A finalist posted an inside look at limp bizkit's guitar search on the Velvet Rope. Interesting Sunday Reading.
I know its old news, but I want to post about it from my point of view as a finalist.
Im not really a fan of the group,but I was familiar with a lot of their music,and I wanted to see how I would do.I saw that they would be holding a try out at the guitar center in my home town.I went to the website{guitar center}and got the details,It said to be there early because it would all start at 10am.
So I arive at 7am and there is already a line I am number 23.Its January and about 23 degrees outside and the windchill is even worse.10am comes and goes so does eleven and twelve and one.By about 1:30 there are 122 people in line.
Let me backtrack,the website also said that at the tryout you are to play your own music not the bands and soloing would not be tolerated.Anyway,1:30 the guitar center employees start to number our hands and get our names,The band is inside,came through the back entrance I guess.And they take ten people at a time into the store the first twenty go in and come back out very quickly,and I over hear some of them say they only got like thirty seconds.
I am at this point thinking about what to play that might make the best impression in thirty seconds.Finally Its time for my group of ten,we go in and are given a release to sign.In summary it says we cannot play any of our music that is copyrighted,only the music we have that is not copyrighted,and it says that if we hear our music on any future limp bizkit recordings that we are intitled to no compensation and will be listed in the credits of said album if possible.I sign cause Im frozen and just want to get on with it.
We are taken to a row of guitar tuners and allowed to tune up.the call the first guy in he plays about ten seconds and then silence,he comes out and the next guy goes in,same thing.I walk in and inside this little room are three guys,Danny wimmer ,a guy named peter who I think is limps manager and some other guy with a camera.There is a bright light pointed on me,a mesa half stack and a mesa foot board.I plug in and start doing my thing{les claypool style tapping on guitar}.
Thirty seconds comes and goes I finish my little song and Danny says he wants to hear more.I play a few more thing and Im in there about three or four minutes an eternity compared to the others.I finish up and Danny looks at my info sheet and says stay by the phone today we will call you around 5.pm to come back tonight to jam with the band.
And yes I knew it was probably a stunt I was 26 at the time not 18. I also knew I would get to play infront of INDUSTRY people which here in Oklahoma is not exactly an everyday thing.I mean its OKLAHOMA!
I also knew what I was signing. So I get the call around 5 p.m. and head back down to G.C. When I walk in I see various people from G.C. and Limp's crew. There is also another guy there, who they have called back. We start talking a bit and he tells me he was number 7 or 8 in line I don't really remember.
We are taken seperately and interveiwed on camera by G.C. employees for what I find out later is a video that ends up on the G.C. website.We are offered drinks and time to warm up by the staff. We sit around for about twenty minutes waiting, during which at one time or another everyone in the building comes up to us and asks "are you nervous?"
I speak with a cop for a while who turns out to be pretty cool and a bigger rock and roll fan than I am. We are finally taken back to the room which on any other day would have p.a. and other sound equipment in it, but now has Limp and their gear in it. We decide who will go first, he goes in and about twenty other people and I watch from the door.Inside
I can see the drummer sitting behind his kit, and Fred and his girlfriend sitting off to the.side There are about ten people inside including the bass player and D.J Lethal; two local news station cameramen and a Limp cameraman; and the sound man.
Fred gets up and says hello and blah blah blah.The guy starts playing and the bass player and drummer jump in pretty quickly; he plays a couple of his songs and when he is done Fred thanks him and he comes out.
Fred starts singing a Sinatra song or something and the drummer shakes his head "no" with a smile and Fred says,"What, I told you we need a new direction." The drummer says, "Yeah,just not that direction." They start laughing.
I go in and Fred says hello and says what they are really looking for is some chemistry between me and the bass player and drummer. I start playing my two hand Primus style rhythm and the drummer gives me a weird look.
Fred walks up to him and says,"like this, Jon" and starts simulating with his mouth and pointing at different drums. The drummer jumps in and I walk towards the bass player so he can see what Im playing,
It starts to sound pretty good, everyone wathching is moving their heads including Fred. I finish the first and Fred says to me "you like Primus dont you,you? Play like Les Claypool; he's a friend of mine."I
explain that I am more a fan of his technique than his music.{I play with a Herco thumb pick and tap chords and notes with my right hand and use my thumb to sound the chords with my left hand; itmakes for a pretty funky sound).
Anyway I start playing the next song its more of a stanard approach and sound it goes ok. When I'm done Fred says,"Play some more of that percusive shit." So I play a few more songs with the Claypool technique and it goes well. Ffred and Lethal and everybody watching seemed to like it more than the drummer did. I just couldn't really connect with him for whatever reason.[backtrack again sorry;the set up they had for us to play on was exactly the same as Wes Borland's].
I requested a whammy pedal before I started playing and Fred told them to get me one from the store.I use the octive dive to play heavy chords and pull back up for standard sounding chords. It's like playing two guitars.
I'm done I played what I wanted to play and Fred says that he liked it a lot and Danny Wimmer comes up to me and gives me his card and asks me for a demo. I didn't have one.
He tells me to send him a demo.I didn't even have a band at the time much less a demo, both of which I have now. We all walk out to the main area and the band signs some stuff for g.c. and do some interviews.then they go outside and talk to the fans and get on the bus.
I did an interview with the state paper the next day photoshoot and all, I was on a few news channels and had no trouble starting a band after this: they learned about 13 of my songs and we played out live a bunch then went in and recorded them. I'll be sending the promo pack to Flawless but I heard that Danny Wimmer is not with them anymore. If someone knows who he is working for now please don't hold my computer skills against me.
