With 12 albums under its belt, I'd imagine it's fairly difficult for Korn's Jonathan Davis to pick his most snd least favorites. However, in an interview with Independent, Davis says his favorite record is 2002's Untouchables. He says it was fun to record, and the producer Michael Beinhorn did a great job with the production.
"The record I’m most proud of is Untouchables. I still think it sounds like the heavy metal Asia. The production on it is of the same calibre in terms of sonic quality. We spent a lot of money making that record and it took us two years to make; I remember we spent a month just getting drum sounds. [Michael] Beinhorn is my favourite producer ever, he’s just got a great ear and he’s not afraid to tell you if you suck. I’d do vocal takes and think they were the best and then he’d tell me to go home because he thought my voice wasn’t right. I’d get so mad at him, but I love him. It was so much work; if I can find the footage, I’m going to put a little documentary together about that record because it’s a one of a kind that will never be made again."
On the flip side, Davis says his least favorite album was Korn III: Remember Who You Are. he says it was a difficult album to make, made him go to an especially difficult place, and producer Ross Robinson pushed him in particular pretty hard.
"I think it would have been a much better album if [producer Ross Robinson] hadn’t been so fucking hard and let us have a bit of fun. There was a song that I wrote about my wife [penultimate track ‘Are You Ready to Live?’] when she was having problems with a pill addiction. And Ross called her without me knowing and asked her to show up to the studio and I had to sing that part to her! He pushes your buttons on purpose to get those kind of performances out of you and he wants to get you to the point where you’re so fucking mad, the emotions just come pouring out. I get it but I don’t necessarily want to be a part of it now that I’ve been there and done that. I love him and I respect him and I think he’s amazing, one of the last great producers, but that record sounds forced to me and it took me to a very dark place that I didn’t want to go back to. I think going backwards rather than forwards might have been the biggest mistake we made as a band."
So there you go – Korn III was hard to make, and Untouchables rules.
