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Come to Papa
By Michael Bruntz
Thursday, Jul 29, 2004 - 06:26:45 pm CDT
It's been awhile since Papa Roach hit the road.
After 10 minutes spent detailing the band's movements over the past 18 months - accented with a few choice expletives - frontman Jacoby Shaddix admitted he was still getting re-accustomed to life on the road.
"It's interesting doing press again," said Shaddix by phone from Manchester, N.H. "I'm brushing up on my skills so I'm not a boring ass interview."
It's been two albums and nearly four years since Papa Roach's release "Infest" hit stores at the peak of the rock-rap movement. Groups like Limp Bizkit and P.O.D. dominated the charts with a hybrid of beats and screaming guitars.
The breakthrough album featured songs like "Last Resort" and "Broken Home," which received significant airplay and pushed the album to multi-platinum status.
Papa Roach released "lovehatetragedy" in 2002, but has spent the better half of the past two years in the recording studio.
The band is using its current tour to introduce fans to songs from its upcoming release, "Getting Away With Murder," which hits stores Aug. 31.
Fans in Lincoln will get their chance to hear those songs when Papa Roach plays Saturday night at Knickerbockers with Instruction and Dead Poetic.
Recording the forthcoming album was fairly low-stress, Shaddix said. The band's former label was bought by Universal Records, and the change bought them more time in the studio to experiment with and perfect tracks.
"In the process of making this record, we didn't have a record label hounding us," Shaddix said. "It gave us total creative freedom and more time to focus as a band."
Shaddix said the band wrote nearly 30 demos for the album, focusing more on melodies and canning the rapping that showed up on other Papa Roach releases.
The musical styles on the album's 17 songs range from post-hardcore heavy metal to straight-ahead rock 'n' roll.
Also different is the perspective and depth of the band's lyrics. Gone for the most part are the songs with Shaddix playing the role of the victim that became a Papa Roach trademark.
The first release off "Getting Away With Murder" is the title cut which reversed the role, casting Shaddix as the bad guy.
"There's a little more positive outlook in our music," he said. "We're not trying to write pity-rock records. There is stuff that is dark, but we take you all over the spectrum."
With that maturity came a new perspective on music and the recording industry. The band has been together nearly 12 years, and becoming fathers has made band members realize how fleeting popularity and music can be.
"I'm not an old fart," said the 27-year old Shaddix, who has one child and another on the way. "Papa Roach keeps me young at heart."
The band chose to support the release by touring smaller venues across the country to reconnect with fans after being off the road for over a year.
Crowds have seemed to like the offerings from the new album and the direction the band is taking both lyrically and musically.
"The fans have latched onto it like a leech," Shaddix said.
Papa Roach will finish its tour in early August before opening a few dates for Velvet Revolver in Europe, then return to headline a tour of bigger venues starting sometime in late September.
"We're coming back and giving our fans a new Papa Roach to fall in love with," he said.
Reach Michael Bruntz at 473-7254 or mbruntz@;journalstar.com.
If you go
What: Papa Roach, Instruction and Dead Poetic
Where: Knickerbockers, 901 O St.
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Admission: $13 in advance, $15 day of show
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