Interview W/ W E S
Wes Borland is calling from his home in Florida, and is he fried. "Oh, it's been crazy," says Limp Bizkit's prime instrumental force. "I'm actually using this little bit of time off from touring to run into the studio to work on a few side projects. And if that weren't enough, I'm in the middle of packaging all my possesions in preparation for a move out to the West Coast. Then, once that's out of the way, we're going right back into the studio at the end of January to begin work on the next record." But first thing's first. What, may we ask, are those mysterious side projects? "They're not so mysterious. We're reviewing mountains of live tape in order to determine what will appear on the next Family Values compilation disc," Borland explains, referring to performances from the two mega-successful Family values tours, both of which featured Bizkit and the like-minded headliners,Korn. "I'm also slowly working on a solo album that will consist of some of the stranger things I've written-stuff that falls outside of Limp Bizkit territory. I'm tentatively calling the project Big Dumb Face, and I'm hoping it will come out later this year. I'm going to cram 40 songs into it and make it as rididculous as possible."
Guitar World: Where all of the shows on last year's Family Values tour taped?
Wes Borland: Yeah. We're in the process of sorting out different tracks for a live album and video. The first step is to simply separate what sounds good from what sounds like complete garbage. (laughs) Sometimes, it's like, what were we doing? Everybody's completely out of tune!"
GW: When will the live record and video be released?
Borland: Soon. This one will be like the one that came out last year, meaning it will include three or four songs from each band. So each band has to come in and pick what they want included.
GW: What's up with Limp Bizkit's foruthcoming home video, Poop?
Borland: We were going to put it out sooner, but at the last minute we decided that we needed to freshen it up. The last last thing on the video now is when we finished recording Significant Other, so we really need to add a "postscript." A lot has happened since then.
GW: What's your take on the "new metal" label that has been attached to the bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn?
Borland: There is a serious movement taking place in rock now, just like there was in the early Nineties with grundge, and in the late Eighties with thrash and hair metal. It's always exciting when that kind of breakthrough takes place. But there's a downside,too,and I'm starting to see it happen. Whenever something that was underground breaks into the mainstream, other bands automically try to make a formula out of it. And pretty soon you start hearing pop groups co-opting the look and sound. This tricks the audience at first, but after a while they get wise and say, "Hey-wait a minute! What happened there? What is this crap?(laughs) Then there's nothing but crap for a long time, and you have to go underground to find the really good bands.
GW: Are we at the beginning of the end of this cycle?
Borland: I don't know if we're on the beginning or middle of it, and I don't know how long it's going to last, but the new metal movement feels as strong as the Seattle scene ever was.
GW: Which new metal bands do you like and respect?
Borland: Korn, of course, and Rage Against the Machine. The Deftones have always been awesome. In my book, the Deftones should be as successful and popular as Kid Rock. I don't think they've gotten enough support from their label ,Maverick.
Skunk Ananise and the Guano Apes are interesting, but I'm not totally sure how I feel about them yet. We seem to be walking the same area of the woods. I'm curious to see how they develop.
GW: Much has been written in the press and on television about Limp Bizkit's "responsibility" for the excessive violence at Woodstock'99, which, some say was sparked by the song "Break Stuff." In Guitar World's cover story on Limp BIzkit (August 1999), singer Fred Durst admitted to harboring some concern about the song, stating, "I don't think it's going to make people in a crowd hurt each other. I think it's just going to be that little feather on the camel's back, that one little push that turns it into, 'Wow, things are really intense now.' But still, I'm kind of scared what's going to happen with that song live." What's your take?
Borland: Well, the Woodstock people sure got to hold the quote over Fred's head, didn't they? In defense of the band, there was nothing we could do about the activities of the crowd at Woodstock. We just played our show.
GW: This type of stuff is not necessarily new for you guys. Wan't the band acussed of inciting a riot during the 1998 Ozzfest shows?
Borland: We were accused of that at several of the Ozzfest shows. Actually, that tour was a real learning experience for us. We learned what not to say to the crowd.(laughs) The promoters would say to Fred, "This is the line, and you crossed it. Do not say this again. Say this instead." And he'd say, "Oh, I see what you mean."
GW: What sparked the riotous behavior?
Borland: Part of the problem were the overall circumstances. At those shows, Ozzy's fans had bought all of the seats right in front of the stage, and many wouldn't show up until Ozzy was about to go on. So we would always play to rows and rows of empty seats , and our fans would be stuck miles away. For the first three bands on the bill, there was nobody in the orchestra section. If anything is going to make you tense, it's stuff like that. So, at this one show, Fred said to the audiene, "If you don't like where your best seat is, come on down front,"' and then all hell broke loose! Sharon Osbourne was fine about it, because Ozzy has pulled shit like that in his career, but she said, "Look, I'm going to be your friend because I love you guys, but you're going to get into some major trouble if you keep doing it this way."
GW: What do you think was behind the violent behavior at Woodstock?
Borland: The bad conditions. I happened to criticize the prompters of Woodstock at one of the Family Values shows. Unbeknownst to me, the person I was talking to was one of the promoters of the Woodstock show! Neeedless to say, I was embarrassed. I backpedaled, thinking, "I wish I could swallow my face right now!" But now I'm glad I said what I said. The promoter's explanation was, "We wanted to create a very free environment for everyone," but that shit just will not fly. They treated Woodstook like a concert when they should have treated it like a city. 250,000 people--that's a small city. And to have no law enforcement and barely any security is insane. It was their responsibility to have that in place, and they didn't. Woodstock, overall, was relatively problem-free, considering how bad it could have been, with so many people in one place. There were alot of legitimate reasons for the frustrations of the people who were there. The bathrooms were atrocious, and the ATM'S ran out of money, so people couldn't even buy water-which was for sale for five dollars a bottle-if they wanted to. A plate of food was $10 or $15 dollars! If I was a concertgoer there, I would have said "fuck this!" and left at the beginning of the second day. I'm sure tons of people did leave. I don't know what else to say about it. We got up and did what we normally do, even holding back a little bit in light of the situation. I'm upset by the viloence, and by the alleged rapes that took place but, from our prospective it was just a big, sprawling mess. Fred was saying to the crowd, "If people are hurt, pick'em up, help each other out." He said helpful words onstage, but no one ever metions that.
GW: What else can you tell us about your solo project?
Borland: I'm always composing, and anything that doesn't really fall under the Limp Bizkit umbrella will go into this side project.
GW: How would you determine what falls under the Limp Bizkit umbrella?
Borland: It's not that there's a Limp Bizkit "formula," but there's a definite sound. I don't really know for sure; it's interesting to think about. Actually, Fred will play a big part in determining that. I'm going to make a tape of everything that I'm writing and have him listen to it and see what he likes and what he hates. What he hates will probably go on my solos album.(laughs)
GW: Are you going to sing on your solo album?
Borland: Oh yeah, I'm doing eveything. All the vocals are tottally distorted, either high-pitched or...whatever. It's terrible-it's a tragedy! It's a travesty, as well. I'm going to call it Big Dumb Face.
GW: Do you look at the side project as a total free-for-all?
Borland: Oh, yeah; it's whatever the hell I want to do. It's like that hidden drawer with wll kind of wild shit in it. Most of it is really funny, like Ween, who I love, and They Might Be Giants, with a much broader feel, stylistically. There is a lot of death metal, with really funny lyrics. I parody everything fom southern rock to hip-hop. More than anything else, I'm really making fun of myself.
GW: Are there any bands that have specifically influenced this side of your musical interests?
Borland: I listen to Ween all of the time. I think the Mollusk was one of the most incredible albums of this decade. Portishead is really amazing too. I also like FSOL, Prodigy, Rabbit and the Moon, Aphex Twin and the Orb. And Squarepusher. And the new Nine Inch Nails record, The Fragile, is unbelievable.
GW: What outlet do you have for your graphic art?
Borland: I design most of the band's T shirts and posters. Maybe when I move out to L.A., I'll find other avenues for the artwork. That's part of the reason I'm going. Another is Fred(Durst) and his movie stuff; I've been wanting to get involved in that.
GW: What's happening with Fred?
Borland: He's been directing a lot of videos. He's done all of ours, and now he's directed one for Sting and one for Korn. Recently he was green-lighted to direct a full-blown Hollywood movie, so he's really doing a lot in that department. I'm going to read for the script, and if all goes well, I'm going to be in it. There are three villians, and i'll be one of them. We'll be shooting that as soon as we're done with the record. I have to shave my head and get all gnarly; I'm this crazy Texas Chainsaw Massacre-type person. It's a really scary horror movie with a fantastic script. The band is going to score the whole soundtrack-that ought to be an intresting piece of music. We have a lot in our plates right now.
GW: Has the hectic pace of the band gotten to you at all?
Borland: Not really, all though I was really stressing about the new record up until about a half week ago. I was actually worried about being able to write new material. But i tell my self "No, something will come," because it always has in the past. As far as writing new material goes, I've just started to knock off the rust. The main thing I've been worried about is writing heavy riffs-I feel like every heavy riff has alrady been written! Like, how many power chord riffs can you write? I'll write a good one and than think, Oops-that was the last one! There's only so many beats in a measure, and it seems like there are only so many permutations. But i'm not really that worried about it now. I've hashed out about three new riffs that made me go, "Hmmm..." I've gone back and revisited all the stuff I put on the four track way back and forgot about, and there's better stuff in there than I ever thought. Much of it I don't even remember recording, so I'm constantly relearning how to play things. There's also a bunch of left over stuff from the work we did on Significant Other. Now that I listen to it again, it's really not so bad. So, some definite ideas are there. I can't wait to get back in the studio. We fell that its going to be a really good record.
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