Papa Roach: Ready For A Change

Somewhere in the world, bassist Tobin Esperance talked though the static-laced connection of a cell phone while en route to his next show, he and the rest of Papa Roach setting out to take their latest album Metamorphosis directly to fans across the globe. But for every hour spent on stage, there are a dozen more spent traveling, setting up, and fighting off boredom.

“Right now I’m looking outside my bus, and usually the arenas and venues are out in the middle of nowhere, so sometimes you’re just kind of stuck in this big open field of nothing and you have to make the best of it,” he said. “We all have little motorcycles, not like the big Harleys, these little ones that we take and cruise out. We like to go work out, or we just write blogs to the fans. Usually when we get a day off and we’re in a major city, then we get to out and see the sights, but that doesn’t happen too often.”

Despite the lack of scenery, Esperance knows from experience that in every out-of-the-way arena, decrepit warehouse and rundown bar he plays, there is potential for something great to happen once the lights go down and the speakers are turned up.

“Sometimes you roll up to some crazy, shitty venue you’ve never even heard of and you’re like, ‘Does that place even get a fuckin’ dot on the map?’ And you find a part of the country that is just starving for rock n’ roll music and kids that are just ready to let loose,” he said. “We’ve hit places like that in Indiana, Texas, and especially in Europe. We always do big things in Texas. We’ve never been to Russia before, and I bet you they’re going to go ape shit.”

After over a decade of taking the show on the road, Papa Roach has learned that the price for taking their music from the stereo to the stage is leaving a normal life at home behind for months at a time.

“That’s probably the biggest down side of what we do, not being able to see your family or loved ones,” Esperance said. “I bring my family out on the road every once in a while.  Thank God for the internet so you can send pictures and Skype and stuff like that. And the fact that we’re very close as a family, the band, the whole crew, it’s very important to us. It’s tough, but that’s a sacrifice we make for being artists and getting our music out to the masses.”

Papa Roach spent a month making sure their time away from family was worth it when they returned to the Paramour Mansion in Los Angeles while recording Metamorphosis, which hit stores last March. The mansion is famous for being rented out to musicians and is the namesake of the band’s previous album The Paramour Sessions.

“This record is very diverse. It’s got a heavy element to it and it’s got a very melodic element, but it’s also got a very honest, straight up rock n’ roll vibe, too,” Esperance said. “We were listening to everything from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, The Who, Bruce Springstein, old funk records…a lot of the big rock bands [to see] how they connected with society at that point in time, how they made songs, and just kind of taking that in.

“We just all kind of got in a room and just jammed and thought, ‘Let’s just make music that breathes, and let’s just write honest lyrics that people can connect with,’” he said “And that’s where this record came from.”

Esperance tries to utilize a Zen-like approach to songwriting to avoid the old curse of artist’s remorse as much as possible.

“I definitely don’t get over critical. You kind of have to stay out of the way because if you fuck with shit too long, you just lose the whole point of why you were getting off on that idea in the first place,” he said. “Sometimes, by fault, I’ll get really meticulous about things after the song’s already been done and the album’s out like, ‘Man, I wish I would have done this or changed that,’ but you can’t do that because it’ll drive you crazy. You just have to let it be what it is.”

That’s not to say that even the most level-headed musicians don’t find themselves going around in circles from time to time when trying to piece together certain tracks.

“Honestly, when we were making this record, ‘Lifeline’ was a very hard song for us to get into because it went through so many changes and it got to a point where we were trying to forcefully make the song work,” Esperance said. “We finally came to a common place where [we decided], ‘Let’s just finish the song, let it be what it is and then go back and listen to it with an open mind and we’ll see if it works.’ It ended up being the first single, and people really connected with that song.”

The anthem about holding on to hope during hard times comes right out of the everyday situation facing people across the country.

“I think Jacoby was obviously affected lyrically — we all were — by what was going on around us with the economy and our hometown, how a lot of people were losing their homes,” Esperance said. “There was an election going on while we were making this record, so everything that was going on politically and socially really affected the tone of the record.”

He is quick to point out that not everything on the album is uniformly solemn, citing the raunchy “I Almost Told You That I Love You,” which was inspired by a conversation the band had with a friend who works as a porn director.

“You can’t take yourself too seriously,” he said. “I laugh every day when I look at people and the way we act and things that we get to do and the lifestyle that we live. We’re like kids in a candy store. You can’t help but have a little bit of fun and just laugh your ass off.”

Though the 29-year-old has been living the dream of rock n’ roll hopefuls everywhere since the age of 13, he retains a sense of gratitude for being able to make a living doing what he loves.

“I love music so much. I play my guitar every day, I record all different style of music and I love learning new things, and that’ll never stop,” Esperance said. “I’m not the type of person who’s in a metal band and just plugs into a loud guitar and turns the gain way up and just plays metal. It’s like it’s more or less me learning how to be a better songwriter and incorporate melody or a feeling or certain attitude into a song and having kids really get into and having them jump up and down or just stop and think or feel.”

As they finish up the current leg of their European tour before returning to the States this month, there are no indicators that the band plans on slowing down any time soon.

“We stay hungry. We always feel like we have something to prove,” Esperance said. “A lot of it has to do with the fact that, I know for me personally, I’ve never had that feeling of, ‘Oh, I’ve made it. Now I can just fuckin’ chill and just dick off and play rock n’ roll and party.’ For me, it’s like there are more songs to be written, there are better songs to be written, and there are places to play in this world that we’ve never been to.”