Puddle of Mudd to Release Double Album, Possibly Working With Fred Durst
Puddle of Mudd were in Grand Rapids last night (Sunday) to play an awesome show at The Intersection. From parting ways with their major label to frequent member changes, the band has gone through a lot over the past several years. Frontman Wes Scantlin sat down with me backstage to talk about PoM's past, present and future, including the rekindling of his friendship with former mentor Fred Durst.
Puddle of Mudd were dropped from Geffen Records last year after less than expected sales of their 2009 album, Volume 4: Songs in the Key of Love & Hate. While a lot of bands would be understandably be upset, Scantlin knew it was strictly a business decision.
"Just like any other band, they [Geffen] let us go and let us slide on our heels," Scantlin says. "So now we just handle everything ourselves and it's pretty cool."
Puddle of Mudd now release their music through their manager's label, Arms Division. The vocalist says that the new found freedom is refreshing as they can control their own destiny. The days of re-recording tracks numerous times because a label head wasn't satisfied with the outcome are long gone.
"It's very nice to be able to make decisions that we feel are right and not have to re-record songs 4 or 5 times in a row, and shoot $500,000-$600,000 videos," Scantlin explains. "We know what we want when we write a song, record, then you mix it and that's it, you move on. You man up and go to the next tune."
Puddle of Mudd were originally scheduled to perform at The Intersection on November 20, but the departure of long-time guitarist Paul Phillips temporarily stopped the tour. Scantlin cited the usual "creative differences" angle for the reason that Phillips' second stint with the band ended.
"It was just an irreconcilable difference, you know," Scantlin says. "Sometimes that's the way it goes in bands. I don't really dislike him but it just wasn't working out artistically."
As for the future of Puddle of Mudd, expect an ambitious double album of acoustic and full studio songs sometime in the near future, possibly as early as next year.
Scantlin states: "We have been writing some really great songs and we're going into the studio very soon to record, I think, a double album. It's going to be one full acoustic record and one full heavy record. That should be pretty fun."
I know I was treading on dangerous territory when I brought up the subject of Fred Durst, who helped Scantlin break Puddle of Mudd into the industry 10 years ago. Their relationship started to deteriorate over the years but Durst reached out to his former protege through Twitter this past January. The two are now discussing the potential of working on another project.
"We've been talking about maybe possibly doing a short acoustic run, and that just popped up a couple days ago," reveals Scantlin. "When I get back to Los Angeles, we will figure out what we're going to do about that. If it seems like a good time I'll go ahead and do that. But if it cuts into any time when I could be recording new Puddle of Mudd material, I might skip it. I don't know, we'll see."
The whole interview can be viewed below. Puddle of Mudd are set to fly out to Kuwait and perform for the troops this holiday season, which I think is awesome!
Are you interested in seeing Puddle of Mudd reunite with Fred Durst? Tell us below.
More From 97.9 WGRD
