Slipknot’s Clown: “The new album is a cobra in a basket”

(Image credit: Nikolaj Bransholm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Slipknot haven’t been wasting time in lockdown. Work is officially underway on the follow up to 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind, with Corey Taylor describing the new songs as “a bunch of really cool stuff.” When we caught up with his bandmate Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan recently, we figured it would be rude not to ask him about the record.

Hi Shawn. Can you tell us how the new Slipknot material is sounding?

Clown: “It’s awesome that you don’t know anything about it, because once again, pretty much everything you require from us is inline once again. Meaning, we’re here, we’re happening and some of the most incredible music is happening. This is a very special time in life. This is a time when everybody in life has had to take a moment, so you can imagine we have had to take a moment. So I wonder what we’ve reflected on…”

You’ve mentioned before that the pandemic has been similar to the Iowa period for the world – very painful, very dark.

Yes

So does that mean are you making an album similar to Iowa?

“Yes. Yes. This one is a cobra in a basket. You can either know how to play the instrument, or you can take the circumstance. This is real. But you’re gonna open the basket. You’re going to play, you’re going to charm and be charmed.

“What are you going to do when you’re the Clown and you’re stuck at home? I got busy writing. We got busy thinking and feeling. We got busy loving and taking it in. I had the leisure to do it in my own sanctuary and have beautiful people show up and just eat peppers from my garden after writing music.

“Then another little thing happened. Just like you and I are on Zoom right now. Imagine being someone like the Clown, who wouldn’t buy into FaceTime who wouldn’t buy into technology asking his singer, ‘Hey, send the vocals through the Internet.’ But this year has been a year of Zoom and FaceTime. And do music at your house and email it and we’ll put it in the song. This has been a great year to catch up on technology and utilise it and benefit from art making.

“I was able to work on music with others in the band and Corey was in Vegas and he was able to go to a studio and do vocals and send it. That’s amazing. So I took benefit of that stuff and those that never wanted to use technology are using technology, like me.”

Danniii Leivers writes for Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, The Guardian, NME, Alternative Press, Rock Sound, The Line Of Best Fit and more. She loves the 90s, and is happy where the sea is bluest.