The desire to draw "a link from the past to the present and to the future of this rock band" is what led to Papa Roach's new album, due out next Tuesday.
"It connects all the dots," frontman Jacoby Shaddix said of "Time For Annihilation ... On the Record and on the Road," which mixes five new songs with nine live tracks. "It's essentially an EP plus a live album, so it's like the best of both worlds."
Shaddix told Billboard.com that the live portion "really came from fans. They kept asking over the years, 'When are you gonna release a live record?' So we threw that up in the air and everybody was like, 'Let's f---in' do it. It's time for the band to do something like that."
But when the group's new label, Eleven Seven Music, suggested including some fresh studio material on the set, Shaddix said the quartet "didn't want to just release some B-sides" and opted instead to go into the studio with producer David Bendeth.
"With the new songs, we wanted to go with a little bit more of a modern sound," Shaddix explained. "On the last couple records we really discovered the rock 'n' roll band within Papa Roach, and this time around we ... started f---ing around with sequencing and loops and beats and stuff like that. I think it's just a breath of fresh air for us."
That approach can be heard particularly on "Burn" and on the first single "Kick in the Teeth," which climbed to No. 16 on Billboard's Rock Songs chart. Meanwhile, "The Enemy" has what Shaddix calls "that classic Papa Roach stomp," and "No Matter What" is a quieter, ballad-like track not unlike "Scars" and "Forever," but with an uncharacteristically positive attitude inspired by Shaddix's wife.
"She was like, 'You always write songs about hard times ... Look at our life together. We've been through so much, and we're still standing. Why don't you write a song about that?' So I did," says Shaddix. "I'm into commitment. I'm into the long haul -- with my wife in particular, and my band."
Papa Roach is gearing up to promote "Time For Annihilation" with a North American tour that begins September 10 in Nashville, followed by a run on the European Taste of Chaos tour that kicks off November 15 in Helsinki.
Go to Forum >>0 Comments