The band feels like they came back to their original state of mind, that’s why their last album is simply entitled… Staind. Just for the anecdote, at first, it was supposed to be entitled Seven. The number’s symbolism is important for the band, so the artwork alludes to the figure despite the title’s change.
An eponymous record is supposed to represent a special time in a band’s history, and given the context during which this one as been recorded, Staind definitely does – unknowingly – even more than the usual. Tensions appeared between the band’s members when they were starting to write the lyrics and record the songs. Tensions that caused the tough decision to let drummer Jon Wysocki go. Nowadays we’re seeing line-up changes several times a week in the press, but it’s the first time it’s happening to Staind.
We talked about that with Mike Mushok, the guitar player. If most of the tracks were written already (except “Paper Wings”, which has been written during the clash), this episode inspired singer Aaron Lewis for the lyrics.
By sheer luck, this period as been immotalized by a strikingly honest documentary (a parallel between this and Metallica’s Some Kind Of Monster can be drawn), The Making Of Staind : « It was just really a guy we’ve had along for a while who was filming it. […] We just happened to capture all of it on film. […] It was like the last record, we filmed from the very beginning, from us getting together for the first time to work on the music. We did the same thing this time. We were creating webisodes, trying to get people interested back in what we were doing, showing ourselves in the studio. As we were doing it, we realized there was something there that would probably make more than just webisodes. ».
Obviously, the viewing of the result has been extremely painful, but the band decided to show it anyway: « Most DVDs that come out about making a record are about everybody showing how great everything is, how great it is to make a record. This one wasn’t. We decided to show the truth behind how hard it was to make. » Mike can’t picture himself, even in a couple of years, watching it more light-heartedly: « There’s nothing fun or funny about it! And I have no intention or desire to really see it. ».
We also talked about the current line-up’s future and about the “official Staind drummer” status: « The drummer we have now has been working with the band for twelve years, so it’s not like we’re introducing somebody that we didn’t know. Sal [Giancarelli] has been with us all along. […] At this point, there’s no intention of Jon coming back. Jon would have to do some things to be able to come back. There’s no talk of that happening. I’m not saying it’ll never happen, but chances are probably against it ever happening. I don’t know if Sal’s permanent or not, but right now, he’s doing a good job in filling in. We have no intentions to replace him as of today. ».
Finally, to end on a lighter note, we came back to what Aaron Lewis was saying a couple of weeks ago about reading internet user’s reactions on Blabbermouth being a mistake. How sort through trolls, and reactions, wether positive or negative, that get things going? « It’s really easy for me! I just never go to any of those websites and read anything about us! (laughs) ».
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