Korn's Jonathan Davis Thinks "It Doesn't Matter About Talent" Anymore

19 August 2022 | 8:04 am | Brenton Harris
Originally Appeared In

"It seems like music has moved on to a place where it doesn't matter about talent. It's about how talented the engineer is at faking everything."

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Korn's Jonathan Davis has taken a massive swipe at modern music stating that "I'm totally into talent. It seems like music has moved on to a place where it doesn't matter about talent. It's about how talented the engineer is at faking everything." 

Davis made the statement in a joint Interview Magazine feature with Evanescence vocalist Amy Lee.  Lee more or less concurred with his statement adding that "it has become so much about personalities too, right? I feel like that’s like the new generation. It’s more about a personality than the actual song. I’ve seen their Instagram but like, what is their music? What does that mean to you? But I don’t want to be the old person complaining…" 

Korn and Evanescence are currently on tour together and while the above interaction makes it seem like they feel heavy music is in a dark place, the remainder of the interview provides a significantly sunnier overview. 

Davis offers "In the long run, it’s cool because everybody’s enjoying music. That’s all that matters, adding "It’s fun for me because we get to watch all the bands opening. It’s gonna be sick."

Lee is clearly enthused by the work of some young acts saying "There’s still a lot of good stuff out there. The world of rock, especially heavy rock, has just grown and expanded a whole bunch. And I am really excited about what is happening with our tour with all the different openers instead of one. It ended up being this rad combination of cool things."

It's the second time in 24 hours that the two vocalists have made headlines, following a video of a celebrated live duet on Korn's Freak On A Leash that went viral yesterday. The performance was a reunion of sorts, with Lee having featured on the 2007 MTV Unplugged version of the song. You can watch fan footage of the 2022 live version below.  

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Both bands are touring in support of new records, with Korn pushing their #1 ARIA charting Requiem and Evanescence touring their career-reviving The Bitter Truth. When the tour was first announced,  Lee stated  "I fell hard into Korn's music in high school. It was an inspiration during the formation of my own band. The chances we've had to play together over the years are special, a part of our history. They remain one of the best live bands I've ever seen. It's an honour and a thrill to go out with our friends again, our first full tour together since '07. We're all really looking forward to this."

Requiem is Korn's tenth Top 10 album in Australia and third #1, following on from 1998’s Follow The Leader (home to the original version of Freak On A Leash) and 1999’s Issues.