Korn's newest addition, Ray Luzier, is known to many musicians and music fans as an integral influence in the drumming world. Not only has he been drumming since he was five-years-old, he has been a part of bands including Army of Anyone (members from Stone Tempe Pilots and Filter), and the David Lee Roth Band. He has traveled the globe several times, working with everyone from Rob Zombie and Black Label Society, to Seal and Bob Ezrin (producer of Pink Floyd and KISS).
But for now, he has been accepted into the Korn family and helped write the newest album, Korn III: Remember Who You Are. Among the throngs of musicians, media, and groupies backstage at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, Luzier helped fill me in on his first recording sesh with Korn, the process of making crop circles, and the type of music that gives him the chills.
Lauren Wise: You joined Korn about three years ago and have an impressive list of artists you’ve worked with, for sure. What was the transition process from the David Lee Roth band to Army of Anyone to Korn?
Ray Luzier: Big change! Because you don’t just join a band like Korn. You know what I mean? No one sounds like them. You know instantly when you hear one bass pluck from Fieldy, one guitar pluck from Monk – no one sings like Jonathan Davis. To get inside you really have to get in that realm, get in the space and understand where they came from. There’s a lot to it, and they’ve changed so many sounds on top of it all, in the way bands played their instruments in the 90’s. It was a big change. But we have the same management from my last band.
LW: Is that how you got connected with Korn?
RL: Yea, that was the connection. And then Joey from Slipknot was filling in during their last gig in Seattle. They flew me up and I played like six songs during soundcheck with them. Then they said, "welcome to Korn! See you in Dublin".
LW: It seems like Joey’s always in three places at once.
RL: Yea! I thought I was a drum slut [laughter]
LW: So I heard you love to travel and eat out a lot. Do you have any favorite Phoenix restaurants? How often are you here?
RL: Interesting question!...hmm…I do come through here quite a lot actually for tours. Nothing stands out…Remember that club Gibson’s? I think it’s closed now. Years ago I used to play there and they have that whole college town around there with lots of good restaurants. No names stick out though..
LW: That’s too bad!
RL: Yea that’s one of my hobbies is fine dining. I love it!
LW: Well this isn’t really fine dining, but if you like sandwich shops there is an amazing one in Phoenix. It’s called Stanley’s. These old Polish ladies who barely speak any English serve up amazing sandwiches, and sausage and cheese for grilling.
RL: I love it! That’s what’s great about LA because you can go to an Indian restaurant and they are actually from India.
LW: It's way better when they know what they are doing! So you grew up on a farm, right? How did it come about that you started playing the drums at age five? Was your family musically inclined?
RL: It’s weird, no one in my family is into playing music.
LW: So you just decided you were into drums, playing on pots and pans.
RL: Exactly! Anything I could hit. My mom used to play Chuck Berry, Elvis - there was always music going on. I was always constantly tapping on stuff. They were humoring themselves and bought me a small kit to start off on. We lived on 118 acres, so, neighbors weren’t a problem. I would steal my sister’s records and play along with Ozzy, Kiss, Rush, and it just got really serious. Then they bought me a semi-pro kit. Then I got in a high school band, more rock bands, marching corps for five years, and finally moved to LA two months after I graduated from high school. It was kinda' an excuse to go out there to go to a musician’s institute, and I just met a lot of people.
LW: When I was younger Korn was actually one of the first rock concerts I ever went to. That band definitely opened the doors to rock and metal for me. What are some of the newer bands currently popular that you think have a lot of potential?
RL: There is still stuff that opens my eyes. I’m a rock and metal head, but I love stuff that….you know. I’m all about the heart and anything that’s passionate. So it doesn’t matter. Some of my favorite bands don’t even have drums in them. I can listen to a Seal song and if it moves me I love it. They were calling me gay the other day because I listen to Coldplay. Some of them are really moving though! That guys the real deal. So, I’ll listen to everything. Of course, I love NIN and stuff like that, but newer bands have to move me to impress me. If it gives me chills, I’m in.
LW: So what’s up with Korn’s set onstage at the Mayhem tour? I heard from other bands that you have flaming oil rigs? Is that just like a stab at BP oil?
RL: No, coincidentally it isn’t. The band members were all raised in a very small town in California, Bakersville. Oil wells are everywhere and there are millions and millions of dollars but people live very…..like, poverty-stricken. Its very sad because it seems like they can’t get out of there and are stuck. It’s not a bad place but it isn’t somewhere you’d want to move. We filmed the video for Oildale up there and it was heavy. People came out of their houses, and it was like they saw the Messiah. They know Korn’s from there so it was pretty cool for everyone. They’ve sold 30 million records, won three Grammys, and still existing after 17 years. That’s a huge accomplishment. The people there are good people-they just don’t know how to get out of the town. So that led to the video of Oildale “Leave Me Alone”.
John was sitting around saying it would be kick a** if there were dirty oil rigs on stage with fire. After we made it work it looked really bada**. We wanted to do something different and dirtier.
LW: Speaking of Bakersville, what was the deal with the crop circles that were associated with Korn.
RL: To go with the theme of the new record coming out they always wanted to do something like Pink Floyd’s “Live at Pompeii”, so this was there example of that. These guys came out from England and made these crop circles in a huge field. There were helicopters and it was crazy. You can see the whole show on Myspace right now and it’ll come out on DVDs soon. Speaking of DVDs, there’s a really good on in the special addition of our record that Sebastian, our videographer, did. He filmed us recording the record.
LW: Sounds awesome. So I had heard that the last record was supposed to be based around five ideas linked to man’s downfall such as pharmaceutical drugs, organized religion, power, money and time. But then Ross Robinson said he didn’t want to do that. So is that an underlying theme still or was it wiped out?
RL: No it was wiped out…that may happen down the road but at the time it was just about us. Four guys getting in a room 13x12 in a little tiny guitar booth, hashing it out. Writing a riff than a half hour later recording it for the record. There were no quip tracks; for me it was scary as hell.
LW: Yea I’ve heard Robinson’s recording methods aren’t for the weak at heart. What did you think about it?
RL: I hated it! I wanted to strangle him in the first week. But now that the record’s done we’re really quite proud of it. But at first, me and John got ridden probably the most because I was the newer guy. But he just wanted to pull emotion and passion out of us. He didn’t care about the instruments. I’m quite proud of it.
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