Interview: Puddle of Mudd
I’m sure most people have in one way or another heard of Puddle of Mudd. If there was one thing I surely wasn’t going to pass up, being a wannabe rock star myself, it’s interviewing a band that has done it all: partied, toured virtually nonstop, and most importantly, been successful doing so. (8 million records sold to all you haters out there.) I got a chance to talk to them on the phone about their strange stories as well as ask them a few questions about their new album, Songs in the Key of Love & Hate.
Link opens in iTunes
Since the guys had already done 35-40 interviews, I decided to pepper them with questions like, “Is it true you had the Puddle of Mudd logo on condoms at one point?“, but I also decided to grind out a few details about how the band chooses an opening band, as well as ask them why bands don’t party like they use to. Check out the full interview download below, or just check out a few of the highlights.
Have you explored any alternate release strategies, and how has the internet changed the playing field?
(Label Dude responded) For this album we are doing a direct to consumer strategy as part of the option, so there will be special packages that the fans can buy where the band will be signing the booklets, and they’ll get an exclusive shirt. So we are employing a different, more direct to the fan relationship with this album, but we will be going through all the various retail outlets including iTunes.
Wes Scantlin: We did do a thing off of our previous record where we put a golden ticket in one of our records and this chick from… I don’t even know where she lived but her and a bunch of her friends got to come out in their own tour bus with us for a week. Although, I was the only one who would hang out with them the whole time. The rest of the guys in the band didn’t even like, talk to ‘em. [laughs]
Ryan Yerdon: We were debating doing that on this album, but not actually putting the golden ticket in
Wes Scantlin: Yea, and then no one will ever find it.
Ryan Yerdon: And then we were just going to give it to our guitar player Paul’s girlfriend so she can come out and be with us for a week.
Wes Scantlin: I was just going to say that I got it so I can get another tour bus for a week. [laughter]
What do you look for in an opening band?
Wes Scantlin: Alot of the time you want to have a couple of bands that are rolling with you that have got some heat, VH1, MTV, alot of radio airplay–stuff like that, and then ya know give some not so fortunate people. Ya know, cut one band some slack, the ones rolling in a van, slugging it out out there and give somebody else a chance to play in front of your crowd–the ones that don’t really have a deal or anything like that.
Ryan Yerdon: It’s the combination of a band that doesn’t have a deal, but your shit’s kinda cool so we’ll take you with us, and the other stuff is a band that will bring a few more people to the show.
Best place to play?
Wes Scantlin: Man, every city has their own little personality. I kinda like playing a smaller, b-market city, where you’re kinda rolling through a little town and you’re the party, showing up with an awesome show, and there’s nothing else going on in town. Everybody in the whole town is coming cause it’s the weekend–kids, families, picnic baskets, blankets, it’s like a day out for the family–everybody comes.
Ryan Yerdon: As long as the crowd is good and the energy is there then I don’t care if it’s in a club or an outdoors show or an indoor show. If people are excited to see us, that makes it a good show, and a favorite place to be.
Wes Scantlin: I like it when little kids show up and they’re like 8, 9, or ten years old, and it’s their first show and they’re having a blast, like the first blast of their life. Then you get to meet them later and give ‘em high fives and they’re totally in show and just loving it.
Ryan Yerdon: We bring kids on stage, Wes always invites the kids up on stage. We did a show a few weeks ago in Seattle, and this kid came up on stage and he stayed there for like 3 or 4 songs
Wes Scantlin: He was just kind of jamming dude. Most of the time they get up there and they’re like shocked, like “WOAAAAH!” This kid was just like let’s rock!
Ryan Yerdon: Yea this kid was up there for like 3 or 4 songs, dancing, making faces, so that made that a great show.
West Scantlin: It’s a good thing cause I was hammered that night, and I caught some shit for it.
Ryan Yerdon: No you weren’t.
West Scantlin: No… I wasn’t.
Do you party? What’s the wildest thing you’ve had happen
Ryan Yerdon: Well the craziest things we’ve had happen can’t really be shared. It’s like a band of brothers but…
Wes Scantlin: There was something that had to do with a banana getting inserted in a weird thing and actually exploding.
Ryan Yerdon: It wasn’t pretty.
Wes Scantlin: It was really weird man…. We’re pretty mellow right now, but you should have caught us back in the day when we were a bit crazier. Now it’s just mellow man. We just sit in the back of the bus and see who can drink the most beer till like 3 or 4 in the morning.
It doesn’t seem like you get too much of that partying anymore nowadays. Vegan/Straight-edge rock seems to be picking up momentum…
Wes Scantlin: There’s this thing in the record business now called the, “No Tolerance Clause” where they’ll just pull the plug on you if you get too fucked up. Which has happened to me. [laughs]
What was the best part about playing for the troops in Iraq?
Ryan Yerdon: I have to say the best thing is just seeing the faces of the soldiers after we got done playing. We do a meet and greet with everybody, and it seems like it was a really high percentage of the people that watched the show actually stay and came up to us and we signed things for them and they were so thankful. It all made sense in that moment looking at those guys saying, thank you guys for coming here, and we really need your support. Just hanging out with all those guys and playing for them–they made it worth it worth it when we got there. We kinda thought we were crazy to do it.
West Scantlin: I think the hardest thing about playing was seeing the young 18 year old soldiers who’ve had their arms or legs blown off, especially when they’re there with their family, or girlfriends or whatever, that’s definitely the hardest part about playing for the troops. They still have a good attitude about it, but it’s the saddest thing to have to see someone who’s just a kid that’s just blown to bits that’s still alive–who’s going to have to go and get prosthetics and shit. That’s the hardest thing about it. It just sucks to see that kind of shit.
What’s the most outrageous thing Puddle of Mudd has had their logo on?
Wes Scantlin: Yea we had condoms for awhile, and it was kinda strange cause my bass player Doug was embarrassed that I had made the condoms, and I’d just be throwing them out into the crowd, jokingly, and he took like 750 of them, and took them to his house and threw them away because he thought it was embarrassing to the band to have condoms. So he took them and threw them away. Yea, and I paid for them–so he’s basically throwing my shit down the drain.
…I like to go bare-back style.
Advice for guys getting started that are still playing local shows in one region?
Wes Scantlin: The only advice I can really throw out is practice your craft, and your writing ability. Don’t expect someone to come walking up to your front door with a record contract–ever. You gotta get out there and fight for it and get your music to the right people. Fortunately, we have the internet now, and we got the MySpace, the Youtubes, Facebook, so you can use that to your benefit, and uhhh… pray.
Get Puddle of Mudd music:
Puddle of Mudd Interview (mp3)
Puddle of Mudd have a new album out today (December 8th, 2009) called Volume 4: Songs in the Key of Love & Hate which you can purchase on iTunes.
More Puddle of Mudd
Behind the scenes to Puddle of Mudd’s music video to their first single, Spaceship. (Link opens in iTunes)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.1MB)
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About the Author
Tim is the co-owner of Assault, and tends to think he can party twice as hard as anyone. Follow him on twitter @assault Email this Author | All posts by tim
Thanks for the fun interview with POM! – Karen
The d/l link appears to not be working, can someone check it?
Karen:
DL Link works fine, try right clicking: save as
It’s a fairly large mp3 file.
Thanks, it might have been my computer. I rebooted when I got home and it d/l ok.
Sweet interview with POD! nice job.