Tobin Esperance - Papa Roach (02/02/2015)
With Soundwave around the corner and their eighth studio album F.E.A.R having just been released, Papa Roach are set to start this year off with a bang. Currently rocking across America at the moment 2015 U.S. co-headline tour with Seether, The 59th Sound spoke to bassist Tobin Esperance while he was at home in California in between shows, to discuss not only the band’s career, (which has now spanned more two decades) but about the making of F.E.A.R and how producers Kevin and Kane Churko changed the band’s studio dynamic, what’s in store for the upcoming Soundwave Tour and Sideshows, and to give a little insight into the Make-A-Wish project that the band recently teamed up for.
Hello! How are you?
Whats going down! I’m going good, how about yourself?
I’m well thank you. Where are you at the moment?
I’m in Chicago man, it’s storming, snowy, windy… nastiness, I’m ready to leave and get out of here…
It’s nice and warm over here in Australia at the moment!
Exactly! See I’m looking forward to that!
And you guys are on tour at the moment?
Yeah, we’re blasting through the States with Seether, Islander, and a band called Kyng and it’s been great, I mean, sold out shows, the reception and the record has been great, I mean, the vibe it’s just… pumped up right now.
Awesome! So ‘F.E.A.R’ officially comes out on the 27th, In a couple of sentences, how would you describe the record?
This record is sonically bombastic. Guitar riffs, live and uncut right up in your face. Drums just punching you in the fucking dick. Just complete and open honesty… vulnerable, open, truth. Hopeful, light at the end of the tunnel, fuckin’, bring yourself out of the deep dark nasty shit and barrels of despair and laughing into a world of just epic fucking meaningfulness and love and fuckin’ positive energy that makes you want to slap yourself and give yourself a kiss and a high five all at the same time.
[Laughes] Well that’s certainly an interesting description. The album definitely marked a change in sound from past Papa Roach albums, where did that change in sound come from?
I don’t know. I mean honestly its just something that just happened with this band that’s just been our natural thing for us. We’ve always had a love for hip-hop and punk rock and hard rock, metal, y’know, reggae music, pop, electronic music, future music, old school music, y’know we’ve never been the type of band thats always had one song that sounds the same, we’ve never been the type of band to put out a record that sounds just like the one before it. We’re just kinda going along and doing what P-Roach does. Having fun and experimenting with all available eargasms that are out there.
Yeah sweet! What did you find was different about Kevin and Kane’s approach on this record, as opposed to the process from previous records?
Um, for us it was more of a modern approach i suppose to recording than what we’ve done in the past. In the sense that we came into the studio and didn't have anything pre-written, it was like, we would write the ideas and record them as we were going along, doing everything kind of like, what they call ‘in the box’. Using protools, computer, plug ins, guitar plugins, y’know, programming drums to get all the basic ideas and arrangements ahead of time and then recording the real acoustic drums at the very end, you know what I mean? They're just really on the cutting edge of having a sonic, heavy, heavy rock metal sound mixed with this in your face modern approach to making rock record. I’m sure Dave Grohl would probably have frowned upon it.
Papa Roach has been a band now for 22 years and in that time, you've released a whopping eight studio records. Did you feel that this time in the studio was an improvement over previous records, and how has your view of recording changed over the years?
Yeah, on a personal level for all of us it was a more focused record, we made a conscious effort and decision that everyone should have their shit together before we got into the studio and that we were only there to do business, you know what I mean? Not have any distractions there or lack of confidence issues or anything like that y’know, its like, you have business and we had to come to that by trial and error, through the past experiences where making records was like pulling teeth if know what I mean.
But this one, it just felt good man, it felt natural, everyone was in a good place and the creative vibe was there. Um, before, usually we would before we would spend a shit tonne of money renting some elaborate place or being held up in some house or some big budget studio, for y’know, a couple of months and we would like jam out and hang out and just party and fuckin’ just casually come up with ideas and then go into a studio and then change them and then re-record them and do that whole process, and it was just like “what the fuck? Thats unnecessary!”
Now we’re just like, look, let’s take a couple of weeks, lets go in the studio five days a week, lets just walk in there and do like y’know, ‘I’ve got an idea for a riff or a beat or a chorus vocal and let’s just build around that and record it in the same fucking day’, boom. I like working that way now.
Do you think that that also meant that Kevin and Kane had more influence over the album?
Yeah, I mean, when you're in a room and you're working with somebody from the beginning to the end process, y’know on a song, whoever’s around you is going to be an influence and have an integral part in the process, so yeah definitely, um, they made it a really smooth experience and even though there were times where it was like “ah well I don't know about this or I don't know about that” or whatever, we kind of just let go, like all the little things we would usually trip off of.
Little things that we’re like ‘we wanna change this and go around in circles and go around and have a version that has this on it and one that doesn’t have it on it’ and this time we were like, “Fuck it! Who cares! This shit is going to sound good no matter what”. As long as the message is there and the honestly and the energy and emotion is there in all aspects of the music and the instruments being played thats really all that matters. Know what I mean?
Yeah totally! One of the standout tracks for me on the album was ‘Warriors’ and when I saw Royce’s [Da 5’9] name on the tracklist, I was absolutely stoked, I love the Shady crew and although it was only a short verse it was great to see him involved. How did that come to be and what was it like to work with him?
I’ve actually never met Royce, Jacobi has been talking to him on the phone I guess for a while. They kind of buddied up on some personal stuff and were talking about hip hop and life and shit and we’re all fans of Royce Da 5’9’ all the Shady crew, and we’ve known those guys for a long time and it was really just a quick thing that happened at the last minute. It was like the last thing done on the record. It was like “hey we’ve got this bridge that has nothing on it at the moment, do you want to spin something on it real quick?” and he was like “yeah sure!” and he’s a fan of P-Roach so it just happened naturally, real quickly.
Sweet! So you're coming to Australia for Soundwave this February, and seeing as it has such a strong rock lineup this year, and so many bands playing, are there any bands you're excited to catch while you’re on the tour?
Uh the only ones I can think of off the bat that are playing are Faith No More and I think Soundgarden right?
Yeah.
I don’t know who else is on it… Marilyn Manson… I’ve seen him a bunch of times, y’know, he can go both ways.
Yeah he got booed off stage here a couple of years ago, that was… interesting.
Yeah, it can be lacklustre at times but I’ve seen him fuckin’ destroy it, but whatever, after a while you begin to expect that kind of shit and it's just part of the show.
Were any of the Soundwave artists, musicians that you looked up to when you were younger?
Well, Faith No More was a big deal for us early on. You know, last time we were in Australia we toured with Red Hot Chilli Peppers and that was a fucking dream come true, like that was inconceivable. Every night I was standing on the side of the stage just watching, and y’know for me, I learnt how to play guitar by listening to John Frusciante and listening to Flea play the bass. That for me was a huge deal, I thought like ‘this is fuckin’ making it, right here’. But that was like thirteen years ago and we had fun with that and fuck it, its long overdue we’re finally coming back and we’re super excited.
Yeah wow, so the last time that you were here was in 2002. I thought that I had overlooked a gig somehow and was wrong on that! So thats five albums that you guys haven’t gotten to play here, does that mean your Soundwave setlist will be more of a mix of Papa Roach songs than usual or will it be focusing more on F.E.A.R?
I dont know! We’ll see what happens, we’re definitely going to play a couple of new songs, but we’ll definitely be playing a lot of shit off ‘Infest’ y’know, celebrating fifteen years of that record and playing all of our favourite songs live, from all the records in between. Its actually getting to the point now where making a setlist is becoming quite difficult because you have like…
…so much material
Exactly! And its cool cause there’s songs we want to play and songs we can swap in and out so we’re not playing the same set every day.
Yeah totally, you do need variety. So while we still have time, I’d love it if you could explain to me whats happening with Make-A-Wish foundation and Papa Roach at the moment?
Oh! Yeah well they reached out to us and were like “theres this kid Mark, Breaking Boundryz, he’s a huge fan of P-Roach, would you guys like to produce their record, we really want to do something special for this kid and this is his wish! It was great! He was just living this fucking dream and he’s just got this positive energy despite all the crazy madness he had going on with the tumor and everything. We’re just were like “Fuck yeah dude!” and we met the family! and they were the coolest most down to earth old school Mexican family and just totally reminded us of the people we grew up with back home in California.
It was just a really pleasing experience to be part of that and help out and hang with them and y’know, do something for someone else. It was just doing something selfless in a world thats just… y’know when you're a rocker and touring and in a band, sometimes you just think you're so cool and everything’s all about you. Its nice to just give back to some other people, help out and make some new friends, while seeing seeing that pureness from kids who've got this family vibe of starting a band for the first time.
Thats really awesome to hear. Is there anything you want to say to our readers before you fly out to Australia?
Yeah. Bring you're diapers because we’re going to rock the shit out of you.
[laughes] Well thank you so much for your time Tobin, we look forward to seeing you guys play at Soundwave!
Right on! Thank you!
Fletcher Crebert
SOUNDWAVE 2015
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - ADELAIDE
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - MELBOURNE
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH - SYDNEY
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH – BRISBANE
Hello! How are you?
Whats going down! I’m going good, how about yourself?
I’m well thank you. Where are you at the moment?
I’m in Chicago man, it’s storming, snowy, windy… nastiness, I’m ready to leave and get out of here…
It’s nice and warm over here in Australia at the moment!
Exactly! See I’m looking forward to that!
And you guys are on tour at the moment?
Yeah, we’re blasting through the States with Seether, Islander, and a band called Kyng and it’s been great, I mean, sold out shows, the reception and the record has been great, I mean, the vibe it’s just… pumped up right now.
Awesome! So ‘F.E.A.R’ officially comes out on the 27th, In a couple of sentences, how would you describe the record?
This record is sonically bombastic. Guitar riffs, live and uncut right up in your face. Drums just punching you in the fucking dick. Just complete and open honesty… vulnerable, open, truth. Hopeful, light at the end of the tunnel, fuckin’, bring yourself out of the deep dark nasty shit and barrels of despair and laughing into a world of just epic fucking meaningfulness and love and fuckin’ positive energy that makes you want to slap yourself and give yourself a kiss and a high five all at the same time.
[Laughes] Well that’s certainly an interesting description. The album definitely marked a change in sound from past Papa Roach albums, where did that change in sound come from?
I don’t know. I mean honestly its just something that just happened with this band that’s just been our natural thing for us. We’ve always had a love for hip-hop and punk rock and hard rock, metal, y’know, reggae music, pop, electronic music, future music, old school music, y’know we’ve never been the type of band thats always had one song that sounds the same, we’ve never been the type of band to put out a record that sounds just like the one before it. We’re just kinda going along and doing what P-Roach does. Having fun and experimenting with all available eargasms that are out there.
Yeah sweet! What did you find was different about Kevin and Kane’s approach on this record, as opposed to the process from previous records?
Um, for us it was more of a modern approach i suppose to recording than what we’ve done in the past. In the sense that we came into the studio and didn't have anything pre-written, it was like, we would write the ideas and record them as we were going along, doing everything kind of like, what they call ‘in the box’. Using protools, computer, plug ins, guitar plugins, y’know, programming drums to get all the basic ideas and arrangements ahead of time and then recording the real acoustic drums at the very end, you know what I mean? They're just really on the cutting edge of having a sonic, heavy, heavy rock metal sound mixed with this in your face modern approach to making rock record. I’m sure Dave Grohl would probably have frowned upon it.
Papa Roach has been a band now for 22 years and in that time, you've released a whopping eight studio records. Did you feel that this time in the studio was an improvement over previous records, and how has your view of recording changed over the years?
Yeah, on a personal level for all of us it was a more focused record, we made a conscious effort and decision that everyone should have their shit together before we got into the studio and that we were only there to do business, you know what I mean? Not have any distractions there or lack of confidence issues or anything like that y’know, its like, you have business and we had to come to that by trial and error, through the past experiences where making records was like pulling teeth if know what I mean.
But this one, it just felt good man, it felt natural, everyone was in a good place and the creative vibe was there. Um, before, usually we would before we would spend a shit tonne of money renting some elaborate place or being held up in some house or some big budget studio, for y’know, a couple of months and we would like jam out and hang out and just party and fuckin’ just casually come up with ideas and then go into a studio and then change them and then re-record them and do that whole process, and it was just like “what the fuck? Thats unnecessary!”
Now we’re just like, look, let’s take a couple of weeks, lets go in the studio five days a week, lets just walk in there and do like y’know, ‘I’ve got an idea for a riff or a beat or a chorus vocal and let’s just build around that and record it in the same fucking day’, boom. I like working that way now.
Do you think that that also meant that Kevin and Kane had more influence over the album?
Yeah, I mean, when you're in a room and you're working with somebody from the beginning to the end process, y’know on a song, whoever’s around you is going to be an influence and have an integral part in the process, so yeah definitely, um, they made it a really smooth experience and even though there were times where it was like “ah well I don't know about this or I don't know about that” or whatever, we kind of just let go, like all the little things we would usually trip off of.
Little things that we’re like ‘we wanna change this and go around in circles and go around and have a version that has this on it and one that doesn’t have it on it’ and this time we were like, “Fuck it! Who cares! This shit is going to sound good no matter what”. As long as the message is there and the honestly and the energy and emotion is there in all aspects of the music and the instruments being played thats really all that matters. Know what I mean?
Yeah totally! One of the standout tracks for me on the album was ‘Warriors’ and when I saw Royce’s [Da 5’9] name on the tracklist, I was absolutely stoked, I love the Shady crew and although it was only a short verse it was great to see him involved. How did that come to be and what was it like to work with him?
I’ve actually never met Royce, Jacobi has been talking to him on the phone I guess for a while. They kind of buddied up on some personal stuff and were talking about hip hop and life and shit and we’re all fans of Royce Da 5’9’ all the Shady crew, and we’ve known those guys for a long time and it was really just a quick thing that happened at the last minute. It was like the last thing done on the record. It was like “hey we’ve got this bridge that has nothing on it at the moment, do you want to spin something on it real quick?” and he was like “yeah sure!” and he’s a fan of P-Roach so it just happened naturally, real quickly.
Sweet! So you're coming to Australia for Soundwave this February, and seeing as it has such a strong rock lineup this year, and so many bands playing, are there any bands you're excited to catch while you’re on the tour?
Uh the only ones I can think of off the bat that are playing are Faith No More and I think Soundgarden right?
Yeah.
I don’t know who else is on it… Marilyn Manson… I’ve seen him a bunch of times, y’know, he can go both ways.
Yeah he got booed off stage here a couple of years ago, that was… interesting.
Yeah, it can be lacklustre at times but I’ve seen him fuckin’ destroy it, but whatever, after a while you begin to expect that kind of shit and it's just part of the show.
Were any of the Soundwave artists, musicians that you looked up to when you were younger?
Well, Faith No More was a big deal for us early on. You know, last time we were in Australia we toured with Red Hot Chilli Peppers and that was a fucking dream come true, like that was inconceivable. Every night I was standing on the side of the stage just watching, and y’know for me, I learnt how to play guitar by listening to John Frusciante and listening to Flea play the bass. That for me was a huge deal, I thought like ‘this is fuckin’ making it, right here’. But that was like thirteen years ago and we had fun with that and fuck it, its long overdue we’re finally coming back and we’re super excited.
Yeah wow, so the last time that you were here was in 2002. I thought that I had overlooked a gig somehow and was wrong on that! So thats five albums that you guys haven’t gotten to play here, does that mean your Soundwave setlist will be more of a mix of Papa Roach songs than usual or will it be focusing more on F.E.A.R?
I dont know! We’ll see what happens, we’re definitely going to play a couple of new songs, but we’ll definitely be playing a lot of shit off ‘Infest’ y’know, celebrating fifteen years of that record and playing all of our favourite songs live, from all the records in between. Its actually getting to the point now where making a setlist is becoming quite difficult because you have like…
…so much material
Exactly! And its cool cause there’s songs we want to play and songs we can swap in and out so we’re not playing the same set every day.
Yeah totally, you do need variety. So while we still have time, I’d love it if you could explain to me whats happening with Make-A-Wish foundation and Papa Roach at the moment?
Oh! Yeah well they reached out to us and were like “theres this kid Mark, Breaking Boundryz, he’s a huge fan of P-Roach, would you guys like to produce their record, we really want to do something special for this kid and this is his wish! It was great! He was just living this fucking dream and he’s just got this positive energy despite all the crazy madness he had going on with the tumor and everything. We’re just were like “Fuck yeah dude!” and we met the family! and they were the coolest most down to earth old school Mexican family and just totally reminded us of the people we grew up with back home in California.
It was just a really pleasing experience to be part of that and help out and hang with them and y’know, do something for someone else. It was just doing something selfless in a world thats just… y’know when you're a rocker and touring and in a band, sometimes you just think you're so cool and everything’s all about you. Its nice to just give back to some other people, help out and make some new friends, while seeing seeing that pureness from kids who've got this family vibe of starting a band for the first time.
Thats really awesome to hear. Is there anything you want to say to our readers before you fly out to Australia?
Yeah. Bring you're diapers because we’re going to rock the shit out of you.
[laughes] Well thank you so much for your time Tobin, we look forward to seeing you guys play at Soundwave!
Right on! Thank you!
Fletcher Crebert
SOUNDWAVE 2015
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - ADELAIDE
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - MELBOURNE
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH - SYDNEY
SATURDAY 28 FEBRUARY & SUNDAY 1 MARCH – BRISBANE