COLD's SCOOTER WARD: 'I'm Not Really Creative When Everything Is Going Okay'

The "Rock N Roll Beer Guy" podcast recently conducted an interview with COLD frontman Scooter Ward. You can listen to the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the release of "The Things We Can't Stop", COLD's first studio album in eight years:

Scooter: "Well, the record came out, of course — that's always a good thing, for a record to come out. We wanted it to be out before the tour and it made it out a couple of weeks before. We were all excited about that. We worked for a long time on it. Me, Nick [Coyle, guitar] and Lindsay [Manfredi, bass] had spent three or four years working on this record. When we got to rehearsal, we started working. Sam [McCandless, drums] ended up coming in right at the end, right before the tour started and it was nice. It was nice to have everybody back. It was a good feeling. It was kind of strange because we had only two and a half days to rehearse before the tour, which was stressful. It was kind of nuts. Sam, of course, had played the songs his entire life except for we were doing three songs off the new record. Those were the only ones he had to learn. Everything else was him refreshing himself on them. It kind of worked out. In the first show, we had a couple of little kinks. It happened, but that's with any tour. We used to tour and take a month off and tour again, like every time, the first couple of shows you have to figure out the little kinks that happen. Everything kind of sets in a few shows after and everything works and the shows have been amazing."

On whether he revisited his mindset from earlier COLD albums when writing "The Things We Can't Stop":

Scooter: "It's not really going back to that vibe with me. I've learned throughout my life that it's a series of ups and downs. That's what life is with me, at least. There's good times, bad times, and I think dealing with the bad times and making the best of those transforms you into the person you are. Getting through the hard times and acknowledging there's going to be good times eventually. They might not last too long, but there's always going to be things that happen. Throughout my life, still to this day, there's bad stuff that happens. I draw from that every time. I'm not really creative when everything is going okay. I think that I need the darkness and the pain to help me get creative."

On whether he could write music while he's happy:

Scooter: "I'd like to find that out one day, maybe, and see. Granted, we've had success. We haven't had major success as our brethren or our friends, but we make music for us and for our fans. It's really all it is. It's funny sometimes when people talk about money and things like that: 'Oh, they're just in it for the money.' Oh my god — are you out of your fucking mind? There's no money in this at all. This is what we do. We are lucky to pay our bills and get by and create music and be there. Yeah, man, I don't know… I think that what I was saying earlier and the thing you were saying with the bands that have become successful, it's the good times that maybe don't open you up to write successful songs or deep songs."

On COLD reemerging when the current state of the world appears to be "dark":

Scooter: "I think everybody definitely, it is so dark, I think people need outside things to help them cope a little bit and to get away from what is actually happening around them."

On the fact more people are speaking out about mental illness:

Scooter: "I still battle depression too. It definitely cripples me, though. I'm not about to go out. If I could, I would. On our 'Cold Army', I think it's Facebook still, we have a lot of fans that are opening up more now with talking about depression and suicide and things like that. I think that's good. I think it's a good thing because they didn't do that a few years ago, everybody was there in their own world and maybe one person would talk about and you'd have a few people backing them up, but the 'Cold Army' is a safe place for all those people to talk about things. They have friends, they end up calling each other, sending things to each other. That really helps a little bit. But I do agree: If you're able to get out of the house and get some sun on your face, it definitely helps."

On whether COLD's comeback is intended to be long-term:

Scooter: "We're back. I think the new tour reinstated that with us and we definitely are going to continue. I'm going to play until people don't come anymore. That's the gig. We were talking recently, I think '13 Ways [To Bleed Onstage]' anniversary, the 20-year anniversary is next February or something like that. We were thinking about doing an acoustic rendition of the album. We might start working on those kinds of things with the older records. I think that could be a really cool thing. Our fans have always loved our acoustic versions of those songs. They're transposed a little different and they sound a little cooler, I must say. I think they're nice. Yeah, I think we're going to start working on things like that."

"The Things We Can't Stop" was released in September via Napalm Records.