little bit brighter, so I've been using those.

Guitar.com: Aside from the guitars you use, are you a collector?

Thompson: If I had the money to collect I would, but I only collect to play. People who don't play the guitar and buy guitars and hold onto them should just fuckin' jump in the tub with a toaster. They make me sick. I know lots of people like that -- I've seen 'em in guitar shops my whole life. They can't play to save their fuckin' life but they're like 'Oh yes, well this is a whatever-year Strat 'cause it has 11 screws in the pick guard and of course you'll notice-' and I'm like, 'Shut the fuck up. Play something.'



Guitar World Magazine - Guitar Legends: Slipknot's Mick Thompson >>



GL: What inspired you to play guitar?

Mick: My dad's collection of Jimi Hendrix music. He had every album and bootleg. When I was six, my dad and I would go to work and I would play those albums and sit infront of the speaker with a tape recorder making Hendrix mix tapes.

GL: What was the first song you mastered?

Mick: When I was 12 I learned how to play "Dee" by Randy Rhodes from a tab book. I could play it flawlessly.

GL: What was your first show like?

Mick: I played in a battle of the bands at my high school when I was 16. We were the only band playing metal - "In my Darkest Hour", "Fade to Black" and "Last Caress". I still have the video tape and must say my playing was pretty spot on.

GL: What is your favourite piece of musical instrument?

Mick: Guitars are my smack. I have 48 guitars now, and anytime I go to a guitarshop I end up buying another. I love them all. I can't pick a favourite.

йопт..

Большое прибольшое спасибо.........

я что-то видимо пропустил, но какого хрена в теме про одного из самых революционных гитаристов современности пишут про Мика Томпсона.. Народ, вы что курите?  Блин, только на ГП