Mudvayne’s Chad Gray on New Music: “I Would Be Excited to Write with These Guys”
Classic nü-metal act Mudvayne are currently enjoying the benefits of the inexplicably-still-going genre resurgence, having just concluded their first US tour in 13 years. Revolver caught up with the band at the end of the tour to catch up and it seems like the Mudvayne train still has gas left in the tank.
Singer Chad Gray—who made a full recovery, physically and spiritually, after falling off stage while singing “Not Falling”—said that the band’s initial festival appearances were rough due to COVID-19 recovery and general logistics of shaking the rust off, but that tour was great.
“There’s nothing you can do to prepare you for the stage. The energy’s different, the adrenaline, the endorphins, all the things that go with standing in front of 30, 40, 50,000 fucking people are there and very apparent. So getting a few shows under your belt is really, really important and I never had that opportunity.
“And then this [tour] started and the shows have consistently just gotten better and better and better. What’s it like being out here right now? It’s just over the top because, dude, people seem genuinely excited about what we’re doing and that’s a really fucking exciting feeling for four guys that haven’t done this for that many years. So it’s really cool and I feel like, personally, I’m singing probably better than maybe I ever have. I’ve been doing a lot of training and I work with [metal vocal coach] Melissa Cross and so I’ve been doing a lot of vocal training. I’ve basically retaught myself how to sing over the last several months.”
Gray also said that Mudvayne are open to the possibility of releasing new music. If it’s up to snuff, of course.
“That’s obviously something we got to cross, right? There’s two ways you can do it. You could go out, and you can go once around the rock and just play catalog. For sure, that’s absolutely a possibility. Or you can try to put something together. You can gauge it, you can decide. I’m not going to say because I’ve been constantly writing, recording touring for the last 12 years with Hellyeah. So I don’t think my well’s dry by any means. And I’m excited, I would be excited to write with these guys.”
Drummer Matt McDonough echoed Gray’s sentiment and stressed that the band members are not “dinosaurs” but they prefer to write in the same room together. Still, they’ve got ideas and are excited about what that music could sound like.
“What’s it going to sound like? I can’t honestly say. Some of the stuff that we have messed around is heavy. We messed around with some typical [sounds], people wouldn’t be terribly shocked, but the opportunity to experiment and given our past success, I think I feel a sense of freedom. There hasn’t been any kind of pressure from any professional direction to try to, “You guys going to write another ‘Dig.’ Or ‘Not Falling’ or whatever, nothing like that. So the headspace and the culture around the band right now is incredibly positive. So I personally just would like to be wide open and excited and positive about it. I want to be surprised.”
We’ll keep you posted on any developments on the new music front. For now, check out photos from Mudvayne’s show with Rob Zombie, Static-X and Powerman 5000 in Camden, NJ.
