A couple of weeks ago, the legendary Papa Roach came to London to play two shows at Brixton Academy with Stone Sour. We went and hung out in their dressing room to get the lowdown on feeling festive, the end of the world and what we should expect from P-Roach in 2013.
ARE YOU PLANNING ON MAKING TONIGHT’S GIG FESTIVE?
Tobin: Well we just did a photo shoot for the fans, a little Christmas card, so we’re just giving back to our fans, a little something special for them. Not only are we handsome but we are also very charming and we do nice things. Tis the season! Onstage we have Christmas lights, reindeers, Santa, a baby in a manger, fake snow…not really.
HOW WAS LAST NIGHT’S SHOW?
T: Last night was good. It was really good. We always have great shows here in Brixton. London’s up there with the top five places to play, for sure. I’d say the other four would probably be Germany, Glasgow, Russia – we have great shows there – and then South America. Maybe Mexico, they’re very good.
WILL TONIGHT BE BETTER THAN LAST NIGHT?
T: I think so, because tonight is the last show. Ever, in the history of Papa Roach. Just kidding. In the history of Papa Roach in 2012. Before the end of the world and the zombie apocalypse. This is gonna be the last even number year show for us. Shit’s gonna get weird. We’re not really gonna be done, we’re gonna go to an island with Tupac and we’re gonna come back together in five years and take over music and we’re gonna go fucking katrillion times platinum. Tupac, P-Roach collabo. 2045.
APART FROM THE END OF THE WORLD, ARE YOU GONNA DO LOTS OF SHOWS NEXT YEAR?
T: Yeah, but we’re gonna have to teleport. Or magic carpet, whichever one seems more feasible.
J: Whichever one has less traffic. Traffic sucks.
T: We’re gonna do some festivals. I’m not sure which ones yet. Basically we’ll be where we’re at and you’re just gonna have to come join us.
YOU’RE GONNA COME BACK TO THE UK RIGHT?
T: We really really need to do a proper UK tour, like all up and down it and side to side and round and round. The last couple of times we’ve been over we’ve only done a couple of shows and we’re not proud of that. We had a talk to the man in charge, we call him God, and we said ‘Look dude, next time you put us on a UK tour we gotta do it proper’ so we’re gonna come back. We need to come to Scotland and all that shit too. I wanna do like four shows in London, small ones, big ones, medium sized ones, ones for the little people.
HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED IN WALES?
T: No, we haven’t. I’d love to play in Wales. I’ve heard that some bands do go there. They’ve got a scene there. A lot of great bands come from there. And all the best journalists come from Wales…We love Skindred. And you can surf there. Have you ever seen a whale in Wales?!
HOW ARE YOU DEALING WITH THE COLD OVER HERE?
Jerry: This is nothing though, because we started this tour in Siberia. It was -17 there.
T: Many many years ago we did a show in Brazil, called Rock In Rio, a very decadent rock show in front of many many people, thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands, and we flew from the hottest place to the coldest place, Helsinki in Finland. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve done it all. We have superhuman powers.
J: Then we did the Italian Alps.
T: It was outside and it was -13. In the snow.
HOW’S ‘THE CONNECTION’ GOING DOWN LIVE?
T: It’s going down great live. We’ve played like four or five new songs off the record and all of them have been great. I mean, on this tour, we’re only playing three new songs but when we come back and do a headline tour we’ll play a shit ton, so maybe people can get on our message boards and tell us what songs they wanna hear live. Because I would like to play all of the record if possible, and if the fans really wanna hear it, then you know….
WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING TONIGHT? A MIXTURE OF ALL THE ALBUMS?
T: Yeah, we’re doing some new songs, some old songs, some cult classics. We only get 50 minutes which is very strange because we have many records and songs to choose from so we have to get all the good ones in there.
J: Hopefully it’ll sound good…
T: At least we’ll look good. That’s what we say when we don’t sound good: at least we look good.
ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE WEARING THE CHRISTMAS SWEATERS! SO HOW HAS IT BEEN TOURING WITH STONE SOUR?
T: We started a couple of weeks ago in Italy and in Germany and Switzerland and basically worked our way over here to the UK and it’s been great. We’re gonna do some more touring together in the States and yeah it’s cool. Great band, great guys. We go way back with Corey and Jim, of course, the Slipknots, and then we also go really far back with Roy because Roy used to work at the Roxy, and the first time we ever played the Roxy when I was 16 he was there and I remember him. He’s played with so many bands and we’ve crossed paths for years so it’s great.
I’D LIKE TO SWAP THE BILL SO YOU’RE HEADLINING…
T: Yeah, I’d like to do that. I’d like to play for a lot longer. Because we have a lot of songs that I’d like to play. We have many hits. Hot hits.
ANY LAST WORDS?
T: Well I’d just like to say that this is the last show of the tour and it’s gonna be an amazing show and I can’t to wait to start next year strong. And we’re gonna talk to our agent about coming to Wales! And do a proper UK tour. 2013 is a lucky year. Shit is gonna go down.
LAIS MW