Slipknot's Clown recalls 'Iowa' recording sessions: “We hated each other”

Slipknot‘s Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan has recounted the band’s tense recording sessions for their 2001 album ‘Iowa’.

The metal band’s second studio album, which included the songs ‘Left Behind’ and ‘My Plague’, celebrates its 20th anniversary next month.

Speaking to Metal Hammer in a new interview about the making of ‘Iowa’, Slipknot percussionist Clown has lifted the lid on what the atmosphere was like in the studio as well as the band’s general outlook on the world at the time.

“When we did ‘Iowa’, we hated each other,” Clown recalled. “We hated the world. The world hated us.”

Clown said that the often-painful experience of making ‘Iowa’ felt like “a backlash for our dream” following the breakout success in 1999 of their self-titled debut album.

“We spent 18 months on that first cycle doing all these interviews, agents, managers…it was all performance,” he added.

“By the time we got to the second album, people needed to be curbed and understand their place and that their opinion didn’t matter as much as they thought it did. Just because we were the first platinum band on Roadrunner doesn’t give everyone the ability to start advising.

“When we were home to take a breath, it was clear that [the second album] was gonna be disturbing and force-fed to the world.”

Clown recently shared a number of solo tracks under the moniker Brainwash Love, with the musician posting videos and art for the music that he created himself.