The New York Times recently proclaimed that "the nu-metal renaissance is upon us," and the fact that Mudvayne are thriving once again is proof enough to back that claim.
After a 11-year hiatus, the brbr deng deviants made their long-awaited return to the stage for three festival appearances in 2021, and then took the next step by embarking on their first tour in a whopping 13 years(!) last summer with Rob Zombie.
When we caught up with vocalist Chad Gray and drummer Matt McDonough in the late summer of 2022 (marking Mudvayne's first interview in over a decade), the pair were in high spirits about the band's reunion, the way they were performing, and the new music they were beginning to kick around behind the scenes.
But not long after that interview, the band took a hearty eight months off the road to regenerate and also continue tweaking what could end up being — if it ever sees the light of day — Mudvayne's first new music since their 2009 self-titled LP, a.k.a. the "White Album."
We still haven't heard the fruits of that labor, but Mudvayne have been road-dogging it again all summer on The Psychotherapy Sessions tour with their nu-metal brethren in the newly reunited Coal Chamber, as well as GWAR, Nonpoint and the Butcher Babies.
During a day off in Akron, Ohio, in early August, the talkative Gray and Mudvayne's less chatty — though equally excited — guitarist, Greg Tribbett, opened up about their current tour, the band's interpersonal dynamic, how they feel about being labeled "nu-metal" and, of course, that tantalizing new music.
HOW'S THE TOUR WITH COAL CHAMBER GOING?
CHAD GRAY It's fucking great. I mean, there's a shit ton of bands touring right now. So people only have so much money, and Mudvayne might not be the top of their heap… But honestly, the shows have been fucking great. Obviously, there're softer markets than others, but the good thing is that everybody's having a blast. If there was fucking 10 people there, man, they would be having a blast. There's more than 10 people, by the way, but everybody's just having fun, and it's good to see.
I've been saying it to them every night. Life gets its hooks in you, and you just work and toil to get food on the table, to fucking pay the car payment, to pay the mortgage, blah, blah, blah. You're just working, working, working, working, working. And through all that, you forget about yourself.
And people who are standing in front of me, they're being selfish. It's good to see. You know what I mean? I'm glad that they're being self-indulgent with our band and the package. It's good to see people taking care of their mental and emotional selves. I think that that's what metal does for people.
HOW DOES BEING BACK IN THE MUDVAYNE SADDLE FEEL FOR YOU, GREG?
GREG TRIBBETT Man, it feels great to be back on the road with this band. We're all getting along. That's what I'm most happy about. If we weren't getting along, it probably would not be happening.
HOW DOES THE CROWD REACTION OF THIS TOUR COMPARE TO THE ONE YOU DID LAST YEAR WITH ROB ZOMBIE?
GRAY Well, the Zombie tour, obviously there's a lot more fucking heads, but that was our legit first tour back in fucking over a decade, so that brought a lot of people. Zombie is no slouch, so he brought a lot of people. And so there were more people, but I mean, honestly, the people that are standing in front of us when we play [on this tour] are fucking Mudvayne fans.
It was great last year with Zombie, but right now we know that everybody that's standing in front of us is there for us, and that feels good. And that's part of the reason we didn't want to play the same setlist as we did with Zombie.
We're playing songs we've never played before. We're playing "Fish Out of Water." We've never played that, ever, in our career. We played "A New Game," which we've only played a couple times outside of this tour, and we just didn't really feel like it went over very well, honestly, because it's really fucking heavy. And it's going over great on this tour.
SINCE THIS TOUR DOUBLES AS COAL CHAMBER'S BIG REUNION RUN BACK, DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE COAL CHAMBER SONG?
GRAY "Loco," man. "Loco" is the shit. It's a cool song. I remember the first time I heard that song. I'm like, "That's awesome shit." "Loco" is awesome.
EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT NU-METAL BEING BACK. THE NEW YORK TIMES EVEN WROTE A WHOLE ARTICLE ABOUT IT. DO YOU GUYS CONSIDER MUDVAYNE TO BE A NU-METAL BAND?
GRAY I mean, I don't think we can deny it. We came up in the middle of all that shit. We do have a level of prog to us, and there were definitely some progressive elements. But I think that kind of stopped with the band, because what I brought to it was more... I felt like I had more of that nu-metally vocal [delivery]. [Greg] was into it, too. We were into nu-metal. Like, fucking Matt probably could give two shits, you know what I mean?
Obviously, Greg and I are inspired by the Metallicas, the Slayers, the Panteras of the world. But we were also very much inspired by Korn, like the first album by Korn. Also Deftones and early Machine Head. Greg and I were inspired by a lot of music that came to be known as nu-metal or whatever. And I feel like that's kind of what I brought to the table, those inspirations or whatever.
TRIBBETT I thought we were categorized as "math-metal" at first.
GRAY I think I actually coined that term. In an interview I called us math-metal, and it just stuck.
SO YOU'RE FINE WITH BEING CALLED A NU-METAL BAND, OR YOU'LL TAKE IT BUT YOU DON'T NECESSARILY LIKE IT?
GRAY I mean, I think there were nu-metal elements to us, because [Greg] didn't play leads. The fucking riff in "Death Blooms," "Nothing to Gein." Any of those early riffs, man, they're very nu-metal-forward, I think. But it basically stops there. It stops with the riff, and it stops with the vocals. Ryan is definitely doing his thing. Matt is definitely doing his thing. And they're not necessarily doing their things together.
LAST TIME WE TALKED, CHAD, YOU GUYS REVEALED THERE WAS SOME NEW MUSIC IN THE WORKS. HOW'S THAT COMING ALONG?
GRAY We're just working on a few ideas for new music. It's really not much different than where we were. I mean, obviously the songs have progressed or whatever, but at the end of day you've got to find out, what do I want out of this? What do you want out of this? What do you want out of this? You know what I mean? And hopefully [us Mudvayne members] all want the same things, you know what I mean?
TRIBBETT It's definitely a process.
GRAY It's always been a process for us. But I mean, we've got four tracks that are kind of just… you always have your better or worse ones or whatever, but there are a couple that are really exciting, and there's a lot to get excited about. We were kind of working on shit the beginning of the year, and we just realized at one point that there was just no fucking way we were going to be able to get anything set up and put out by the time this tour happened.
So it's like, you know what? Let's fucking table it. Clearly, it would be great to be out there supporting new songs. It'd be a lot of fun, but we just need to focus on tour right now. We just put it on jacks and just said, "Fuck it. We'll revisit it in the fall when we don't have anything looming over us." Because even when we were trying to work on them at the beginning of the year, this tour was sitting out there going, "Hey," and it's getting closer and closer and closer.
It just takes your mind off of what you're trying to do. It takes your mind off of the songwriting aspect. It was like, "No, we need to table this shit, and we'll work on it and we'll see what happens with it." Honestly, we'll see what happens with it. If it's something that's fucking great, we'll put it out. But there's a level of, do people want new music from us? You know what I mean? I don't know. If you know, let me know. But we don't know.
IT SEEMS LIKE PEOPLE WOULD, YEAH.
GRAY Yeah. We don't know, though. Are people satisfied with just coming out and watching us play catalog? Possibly. I mean, is the ground shaking for people fucking going, "We want new Mudvayne. We want new Mudvayne"? I don't know.
On my socials and shit like that, I see it. I see people, but those are my people, too. They're just my little group of people that I have.
YOU HAVE TO THINK, DO FANS WANT IT? AND THEN ALSO, DO YOU GUYS WANT IT? YOU'RE WORKING ON SOMETHING, SO IT SEEMS LIKE YOU GUYS DO WANT IT.
GRAY Yeah, but you have to make sure that you all want the same thing, and that's the key. I mean, what do you want to write? This is what I want to write. [We've] been successful for fucking the last two decades. I want to continue to be successful. That's where I'm at with it.
