THE HAMMER INTERVIEW
ROSS ROBINSON
He’s the super-producer and ‘Godfather Of Nu Metal’ who got the likes of Korn and Slipknot to bare their souls on record. And it’s all thanks to wine, self-help… and skunks?!
WORDS: ELEANOR GOODMAN
PICTURES: SIMONE NOBLE
As the producer for Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot’s debut albums, Ross Robinson defined what would come to be known as nu metal, wringing emotionally and sonically heavy performances out of the bands. He had discovered music at age six, and says he and his younger sister would sit around drinking wine and listening to his uncle’s Led Zeppelin record. “We’d play Black Dog over and over and over. I remember doing this a lot – the same record, wine and feeling this insane, incredible, mystic thing of partying with my sister, ha ha ha!” he recalls. “Where were our parents? It was the 70s, do I have to say more?”
That interest snowballed, leading to his bands Détente and Murdercar, and a stint working at the studio of W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless. But it was Korn’s 1994 self-titled first record that lit the fuse on his career. Using skills learned from workshops run by his mother, Byron Katie, who devised a method of therapy called ‘The Work’, he helped them access their deepest feelings. He’s produced Machine Head, Sepultura, Glassjaw, At The Drive-In, Suicide Silence and more, and still works with heavy bands today. This is his story. Are… you… ready?
You were born in 1967. What’s your earliest memory?
“Looking in the mirror, and seeing my face for the first time, and just staring at it and thinking, ‘I’m not supposed to look like that, not me.’ Ha ha ha! Everybody thought I was the cutest kid ever, but it didn’t make sense, so that was pretty heavy.”
Yeah, why did you feel that way?
“I think because when you’re attaching yourself, your memory has to start somewhere. There was no prior story to what I looked like, so it was a brand new experience that I couldn’t attach to. So the first time I saw my face, it had no reference.”
What was your home life like in Needles, California?
“Around age seven, I got a dirt bike, and I was allowed to take off into the open desert. My mom used to hand me a book of matches and say, ‘If you get hurt, or need help, light a fire and we’ll find you,’ ha ha ha! So, I’d just take off, and I’d run out of gas out there and struggle pushing my bike back home.