Use Your Disillusion

Judging by what I witnessed on screen, I can only imagine the footage that didn't make it into Slipknot's new DVD, Voliminal: Inside the Nine. Masterminded and meticulously edited by enigmatic percussionist and filmmaker M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan, Voliminal is a calculated audio-visual assault to the senses, and features an assemblage of candid tour footage that only appears to be random. "Every edit in the movie is precisely put in for a reason," Clown told me, "I've spent three-and-a-half years on this thing, and it's very precise."

Onstage, offstage, backstage, inside the bus, out in the streets- it captures all the things you'd expect to see in a tour video, yet there is much more here. The real ingenuity seems to be in the editing itself- the message of Voliminal isn't so much about what's going on in the footage, but rather in how the footage is presented in its totality. There is much jump-cutting and lots of short "urban scenery" clips that only make sense in the context of the film's overall aesthetic, which is not surprisingly very dark and apocalyptic. Clown likens it to a parable: "The Bible was based off of parables- stories that teach lessons- and that's basically what this is. Real-time, presented to you in the future for you to really grab some sort of metaphoric something, that hopefully you can apply to your life... you're gonna have to think about this movie."

Buried within the main film on disc one are nine different "rabbit holes" (similar to "easter eggs") leading to short vignettes of each band member. Disc two features more live footage, videos and interviews with the band members. The different masks are shown close-up, and there are many shots of some of the less-elusive members unmasked, though faces are partially blurred out. I have a hunch that this DVD will generate much discussion amongst Slipknot fans.

So, I just watched this video last night... it was pretty impressive, I must admit.
Cool.

How did the editing process go? Was that a lot of footage to sift through?
Well, I'll give you the whole spiel real quick if you want.

Definitely, that'd be great.
I worked very closely with the label on the last DVD called Disaster Pieces and built up a trust, and before Slipknot got back together on this third record, I had contacted the label guy and told him what it was I was wanting to do. Most of us hadn't talked to each other in two-and-a-half years. I knew there was going to be some heavy shit, so I wanted to start filming right away, but it took some certain things- it took getting a couple people to come in and be flies on the wall and capture stuff. I gave them explicit information on how and what I was looking for. Like, there's this scene of Jim Root in the movie where one of the camera guys I hired is like 40 feet away at 2:30 in the morning, and he's filming Jim through his window, and Jim has no idea, he's right in the middle of creating some really beautiful stuff. I'm not interested in some guy whacking it, I'm only interested in the Muse.

Yeah, that's a good idea.
We got one of my very good friends who goes on the road with Slipknot, who actually works for us- band assistant, helps us with all kinds of stuff- he mainly films us. Bobby Tongs is his name, a lot of people know him from all his work with Pantera. He and I get together every day, and I tell him things like what I'm looking for, what member we gotta concentrate on, if we're lacking this or that... I basically went through over 300 tapes- mini- DV- and it was a big self-awareness thing, really.

Were you pretty much the main one deciding what was going in and how it was being laid out?
Yeah, I'm the one that's doing that, but I can't do it unless I'm in such a great band. I just fall to the lot because sometimes when the attention gets put on me a lot of people can get angry, but the thing is, I will not be faulted for doing what I just have to do instinctively. I just do it- I don't wait around, I don't ask permission, I don't ask for guidance, I just go.

It struck me as very unconventional, more like an art piece than a conventional tour video.
I'm very against the music business right now, and I use Buddy Holly as an inspiration because that cat was playing in his garage and it was people outside the garage wondering, "How can I give this wonderful thing he has to the rest of the world?" Buddy Holly wasn't confronted with the problem of DVDs or touring or music videos or music television, none of that shit. I look at all the bands that are getting signed, I look at all these people who work in the "official music industry"... we're not cranking out Buddy Holly anymore, kids aren't getting their hand slapped for playing the piano wrong. It's a different era.

Yeah, I've heard lots of stories about bands getting disillusioned with the music industry.
Well, we're a different monster- we live on the road. I spent 18 months on the road, and there's not a lot of bands who can do that. We're all different, we're nine egos that need to be catered to, and we're very dangerous that way. But we know our own ecosystem, we know what works.

As far as the direction of the band is concerned, do you see a continued niche for what Slipknot is doing musically five or 10 years from now?
I can't speak for anybody else and I'm not one of those core writers, but I think the beautiful thing is that we don't know what the future is. We're kind of brilliant that way. We just get together and the magic happens and we know that, so we don't fuck with it, we just let it be. And it does, it happens all on its own, and then the new way is very evident, and we just go for it.

So after the DVD comes out it's hiatus for awhile?
We've been off for a year, and we'll be off for another year. We wanted this DVD to come out about halfway through, and once the new year comes in, it'll be the countdown to when we get back together. We're the most intense band out on the circuit, we slay everybody, and our whole performance is a war between us and our fans. We bring it down, and no one else brings it down like us.

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