On October 21, Papa Roach guitarist Jerry Horton sat down for a online Q&A; regarding their album Metamorphosis and their tour with Jet.
Moderator Renee Harrison: What can fans expect from your tour with Jet?
Jerry Horton: We’ve been on a pretty wide range of tours in the last year and a half so touring with Jet will be yet another new experience that we’re looking forward to. I’ve been reading comments on the paparoach.com community, and fan response and anticipation for the pairing has been very eager to check it out, which is great. It’s always a great challenge and rewarding to win over new fans who may not have come to see our band in particular play. For example when we toured with Nickelback this summer, probably 80% of the audience had never seen us live before and we could see the crowd coming around warming up to us as we played more songs. It was cool to have won them over before the end of our set.
Moderator: Since Papa Roach’s tour with Jet is co-headlining, does that mean that you’ll take turns alternating who will close the show or are you guys closing it?
Jerry Horton: I believe we’re going to close but we have the same amount of time on stage, we’ll each have an hour.
Moderator: Will Papa Roach be putting out a live CD or DVD from all the touring you’ve been doing in support of Metamorphosis?
Jerry Horton: We’ve done some video recording this year, but I think we’re going to save the official, big multi-camera shoot for when we go out and headline next year and wait until we play bigger venues with more stage space and our set time is @90 minutes or more.
Moderator: Do you have confirmed headlining dates in 2010?
Jerry Horton: Nothing is firm yet. We have ideas of who we’d like to bring with us on tour with and what cities we’d like to hit but nothing is set in stone yet.
Moderator: I’ve heard Jacoby say that the band was more fearless than before when writing and recording Metamorphosis. What sort of new barriers did you cross?
Jerry Horton: With this album, we were comfortable with the idea of not really paying attention to what kind of style songs were – whether heavy or mellow; we don’t necessarily shun anything just because oh that might be a little too heavy or a little too mellow for Papa Roach. It’s something that changed and evolved over the years but I think recently we’ve started to take more risks as far as song styles and our fans are recognizing it and they’re really appreciating it.
Moderator: I hear that you regularly go on paparoach.com to see what fans are saying in the forum. What kind of stuff do you look for? Do you get information from your fans as far as feedback and then make changes?
Jerry Horton: I just kind of see where people’s heads are at. If there’s something that a lot of people are wanting us to do then we’ll obviously consider it. The forum is a great way for Papa Roach fans to talk and find each other easily. It just seems fitting for us to have our own forum and our own place for people to go to talk about like their experiences at the shows and that kind of thing. We’ve recently added an option where fans can directly ask the band questions. In this age of the Internet, communication is really important and the fans I know appreciate the ability to actually ask us questions or even just to know that they can talk to us.
Moderator: Have you ever gotten surprised or flattered by something that a fan has written in to you?
Jerry Horton: Yes it happens where people tell us that our music has helped them through hard times and that means a lot to us. It’s not something that we intend on when we write songs and when Jacoby writes the lyrics to the songs so it’s an amazing bi-product that makes us feel good that what we’re doing is actually helping people and not just entertaining people.
Moderator: What special fan interactions have stood out for you?
Jerry Horton: We’ve had quite a few people show us their Papa Roach tattoos – whether it be our autographs, band logo, lyrics, etc. We’ve seen so many that we just started a section on paparoach.com for fan’s Papa Roach tattoos. It’s a big commitment and we appreciate it.
Moderator: Do you have favorite songs to perform live and any that are more special, maybe have more meaning to you and you love performing them?
Jerry Horton: I really like playing our new single “Had Enough” from Metamorphosis and we also recently started playing a song off of our first record, Infest called “Blood Brothers.” There are so many songs that I like playing so it’s kind of unfair but I think those two are probably the standouts.
Moderator: “Lifeline” and “I Almost Told You That I Loved You” are great songs. Can we expect another single from Metamorphosis?
Jerry Horton: Yes. Get ready for our new single “Had Enough!”
Moderator: Congratulations on celebrating ten years signed to a major label this year. Reflecting back on the state of the band now versus then, how do you feel the band has grown over the decade?
Jerry Horton: I think we’re ten times better live than we were starting out and we’re definitely better musicians plus we’ve learned a lot about the music business in general. We’re in a really good place right now.
Moderator: Where is Papa Roach at in terms of the next album?
Jerry Horton: Our new album Metamorophosis just came out in March so we’re not really ready to go and make another one but, we’re always working on new song ideas. We haven’t necessarily focused on writing new songs but we constantly get ideas recorded for when the time comes.
Moderator: How did the band get involved with WHY (World Hunger Year) and what will you guys will be doing to raise money for the charity?
Jerry Horton: We started our involvement with helping the homeless and hungry with the Sacramento-based charity Loaves and Fishes, and we wanted to do more and help on a larger, national scale. We’ll be auctioning special VIP fan experiences for our shows that include unique aspects such as watching our performance from side stage, interviewing us, attending soundcheck and much more – with all proceeds going to World Hunger Year. Along the tour, we’ll visit food banks and homeless shelters to lend support and draw attention to this important issue. It feels good to be able to give back so that’s why we’re doing it. It means a lot to us.
