Bury Tomorrow's Dani Winter-Bates on why he loves Papa Roach

An illustration of Dani Winter-Bates as Papa Roach
(Image credit: Matt Dixon)

JACOBY’S AN INSPIRATION

“I was always a drummer in a band when I was in school, and an introverted kid. When I saw Last Resort, I was blown away by Jacoby’s overall persona. It made me re-evaluate everything that I thought I knew about being in a band. People think bands like Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park almost have that air of, not comedy, but, ‘Oh, they’re nu metal.’ For me, it was more than that. Papa Roach are the reason why I’m a frontman today. Full-on. That is the reason why I changed. I was like, ‘Right, I’ve re-evaluated, I wanna be a frontman now.’”

INFEST IS MINDBLOWING

“I was a skater, and Blood Brothers from Infest was featured on Tony Hawk’s [Pro Skater 2], and that was a big old riff. Obviously Last Resort is the capturer – that’s the one that gets you. But I really liked Infest, and Dead Cell. Honestly, I find it very rare to listen to an album from start to finish and be really into it. It’s a great album. And the production value is through the roof – so much so that it stands up today.”

JACOBY CAN SING

“He’s pretty much flawless live. They’ve changed a few members, and to have a frontman that can do the same vocals he did all those years ago does show talent, so I respect him for that. Also, he can sing and scream, and that’s a real hard thing to do, especially back in those times as well. There are so many avenues you can go down singing-wise now, and he nailed it back in 1997.”

THEY’VE STAYED RELEVANT

“Papa Roach still continue to bust out relevant music. They’ve done the perfect thing of gradually progressing with how the times are. They do breakdowns now, which was something that wasn’t around as much in the 90s – there’s wasn’t that chuggy breakdown style. And I think they play the right shows. A lot of bands make a mistake because they stop playing with relevant bands and they only play with bands they want to play with.”

JACOBY HAS A GREAT IMAGE

“When I first saw him, I wasn’t blown away by what I saw image-wise, it was more his charismatic side that struck me. But when he came back and did Getting Away With Murder [in 2004], it blew me away. He’d lost quite a bit of weight and had loads of tattoos, and for a band to go away and come back with such a revamped image, it’s quite hard to pull off. But they smashed it. At that time I was starting to make waves myself, being in bands.”

THEY CONNECT WITH PEOPLE

“My mum was very strict on me, so I was 14 or 15 years old when I first saw Papa Roach play a show. They are a great live band, and Jacoby really engages with the crowd. That’s one thing that Bury Tomorrow always try to achieve. Huge bands don’t strictly need to engage, because the songs stand out for themselves, but they do. There are pictures of Jacoby from Download festival where he’s covered in mud. That’s a great thing to have as a frontman – breaking down the barrier between the stage and fans.”

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Eleanor Goodman
Editor, Metal Hammer

Eleanor was promoted to the role of Editor at Metal Hammer magazine after over seven years with the company, having previously served as Deputy Editor and Features Editor. Prior to joining Metal Hammer, El spent three years as Production Editor at Kerrang! and four years as Production Editor and Deputy Editor at Bizarre. She has also written for the likes of Classic Rock, Prog, Rock Sound and Visit London amongst others, and was a regular presenter on the Metal Hammer Podcast.