In a recent interview with LA Lloyd (the guy who still uses a Discman ironically), PAPA ROACH‘s Jacoby Shaddix revealed he’s absolutely terrified of the future. 😱
According to Shaddix, when CD sales tanked, he had to resort to playing for a measly 500-800 people after selling millions of records. Imagine that! 😭 The horror! The humanity! He and his bandmates survived by leaning on “music and creation” – you know, those things that apparently nobody else in the industry was doing. 🙄
Now, with A.I. coming for his precious job, Jacoby’s really shaken. He’s been getting lessons from Will.i.am (who once said he’d rather be a shoe than a musician, so take that as you will) about how A.I. is like choosing between organic and GMO food at the grocery store. 🥔🍎 Because we all know music creation is just like shopping for produce!
“Do you want fake music or human music?” Jacoby asks, as if A.I. can’t create something that makes people feel things. 😑 He claims rock fans can “smell it a mile away” when something’s fake – which explains why Nickelback still sells out arenas. Wait, what?
The band’s brilliant solution? They recorded “Wake Up Calling” with NO SAMPLES on the drums. That’s right – they actually recorded a drummer playing drums! 😲 Revolutionary! Next, they’ll tell us they used actual guitars instead of synthesizers. Groundbreaking!
This technological regression is apparently called “dialing back the tech” – a strategy that’s worked so well for other industries like, um, well, none that we can think of. 🤷
The single was produced by Colin Brittain (because apparently they needed help making it sound less produced), and it explores “themes of connection, self-reckoning, and emotional dependence” – or as the rest of us call it: “lyrics.”
PAPA ROACH, the band that’s been “calling attention to mental health” since their first hit single (which was basically a 3-minute PSA about suicide), is now fighting the good fight against the A.I. menace. Because nothing says “authentic human experience” like a 40-something-year-old man who’s been in a band since the ’90s worrying about technology taking his job. 😏

Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.


