Interviews

 

KORN

 

Words: Rod Yates

 

If you’d run into Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu 10 years ago, chances are you’d have found a man teetering on the edge of oblivion. A confessed one-time alcoholic, he’ll admit that a decade ago he could “barely talk” as he was “wasted all the time”. How things have changed. Today Korn’s bass player is enjoying a day off in Mexico City, the latest stop on the band’s globetrotting Bitch! We Have A Problem! world tour, which has so far taken them to South America, Europe, America and, for the first time ever, South Africa. And where once upon a time Fieldy’s experience of South African culture would have been confined to the city’s sleazy bars, those days are well and truly gone.

 

“It was like a complete vacation, we were there a week and a half. I went on safari, hiked up Table Mountain for two hours, it’s really nice. And you know,” he adds, “when we come down to Australia it’s always been real nice too, cos we get some days off just to hang out and see the cities.”

 

Fieldy’s sobriety of three years isn’t, of course, the only change in the Korn camp during that time. Gone are original guitarist Brian “Head” Welch and drummer David Silveria, the former to Jesus and the latter to that mysterious place where musicians go when they take “an indefinite break”. Stepping into their shoes for the band’s upcoming Australian tour are guitarist Shane Gibson and Army Of Anyone drummer Ray Luzier, a man who might just keep Silveria out of the Korn drum seat permanently if Fieldy’s comments are anything to go by.

 

“He’s the best drummer I’ve ever played with in my entire career,” says the bassist; no small compliment given that legendary skinsman Terry Bozzio and Slipknot’s Joey Jordison have warmed the drum seat at one time or another. “He’s a heavy, solid, bang-your-head type drummer. We’re having the time of our life with him, I’ve never felt like this.”

 

Is it fair to say that we’ve seen the last of David Silveria in Korn?

 

“You know, for me, I like to live for today,” sighs Fieldy, artfully dodging the question. “And right now, man, things are good. I don’t know about tomorrow.”

 

The band’s upcoming dates in Australia will be momentous for a number of reasons - for one, they signify the end of the touring cycle in support of Untitled, Korn’s eighth album, but they also reunite them with reformed Brooklyn outfit Biohazard.

 

“Man, that’s exciting, cos we haven’t played with Biohazard since our first tour,” buzzes Fieldy. “Our first tour ever was with Biohazard and House Of Pain, that was huge for us.”

 

While creating and recording Korn’s ninth album is very much on Fieldy’s agenda – “We want to do something that is real raw, we haven’t done anything like that in so long” – upon arriving home each member will temporarily go their separate ways to concentrate on solo projects. Guitarist Munky has Fear And The Nervous System, a supergroup of sorts featuring ex-Faith No More bassist Billy Gould, ex-Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland and Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman, while vocalist Jonathan Davis is taking a solo show on the road. Not to be outdone, Fieldy has his own side projects on the go, all of which will hopefully amount to more than his forgettable Fieldy’s Dreams outing of 2002.

 

“I’m working on a project right now called StillWell, and I’m playing bass and guitar and producing, that will be coming out in less than a year,’ he explains. “I’m also putting out a bass solo album, it’s like a jazz-fusion type of album.”

 

Then, almost as an after thought, he reveals another project that, perhaps more than anything, sums up the difference between the Fieldy of today and the man of 10 years ago.

 

“I got a book coming out, it’s called Got The Life and you can pre-order it on Amazon.com,” he states. “It’s like an inspirational autobiography. It’s going to have pictures from my childhood through my teens until now, and people’s jaws are going to be on the ground when they read some of the stories, people are not going to believe I’m still alive. I’ve led the craziest life ever. People are going to be blown away when they check this book out.”

 

If you’re worried that all this talk of sobriety and “inspirational” autobiographies is the work of a man growing old gracefully, fear not. As Fieldy tells it, when Korn step onstage in Australia they’ll be as powerful as at any point in their career. 

 

“We’re going to come down there and slam out a slamming set of classic songs because we don’t come down there too often, and I know people are waiting to hear the classics,” he says. “It’s going to be rocking.”

 

 

 

 

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