Singer Fred Durst and guitarist Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit perform onstage at The Forum on March 14, 2015 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
It’s fun to call Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst on the phone. If you miss him, you get to hear his humorous voicemail. If he picks up, you get to talk to a thoughtful and humble man, reflective of the two decades since his popular band’s founding and brimming with passion for the arts, his fans, healthy living (he’s a vegan) and, frankly, life itself. Durst does all his own management and social media, including curating his Flipboard Magazines, which touch on food and health, gaming, photography and even physics. A red couch interview with a huge dose of carpe diem, serendipity and gratitude? Yes, please.
Limp Bizkit recently celebrated 20 years since its start. What are some highlights of your music career?
Oh my gosh. I guess being able to pull off getting a record deal from a garage and then somehow navigating a business and hustling my way into getting some attention. I’d always wanted to be a filmmaker, so I thought I’d start a band and direct some videos. Little did I know the band would turn into what it turned into.
Being able to being exposed to culture. I’m from a farm in North Carolina, and it helped me get out into the world. It helped me meet my son’s mother, although we’ve never really been together, and helped me have my amazing son and daughter.
What would you say is going to be your band’s legacy?
Hard to say. Limp Bizkit was really polarizing. For me, it gave me an outlet to stand up for myself. If the band occupied a place in someone’s life when they needed it, that would be the most important thing for me.
I can’t believe we even exist. It’s taken on a life of its own. I’m like a fish out of water, blown away all the time. I wake up every morning at the crack of dawn just super excited.
How has your sound evolved?
In Limp Bizkit, I went out and sought the best musicians, who were luckily open to this idea I had. We got together in a room and I’m sort of like a composer. What you heard with us what just what happened. I consider myself a ringleader and these guys are talented, and we just do what we do without intending to do it.
No matter what we try to do, we’re always going to sound like ourselves.
What is that sound, exactly?
I think it had an urban approach. The rock element was brought in by the other players. It’s rock/rap, rather than rap/rock. A lot of our fans throughout the year wanted more rock, or more of this, and I always came from a place where it was: The Beastie Boys meets The Cure or Pantera meets Cypress Hill.
I don’t know how to describe it, actually. It’s an interesting question. I’m Fred from Limp Bizkit and I’m always gonna be. I’d say it was a serendipitous urban collision.
That’s pretty great. When you think about music today, what do you love and what do you not understand?
I love discovering new music. I scour SoundCloud and Bandcamp, looking for the most raw, pure, honest expression from anyone I can find. I think there’s a lot of that out there, which is very inspiring.
It’s very noisy in the world and there’s another really, really good song coming out every week. Whether it’s honest or pure like Adele, or somebody as cool and hip as The Internet, or whatever it is, it just goes and disappears so fast because there’s so much.
I think ultimately it’s about what moves you, subjectively.
Photo courtesy of Fred Durst
How did you discover Flipboard?
I’m kind of a techie guy, and always had my mind on a news app I wanted to do. I like consuming news digitally and conveniently. When I heard it the first time, I got it, tried it and loved it—I thought it was genius. I love how it’s curated by the people and the users.
How did you pick the subjects that you curate about?
I love health and learning more. At the end of the day you wanna live a pure, healthy life. I love gaming; I’m kind of a nerd like that. I love film. I’m a huge fan of film. I love golf as well. I’m terrible at it but I love doing it.
I used it for awhile without making mags. And then I decided to do it, and it becomes an obsession.
If you could have done anything differently in your career, what would it be?
“Don’t live in regret.” “Move forward.” I just can’t answer that question because I made decisions from my gut. I let myself turn into these characters, like Tyler Durden, or the guy with the red hat. I don’t know what I would change.
What’s your favorite way to connect with fans?
In person, face to face. We’re all keyboard King Kongs, know what I mean? I love seeing a guy who’s ripping it up and opinionated.
What’s something we don’t know about you outside of your music and film and tattoo artistry?
I hate horror films because they scare me, but I watch them nonstop so I can get over them. I might make one.
I love Chet Baker, I listen to him everyday of my life. It does something to me.
I love fast music; it’s my favorite type of music.
I’m a vegan.
What does success look like for you?
I think success is quality of life. At the end of the day, the future is easy because it doesn’t exist. And the past is kinda painful because it’s forever. But in this moment is your quality of life, and tuning into that, and making the present the best you can—that’s me finding success and embracing it. I’m not in the get rich business; I’m in the stay rich business.
~MiaQ is following Fred Durst of course
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