KoЯn’s James ‘Munky’ Shaffer Reflects on The Making Of Untouchables
It’s hard to fathom getting old – it happens and we just need to accept it…
But one of the best things that come with age is reflection, and KoЯn are doing a whole bunch of that this week as they celebrate the 20th Anniversary of their album Untouchables, which spawned the hit singles ‘Here To Stay‘, ‘Thoughtless‘ and ‘Alone I Break‘, and sold over 434,000 copies in its first week. It debuted at #2 on the ARIA Charts here in Australia and set the band up for massive worldwide acknowledgement during the era when rock and metal music was supported by mainstream.
Don’t believe me, check out their throwback clip to when TRL debuted their music video! You won’t catch that on any mainstream media these days!
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Back in January, we caught up with James ‘Munky’ Shaffer to chat about their latest release Requiem, which debuted at #1 in Australia and proved you can’t keep the kings of nu-metal down. The conversation also touched on their Untouchables album which still holds up to this day after all these years – proving that like a fine wine, nu-metal still gets better with age.
Turns out that album features some of Munky’s fav songs he’s recorded in his career:
“Looking back on that song [‘Thoughtless’] it’s one of my favourite songs too – that one ‘Here to Stay’, there’s so many great tracks on Untouchables. That was one of the most expensive albums we ever, I think anyone ever made [laughs]. It had to be done. Sonically it really is the bar for a lot of bands, still. A lot of bands will tune their PAs when they go on live to some of those songs on that album because it just has such a massive sound – but to still be talking about that these days… that inspires us.”
During the chat, we also reflected on the glory days when mainstream media supported metal and how they essentially backflipped on their support and now shy away from any form of heavy material, to which he explained:
“Personally, I feel like it doesn’t matter because if it’s good and it’s coming from a real place they come a knockin’ [laughs]; Pop music has evolved into something so synthetic, you know, it’ll get to the point where it’s so not real, people crave real instruments and someone that’s actually singing live and you know, that whole thing will come around again because there’ll be a need for it. It kind of comes in waves.”
He also reiterated that the band didn’t get into this business for notoriety, they’re in it for the loyal supporters in their crop:
“It’s okay because we’re not in it for the fame, We’re in it for the fan.”
And after decades in the music industry, the fans are still here to stay! If you’re keen to relive your angsty youth, go check out some of the celebration merch the band released for pre-order and dive back into one of the greatest KoЯn albums of all time. Period.
Stream Untouchables here
