Shoutweb: How did you guys choose the name Papa Roach?

Coby: Papa Roach comes from the cockroach, you know what I'm sayin'? The longevity it represents. When the A-bomb hits, what's gonna be left? Cockroaches, and I think it's like a coalition, we've been together for like seven years, and for being a young band, that's a long time. Plus the cockroach is like dirty, and the plan is to infest, know what I'm sayin'?

Shoutweb: How did the band get together?

Coby: We were all just bored, we were all in high school and we didn't have shit to do. We were like, "What the fuck we gonna do?" So we were like well shit we'll start a band, you know what I'm sayin'? So, we did that, and we started playin' like teen centers and parties and shit. Then we started getting crowds, so we started takin' it a little more seriously and we started like clubin' it, and it just went from there.

Shoutweb: How old were you guys when you got together?

Coby: Well lets see, I'm 23 now and it was in 1993, so I was probably 16 or so.

Shoutweb: When was your first gig?

Coby: Actually in March of 1993, that was our first gig, and it was actually a talent show for school, and we totally lost. We sucked. But this is what we like to do, and this is our passion so we just kept doin' it and growing.

Shoutweb: You're getting ready to go on tour with Taproot, and there's such a really big buzz behind both of your bands.

Coby: Does Taproot tear it up live?!

Shoutweb: Have you not seen them?

Coby: Haven't seen 'em, haven't heard 'em.

Shoutweb: Oh hell yeah, they're incredible.

Coby: That's good, so they fuck it up! We wanna be out there with somebody that just goes off.

Shoutweb: Yeah P-Roach and Taproot are like the best live bands I've seen in some time. Do you anticipate this tour to be one of those tours that people talk about in five years? Like dude back in 2000 I saw P-Roach and Taproot in this tiny club together!

Coby: Well, we'll be around for a while, so some of the shows will go really well you know? Some of these shows are like the first of P-Roach to the world. Our album comes out April 25th, so these first shows on the tour are gonna be pre-release shows, and those ones are gonna go down in history. Those are gonna be the craziest, most insane shows we're ever gonna play I think.

Shoutweb: I'm so stoked to see you guys next week.

Coby: Yeah, our fans are like totally stoked that the album's coming out! We haven't been back to California for a couple months, and we're gonna blow it up! It's like when we get back to Cali, the shit's gonna hit the fan!

Shoutweb: What are your expectations for the Warped Tour coming up?

Coby: We're just gonna tear it up EVERYDAY! We're gonna be a force to be reckoned with on that tour, I mean we're not punk rock, but we definitely have punk rock edge. I think we'll fit in, I mean there are other bands on that tour, Dub Allstars are gonna be on, and also some hip-hop like Jurassic 5. I'll just try to get up there every day and fuck it up!

Shoutweb: Are there any bands in particular that you're looking foreword to playing with?

Coby: SNAPCASE! Yeah! Snapcase has been a fuckin big influence on us. Snapcase is the shit, so we're totally stoked to be goin' out and sharing a stage with that band everynight.

Shoutweb: Who's idea was the video for "Last Resort"?

Coby: The video was pretty much between us and our producer Mark Osiega. We wanted to go with a live feeling and capture that. I mean, this is our first video, so we want to come out and show people what we're about. I think it really captures the energy of the band. But as far as the kids in the room and that actual set up and the stage, that was all Mark Osiega. He's fuckin' dope, he did the P.O.D. video. He did the video for Suicide Machines. He did Blink 182 "All the Small Things".

Shoutweb: Where did all the kids in the video come from?

Coby: Those are our fans from Northern California. All over Northern California, we just put it out on our site that, "Yo, we're doin a video shoot and we need about 500 kids." Know what I'm sayin'? All those kids that are in their room, we just said hey, if you wanna be in the video, as far as like being in your room and shit, send pictures of yourself alone in your room. We got like loads of those and our producer picked out who it would be, but it worked out really well, you know what I'm sayin'?

Shoutweb: So in the video you really are in those kids bedrooms?

Coby: Yeah, that was actually their bedroom, no casting bullshit, none of that, you know what I'm sayin'? All real deal. When he videotaped the kids he was just like, "Do what you do when you listen to Papa Roach", know what I'm sayin'? One of em was flipping the camera off, one of 'em was curled up in the fuckin corner of his room, one of 'em's liftin' weight's you know what I'm sayin'? Cuz all different kids, ya know, and it wasn't like hired bullshit in our video. This shit's real.

Shoutweb: Sort of sticking to the theme in "Between Angels and Insects"?

Coby: Yeah yeah yeah, you know? Hollywood's all glitz an glamour and status and possessions and all that shit. With that song, I'm like saying take all that away and try to find a way to be happy, know what I'm sayin'? It's just about tryin' to find a real way to be happy with your friends and your family. I think it's sad that people work jobs everyday that they don't like. I feel totally fortunate that I'm able to have this rock n'roll job, cuz I love it, you know what I'm sayin'?

Shoutweb: Are there any songs that you're planning on releasing as the next single?

Coby: You know, we haven't decided, we're just gonna feel how the shows go and how the record sales go, you know what I'm sayin'? See what the reaction from the kids are, you know what I'm sayin'? But I'd like to release "Broken Home" next.

Shoutweb: What made you decide to choose "Last Resort"?

Coby: That song like hit us up side the head like super negative. That song's like really powerful and we believe that people will really connect with that song. It's part of their lives, it's sad but true ya know what I'm sayin'? But that's a really powerful song and that's what we're looking for, something really powerful and something raw and emotional to be dropped on the public first you know what I'm sayin'? Plus it's just kind of a different format you know what I'm sayin'? Like there's not very many songs that just start out just straight with vocals ya know what I'm sayin'? We thought that was cool and that it would catch some attention, but it's all about that we just all agreed that that's our first single. We were all stoked with it.

Shoutweb: What are your hobbies?

Coby: All we really do is like, listen to music, we really don't have too much time. During the day we like play video games, and write some new music. I just recently got into reading and stuff like that, but it's either we're in a van or in a club, ya know what I'm sayin'? So, what you can do in a van, in a club, or in a hotel is pretty much minimal, ya know what I'm sayin'? All I really do is write music, listen to music, and play music, that's what I like to do.

Shoutweb: What's your biggest vice?

Coby: Well, we got a song called "Binge" ya know what I'm sayin'? So, that's kinna something that I gotta try to keep under control. As far as like drugs and shit, the only drug I do is like ecstasy every once in a while, and acid like once a year. We're not a big drug band, we don't smoke drugs and shit, we watch too much VH1 specials for that, ya know what I'm sayin'? It's like, that shit went down in the 70's and the 80's and stuff, and you get sucked into that shit and you start thinking that your shit don't stink and then you start writing crap music. I mean some people have written great music under the influence of drugs, ya know what I mean? It's all about just makin rock 'n roll and that's kind'a got lost ya know what I'm sayin'?

Shoutweb: How do you classify your own music?

Coby: Rock 'n roll.

Shoutweb: Just rock 'n roll?

Coby: Just rock 'n roll man.I think to call it "rap rock" is fuckin' gay, and I think to call it "pimp rock" is gay, ya know what I'm sayin'? So we're just like rock 'n roll. You look for our CD and that's what we're gonna be under. Rock. So, fuckin' just put it right there. We write songs that aren't rap rock or pimp rock. We break out of that mold, and that's something that we're happy about as a band that we can write songs that are just straight rock! Ya know what I'm sayin'? I think that's like the difference to us, rap rock might not stick around forever, and we have been a band that has always evolved and changed progressively as a band. It's not like we do a 180 turn every time, but it's like we're always evolving. We used to be like punk, and then we got into like real metal and then we brought in hardcore, and then we brought in emo, and then we brought in hip-hop, ya know what I'm sayin'?

Shoutweb: Do you guys do much interacting with your fans?

Coby: Yeah, definitely, we are totally in touch with our fans. Like, next to writing music and writing songs, our fans are just as important, because like without fans, where you gonna be? I heard some shit like, Fred Durst called Slipknot's fans a bunch of fat ugly kids, and that's like whack, cuz half the kids that are into Slipknot like Limp Bizkit, ya know what I'm sayin'? To say somthin' about fans the of that type of music, that's pretty cheap. It doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter what you're into, or how good looking you are, or what you got, it's about connecting with music you know? We'd die for our fans, those kids are like totally loyal, you know what I'm sayin'? That means a lot to us.

Shoutweb: Do you guys get involved with your Website?

Coby: Yeah, we have total control of our website. Check it out if you have a chance man, it's brand new. (www.paparoach.com)

Shoutweb: Yeah, I was on it earlier today checkin' out the video for "Last Resort".

Coby: What did you think about it?

Shoutweb: I liked it a lot!

Coby: Yeah, we're gonna keep working on it, and keep working to kinda keep it changing and evolving.

Shoutweb: My favorite part on the whole website was where it said "viva la cucaracha"!

Coby: FUCK YEAH DUDE! That's somthin that we've been screamin' fuckin' for like the last few years! Long live the cockroach, like bringin' that shit out of the cosmos, ya know what I'm sayin'? We hope that's what happens for us, that we live a long time. I mean, P-Roach stands for longevity, ya know? We don't just cover it hit it and quit it, we cover it and keep kickin.

Shoutweb: Do you have any expectations on how well the albums gonna do on release?

Coby: Ya know? I just kinda hope for the best, but I think if I expect a big huge amount, it's like, for me as a personal thing I don't like to expect huge things. I think it would be like, a pleasant "ka pow". I'd like to sell a lot of records, but for me it's just about being out on tour. We got down, recorded the record, and we got a record company and they're pushin' it, ya know. So, basically our job right now is to just be a live band. But I hope that shit does good!

Shoutweb: How do you feel about Napster and bootlegged music over the internet?

Coby: Like MP3's and shit?

Shoutweb: Yeah.

Coby: Well I hope people go out and buy the record, and it's cool that we get music out, but if everyone's getting it on MP3. Wait, do you have to pay to get that shit, or do you get it for free?

Shoutweb: No, you don't have to pay, it just gets passed around for free, and you can burn it onto a CD.

Coby: Well, for that I'd just rather have the CD and the cover and the cover art. So basically dude, fuck Napster. I don't mean to be talking shit or nothing, but this is my livelihood, this puts food on my table. So, for somebody to go buy the record, people are gonna do what they're gonna do. I can't control that, ya know? Napster? Didn't that dude get busted or somthin' like that?

Shoutweb: They're being sued by Metallica.

Coby: Oh, right...Doesn't Metallica make enough money or some shit? I think for younger bands, that are trying to get out there it might affect 'em, but if you're like Metallica, that's just... whatever.

Shoutweb: Well, the smaller bands can't afford to take on a company like Napster.

Coby: True that! I mean, this shit is our livelihood here, like I'm sayin', it puts food on my table and it pays my bills.

Shoutweb: Do you think that like the media keeps pointing to, there's a connection between violent actions and violent angry music?

Coby: Well, violent angry people listen to violent angry music, ya know what I'm sayin'? I've never done something stupid personally because I've heard a band. I'd like to give a shoutout to kids who do stuff like that. You're all weak-minded bitches! I mean don't go out and fuckin' kill kill kill because I say it in a song, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm just putin' that shit out on the table. I think it's pretty sad that people would go out and hurt someone just because they hear someone say it in a song. Like I say though, violent angry people listen to violent angry music.

On this particular Tuesday evening, I met with David B. (drums) and Coby Dick (vocals) of Papa Roach at their humble, temporary dwelling (a/k/a: The Budget Inn at Sunset & Highland) to talk about people they admire, who they want to become, and who they’d like to get down with. Both guys had a great sense of humor, they were enthusiastic, charming, and easy to kick back and chill with. Here’s what the small town boys had to say about life in an up and coming band.

Coby: Waking up the next morning after a show.

Coby: I could do without that.

David: And having to do something.

Coby: Yeah, like finally getting back at 4 in the morning and having to get up at 10 because you’ve got three interviews.

David: We’ve just barely gotten started doing everything, and it’s crazy right now, but it’s cool. I like it.

Coby: Hmm. What else could I do without?

David: tracking vocals in the studio. That sucks.

Coby: Yeah. Not fun.

Coby: I met you that night?

Coby: Okay. Right on. Yeah, I went to the Teaszer and I got all fuckin’ … I had been locked up in the studio, and after Shortie played I was like, throwing chairs up on to the stage and shit. I need to get out more!

David: I was there, I remember.

Coby: Either or.

David: Yeah. Either or.

Coby: It really doesn’t matter. [Playing] is exciting in its’ own right, you know what I’m saying? It’s like having sex for the first time with someone new. For me, like, playing in front of a new crowd, it’s like that. They’ve never seen you before, so it’s a new experience for them. I just wanna rock that crowd. Even if they’re not flipping out, as long as they’re nodding their heads, you know?

David: As long as they’re listening..

Coby: Yeah. But also playing in front of a crowd that is totally down..

David: Yeah. It’s like P Roach karaoke. Like, at our last hometown show, Coby gave the mic to this kid, and he sang the entire first verse to ‘Revenge’ and he didn’t mess it up. It was on point. It was dope.

Coby: Yeah that was cool.

Coby: Yeah. Fuck shit up.

Coby: ‘Hot Cross Buns’ ….on the song flute.

David: On the skin flute?

Coby: Yeah. Skin flute. It was called ‘Making Muffins’ or ‘Hot Cross Buns’.

David: Actually, yeah! The first song I ever learned was ‘Hot Cross Buns’ on the violin!

Coby: That was everybody’s first song, dude. We should write a song called ‘Hot Cross Buns’!

David: That would be tight. We should just cover it.

Coby: Everybody would know it, man!

Coby: I wanted to be a chef.

Coby: Yeah. When I was a kid, I wanted to either be a chef or be in a rock band. That was like.. those were my two things. My Mom was into making me presents, because we were poor, you know? So my Mom made me this apron, you know what I’m saying? And I’d go in there and help out and do that shit. And then, like, after that, once I got into like, WWF and fuckin’ listening to Poison and Stryper and all that shit, I was like, "I wanna be in a rock band!" So, I’d have my fuckin’ garbage cans all set up in the garage and my brother would have a baseball bat, and we’d sit in there and bang on shit.

And you’d put on your apron… (everyone laughs) How about you?

David: Me? I wanted to design cars. I was a really artistic little kid and I always loved cars. Then, I don’t know. Then something changed. Right around sixth grade, I was like, "I kinda wanna play the drums, I think." And then, I don’t know what the Hell happened from there, dude!

Coby: He just turned into a rock n’ roller.

David: Yep.

David: Here in L.A.? I like the Troubadour a lot.

Coby: The Troubadour in L.A. Uh, we like to play San Jose. The club isn’t necessarily the greatest, but..

David: The crowds rule.

Coby: Northern Cali, the sound systems suck dick. You get down here and in places like the Troubadour we totally appreciate the sound systems but the crowds can be fuckin’ whack. So, if we could have the luxury of a Northern Cali crowd and a Southern Cal sound system, it would be like boom! Sacramento and Vacaville is fun, too. That where it all started really.

David: Yeah, Vacaville, like 700 kids show up, like at the Community Center. It’s like playing at somebody’s house. It’s so comfortable and so familiar.

Coby: So, fuck yeah. Vacaville, dude.

David: 8,000 people at the 98 Rock Jamboree in Sacramento.

Coby: Yeah. Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Staind

David: Oleander, Simon Says

Coby: It rocked. They had a local stage and a big stage. It was dope. We headlined the local stage.

David: We went on right before Kid Rock.

Coby: We sold shirts out the yingyang plus, it totally helped our fan base up there.

David: Faith No More

Coby: Faith No More, yeah. Faith No More or like, Bad Religion. Sometimes people say they can hear a little bit of Bad Religion in some of the songs. Mainly, in the guitar and in the vocals. Not so much the beats and the bass, because they’re not really punk rock, but I like it when people say they can hear a little punk rock edge from Papa Roach.  Punk rock, to me, is like, exciting.

David: You know, I met everyone in Faith No More except for Michael Patton.  And they were all really cool.

Coby: We’ll meet Mike Patton one day, dude. Oh man, I wanna meet Mike Patton. He’s like, my idol.

Coby: Fuckin’ full on idol. He was my idol when I was starting out and he still is, which is pretty rare, I think. Like, when kids find someone they really look up to they kinda move on. But, he’s just savage.

Coby: Yeah. I went and saw them. I got kicked out of the show!

(Coby loses it and starts laughing really loud.)

Coby: ‘Cause I’m a fucking spaz. I can’t tell you why.

Dave: He tried to set the building on fire.

Coby: Yeah, I was trying to set the building on fire.

Dave: Well, not really, but that’s what they said.

Coby: I was just fucking with security. I was in Sacramento, and all these kids know who P Roach is and here I am all "AAAAAAH!" in handcuffs! Sometimes, I just gotta like, get crazy, you know? Watch out!!

Dave: World domination. That’s it.

Coby: Yeah. We just want to take every chance that we get and work it to where it will be to our advantage. If someone asks us to tour with Blink 182 and someone else says it’s gay, then that’s their opinion, but fuck it. I’m here to play music for people. If we’re playing for 14 year old girls, that might not be our target market, because we rock savage-style but…

David: We’ll rock anyone.

Coby: I wanna tour with Slipknot, some crazy ass rock bands because that’s our whole thing, and just conquer live because that’s where we’re our best.

David: Yeah. We started off with Jacoby and I and we were just messing around in the garage,

Coby: Yeah, we just rustled up some kids.

David: Yeah but after that, it’s been like 7 years with the same line up.

Coby: Yeah, 7 years. March ’93.

Coby: Yep. Hey, but that’s good. Good to have a past.

Coby: It’s crazy, because our first record is gonna come out and we’ve been around for like, 7 years! So, I think it shows that we’re just troopers. We stick together.

David: It’s either that, or it just took us hella long to get it.

Coby: There’s a song that you can write about that we’ll never play again called "PeeWagon" that makes me sick, makes me wanna puke. Kids ask for that one all the time. We get a lot of requests for that, but we’re not gonna play that anymore. Other than that, our new stuff, we’re all really happy about the new songs we’ve written.

David: Me? I’ll say ‘The Shining’.

David: Yeah. I love it.

Coby: I’ll have to agree with you on that one, dude. It’s really, truly disturbing. I was shaken up about that shit.

David: To this day.

David: Yeah! That was bad!

Coby: That was fuckin’ cool!

David: It funny because back before that I was like, "Dude if we ever do a video we gotta do something with ‘The Shining’ and those fuckers beat us to it. It’s cool. It’s freaky.

David: Yeah, or the drummer playing the little kid on the Big Wheel!?

Coby: I just gotta say that Slipknot, as far as any band right now, like, in this movement of music, they got the shit on fuckin’ hit.

David: Yep.

Coby: I still haven’t seen them live, but I’ve seen videos and I just.. I just wanna kill one of the members and join the band ‘cause.. (laughs) No. They just fuck shit up. Props to that. I can vibe with those cats. They’re from a small town like we are and I can totally get into that.

Coby: Are they cool cats?

Coby: You gotta wonder what they’re gonna do for their next record. I can’t wait.

Coby: Me and Dave both live in Sac. Jerry lives in Lambtown. Jerry’s a sheep killer. He kills lambs and sheep.

David: It’s a town called Dixon. It’s even smaller than Vacaville.

David: Right. Exactly.

Coby: Tobin pretty much lives with me most of the time.

Coby: We’re trying to relocate every day...touring! But no, we don’t have any plans to move elsewhere.

Coby: Masturbation.

David: Playing shows.

Coby: I was running a couple of miles a day when we were home doing the record, but…

Coby: Oh, I know I’d be addicted to snowboarding. But, we just don’t have the kind of time to even do that.

David: You know what? I can’t because I am one of the clumsiest motherfuckers. They need to send me out in pads and a helmet just to walk down the street. I could walk through a field of marshmallows and I’d twist my ankle.

Coby: Naw, we’re really not a ‘sport band’ to tell you the truth. We can’t play sports.

Coby: Well, maybe we could kick some ass just for the Hell of it.

David: We could kick some ass at football though.

Coby: Well, yeah we’re bigger than a lot of bands! If you notice, a lot of bands are a bunch of little scrawny fucks.

David: Slipknot!

Coby: We’ll play football against Slipknot!

David: We’ll take all 9 of ‘em, dude!

Coby: Yeah! We’ll kill ‘em! They’d kick our asses, Holmes!

David: They’re from Iowa though, dude. You know they’d kick ass. Cornhuskin’ football and shit..

(long silence)

David: Damn. That’s heavy.

(after a long pause)

Coby: I’m not gonna die. I ain’t dying, dude. Fuck dying!

David: Me, I just wanna… fuck, dude. (looks at Coby) You know what? You stumped me. I don’t know, man.

Coby: To me, life is like, my band right now. But, I look at life as a whole, and I’m not gonna be playing in a band when I’m like 60.

David: Unless we end up like the Rolling Stones.

Coby: In my life, everything revolves around this band. I don’t really think about what mark I want to make, personally. It’s more like what mark will my band make?
So as far as the band, maybe just to have people look back and say they were a great band, they made great songs and put on a great show, and they were good people.

David: To me, its’ funny because sometimes you don’t know if a band made a difference to people until like 20 years later. Then people look back on that band and they are still talking about them 20 years later and only then do you know that they made a mark. That’s such a long road.

Coby: Yeah. Like the way people talk about Bauhaus or Joy Division and shit like that, like the Cure or whatever.

Coby: You know how Faith No More went out? They came in, they blew up and they kept writing great albums, the last album ‘Album of the Year’ was kick ass, then they went out with class and not some bloody mess. To me, that would be a cool way to go out, with some momentum left.

David: Faith No More never wrote a shitty record. How many bands can you say that about?

David: Oh my god!

Coby: You know what? Physically? When I’m talking dream girl, I’m just talking.. just hit it.. just hit it… just hit it.. Hmmm… There’s just so many. I could just put down a list right now.

Coby: Britney Spears.

David: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Coby: It’s the ponytails, man!

Oh man.. do you know the shit you’re gonna catch for this? I am SO writing this! Ohhhh man… ohhh man. (I have a lot of trouble trying to stop laughing.)

David: All right!

Coby: What? Are you getting mad at me? Don’t be mad!

Coby: …Or Laetitia Casta.

Coby: The way her teeth are kinda just a little bit ’buck’. She’s my buck-toothed baby. Can I say them both? I’d get ‘em into a room and have them fight over me. And whoever won..

David: There you go.

Coby: Come on, you know how many motherfuckers know Britney Spears is fine, I mean. Dream girl. Well, she’s probably a fuckin’ idiot. So, she’s a dream fuck. Can you put ‘dream fuck’?

Coby: Ok, cool.

David: Awwww man. I was hoping Coby would get all the attention on this. Shit. Okay, well, there are some porn stars that are like.. ohh yeah. I don’t even know their names. There’s one from England called Kirstin.

Coby: Yeah, he likes big booby women.

David: I had a crush on Christina Ricci for a long time, but then she lost weight. Then I was like, "Aww baby, it can never work". Now she’s like a size 2. I like meat on ‘em. I likes voluptuous womens. (laughs)

David: Actually our bass player has a crush on Jennifer Lopez so he banned me from having a crush on her. I dig Fairuza Balk, too. But, there is this one sticker on my kick drum. It’s a drawing by Koop. That’s really my dream girl.

David: Aww, yeah. If you look like that, then it’s on!

Coby: Actually, I changed my mind! Mike Patton is my dream girl!

Lesa Pence
Lrn2Hate@hotmail.com
(Lesa Pence spends her free time dreaming horribly gory and twisted nightmares and trying to figure out how to get them up on movie screens for the rest of the world to be horrified by.)

Coby Dick: The cockroach represents longevity. Like when the bomb hits, what's going to be around? Cockroaches. That's like us. We're dirty, underground. When you see one of them, you know there's a million of them, and that's our plan, to infest. That's Papa Roach. And actually, to tell you the truth, it's my grandpa's name.

Dave Buckner: His great grandpa, his name is Papa Roach. He lives in a little retirement home in California, and every Sunday he plays the fiddle for the folks at the retirement home.

MTV: Tell us about the "Last Resort" video.

Dick: The video is pretty much in a live format, and there are like, five hundred kids, local fans who came out to the video shoot. It got the vibe of the band really well. We just tear it up. It's pretty powerful. Everyone we've shown it to really thought it was a great video, and we're really happy with it. A guy named Marcos Siega did it. He also did "Waffle" for Sevendust, and [videos for] P.O.D., Blink-182.

Buckner: One thing I'd like to say about the video, too, is that I really like the fact that it's 500 of our closest friends and diehard fans from Sacramento, and I think that really comes across in the video.

MTV: Can you tell us about that song?

Dick: It's about my old roommate. I lived with him in high school. I moved out of my house and it was me and him in this house. He lived in a house by himself since he was like twelve, and his parents lived on the other side of town. Anyway, he had hooked up with this girl, and had, like, a guilt trip kind of problem about it, and from there he just went into a downward spiral within himself. He was an artist and a painter and a really deep thinker, and when he started thinking, it just picked at his brain and picked at his brain until he just went literally crazy. He tried to kill himself, and through attempting to kill himself, I think he killed that part of him that was rotting away inside of him. So that's where that song came from: my experience of living with him and being with him through the whole process. Now he's all right. He's mentally stable, which is cool.

MTV: You know what they say, sometimes you have to hit the absolute bottom before you can make your way back up.

Dick: Exactly. I think rock and roll needs one of these records right now. I think people have had enough of the candy-coated BS, and they need something to connect with on a real level. We're not about escapism. We tackle issues that are hard to deal with in real life.

Buckner: I think we do a good job of bringing emotion through with the music. Like "Broken Home" is a really haunting melody.

The guys talk about onstage catharsis, the pros and cons of Kid Rock, and the bands that inspire them...

TOBIN: We come from Northern California, a little town called Vacaville. We were fortunate enough to build up our own hometown scene and then branched out: Sacramento, San Francisco. They're like our second homes. Then we moved on to LA.

I'm the youngest one. I'm 20. The oldest one, Jerry [guitarist], is 25. The rest of the guys are 23.

We've been doing this for a long time. The band started in '93 at a talent show in high school. I wasn't in the band then. I've been with the band for five and a half years.

It was pretty funny, when they first started out they just had a bass player, a drummer, a singer and a trombone player. Like Chili Peppers style.

NYROCK: When did it become full time?

TOBIN: When we got to quit our day jobs. That was when we got signed back in October [1999]. Everything happened pretty quick. They threw us in the studio and got the record out like boom.

NYROCK: Tell me about the name "Papa Roach"?

TOBIN: It doesn't have anything to do with weed, just so you know. A lot of people think it does.

Our singer's grandpa, his last name was Roach. And they called him Papa Roach. They were fumbling around with names way back in the day… There was this old jazz album from this cat named Poncho Sanchez called Papa Gato. I guess they wanted to name the band that, but our singer was like, "No, no, name it Papa Roach. That was my grandfather's name." So, that's where they got it from.

And we just kind of made our own meaning out of it over time.... The cockroach being the symbol of longevity. Cockroaches can survive anything, a nuclear holocaust. They'll always be around.

NYROCK: You have a lot of heavy themes going on in your lyrics: suicide, alcoholism, greed, betrayal. Tell me a little about the thought behind the lyrics. Do you think it's important to address such issues?

TOBIN: I think it's important because kids can connect. They don't feel so alone. When they hear those lyrics they realize there are other people out there who have been through the same stuff and are getting through it. I don't think it's anything consciously done. We write about things that have happened to our singer, specifically, and friends around us. It's real life stuff. We're not writing about shit that we don't know about, like girls and cars and money – sex, drugs, and rock and roll. We only know real life bullshit that happens.

We like the fact that kids come up to us and are like, "We totally connect to the lyrics in this song. That's my life."

We're always going to write music that is true to ourselves and the people around us, not making up bullshit just to sell records.

NYROCK: Anything you want to say to fans, critics, and readers alike?

TOBIN: We've been doing this for a while. A lot of people think that we just came up in the scene. Like some over-night sensation. It wasn't like we just got lucky. We worked our asses off for this. We're grateful for our loyal fans.

It's like, you're living your life. You have a normal life. You do your 9-to-5 job – that you hate – and you deal with all the drama around you. And all of a sudden your band gets signed and you're on the road and you're in a tour bus and you're playing shows in every city. I mean, we're totally happy because this is what we love to do but our lives have been totally turned upside down. There's always going to be that fine line between good and evil. We're always going to recognize what's good and what's not.

We're just trying to have fun. Make good music. Play good-vibe rock shows and entertain people.

NYROCK: How is DreamWorks Records treating you?

TOBIN: The label is great. We love DreamWorks. We found a great home. The cool thing is they let us do whatever we want. Whatever we want. They didn't have any say.

We didn't expect all this to come, at least so quickly. We're really grateful for everything. We just hope that people don't think we're selling out. A lot of people don't realize that we don't have control over success or what happens. We're just out there doing our thing, doing what we love, making the music that we want to make. If people like our music, what's wrong with that?

So we're just gonna keep on going. We strive for longevity. We're not trying to get up in this game and out – just make a quick one-hit wonder. We want to do this for a long time because this is what we love to do. I'm actually quite curious to see what's going to happen.

Drummer Dave Buckner spent time with his family and girlfriend in the group's native Vacaville, Calif. It was a welcome breather, diverting his attention so much that he was shocked to learn that Papa Roach's debut DreamWorks album, "Infest" (released April 25), sold nearly 100,000 copies last week, climbed to No. 12 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and recently was awarded a gold record for sales of more than 500,000.

"That's where it's at, at No. 12? Oh, man, that's nuts," Buckner said recently. "That's crazy. I heard we sold a ton of records last week. But I really don't want to hype up on the record sales, because the Backstreet Boys sell a lot of records but I don't like their music; I don't think they're the coolest thing on Earth. I mean, it's cool that we sold a lot of records, but that doesn't necessarily make us cool. It just means we sold a lot of records, which is cool for me because it means I don't have to have a day job."

That's the P-Roach philosophy in a nutshell: Have a blast while it lasts.

"I never expected this," Buckner said. "There's always like talk when we were kids hanging out with friends in the living room. We were like, 'Man, if our band got signed, we'd do this and we'd do that.' But I don't think anyone ever really thought we'd ever get this far. I always thought it would fizzle away and we'd go on with our lives, but this thing just kept on building. We made a little snowball and tossed it into an avalanche.

"In this business, there are no guarantees. Who's going to know in the long run if it's going to work out or not, but at least we're having fun right now. I'm making a little money to put away for after I'm done being a 'rock star.'

"I'm hoping it lasts, but you've always got to prepare for that rainy day. You can't just 'Party like a rock star' till it's all over. I'm having the time of my life right now, but just by watching VH1 and 'Behind the Music,' you know this shit does not last forever. Hopefully we'll be able to make records that we'll believe in and that are successful enough to keep us afloat. Nothing's forever."

Still, with "Infest" and the riveting first single, "Last Resort," swarming the charts, four guys from the onion capital of the world sure have beaten back the odds.

Buckner, singer-writer Coby Dick, guitarist Jerry Horton and bassist Tobin Esperance formed Papa Roach while in high school in 1993. They were just kids in a garage band kicking out the jams, but somewhere along the way they developed their own gritty, aboveboard metal-meets-hip-hop style.

The more they toured (playing in clubs they weren't old enough to enter), the better they got and their following swelled.

By the time they graduated, they already had a self-released album, 1995's "Caca Bonita." Other discs followed, as did some high-profile gigs, touring with Kid Rock, Static-X, Incubus and Bad Brains.

"As an underground band, we went through cycles where sometimes things were up and a lot of times things were really down," Buckner said, "not musically and rockin' shows, just in the department of 'I'm broke,' 'How am I going to make my rent next month?' I went through a lot of down periods, where I was barely scraping by. It was especially hard right before we got signed; I had zero money. There was no money in the bank or in my pocket. In a way, it was kind of liberating, because I'm poor so even if people do come after me for money, 'Sorry, I don't have anything to give you.'

"I did a lot of stuff right before the band got signed. I had to take odd jobs because those were the only ones that would work around the band's schedule. I had offers to work at Wells Fargo doing computer stuff, but I couldn't take it because they wanted me to be there from 9 to 5 every day. Imagine that. I'm like, 'I can't do that, I'm in a band.' They're like, 'Get out of here, Buster. Good luck with your band, but you can't have this job.'

"Things weren't always to this degree now. It wasn't like we were always this focused, this well-oiled machine. We started out as a garage band, just kids having fun, and we just kept taking it to the next level until it got to where it is. We always felt we had to step it up, that you can't be happy with where you're at musically. You have to keep evolving and keep things new and exciting."

DreamWorks entered the picture, impressed with the band's musicianship and Dick's bold, candid lyrics. "Infest" tracks touch on suicide ("Last Resort"), attention deficit disorder ("Thrown Away") and alcoholism ("Binge").

"Broken Home," about the impact of divorce on children, especially hits home.

"There's some statistic I heard that half of all marriages end in divorce," Buckner said. "Not all marriages have children involved, but I'm saying there's a lot of kids out there whose parents are divorced. Or at least in my case, my biological father wasn't there to raise me. My adopted dad is the one who was there for me. It's the same with Coby's life and Tobin's parents are divorced. That song hits home for three out of four of us.

"I'm not bitter about it, but Coby's had some issues to deal with and that's why he wrote the song the way he did. I've got to admit, the first time I heard the song, I was like, 'Damn, that's heavy.' "

Now, about that band name ...

"We admit that Papa Roach is one of the stupidest band names ever," Buckner said, with a laugh. "We thought of better names. I got tired of the band name real quick, I was like, 'Let's change it, like shorten it down to P-Roach,' but by the time it got to that point, we had already developed a fan base and it was too late.

"Coby's stepdad's last name is Roatch, and their grandfather was always called Papa. It's as simple as that. Everyone's like, 'You smoke roaches, right?' That's when we decided to make the meaning of the name about the actual insect. Coby sees it as being a mascot, a symbol of longevity, because after the nuclear war, the only thing left is the cockroach.

"I like to use the analogy of what's going on with us right now. Like after this whole rap-metal craze is over and has seen its day, we still want to be around making music. We want to have longevity to our career. After the fat is over, we will be able to overcome that, because we actually write songs that are good and mean something to people."

THE FIRST RECORD I EVER BOUGHT: "Beastie Boys' 'Cookie Puss.' I bought it on tape. The Beastie Boys changed my life. I got into them because my uncle, who was in high school at the time, used to babysit me and he'd play 'Brass Monkey' all the time. I looked up to him and wanted to do the things he did, so I went out to the record store and bought 'Cookie Puss,' not knowing they had the other record ('Licensed to Ill') out at the time. 'Cookie Puss' is one of their old French imports. I was listening to it and thought, 'What the hell is this? It's not anything like 'Brass Monkey.' But I was intrigued by it; one of the songs is nothing but them making crank calls to an ice cream store. On the flip side, it's a dub reggae kind of song."

THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: "The Jacksons' Victory Tour. My mom took me. I was like 8 years old. It was awesome; I wondered, 'How did they put this together?' It was cool to see a concert at that level and see what it's all about."

THE LAST CD I BOUGHT: "Well, it might be better to rephrase that question to 'What am I listening to lately?' That would be the advance CD of hed(pe)'s new record. I'm friends with the drummer, and we're talking about doing some shows together, so he floated me an advance copy. I'm getting into it right now."

BWF (before we forget): Papa Roach is infesting the Web @ www.paparoach.com. ... The band is scheduled to appear July 14 on NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." ... The Papa Roach album discography - "Caca Bonita" (Onion Hardcore, 1995); "Old Friends From Young Years" (1997); "5 Tracks Deep" (1998); "Let 'Em Know" (1999); "Infest" (DreamWorks, 2000).