'Don't buy this record," says Limp Bizkit mainman, Fred Durst, in a novel marketing twist for the band's new album. "I'm serious. This is not for anybody who wants a new Limp Bizkit record. I really would not suggest you buy it if that's what you want. You'll be disappointed".
Sitting with his band mates in a plush hotel suite, the urban-chic clothed Durst, one of the biggest names in Planet Rock, stares around him a while and wonders if he's overdoing the "negativity".
"Put it this way, if you're the sort of person who collects B-sides and stuff like that and you're interested in other people's interpretations of our songs, then you can buy this record and not be disappointed."
There is an easier way to put all this, we boldly suggest. "What's that Irish guy?" "You can just say it's a re-mix record."
Yes, indeed the new Limp Bizkit release, New Old Songs is a re-mix affair.
Songs from the band's massive selling albums (Three Dollar Bill Y'All; Significant Other; Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water) were handed over to the impossibly hip super-producers of the day - including the Neptunes, Timbaland and Madonna's producer, William Orbit - and duly returned in a very different state. Where once were rock/rap anthems, now lie dance-orientated, techno, scud-missile cuts.
"We really wanted it to be a lot more beat and hip-hop oriented," says Durst. "It's for a specific audience, as in the hip-hop/dance audience but we're sort of hoping there are some rock fans out there who like us who we can turn on to something different. You know we've always given out our songs for remixes in the past, so this time we thought we should collect them all together on an album. To be honest, I'm not a re-mix record sort of guy but I love this record. It's also a way to keep everyone happy until the Bizkit is ready to rock again. We're in the middle of writing our new record so this is something you can put in your stereo and bump to . . . if you like re-mix records."
From Florida, Limp Bizkit came up on the outside lane a few years ago to become one of the biggest selling rock bands in the world. They were in the vanguard of the Nu-Metal movement (a sound that mixes grunge rock and good ol' heavy metal with contemporary hip-hop beats and rhythms). Their strongly anti-authoritarian stance, raucous live shows and explicit lyrics (drugs, sex, drink and all that jazz) found a welcome place in the hearts of adolescents everywhere. Durst is a flamboyant and flagrant front man - an Axl Rose for this decade - and he walks and talks his "rawk" persona well.
Along with bands such as Korn, Linkin Park and Staind, Limp Bizkit have turned Nu-Metal into a Moral-Majority-baiting art form. They are the archetypal scary rock 'n' rollers from Central Casting as far as mid-America is concerned.
Their lineage can be traced back to any amount of rock's bad boys (The Stones, for instance) and they now occupy somewhat the same "shock horror" space as Marilyn Manson. While some Nu-metal bands are more rap than rock, the Bizkit are decidedly more rock than rap.
So were the hip-hop producers into the songs? "Timbaland was," says Durst. "I didn't expect him to do it seeing as he's so busy with people like Missy Elliot and Bubba Sparxxx but that gave the album a real hip-hop boost. Puff Daddy (P Diddy) came on board as well and then there were a few people whose re-mixes weren't that good but I'm not telling you who they were."
The project, he says, is intended to be a halfway meeting between rap and rock. "We can go with a rap song or a rock song, we've always been like that, but there's still a difference out there and we can both learn from each other.
"When we play live shows with some of the hip-hop acts, they can see the power of heavy rock and how monster it is and they want to capture the feeling because a lot of rap stuff doesn't come across that well in a live situation. A lot of rap music right now is trying to get a bit more aggressive with the rock sound, it sounds like there are AC/DC stabs placed everywhere. That's really cool, the way people are exploring and being inspired by other people - the way our music is inspired by rap music."
One of the reasons the band are taking longer than expected to come up with a new studio album is the sudden departure a few months ago of their guitarist and pivotal creative figure, Wes Borland. Durst insists the parting was amicable but does mention how "shaken" he was by Borland's departure. "We're not going to let Wes leaving bring us down. We were very shocked at first but we dusted ourselves down. Wes wanted to do his own musical thing, outside of the band. He has to be happy and we have to be happy," he says.
Now intent on finding a female guitarist to replace Borland, the band are auditioning all over the US.
"We really want to find a girl guitar player. We just hope she's there somewhere and that we can find her. We're going to do these auditions so anybody can come down, sign on the list and go ding, ding, ding for 30 seconds or 10 minutes and she might be on the road with us within a day," he says.
Courtney Love is free these days. "Hell no!" he screams. "Get outta here man. She's talented and all that but she's a bit of a hater."
The band had to cancel a series of European dates earlier this year - including an eagerly awaited Irish gig - because of ongoing problems with security at their shows - their music provokes an intense level of moshing.
"We're really sorry about cancelling those gigs but we don't want to see anybody getting hurt. It's an impossible thing, you're at a show and someone's suffocating in the crowd and there's thousands of people and you're on stage and sweat is stinging your eyes . . . you can't put a radar on and see people in trouble.
"There's people being squashed and you're looking around saying 'told you the security wasn't right' and you pull a girl out and she has to go to hospital. We have to deal with this in a different way. We have to get it right. Rock music shouldn't injure anybody."
New Old Songs is on the Interscope label