PAPA ROACH's JACOBY SHADDIX: How 'Help' 'Went From Most Hated To One Of My Favorite Songs'

PAPA ROACH frontman Jacoby Shaddix was recently interviewed by Matt Spracklen, music editor for @London. You can now watch the chat below.

Shaddix said that PAPA ROACH's recent third Mainstream Rock Songs No. 1 "Help" was a song that he didn't feel like writing — and he practically composed it without even realizing it.

"Everything lined up with that one," he said. "I think the music is very uplifting. But I didn't like the song when we wrote it. I was, like, 'Goddamn! The music is too pop.' It's, like, 'Ehhh.' And then Tobin [Esperance], our bass player, was, like, 'Remember when we wrote 'Scars', we felt the same way about that song. Approach this one in the same way — take your darkness that your carrying around with you.'"

"Help" is featured on PAPA ROACH's latest album, "Crooked Teeth", which was helmed by producers who previously worked with pop artists: Nicholas "Ras" Furlong and Colin "Doc" Brittain (THE WANTED, 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER).

"I wasn't in a good place in the process of making this last record, mentally," Jacoby said. "I suffer from depression [from] time to time in my life — it comes and goes, ebbs and flows.

"I was sitting in the room with the producer as we were talking about writing this song, and he was, like, 'What the fuck is going on with you right now?'" he recalled. "And I was just, like, 'I think I need some fucking help, man. I just feel like I'm drowning in myself, like I just can't get above water.' And he was just, like, 'You just wrote the chorus right there.'

"Sometimes that's just what music is — it needs to be real and raw and honest, and so I wanted to write about that."

Shaddix told Billboard magazine that he has never been officially diagnosed with depression, but mental health issues run in his family and his mother has observed that it might be why the singer had a habit of self-medicating before he got sober several years ago. As he discussed the situation with Spracklen, Shaddix said: "We've found that a lot of our fans struggle with mental issues, whatnot, and it's something that, no matter what you look like or who you are or where you're from or what country, blah blah blah, mental illness doesn't see those boundaries; it can affect anybody. So it's a very broad statement, but a very touching one."

Jacoby added: "Our fans fucking dig that song. So it went from most hated to one of my favorite songs."

PAPA ROACH recently confirmed that it has already been in the studio writing and recording material for the follow-up to "Crooked Teeth".

"Crooked Teeth" was released on May 19 via Eleven Seven Music.