Staind: Just Going For Dysfunction

By Therese McKeon

When I knew that I'd be interviewing Mike Mushok, the guitarist for Staind,I felt like I'd be having a chat with an old friend from the neighborhood. Yousee, I had met Mike already after their show at the Bowery Ballroom inNYC on March 24th. He came down to the bar afterwards - still all sweatyand smiling from a great performance. Somehow, from his on stagepresence, I got the impression that he was going to be mean. Did you evermeet someone like that? Someone who just looked like they were going tobe mean to you and then you met them and you realized that you were OHSO wrong?! Well, Mike was one of those people. Don't get me wrong. Helooks like a decent person (even *if* his shirt was sticking to him somethingfierce). I guess I just have that scary feeling about guys in "heavy rock"bands who play fast and angry. Mike changed me that night. I'm not scaredof guys in metal/heavy rock bands anymore. That's because I soondiscovered that Mike is always smiling and he's one of the most outgoingand friendly faces I've met in a very long time.

Earlier that night I prepared myself for the show like I would for any bandthat is described as close to "metal" - I pack up the earplugs. The earplugsare because I expect a lot of NOISE, not music. Oh, and incidentally a lotof YELLING, not singing. Like Mike would later on, Stain'd changed allthat for me that night. They gave me new interest in "heavy rock" musicagain - WOO-HOO! (Watch out world!) How could this happen, you ask?Well, I'm here to tell you.

With lyrics like "save me from myself", "I hate myself", "Shut up!", "I wish Iknew just what that meant", and talk of "all the promises", I was sure thatseeing Staind perform live was going to be a witness to utter confusion, pain,and disillusionment. I was sure that I wasn't going to be able to make out asingle word that Aaron Lewis would be yelling. I was wrong. Instead ofpure noise, these songs seemed to have a rhythm and a direction and apurpose. These songs were clever and soul searching. Aaron Lewis is asinger who - get this - can actually *sing* with a powerful voice that reallymoves you. Photographing the band meant that I was right up in Aaron'sface a good portion of the time. Let me tell you. This boy is suffering whenhe is on stage! It's not that angry "I want to beat somebody up" type ofanger. It's that "why have you done this to me" type of angst that makes youfeel what he's feeling. Aaron took me on his journey of "purging" all that iswrong in the world and in the end I actually felt better.

I interviewed Mike Mushok (guitar) via telephone while Staind was on tourwith Kid Rock in the lovely state of Florida.

JNBC: How are you doing?

Mike: Sorry about that night. I never got back to you! I went out to thetour bus and when I got back I couldn't find you again.

JNBC: Yeah, I went looking for someone. I have to tell you that you're oneof the most pleasant rock stars I've ever met.

Mike: Oh, I hate that term. You actually have to sell a record to beconsidered a rock star. We haven't sold one yet.

JNBC: Well, you'd better get used to it!

Mike: I hope so!

JNBC: First of all, you have a new album coming out called "Dysfunction".Is it spelled with a "y"?

Mike: Yes. There was some confusion to start with but yes, it is spelledwith a "y".

JNBC: How did you come up with the title?

Mike: We got a phone call from Elektra saying, "We need a title by twoo'clock today." <laughter>

JNBC: <laughter>

Mike: So they wanted a title so we sat around... actually that was theoriginal title of a song on the record called "Me". It used to be called"Dysfunction". So we kind of felt it went with what he was talking about andwhat he's feeling - that everything he's dealing with in that song. We felt itwas the appropriate title for the record.

JNBC: That song "Me" really blows me away.

Mike: Oh, thank you!

JNBC: Is that going to be a single?

Mike: I don't know.

JNBC: That's very powerful. I mean, first of all, Aaron has got a fantasticvoice.

Mike: Yes, he does.

JNBC: You really don't find that.

Mike: No.

JNBC: Especially in this genre. In fact I went on the Internet and looked youguys up and the genres that it came up with were "alternative" and "metal".<laughter>

Mike: <laughter> Well, there you go! Okay!

JNBC: How do you classify yourself?

Mike: I say it's heavy music with melody.

JNBC: Hmm…

Mike: You know, I think the music itself is very heavy. I just like to thinkthat we're a band that is musical - that we're writing musical songs.Obviously, it is heavy. It's intense while still trying to maintain a nice melody.

JNBC: Most of the songs on the album seem to be very purging. They'revery purging emotionally. Is that coming from Aaron?

Mike: Yes, that is. Aaron writes all the lyrics. I think you picked a wordthat he would use himself. I think you hit the nail right on the head when yousay that. The lyrics do really deal with the things he's had to go through. Oursongs have really been a way for him to be able get those emotions he's hadto deal with out. That's exactly what it is. That's his stance for a lot of theanger that he's tried to keep inside.

JNBC: Right. So, what kind of an accent is that that I am hearing?

Mike: I don't know! <laughter> I'm from New England. I don't think I haveone but I don't know!

JNBC: You have that… "abowt" - it sounds almost Canadian. <laughter> Iguess it could be New England.

Mike: Well, Western Massachussetts so... I don't "pock tha cah" (that's"park the car" in Mike's best Boston accent). I'm not from Boston. I do like"chadder" though ("chowder" again in Mike Boston imitation). <laughter>

JNBC: <laughter> Do you have any favorites on this album?

Mike: My favorites on the record? I'll answer that question. Let me just doit in my own roundabout way? <laughter>

JNBC: Sure. <laughter>

Mike: I really like every song on the record. I really think that from top tobottom and song to song. And the thing is, you know, we had a lot of othertunes and I think that with the songs you get on this record you're gettingwhat's the best of the songs even though we recorded a couple other songs.We had a lot of material and we were working on it. But it was just thatthese songs we all felt were our strongest - the ones that needed to comeout on our first record. Hopefully, I'm sure at some point we'll eithercontinue working on some of the other ones or trash them and moveforward. "Just Go" really is probably one of my most favorites songs on thenew record. I love "Me". I really love "Mudshovel". There's parts of"Crawl". I mean, I like them all! I'd say "Just Go" and "Me" are my favoritesright now. I haven't listened to the record probably in about six monthseither! <laughter>

JNBC: Really?

Mike: Yeah! <laughter>

JNBC: I guess when you're playing it every night you don't have to listen toit!

Mike: Well, sometimes it's good to go back. Actually, I shouldn't say that. Ithink somebody threw it out on the bus to play somebody a song the otherday and I kind of walked through it. But it wasn't like this conscious effort. Imight be exaggerating. <laughter> It might be only 3 or 4 months but it'sbeen a while.

JNBC: Do you not like listening to your own recorded stuff already?

Mike: No, that's not the case at all. Just, like you said, I'm playing it everynight and you have to keep it fresh emotionally from night to night. In fact, Ilove listening to it. Now that I say that, it might be a good time to give it alisten because when I first got it, I listened to it all the time!

JNBC: Yeah.

Mike: I think that was one of my things. Even when I was younger, I wouldalways go, "I can't wait to get in the car and put on *my* CD!" You knowwhat I mean?! <laughter>

JNBC: Yeah! <laughter>

Mike: You know? I thought, "It would be kinda cool!"

JNBC: How long has it been since then? You guys have been together since'95?

Mike: Yeah, with this bass player we've been together since he joined inNovember of '95. We had another bass player before that. So, just under ayear. How long has it been for what?

JNBC: How long has it been - you said it's a long time that you've beenwaiting to put your own CD in?

Mike: Oh! <laughter> I'm talking when I was like… younger. I mean, Iused to do a lot of recording back then and I had all my mix cassette tapes.

JNBC: So what were your favorites growing up?

Mike: Gosh, a lot of things! When I was young, young, young, I used tolisten to - I think everybody listened to - because you don't know anythingbetter. But I really enjoyed it. I used to listen to James Taylor, HarryChapin, Jim Croce, old stuff.

JNBC: Great stuff!

Mike: I still enjoy that when I am in a certain mood. Tben I was into a lot ofVan Halen, Led Zeppelin. I'm a guitar player so I was into the whole guitarplayer thing. I'd practice to all kind of stuff. At any rate, this band startedright after college.

JNBC: How did you meet?

Mike: Joh, the drummer, and I were hanging out for a little while, like Isaid, towards the end of college through mutual friends and we had talkedabout it. There's actually an interesting story about how I met Aaron. I methim on Christmas of '93, Christmas Day actually. There was a party. Myfriend has an annual Christmas party and Aaron was there and through afriend of a friend they introduced him as the singer. And I can't tell you howmany people I've hung out with at parties who've said they were singers!You know they never are! <laughter> But Aaron, as you can tell, actually isa singer but I didn't know it at the time.

JNBC: How funny! <laughter>

Mike: So we exchanged "number" and I say that because Aaron didn'thave one. He called me about three days later. Well, the party endedabruptly and I have to throw this twist in. The host, who is really a goodfriend of mine, had just had his hardwood floors done and someone hadknocked over a bunch of candles and there was wax all over the floors.Something inside of him snapped and he went on a rampage and startingthrowing everybody out of the house. He went downstairs and it turns outthat he just grabbed Aaron and threw him and Aaron's head went threw thewall. <laughter>

JNBC: Poor Aaron! <laughter>

Mike: It's like I said. The party ended kind of abruptly! I actually ended upbeing roommates with him about ten months later. Everything has obviouslysince worked out.

JNBC: You were roommates with Aaron or the guy that went on arampage?

Mike: No, it was the guy who went on the rampage! He's actually a realnice guy. So Aaron called me like three days later and then I didn't hearfrom him for TEN months! He was supposed to call me again and he neverdid. He had gone to Atlanta for school for like ten months and when hecame back he saw the girl who was actually dating the host of that party!And he said, "What's Mike doing?" So he called me and we got together. Iwas talking to Jon at the time and Aaron knew a bass player, like I said,who has since left the band. And that was the deal.

JNBC: I wanted to ask you some details about some of the songs. With"Mudshovel" there's a bunch of groovy effects happening there.

Mike: Actually, there isn't. That's all done on the guitar. It's just a harmonicthing on guitar.

JNBC: What about on "Crawl"?

Mike: Again, not effects. In fact, I thought I heard a tiny version of it in aPantera song. It has a type of similar noise. But he does it I think with awhammy pedal. The way that I ended up doing it was I was just practicingone day and I thought about this string between the two pick-ups. Andthat's what gets that "Wooo!" and I pulled that off and do differentharmonics on the left hand. So it's just kind of taking the middle finger of myright hand and I push down the string as hard as I can - the top - the lowstring and it frets out in between the two pick-ups and just makes somefunky noises. So that's what that is.

JNBC: Wow! COOL!

Mike: Yeah.

JNBC: What can you tell me about "Spleen" with those lyrics "Shut up!"

Mike: Oh, again, that's a lyrical thing. I don't know. I think, my guess, and Idon't even know… this is going out on a limb... but Aaron, I guess he feltthe need to express himself but I don't have a better answer than that! Iremember where I wrote that song though. I came up with that riff at asoundcheck at a club we were playing and I said, "Man, I need toremember this." I do remember that!

JNBC: Where were you?

Mike: Yeah, it was a club in Springfield, Mass.

JNBC: How many years ago was that?

Mike: Oh, not many. All the songs on this record are relatively new.Although, what is it - '99? It might have been the end of '97. All the songsare ones we put on the record in 1996.

JNBC: Was that the three song release?

Mike: No, it was a full length independent record we put out ourselves.

JNBC: What was it called?

Mike: "Tormented"

JNBC: Hmm…

Mike: Are you sensing a theme here? <laughter>

JNBC: <laughter> Was "Black Rain" on that one?

Mike: No.

JNBC: What are the differences in the two albums? Are those all oldersongs?

Mike: We had only been together… I think we put together that record inabout six to eight months. We had just gotten a new bass player at the endof '95. Okay, I was thinking about this… I'll give you my "Night BeforeThanksgiving Deal With Stain'd". <laughter>

JNBC: Okay! <laughter>

Mike: It seems to play a very important role with this band. Okay, in '95,the night before Thanksgiving was the night that we got rid of our old bassplayer and Johnny April got into the band. The night before Thanksgiving of'96 was the night that we put out our first independent CD, full length. Thenight before Thanksgiving in '97 is the night that Fred Durst heard our newdemo tape. We recorded like a four song demo. It was right after we metFred and he called me at 2:30 in the morning saying that he was going togive us a record deal. The night before Thanksgiving in '98 was the night weplayed Limp Bizkit's record party.

JNBC: Whoa! And there was a full moon last night and today is April 1st!

Mike: It is, isn't it? I lose track of time.

JNBC: That is a cool story!

Mike: Yeah, I'm waiting to see what's going to happen this year. I mean, ifnothing looks like it's going to happen, we gotta make something coolhappen! <laughter>

JNBC: <laughter>

Mike: Drive the bus off a cliff or something.

JNBC: Oh, no. Don't even say that!

Mike: I know. But I mean, if it looks like it's going to be a normal nightbefore Thanksgiving then we gotta make something happen so we can keepthe tradition.

JNBC: Tell me about "Bring The Noise".

Mike: The first thing I can tell you is we're taking it off the record.

JNBC: You're taking it off the final record to be released?

Mike: Yeah, it's not going to be released on this record.

JNBC: Oh! Because it definitely does not fit in with the rest.

Mike: That's exactly it.

JNBC: It's a cool song though!

Mike: Thank you. You see, that was the whole thing. Everybody liked theway it came out. And we were with Fred probably about a month or so agodoing our video and we were sitting around and just talking about it.Everybody kind of had the same feeling that it was kind of different. So wewere thinking maybe it might be nice if we had it on a soundtrack orsomething. Yeah, so it's not going to be on "Dysfunction".

JNBC: So how many tracks?

Mike: Nine tracks on this CD. Plus a hidden track.

JNBC: Anything you can tell me about the hidden song?

Mike: It's a song that Aaron wrote in Seattle and basically it's just him withone microphone in the hallway playing acoustic.

JNBC: And it's not "Black Rain".

Mike: Nope, it's not "Black Rain".

JNBC: Okay. So, you're on tour with Kid Rock. How is that going?

Mike: Awesome. The response that we're getting… I mean, every night it'sbeen great.

JNBC: Any good tour stories?

Mike: You know, the thing is there probably is but I am so busy that I don'teven know what they are! I get up in the morning and do my stuff and go tobed. Here's one thing though. I don't know how good it is. Aaron dislocatedhis finger like the second show. He was performing and doing his thing andhe came down with his hand and caught his hand on his pant leg, his lefthand, and his third finger turned and he felt it pop. At the end of the night -he's married and it was his wedding ring finger - and he was like, "It'sstarting to swell." I'm like, "You better try to get that ring off because if thatthing blows up..." Needless to say about a day and a half later he had tohave his wedding ring cut off because his finger was HUGE!

JNBC: Ah, ouch!

Mike: They took it to a jeweler and they put it back together and did areally good job. Actually our business manager got the whole thing takencare of.

JNBC: So how long does this Kid Rock tour go for?

Mike: Till the beginning of May. The last official date with Kid Rock is likeApril 29th I think. Then we're doing some of the same radio shows. Afterthat I think we actually get to home for a while before it all starts up again.Then we go out in the middle of May and do a whole bunch of radio showsagain. The Limp Bizkit tour starts June 3rd. I think they're record hits inJune.

JNBC: So you're opening for Limp Bizkit?

Mike: Yeah.

JNBC: Are you looking forward to that?

Mike: Oh yeah! It's going to be insane. We've toured with those guysbefore and they're all just a bunch of really, really great people.

JNBC: I heard you're playing NYC KROCK's "Low Dough" show.

Mike: Yes, April 19th. We're looking forward to that. The record will evenbe out by then!

JNBC: Yeah!

Mike: It's crazy! I mean, there is just so much that's been going on it seemswithout the record even being released. That's why I say we actually have tosell the record before you can consider us that term that I hate! <laughter>

JNBC: What would you *like* to be called?

Mike: A person that makes a living playing his own music. <laughter>

JNBC: <laughter>

Mike: <laughter> You know, that was my goal. I thought of that when Iwas younger. I just want to write my own music and if everybody else canenjoy it then that's awesome.

JNBC: Is there a video for "Just Go"?

Mike: Yes, I think M2 is playing it. Obviously, we're trying to get it onMTV but we'll have to wait and see what happens. We need to get therecord out first.

JNBC: So what can you tell me about the video?

Mike: Uh… it rocks? <laughter>

JNBC: Does it have a theme? Are there live shots?

Mike: It has both. It's a cross between a performance video and like afantasy or the story of a girl who is just having a really hard time. And it justcuts between her having a difficult time and the band playing.

JNBC: Cool.

Mike: Yeah, it came out really great. Fred Durst directed it and he did agreat job.

JNBC: Oh, wow, is that his first directing job?

Mike: No, he directed the "Faith" video (Limp Bizkit). He's co-directedsome other videos too.

JNBC: What kind of gear do you play?

Mike: Myself, I play Marshall amps. There's actually a company calledRimera that has something I'm going to be checking out. Just because we'reon the road now, and I just don't want to try and break it in on the road.They make a sub-woofer for the guitar. But it actually plays through the mic.I'm looking to incorporate that also and so forth. It's probably going to be atrehearsal before the next tour. But right now it's Marshall amps. I have twoguitars. I have a Novax Baritone guitar. That is something that treats me realwell. And I have an old Ibanez Artist that I play. Plus I have Les Pauls but Ipretty much stick to the Novax and Ibanez. The drummer plays OrangeCounty drums. The bass player plays Ampeg amps and an Ibanez five stringbass.

JNBC: You guys have been touring for a while now. Do you have anyfavorite cities or venues so far?

Mike: I tell you what, last night rocked. Last night we played at the Houseof Blues in Orlando.

JNBC: I'll tell *you* what. I was at the March 24th show at the BoweryBallroom as you know. You are one hard band member to get standing still.You move so fast, you are very hard to photograph. What do you think ofyour live show?

Mike: Well, you try to play the same show even if there are only a fewpeople there. We've had that in the past. I'd like to think we have a goodlive performance. We try to get all that emotion that we tried to capture onthe record.

JNBC: Does that hard road life help you keep the emotions raw?

Mike: I can't say it's a hard life. I have no complaints. We thought we'd bedriving each other nuts by now but there's not much to talk about. There'sno question that it's tiring and it wears you down. But at least it's notpunching a time clock, you know what I mean?

JNBC: I know what you mean!

JNBC: One last question. Can I ask about Aaron's tattoo? He has thistattoo up his arm. As I was photoing him I noticed that it looks like it'shalfway done.

Mike: It's something that somebody started back home and never finished. Then Fred, he's a tattoo artist amongst everything else! <laughter> So Fred, one day he spent about an hour filling it in and eventually when we get tospend some time again he'll finish it and he'll be able to do more work on Aaron.

JNBC: So it's a work in progress! <laughter>

Mike: Yeah. Pretty much. It's somebody else work and Fred doesn't even really want to finish but he is because it's not done. It's really not Fred's tattoo because he's just filling it in for a different artist.

JNBC: I have a great idea. You guys will have to do "Reports From The Road". "So tell us… How is Aaron's tattoo coming along?" <laughter>

Mike: <laughter> Maybe with the Limp Bizkit tour we can do that.

JNBC: Sounds good. Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you. Any last words?

Mike: Help support the band and come to the shows. Oh, and buy the album "Dysfunction" when it comes out!

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