Limp Bizkit Talks Chocolate Starfish
October 16 -- Despite high expectations and certainly some commercial pressure in the wake of its chart-topping, six-times-platinum 1999 release, Significant Other, the members of Limp Bizkit proudly say they did not make the new Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water with any designs of winning friends or influencing people.
"If you hated us before, you'll probably hate us now," says guitarist Wes Borland. "If you liked us before, I think you'll like the new record. There's nothing new that's going to win anybody over that didn't like us. It's just us — hopefully a little better."
Drummer John Otto, however, says the new release represents "us, with different edges. There's a lot of really good melody, and every part is catchy. There's all kinds of different hooks going on. You could listen to the music by itself, really, but once the vocals get over and Lee does all his DJ stuff, it takes it up to that enormous, killer level."
Led by the dual singles "My Generation" and "Rollin'" — a pattern that's expected to recur with subsequent releases from the album — the 13-track Chocolate Starfish features a number of musical guests, including Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and a corps of rappers, such as DMX, Method Man, Redman, and Xzibit. There are also spoken cameos from actors Mark Wahlberg and Ben Stiller, who provide what Borland refers to as "interludes, the little icing on the cake here and there between songs."
"It's pretty heavy," says Otto, "but it's like us. It's like Three Dollar Bill, Y'all and Significant Other — they're definitely us, but they both have different edges. This is the same type of deal. It's a precious thing to me; I feel good about it. I was kind of concerned, like, 'Ooh, what are people going to think?' You go through that in recording, but right now I don't really care. I'm happy with the work we've done, everything about it. I don't know how to explain it in the best way; there are so many thoughts [that] come into my head when somebody asks me that."
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