Jay Weinberg has opened up about a challenging time in his life when he said he was prevented from collaborating with other artists because he didn’t have the “legal ability” to do so. He added that part of his creative self “was dying” as a result.
Weinberg has been working with a variety of bands and projects since his departure from Slipknot in 2023. He toured with Suicidal Tendencies, recorded with Fuming Mouth, launched the new band Portraits of an Apparition, recorded his first solo music, and recently collaborated with Canadian duo Softcult on a song called “Drown Fountain.”
However, in a new interview with Loyal to the Craft, he revealed that there was a period where he was unable to collaborate with other musicians. He said that the idea behind “Drown Fountain” came to him more than a decade ago. “I’ve had that song kicking around since 2013, you know. And much of this material is stuff that I’ve been honing for years,” he said.
He added: “But without giving too much attention to any kind of one situation, you know not having the legal ability to play music with other people was definitely difficult because I look at music at least the creation and sharing of it, it’s that twofold thing,” he said.
Weinberg said that while he continued to create and collaborate “in private,” he knew that it wasn’t music that could be released due to his legal obligations at that time.
“Although I was super intensely focused on one aspect of my creative life and happy to do so, like a little part of my creative self, it was dying for sure because this is stuff that means a lot to me,” he continued. “These are songs that, still even 13 years later after initially coming up with a song, I feel passionate to put the effort into getting it across the finish line and it is emotionally gratifying for me to put out there.”
“So I’ve always considered that a healthy thing, to be able to play and create with people of all sorts of disciplines, all sorts of backgrounds and that’s certainly what I’m leaning into with this project, this music that it’s like I’m kind of primary songwriter of all this stuff and playing all the instruments for the most part, but then approaching other friends to bring it across the finish line,” he said.
Weinberg did not directly reference Slipknot, whom he played with for a decade until the fall of 2023 when the band made what they called a “creative decision” to jettison him. But he had joined the group in late 2013, around when he said some of the song ideas he referenced in the interview were already in the works.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published in April, Weinberg discussed his exit from Slipknot and the feelings he had after the band’s manager informed him his contract would not be renewed, and shortly afterward the band released a statement about their parting ways.
“It came after an extraordinarily tense year for the band, things that I could only see as an outsider in relationships that are 25 years deep,” Weinberg told Rolling Stone. “It came without an explanation, no reason. It was confusing then. If I’m perfectly honest, it remains confusing.”
