Ear listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece to the story of how they were made. My name is Tabwin. This episode contains explicit language. Slipknot is a Grammy-winning metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, who first formed in 1995. They've sold over 30 million records. In this episode, guitarist Jim Root breaks down how Slipknot made the song Unsainted. From their 2019 album, We Are Not Your Kind.
My name is James Root, and I play guitar in a band called Slipknot. This song is an amalgamation of some stuff that I had written at home, some riffs, and then some jams that I do with our drummer. You know, ideas that we'd come up with while we were touring. That melody line is what burved that tune. I always have melodies rolling through my head, and I don't really know where they come from.
In order to kind of reel it all in, I would go out to Los Angeles and work with our producer, Greg Fiddleman, who's a very influential and helping me sort all the things in my brain out and make sense of them. Sometimes I end up forgetting them, but you know, this is the benefit of having a Greg Fiddleman in time to work in a studio because you can just sit there and you can get all these melody lines out, and eventually they evolve into a song like unsanitary.
I've purposely made it a point not to become a schooled guitar player because I feel like I would become too logical with it and think, well, I can't do that because that's an augmented this or that's a fifth of that and that doesn't fit with the scale or whatever. You know, I feel like it needs to be more organic. Essentially a song will tell you where it wants to go and what it needs.
You may have to give it a little push or help it here and there, but this one, all the riffs that came in separately all fit together so well. You can kind of get the gist of what something's going to be like when Jay actually starts putting real drums to it. That sort of starts to bring everything to life. We have Jay Weinberg on drums.
We would just do like jam sessions where Jay and I would just, he'd just play a beat and I'd just riff over the top of it or I'd come up with a riff and he would just do a bunch of different beats underneath the back of it. He was able to really, you know, explore the room and just try a little bit of everything, whether it's for the floor beats or blast beats or tom beats. But then when it came time to track, that's when we really honed in on what the parts should be.
That's clown play in the keg, Sean Cran. He is the percussionist and mastermind behind our artwork and the vision of slipknot essentially. He knows different places to hit kegs to get different notes out of something that is a container for beer. You know, that's an important part of what slipknot is is the percussion and depending on how he plays the keg, it can either give it kind of an industrial vibe or it can give it a really ambient sort of dark moody vibe.
It definitely adds a layer to our band that not a lot of bands have. One of the things I've tried to achieve as a songwriter, not just a guitar player, is to be able to write songs that have different elements but to have them flow seamlessly. For the middle breakdown, we do a thing where everything drops out. It's one guitar doing like a full step bend down. And then the other guitar comes in with a minor third harmony above it. And then I come in with a melody halfway through.
It's harmonized harmony. And then it goes from this drony minor third harmony to like a major upbeat blast beat. I just think that's so cool, just the way that sounds together where you'll have something switch gears 180 degrees and all of a sudden it's like you're listening to a different song. And to have that turn into a really nice smooth transition, that's kind of difficult to do. And I think that's one of the things that I've gotten closer to achieving in this song and on this record.
There's the section of the songwriting where you get to do what we call like the icing, the frosting on the cake or whatever. And that's where you're just trying to find cool sounds, just layering and just trying to make it more exciting. There was a lot of synth modules in Studio 5. There's so many toys we got to play with. We were recording dark side of the moon or something because there was all these crazy electronics. That's an example of the stuff Craig and Sid do.
Craig is our sampler and he's got a computer with all kinds of samples and he's got a keyboard that he triggers samples with and Sid is our DJ. We always say there's a core of the band and that's guitar's bass drums, whatever vocals. But I don't think the core of the band is all of us in the band because it's all those things together combined that make it what it is and it wouldn't be what it is without any of that stuff. So in my mind at least it wouldn't make sense without it.
It's not about any one guy in the band, it's about us as a whole. Once an arrangement feels like a song and we feel like it's exciting without vocals, that's when we'll turn it over to Corey. If it sounds great already without any vocals and you're able to like kind of bob your head or rock in your chair while you're listening to it, then by the time Corey gets a hold of it he should be able to turn it into a monster.
I feel like we're very lucky to have a guy like Corey because he's such a diverse vocalist. I'm sorry, you're like I do. Let it go. The dude can be so melodic, he can be so heavy. I'm a pretty harsh critic of what it is we do and I have a hard time looking at what we do objectively sometimes and so attached to it, but that's the one time where I can kind of sit back and go, oh wow. I'm just weathering a rough patch. Another villain with a nasty scratch.
Denial is the duck is when you live in a hole. Why does the hell make you feel so cold? The intro of the song went through so many different phases and we spent so much time arranging and rearranging and layering. When we were touring on the last album cycle, Sean was always saying I want to do a choir. I want to get like pink Floyd the wall like it's children's choir.
I have this thing in my head that I'm hearing and I want to try to get this on the next record and the melody at the beginning of this tune was something that drew Sean to that and he's like that melody line. It's just begging for that to be where we seat a choir. It didn't end up being a children's choir like what clown had envisioned in his head, but when I heard the final product I kind of sat back and was like wow.
I think a lot of people just by nature lean towards what they perceive to be the dark side of things. If you're going through a really bad breakup what do you do? You listen to depressing music which is ironic because you think you'd want to listen to something to pull you out of that depression, but as humans we tend to lean towards the darker. But if you really dissect Corey's lyrics I think you can find a lot more hope and perseverance than there is darkness.
I was more than you thought I could bring so I'm setting you free. This is about overcoming. It's about you may have taken something away from me and you may have tried to rip me down or tear me to shreds, but that's more of a reflection on who you are rather than who I am and all end up being stronger because of it.
Everybody has something in their life, just like anger, just like I'm pushing middle age but I still have this sort of teenage angst that I don't think will ever probably go away and that's how I relate to it. It's like there's always something man there's always something in life. It's never going to get easier and it's songs like this and lyrics like these that just kind of make you don't feel so isolated and alone it's like okay I'm not the only one.
Somebody else has to deal with this crap too. And now here's unsainted by slipknot in its entirety. I've never killed myself to see my soul, I was gone but I was out of nowhere. I didn't come this far to see so no, I'm finally holding on to loving God. I'm finally holding on to letting go, I'm finally holding on to letting go. I'm just worth a regular rush, I'm never feeling with this disgrace, denial with the digit that can't be.
I'll never kill myself to see if my soul I was coming to know I didn't come this far to see so no I'm finally holding onto the cold In decision no further Give a buckle and let go of your rival no more We're taking it over the head of God But did you think you'd shake your own
Didn't kill it, feel it, don't worry no But if the mother fucker wants it while Go through your roots and then we'll better come over The entire day is a fact and it's not all But care not, make sure It's just not like one's said too late You get a lie if you want to believe Put your back on top, work out me I'll never kill myself to see if my soul I was coming out, I was out of town I didn't come this far to see so no I'm finally holding onto the cold Did you think you could win and feel me in?
Did you think you could do it again? I'm not your sin I was so glad you wanted more But you didn't want me I was more than you thought I could pray So I'm saying you pray I'm gonna get a lie You killed the saint and me How dare you want to be You killed the saint and me I'll never kill myself to see if my soul
I was coming out, I was out of town I didn't come this far to see so no I'm finally holding onto the cold You killed the saint and me How dare you might have made You killed the saint and me Now tell your mind I was like Visit songexploder.net slash slipknot For more information about the band
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