Former SLIPKNOT and current SUICIDAL TENDENCIES drummer Jay Weinberg has released his debut solo single, “Sandstone”.
The official visualizer for the track, co-directed by Aubrey McCoy and Liam Stewart, can be seen below.
“Sandstone”, which features guest vocals from DEAFHEAVEN frontman George Clarke, was recorded at Masterworks Studios in Nolensville, Tennessee by Shannon Forrest, Schematic Studios in Nashville, Tennessee by Brandon Highfill, and Sound Of Sirens Studios in Los Angeles, California by Toshi Kasai. The song was mixed by Zach Weeks and mastered by Nick Townshend.
In an interview with Australia’s Wall Of Sound, Weinberg stated about “Sandstone”: “It’s the first song I’ve ever released under my own name, and it’s the first song in a series of collaborations, an EP that I have that’s in various stations of completion, but that I’m hoping to have out in the early part of 2026.”
As for why he decided to launch a collaboration-based project rather than make a solo album in a more traditional sense, Jay said: “I’ve always wanted to collaborate with mainly vocalists and just create a very low-pressure, like, ‘Hey, here’s a song, why don’t we’, instead of… ‘Oh, we got to start a side project.’ In the instance of ‘Sandstone’, I really felt like the music I was creating really lent itself to what my friend George Clark would be able to do with his voice and his lyrics, and I just kind pitched it to him like, ‘Hey, let’s do this one song’. And he heard that loud and clear, came in and completely schooled it. It was incredible to watch it come to a fully realized form of a song.”
This past July, Weinberg told the Podioslave Podcast that he had been working on his solo project for more than a decade. He said: ”I’ve been working on, for lack of a better way of putting it, a solo album, but it’s certainly not solo in the terms of it’s not just me. I’m playing all the instruments on it and I’m collaborating with many different vocalists who I’ve been inspired by. I’ve always wanted do something like this where, like with my friend Conner [Sullivan, a.k.a.] Argus, there are many people in life that we always meet, and it’s, like, ‘Dude, you’re so rad. Let’s start a side project or something like that.’ And it’s difficult. We all have lives. we all have our main things that we do, and life takes us in directions and it’s hard to focus and embark on, like, ‘Hey, let’s make a record. Let’s start a band. Let’s do whatever.’ But I think it’s more easily manageable if I write a song and I’ve come up with it and I’m, like, man, ‘Vocally this direction, it could be really great with this guy, this girl on it,’ who’s a friend of mine that I’ve always wanted to work with. And I kind of pitch it to them, like, ‘Hey, here’s this thing. What would you think vocally and lyrically and stuff? I think this is up your alley. What do you think?’ So I’ve been working on something this entire year that I’m really, really excited about.”
Weinberg continued: “But, yeah, that’s been a huge undertaking that I’m really excited about, hopefully getting out there starting in the fall or so. I made kind of a deal with myself that this material that I’ve been writing and rearranging and working on for years — I was unable to do anything with it, but now that I have the freedom and the ability to exercise all this stuff, it’s been an incredible creative endeavor. I’m teaching myself how to be a recorded guitar player and bass player and keyboard player and all this. I’ve been writing this material since like 20… I have a demo of one of these songs that dates back to 2011. And I’ve always found working on, guitars — I’m surrounded by the guitars I play with — that helps reinforce or reinform how I approach the drums, and I’m listening to what I’m making, not just from wearing my drummer’s hat and, like, ‘Oh, just make the drums louder. That would be awesome.’ It’s not just that. I’m listening to this, because I have such a heavy hand in all of it. Myself, the guitar player, has to respect myself as the drummer and vice versa. And as the painter who’s going to be doing the artwork and stuff like that, it’s all undertakings that I’m taking on. So it’s slow goings, but I’m very proud of it and I’m hoping that some of that stuff starts to see the light of day hopefully this fall, is kind of like the deal that I’ve made with myself. So we’ll see. Knock on wood. We’ll see what happens.”
Regarding the musical direction of his solo material, Jay said: “Sonically, it’s all stuff that I’ve always wanted to dive into. I think my influences from NEUROSIS and INTERPOL and MY BLOODY VALENTINE show their face in this kind of material more so than it has in other music that I’ve been a part of writing or recording in the past. So I’m very thrilled to get this stuff out, for sure.”
Weinberg first revealed his plans to release a solo album in January, sharing on social media that he that he had “put together a group” in 2017 to play his solo music in a band setting, “during a prolonged downtime from touring.” He wrote at the time: “I haven’t touched these songs since then, until recently feeling inspiration to pick the guitar back up and kick this stuff around again. It’s been a fulfilling experience, and I’ll tell you — I’m starting to like where these songs are headed. It feels good to finally set the intention of releasing some of this new music in the coming year.”
As well as sharing his excitement to support METALLICA with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES this spring and summer, Jay added that he was “equally pumped to spend considerable time in the studio, especially working on this collection of songs. Stoked for you to hear them. When they’re ready, you’ll know.”
During an appearance on a July 2024 episode of the “One Life One Chance With Toby Morse” podcast, Weinberg addressed his surprise firing from SLIPKNOT in November 2023, saying: “Truth be told, I’m at kind of a point where I’m not quite yet really ready to talk about it, really. And that’s not to dismiss the conversation, but I’ve spent time, and spend time, just processing the entire experience. And the experience not being the last six months, but really the last 10 years [of playing with SLIPKNOT]. And finally, in a way, processing all of that. And doing it in kind of what I would consider the responsible way.
“I have a fantastic therapist who helps me,” he continued. “Before I speak on it, it’s important for me to do the right work of processing these events that you spend 10 years exclusively committed to one thing. There’s a lot to process that on the other side. And I think there is definitely a time where I’ll speak to my lived experience over those ten years — just not quite yet.”
On November 5, 2023, SLIPKNOT released a statement via social media in which it said it had “decided to make a creative decision and to part ways with Jay.”
Six days later, Weinberg, who replaced Joey Jordison, SLIPKNOT‘s original drummer, in 2013, shared on Instagram that he “was heartbroken and blindsided to receive the phone call”, “the news of which, most of you learned shortly after.”
Jay played his final show with SLIPKNOT on November 3, 2023 at the Hell & Heaven festival in Toluca, Mexico.
Jay discovered SLIPKNOT when he was a pre-teen, through his father. He was hooked immediately and was a huge fan of SLIPKNOT by the time he was invited to Los Angeles to try out as replacement for Joey Jordison in 2013.
For the first few months after the release of 2014’s “.5: The Gray Chapter”, the members of SLIPKNOT had declined to name the musicians who were playing drums and bass on their tour, despite the fact that their identities were revealed as Weinberg and bassist Alessandro “Vman” Venturella by a disgruntled former drumtech for SLIPKNOT who posted a picture of a backstage call sheet on Instagram.
“.5: The Gray Chapter” went on to score a trio of Grammy nominations, including two for “Best Metal Performance” and a nomination for “Best Rock Album”.
Weinberg also played on 2019’s “We Are Not Your Kind” and 2022’s “The End, So Far”, both of which topped Billboard‘s rock albums chart.
In February 2024, SLIPKNOT recruited former SEPULTURA drummer Eloy Casagrande as the replacement for Jay.
Prior to joining SLIPKNOT, Jay played with AGAINST ME! and MADBALL.
Jay played his first concert with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES in March 2024 in Osaka, Japan.
In addition to Weinberg and frontman Mike Muir, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES‘ current lineup features lead guitarist Dean Pleasants, rhythm guitarist Ben Weinman (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) and bassist Tye Trujillo (son of METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo).
Weinberg‘s pairing with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES came less than two months after he was announced as the new drummer of INFECTIOUS GROOVES, the long-running outfit formed more than three decades ago by Robert Trujillo alongside Robert‘s then-SUICIDAL TENDENCIES bandmate Muir.