Slipknot’s Corey Taylor has spoken to the New York Times about his love for Swedish pop superstars ABBA, and singled out his favourite song from the quartet.
“Growing up in the ‘70s, there was such a weird amalgam of music all over the place,” Taylor tells the newspaper. “I had Elvis; I had Motown; I had weird disco.
“Through all of that, I remember hearing ABBA’s music,” he continues. “It seemed like it was always on, and it was clearly different from everything else. It had this full-spectrum lush production that felt and sounded big. It was only four people, but those songs sounded like there were a thousand people being recorded. The math didn’t add up to me.”
Last month, the Swedish pop superstars announced a reunion which fans have long been clamouring, and revealed that they will be releasing a new album, Voyage, on November 5. Lest anyone accuse Slipknot’s frontman of cynically jumping on a bandwagon here, it should be noted that Taylor has been singing Abba’s praises for years. Interviewed by FHM (South Africa) in 2014, Taylor responded to an inquiry about his “guilty musical pleasures” by stating “I don’t believe in guilty pleasures”, adding “I kind of wear my music out there for everybody to see. Like, I’m a big ABBA fan. I challenge anybody to put on ABBA and not wanna shake your ass!”
In his new interview in the New York Times, the singer nominates the quartet’s 1978 single Take A Chance On Me as his favourite ABBA song.
“Take A Chance On Me was always my jam,” he says. “I love the juxtaposition. The beginning sets the whole tone for the song, with this weird Gregorian monk-like chant going on, and all of a sudden the crazy European production kicks in. The modulation in those songs is beautiful; it hooks you in, the way it plays between the major and the minor. I just love the yearning feeling. When you put it on, I’m instantly in a good mood.”
In non-ABBA news, earlier this month Taylor revealed that Slipknot will return with new music “in the next month or so.”
Speaking on The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Taylor told the host that the band’s follow-up to We Are Not Your Kind is “pretty much done… probably about 80 per cent done” then teased “don’t be surprised if in the next month or so you hear something new.”
Asked if this would be a “well-in-advance single kind of vibe”, Taylor responded “more of a ‘Let’s bludgeon everybody and remind them why we’re still Slipknot’ kind of vibe.”
“This will be the release before we get to the single,” he added. “A little teaser to give people a taste. Kind of like what we did with All Out Life, but in the way that we didn’t put All Out Life on the album, this will actually be on the album, and it’s… I’m pretty stoked man, it’s going to remind people why they love Slipknot.”
