California rockers PAPA ROACH have released a new single called “Dying To Believe”. The track, produced by WZRD BLD a.k.a. Drew Fulk (ICE NINE KILLS, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE), is a call for human unity and harmony, despite any differences people have.
Singer Jacoby Shaddix commented: “We try to make music that means something to us, that moves us. When I look out into the world right now, a lot of people are divided. The beautiful thing about music is it’s a unifier. I wanted to make a song that has some hope in it.”
“Dying To Believe” arrives weeks after the release of PAPA ROACH‘s previous two singles: “Swerve”, which was a collaboration with FEVER 333 frontman Jason Aalon Butler and Los Angeles rapper Sueco; and “Kill The Noise”. All three tracks are expected to appear on PAPA ROACH‘s upcoming eleventh studio album, due next year via the band’s own record company, New Noize Records, Inc., under exclusive license to ADA.
This past May, Shaddix spoke to the FM99 WNOR radio station about PAPA ROACH‘s decision to release its next LP through its own label. Asked how the move came about, Jacoby said: “Way back in the day when we were with DreamWorks Records — this was right after we released our album ‘Infest’ — we had this pact with this band ALIEN ANT FARM. We were, like, ‘Whoever gets signed first, let’s try to get an imprint, which is a subsidiary of the record company, where we can release music.’ And we had made good on our promise and we had a record company called New Noise Records. And this was in, like, 2001. So fast forward so many years and a few record companies later, we just released out greatest hits with Better Noise Music, and that was the last record company we were with. And we were kind of in negotiation of going, ‘All right. Are we gonna stick with this company?’ which we’ve had a lot of great success and learned a lot of great things from, and I have nothing but great things to say about them. But we were, like, ‘All right. Let’s take the temperature and go see if we have what it takes to do this on our own, do it independent.’ And so we took meetings, and we ended up with Warner/ADA, which we have our record label now of our own and we use their in-house staff to do the promo and all that kind of stuff. But we are the record company. So we’re using our knowledge over the years that we’ve accumulated with our team and ourselves to take the reins and run with this one ourselves. And it’s very exciting. It’s kind of scary. ‘Cause you don’t know. But guess what? I just feel like we can’t fail.”
He continued: “You know when your gut tells you something? I just go, we’ve been doing this; we know a lot; we know what our fans want; we know what we want; we know that we are inspired; we know that we are passionate; and we know we’ve got a fanbase that loves us. Let’s do this. And we have a great relationship with radio too. I mean, we just had another No. 1 on rock radio — after 20-plus years of being in the format. And I go, ‘You know what? I think we can do this.’ And so we made the jump. And so P-ROACH, we’ve got New Noise Records back up and running.”
Regarding what’s involved in releasing album without the participation of an outside record company, Jacoby said: “After this call with you, I get on with the band and we’re wrapping on creative calls to finish up the artwork for the album and getting ready for the photos shoots and all that kind of stuff. It’s been cool, man. It’s a different — I guess — creative progression of making an album. You get the music, but then we talk about marketing, we’re talking about music videos, imaging, photo shoots, different ways of packaging the album — all that kind of fun stuff, that’s what we’re in the middle of now. And I really enjoy that; it’s a fun process. And it’s cool to just dream some stuff up, and we then we build it and we make it and it happens, and I really love that process.”
In January, a snippet of a brand new PAPA ROACH song called “Stand Up” was included in commercial for Ultimate Fighting Championship‘s (UFC) partnership with ESPN.
PAPA ROACH‘s second greatest-hits collection, “Greatest Hits Vol. 2: The Better Noise Years”, was released in March on Better Noise Music. “Greatest Hits Vol. 2 – The Better Noise Years” includes 12 of the band’s top 10 hits released between 2010 to 2019 as well as three previously unreleased remixes and two unreleased acoustic recordings recorded live at the YouTube Studios in New York City.
PAPA ROACH‘s latest album, “Who Do You Trust?”, was released in January 2019. The disc was produced by Nick “RAS” Furlong and Colin Cunningham except for the song “Top Of The World”, which is helmed by Jason Evigan.
In December 2020, PAPA ROACH released a five-song EP, “20/20”, featuring “new takes on old jams,” including “Last Resort” and “Scars”.
Photo credit: Darren Craig