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Interview: Mudvayne (Matt McDonough)
Interview: Mudvayne (Matt McDonough)
- Genre : More Music
- Type: News
- Author : Super Admin
- Date : Wed, 19 Nov 2008
The New Game sounds like your most cohesive record to date. Do you feel like its creation differed at all from your other albums?
Honestly, no. We have a pretty ritualized way of writing where we don't really have expectations. We don't really have a method. We all just get together and start jamming. Maybe there will be a couple very skeletal ideas, but that's kind of a launching point for us. We've always written like this. In more of an organic sense, the records unfold themselves. The New Game was written the same way.
The record feels like a journey from "Fish Out of Water" through "We the People." It's got a cinematic quality. Would you say that's the case?
If that's the case, I think it's more of an unintentional thing. Maybe that's a testament to the band as we're maturing and growing as writers together, we're experiencing more of a focus. I guess it's more of an idea, but seeing as this is our fourth record, it makes sense. On earlier records, we wanted to do all kinds of different things. We were trying to get as many cards on the table as far as ideas that we wanted to explore and different types of emotional elements. Being a band with a few records behind us now, I don't think there's so much of a desperation to push boundaries and explore things. We can be comfortable with what we're writing at the time. I guess what you're feeling is that focus where the songs all really have a relaxed and focus sound. It's obvious that the record has more of a rock base, a relaxed pop writing method. I think a lot of that comes from us being comfortable and not having to prove so much. From a conceptual point of view, in essence, this record is more of a rock record also. Our previous records were conceptual. People have talked about it. I wouldn't say that there's any direct conceptual thread that goes through the record. If fans feel that or experience that, I would encourage it, but that's more on their heads to develop that idea.
That's the beauty of Mudvayne. The band becomes like a filter for inspiration, and each element sticks out. Everything comes together to make this one entity, and fans can interpret it however they will. It's a testament to your growth and evolution.
Yeah, I mean, if that could be the case with our fans and people experience it, that's a great compliment to me. Being an artist who wants to put something out that's true to me, inspiring and honest to the fans, that would be one of the greatest things we could ever achieve. We've always had an intention of hoping that we could put a piece of work out that isn't so much me screaming at you telling you what to think, but something that has a certain universality to it, an ambiguity, an element of something that inspires and allows our fans to connect with it and build their own relationship to it. If we can continue to do that—even with records that we're putting out now that have an accessibility to them that makes them even more broad—if we can continue to do that, that makes me really happy about the work.
Since you've worked on two records in the past few years, it seems like a great period of inspiration.
Yeah, it's a good point. We've just started interviewing about the new record in the past couple weeks, and I've tried to point this out. There are some misconceptions people have about where Mudvayne is creatively or whatever. It's really important to notice we have recorded two records in two years. It's the most seminal, most charged creative period that Mudvayne has ever experienced in 13 years of being together. We haven't written and recorded this volume of work this quickly. That speaks for itself. There's something there. Doing The New Game and this latest one that we've just finished recording, I felt the greatest comfort and ease recording that I ever have. I really enjoy writing and working. I feel like the band is really coming into a level of confidence where we can do our work and really sit back and enjoy what's unfolding. We can really feel comfortable making music. It's a great music.
Your relationships must be stronger as well, having gone through making so much music together.
Yeah, I don't know if I'd say
Honestly, no. We have a pretty ritualized way of writing where we don't really have expectations. We don't really have a method. We all just get together and start jamming. Maybe there will be a couple very skeletal ideas, but that's kind of a launching point for us. We've always written like this. In more of an organic sense, the records unfold themselves. The New Game was written the same way.
The record feels like a journey from "Fish Out of Water" through "We the People." It's got a cinematic quality. Would you say that's the case?
If that's the case, I think it's more of an unintentional thing. Maybe that's a testament to the band as we're maturing and growing as writers together, we're experiencing more of a focus. I guess it's more of an idea, but seeing as this is our fourth record, it makes sense. On earlier records, we wanted to do all kinds of different things. We were trying to get as many cards on the table as far as ideas that we wanted to explore and different types of emotional elements. Being a band with a few records behind us now, I don't think there's so much of a desperation to push boundaries and explore things. We can be comfortable with what we're writing at the time. I guess what you're feeling is that focus where the songs all really have a relaxed and focus sound. It's obvious that the record has more of a rock base, a relaxed pop writing method. I think a lot of that comes from us being comfortable and not having to prove so much. From a conceptual point of view, in essence, this record is more of a rock record also. Our previous records were conceptual. People have talked about it. I wouldn't say that there's any direct conceptual thread that goes through the record. If fans feel that or experience that, I would encourage it, but that's more on their heads to develop that idea.
That's the beauty of Mudvayne. The band becomes like a filter for inspiration, and each element sticks out. Everything comes together to make this one entity, and fans can interpret it however they will. It's a testament to your growth and evolution.
Yeah, I mean, if that could be the case with our fans and people experience it, that's a great compliment to me. Being an artist who wants to put something out that's true to me, inspiring and honest to the fans, that would be one of the greatest things we could ever achieve. We've always had an intention of hoping that we could put a piece of work out that isn't so much me screaming at you telling you what to think, but something that has a certain universality to it, an ambiguity, an element of something that inspires and allows our fans to connect with it and build their own relationship to it. If we can continue to do that—even with records that we're putting out now that have an accessibility to them that makes them even more broad—if we can continue to do that, that makes me really happy about the work.
Since you've worked on two records in the past few years, it seems like a great period of inspiration.
Yeah, it's a good point. We've just started interviewing about the new record in the past couple weeks, and I've tried to point this out. There are some misconceptions people have about where Mudvayne is creatively or whatever. It's really important to notice we have recorded two records in two years. It's the most seminal, most charged creative period that Mudvayne has ever experienced in 13 years of being together. We haven't written and recorded this volume of work this quickly. That speaks for itself. There's something there. Doing The New Game and this latest one that we've just finished recording, I felt the greatest comfort and ease recording that I ever have. I really enjoy writing and working. I feel like the band is really coming into a level of confidence where we can do our work and really sit back and enjoy what's unfolding. We can really feel comfortable making music. It's a great music.
Your relationships must be stronger as well, having gone through making so much music together.
Yeah, I don't know if I'd say
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