in september 1995 a band was formed called the pale ones. the band had shawn crahan on drums, paul gray on bass, anders colsefini on vocals and donnie steele on guitar. later joey jordison joined and became drummer, crahan became a percussionist. the band also hired guitarist josh brainard and moved colsefini to percussion and vocals. the band performed their first concert on december 4, 1995, then they were called meld. joey jordison suggested naming the band slipknot, after a song they had made. the band started wearing masks because shawn crahan wore a clown mask and to get better into the music.