Speaking to American Songwriter recently, Corey Taylor talked about how he created the lyrics. Giving examples of the lyrics he wrote in the past, Taylor stated that he did not write the song ‘Post Traumatic Blues’ from his last album ‘CMF2’ as a Slipknot song and said:
“I’ve been describing it as if Pennywise (Stephen King’s ‘IT’) tried to write a Guns N’ Roses song. There’s no way I’m going to be able to hit the notes that Axl Rose hits, but at the same time, it’s kind of got that gutter-trash, punk rock, hard rock vibe to it.”
Making Music Away From Fear, Regret And The Same Cycle
Corey Taylor then talked about the negative effects he encountered while making music. He, who said that he performs his music by saving it from fear and mediocrity, made various criticisms:
“I would rather live regret-free than mired in fear. I see so many musicians that have such a great platform and such a great fan base yet, their music is like a fucking dial tone. It’s just straight across the same shit by the same 27 people in the same fucking shitty studio. Full disclosure: I’m a fucking asshole.”
On the other hand, he stated that he proceeded without thinking about bad and negative comments and stated that fear and regret dulled creativity. He added:
“And I’m certainly way too judgmental to be left to my own devices when it comes to my opinions and whatnot. However, the greatest killer of creativity is fear. get asked this all the time: ‘Do you worry about reactions and risk?’ and I’m like, ‘How that fuck would you ever worry about risk?’ Sometimes it doesn’t always work, but when it does, oh my God, it’s amazing.”
Corey Taylor’s Lyrical World
In an interview with Rock Sound on September 15, the day his solo album ‘CMF2’ was released, Coray Taylor also touched on the writing process of the album’s lyrics. In addition, in this interview, Taylor proceeds by giving examples through David Bowie and talks about how he transitions to other characters while making music:
“The funny thing is that whenever I’m singing a song by a different person, I invariably try to mimic their voice. So if I’m singing a Bowie song, I immediately start to almost go into Bowie’s vibe, you know. I don’t know if I necessarily slip into a different character in the music, but there’s definitely a different timbre to my voice. It’s definitely something that changes.
If you listen to the song ‘Midnight’ and the kind of solemnness that I’m trying to convey, especially in the first part of that song, and then compare it with the joy that I feel on ‘Someday I’ll Change Your Mind.’ There’s a natural, almost a lightness that comes from that song. And then the very next song is ‘All I Want Is Hate,’ it’s just such a different kind of screamer. I don’t know if it’s a different character, but it’s just different sides of my personality.”
Other Artists That Taylor Reflected In His Music
Corey Taylor spoke on Loudwire in August ahead of the release of his solo album, CMF2. Taylor, who said that he had a ska punk project and could not bring it to life, talked about his interest in punk music and the influence of The Clash:
“It started with The Clash obviously, because The Clash, they just dipped their toes into so many different genres that they just blew my mind.”
In the continuation of the interview, he continued his praise of The Clash with the example of Prince and added:
“They went from regular three-, four-chord punk to 2-tone ska, and when they leaned into some hip-hop and there was jungle. They just played with so many different vibes. They just inspired me musically so much. They’ve really been the band along with artists like Prince that they just had no boundaries. Those are the artists that I was inspired to be.”
CMF2
Corey Taylor released his solo project ‘CMF2,’ consisting of 13 songs, on September 15. This album is a sequel to ‘CMFT’ released in 2020. Corey Taylor has released a total of 15 studio albums to date. 7 of them are with his band Slipknot, 6 of them are with his other group project, Stone Sour, and 2 of them are his solo albums with the CMFT series.