By Eric Snider
I caught up with Jacoby, Papa Roach’s frontman, on the phone Monday morning, on the eve of the release of the band’s seventh full-length, Time for Annihation…On the Record and on the Road. The album contains five new studio songs and nine concert tracks.
Papa Roach plays Jannus Live on Sat., Oct. 2, with Trapt and My Darkest Days. Tickets on sale Wed., Sept. 1.
ERIC: So you have a new album dropping tomorrow. Even after all these years, do you still get a little anxious about a new release?
JACOBY: I’m pretty anxious to get it out there, yeah. I’m tired of sitting on it, tired of us being the only ones able to listen to it. It’s a special type of release. I can’t wait for the fans to hear it, the new material especially. And the live stuff on the record is off the chain.
Do you just approach it without worrying about chart entry postions, kind of like “it is what it is?”
I try to have no expectations. I don’t wanna set myself up for a letdown. But I’m feeling good about it. We’re fortunate enough to have a viable career. With [the single] “Kick in the Teeth” killin’ it at rock radio, that’s a good sign that we have a hardcore, dedicated fanbase. We just did huge festivals over in Europe and we have a new domestic tour kicking in. All this is happening around the release of the record.
With the record business not in the best shape, it seems more and more important for bands to prove themselves on stage, to build a rep as a great live act and keep proving that rep every night. How does that apply to Papa Roach?
I think in the rock world, on stage is the proving ground for a real band. Anyone can go in the studio and Auto-Tune the vocals, program the timing on the drums. It can make horrible bands sound great. But if you can’t pull it off live, you will be exposed. For us, we were a band for six years before our major label deal. That gave us a lot of time to develop, to come into our own, to get comfortable on stage. Live is where the band has to prove it. You see band like Queen with Freddie Mercury have that special connection with the audience. That’s something we strive for.
Do you feel like you get there most nights?
There’s an interesting vibe. We’re our own worst critics. Backstage after the show is an intense place sometimes. There could have been a great crowd response, but we’re “What the fuck was wrong with that section?” “What happened to that turnaround?” Sometimes we have to do what we call a mandatory chill, where we won’t say anything about the show for about 10 minutes. There’s a level of intensity right after a show that requires a cool down.
I’d rather be a fan of the band with those kind of standards than one that thought every show was magic.
Ultimately, we want to push ourselves. I don’t think it’s good to think everything we do is amazing. It’s a bad sign when bands think everything they do is God’s greatest gift.
How have you guys presented the live tracks on the album so that fans will get a new experience?
We groove certain sections differently. There’s a lot of crowd interaction. The performances capture the essence and spirit and energy of the band. We have some jam sessions between songs, parts that we kind of vamp on, to create an edge beyond just the song. We’re not a hippie jam band so we don’t stray too far.
Did you do a lot of post-production?
We recorded five nights in a row, the last five nights of a tour, and took the best performances of those songs. The producer mixed it real tight. We did a couple of tuning things on the vocals — like “it’s a little sharp right there,” so we fixed it. But it’s definitely me live. You can hear me huffin’ and puffin’ in spots.
Any overdubs?
The only one was in “Lifeline” During the lead guitar section, we thickened it up.
That’s not much at all. So it’s a legit live album. Good for you. Thanks for being honest about the little fixes.
It’s the only way to be.
