With Slipknot‘s highly anticipated side project Look Outside Your Window officially arriving today, April 18, for Record Store Day, percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan is finally sharing the backstory behind one of the record’s biggest surprises: a guest appearance by Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Shawn detailed how Scabbia ended up contributing to two specific tracks: “Christina” and “Is Real“. At the time of the 2008 recording sessions, the Italian singer was in a long-term relationship with Slipknot guitarist Jim Root, making her a frequent presence around the band’s camp.
“Jim and she were dating,” Crahan explained. “She’s a talented artist, and she was up in the house. I had to go to Jim, like, ‘Hey, what do you think about getting Cristina on?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely.’”
For the track “Christina“, the percussionist tasked the vocalist with a highly specific, conceptual spoken-word performance in her native language.
“The first thing I did was make her write a poem, a letter of intent in Italian. I told her to make it about batteries that are dying that cannot be recharged,” he said. “And she’s like, ‘OK.’ I have the piece of paper in Italian, and she did her best to read it to me, but I’ve never read it since then or memorized it. I just like to hear it the way it is. Jim and I were producing her, really making her get conviction. By the end, you could just feel it.”
Scabbia also lent her singing voice to “Is Real“, a move that reportedly caught Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor off guard in the studio.
“He had already sung on the song,” Crahan said. “So he thinks she’s just doing the poem, but then she busts into that vocal, singing, going for it. I just remember Corey going back a little bit and he goes, ‘OK.’ He loved it, but it really surprised him in a good way.”
Look Outside Your Window stems from the 2008 studio sessions that produced All Hope Is Gone. Operating as an entirely separate entity, the music was written and recorded by Crahan, Root, Taylor, and DJ Sid Wilson, intentionally exploring a more melodic and psychedelic sonic landscape free from the usual pressures of a primary Slipknot release.
Look Outside Your Window track listing:
- “11th March”
- “Moth”
- “Dirge”
- “Christina”
- “Is Real”
- “Away”
- “In Reverse”
- “Toad”
- “Juliette”
- “U Can’t Stop This”
