Jim Root reveals the creative chaos behind Slipknot’s songwriting process

Slipknot‘s guitarist Jim Root has opened up about the band’s unconventional approach to songwriting, revealing that even after decades of creating their signature sound, the process remains as unpredictable as ever.

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” Root admits when discussing their songwriting method. “I think that’s the eternal [mystery] because, with writing, there’s no rule book. You can do it however it comes to you, whether it’s noodling around on the couch and then something comes to you or it’s sitting in front of the Pro Tools rig, or if it’s at a band rehearsal and then the drummer plays something and then you just happen to play something along with it and somebody’s, like, ‘What was that?’ And then it can evolve into a song.“

The creative journey of each Slipknot track varies significantly. Some songs emerge fully formed, while others require years of patience and refinement. “You hear a lot of people say a song will write itself, and sometimes that happens, and when it does happen, those tend to be the really good ones,” Root explains. “Or it could be a song that you just work on for years and it just stays in demo form and then you just keep revisiting it. And maybe a year after you started working on it, you hear it differently, and you’re, like, ‘Oh, wait a minute.’ And then, all of a sudden, something unlocks and then it comes together better that way.“

Drawing parallels between music and film production, Root reflects on the challenge of knowing when to stop tweaking a song. “That’s why, I think, a lot of the times in the movie industry, they say they never finish a movie; they abandon it. And I think that rings true with what we do, too, in the studio. It’s, like, how deep in do you wanna go, or can you go? You could infinitely work on things until you’re… you can drive yourself crazy.“

The band’s 2019 album “We Are Not Your Kind” presented its own set of challenges, particularly when it came to song selection. “I started working on that record a couple of years before we even got together to do pre-production for it,” Root recalls. The abundance of material led to tough decisions: “We had so many songs that it got to the point where sitting with Clown and Corey and producer Greg Fidelman, we were just trying to figure out, like, ‘Which ones are we cutting?’ Cause you know, the money’s cutting off at this time and the studio time’s cutting off at this time.“

While deadlines might seem constraining, Root believes they often bring out the best in the band. “I think we work really well under pressure in some cases, in most cases. There are exceptions to that rule, of course, but I think if we know there’s a clock ticking over our heads, it’ll inspire us to really dig down deep and find what it is we’re looking for.“

The guitarist also shed light on his collaborative relationship with fellow guitarist Mick Thomson and the rest of the band. “If I’m at home… I always write thinking about what not just Mick is gonna be doing, but what Clown or Pfaff or any of the other guys are gonna be doing, and I always think about leaving space.“

This collaborative spirit often leads to unexpected evolution in their songs. “Sometimes he’ll just write over what I give him and we won’t change anything. And other times it’s that evolution,” Root says of working with vocalist Corey Taylor. The same applies to his partnership with Thomson: “There might be songs where, if it happens to be a song that I wrote at home, he might wanna be, like, ‘That rhythm’s really cool, but I have this idea and I’m gonna play this.’ And that’s great ’cause it adds a whole another new dimension to the song that I wouldn’t have thought of.”

Root concludes by emphasizing how crucial outside perspectives are to their creative process: “When you become so attached to something and you’re so in your head with it, you can’t look at it objectively, but you give it to somebody like Mick and he hears it from a totally different standpoint and a different style of playing even, and he does something that wouldn’t even occur to me. And then all of a sudden that’s the thing that takes the song and lifts it to where it needs to be.“