Korn is on tour with a new album, “The Paradigm Shift.”
Credit: Sebastien Paquet
Jonathan Davis isn’t too concerned about creating a commercially successful album these days.
“We don’t get worked up over that anymore since we’ve already established ourselves,” says the Korn singer. “If you want to buy our record, buy it. If not, that’s cool. We’re not worried about labels anymore because we always know we can put a record out. Back in the day we definitely felt that pressure. But not anymore.”
Their new album is “The Paradigm Shift,” and the band has recently gone through a paradigm shift of their own with the return of founding member Brian “Head” Welch, whose deep detuned guitars first helped put Korn in the enviable position of not worrying about who buys their albums.
How did the return of Brian “Head” Welch come about?
He showed up at a show we were playing at Carolina Rebellion, and we asked him to come onstage and play a song with us. When he did, the crowd was so emotional. People were crying and so much s— was going on that I think he realized it was time to come back. … It’s like he never left! It’s been really great.
You worked with producer Don Gilmore on this album, who has been known for working with a lot of poppier acts like Avril Lavigne and Sugar Ray, to name a few. How was it to work with him?
We really, really liked working with Don. It was a lot of fun. At first he was a little hard to read, but we broke him down through the process. That’s when he started acting like a kid and having fun with us.
Being a band for 20 years now, how has your audience evolved over the years?
I think our audience has grown with us. But then also, we have a lot of new fans too. We see a lot of kids in the crowd as well as older people, so it’s really cool. Our music has transferred over a couple decades and touched different people.
