New Slipknot drummer Eloy Casagrande recently opened up about his audition process for the band, and about how he came to ultimately join the Iowan unit. Now in a new interview with Tone-Talk, Slipknot guitarist Jim Root reveals that the band didn't even try out anyone else outside Casagrande. Or as Root puts it, it was clearly a no-brained once Slipknot heard the dude behind a drum kit.
"We didn't even try anybody else. Eloy's name came up. He contacted us, actually, about wanting to be a part of it and started sending a bunch of videos in. I think him and our bass player might've had a little bit of a relationship before. I think they knew each other. They had mutual friends. And [Slipknot bassist] Vman's really in tune with a lot of really great, proggy, heavy musicians that are passionate about their instruments. And it just seemed like a no-brainer.
"And he's really respectful of the legacy of Joey [Jordison], and Joey was a huge influence on him. And he's so humble. The dude has so much humility. And you could tell he just lives and breathes his craft, to the point where I see his passion and it ignites my passion for my instrument. And Brazilians, South Americans in general, are so passionate about what they do. Our manager told me, he was out to dinner with four or five promoters from South America, and they were all really stoked. They're all, like, 'It's so good you've got a Brazilian drummer in Slipknot now. We kind of feel like we've won the World Cup.'
"It's a cool feeling. And God, he just fits in so well. I don't know, man. I mean, there's a lot of things I can say about it. I'm just glad it happened when it did. And we're lucky to have him — we are really lucky to have that dude."
As for new material with Casagrande, Root said they've been trading some ideas back and forth but nothing concrete has formed just yet.
"We haven't really started doing that yet. We will be doing that real soon. Eloy has sent me some drum loops. He e-mailed me some… Eloy does a lot of drum videos on his own and play-alongs in his home studio and stuff like that. So he sent me five or six minute — from a minute long to one that's a couple minutes long of just him playing drums, and I downloaded those on to my computer and I converted them into files that I could import into Pro Tools. I spent some time kind of trying to write some riffs to them.
"It was a little bit difficult because he basically sent me two-minute-long drum solos. And I'm not really good at finding a bit, chopping it out and then looping it to make that, like, 'Okay, this sounds like it could be like an intro riff on the drums. And this sounds like it could be like a verse riff on the drums.' 'Cause the particular ones that he sent me, it's, like, a lot of real stunt drumming and really busy stuff. And I wrote riffs to most all of it.
"There's one in particular that I'm thinking about that if it does turn into a song, it's gonna be an awfully chaotic song, which could be really cool. So, yes and no, he's contributing, but we haven't really gotten there yet. We're trying to get these shows under our belt first and then it's time to put our nose to the grindstone and start the creative writing process."
