I've read your book from the first to last page. Can you describe to me the writing process, how you've been collecting memories?
We've been through a lot of my past, and it's not easy because I tried to remember and It took a lot of work, almost a year and a half. I didn't want to do it because it was so much work, digging and digging, even dig up tour books and all the dates and the stories. Digging up photos. It was a lot work.

Was it a painful process?
Not painful but it was kind of sad to look at how I destroyed some friendships. And sometimes friendships don't repair. Some people that used to be my friends are not my friends anymore, because of what I've done. Some people built up walls. And you know if you spend 20 years building a wall, it's gonna take another 20 to turn it down, you can't just do it overnight.

Are you prepared to spend 20 years to destroy that wall?
Yeah I'm bringing it down. But you know it just takes patience. It's only been three or four years, so it's gonna take some time. Whether it doesn't work good, as far as walls are not turning down, I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Was it important for you to wait for your book to be out for your bandmates to read the letters you've written to them?
I don't think it's important, regarding what I wanted to do. It didn't matter if it wasn't in a book, I could have put it out on anything, internet, whatever. It's just the way I wanted to do it in my heart. And that's what I did. There's nothing wrong about sharing some love.

You've been experiencing some strong changes on a personal level. What was the reaction of your friends and family?
Some people are quicker forgivers than others, so everybody was different, and still is. It's still a working progress. And it just takes time. For example my wife is a forgiving person. She was quick to forgive and it's not the same with everybody that I know.

Why did you choose to work again with Ross Robinson for the upcoming album?
I think we've been doing this for at least 16 years, if not more with demos we've done before KoRn. And working with Ross, it's about 18 years. So now that we're older it almost felt like we're teenagers in a garage again, go back and being raw. We're not recording but we still do preproduction in a garage. We're old but young kids again. And having Ross it's like a family reunion. It feels like we're back in the day.

Is it something you wanted, going to a raw kind of sound?
Yeah! I mean, the drums aren't mic dubbed, me and munky are playing on two little practice amps, and it almost feels like, you know, when we first started up. That's all we really have. But now that we've done all that with the big recording it's just to go back and strip everything down like we were starting out a band in a garage.

You're touring in the middle of the recording process...
We were home for almost a year, it was just to get out of that you know, out of the routine and come clear our heads. It's almost like a vacation to be right here. We have almost a month left and we're going back in the studio, and we'll be ready.

Do you still consider KoRn as a New Metal Band?
We never fitted with any title as long as we've been around, but I'm comfortable with the name New Metal. I don't really care because it seems to be the closest. I'm cool with that. I don't care.
You know we've been on a tour in 1999 called "rock is dead". People have been saying that rock is dead, metal is dead. but here we are still playing huge crowds! How can it be dead when you play in front of 80,000 people like we did last week? It was metal you know.

Your life change seemed to turn you in a more calm and peaceful person. But on stage, you rock it. Where does the rage come from now?
(Laughs) You know we go on stage and I hear that music that makes do me what I do. I'm just true to the way I feel, I can't help it. We play a kind of aggressive music you know and I like to go crazy on stage playing KoRn music. Other people may be different, I just can't help it.

In your book you describe touring with KoRn as a moment when there is no communication within the band, not even before the shows. How's it now?
It's a lot different today, I mean when we hang out we hang out in dressing room a little bit. We probably get along better today than we ever have in our all music career. Like we're happy to see each other when we get to hang out, when I'm not doing interviews (he stares at me).

You're working on a song to gather money and help Chi's family. Tell me a bit about this project.
Yeah I'm putting together a song and we're gonna give all the money to his family. I have a bunch of musicians involved with it. Ray from Korn, me on bass and Jim Root from Slipknot on one part of the song. And on the other part of the song I have Clint Larry from Sevendust. Tomorrow I should have Morgan from Sevendust, Munky, the drummer from Disurbed. There is Dave from Machine Head too. There'll be more and more, and I'm gonna finish the song by the end of the month.

How did you met Chi?
Back in the early day, we both had demos out, and we've been doing shows in small clubs in Sacramento. We heard about this band and we really liked it. We met and we all became good friends. We started to play shows together, and since this day we've been tight.

Was it worthy on a personal level to put this book?
You know the hardest part was not to put out a book but not to write another one. Because I'm not there in my life anymore where I was when I put that book out. I wanted to keep going because I kept going through new seasons in my life. So it's like you want to do another one to tell who you are in this part of my life, how you handle this or that. I started to write a little bit and I'm taking a break right now, because I'm writing music. I'm actually working on a bass album, it's gonna be instrumental, jazz soul and funk. That should be done in like two weeks.


Huge thanks to Sébastien Paquet, Oli.

Pierre

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