MIKE MUSHOK Is 'Really, Really Excited' About STAIND's Upcoming Ninth Studio Album

In a new interview with Donny Fandango of the St. Louis radio station 105.7 The Point, STAIND guitarist Mike Mushok was asked if fans can expect to see the band's ninth studio album anytime soon. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, it's done. Yeah. I have to redo… I just have my demo guitars and bass on there, so that's... We finish [making a couple of festival appearances], so I get home for a week, and the week after we're going in the studio. I'm gonna finish my guitars, bass, then it'll be mixed. But it probably won't be out till next year, I don't think."

Asked if it's true that he was nervous about going back to the studio with STAIND for the band's first effort in twelve years, "Confessions Of The Fallen", which came out in September 2023 via Alchemy Recordings/BMG, Mike said: "Originally, yeah. We hadn't written together in, like, 10 years, you know what I mean? So there was a little bit of anxiety. And listen, there's always that when you go to make a record anyways, because — I don't know — I mean, it's an important thing. How many times do you get to do it? Not a lot. So we're very fortunate that this is our ninth [album]. But yes, there was [some anxiety] that first time [in the studio after a hiatus]."

Mike continued: "We kind of developed a way of doing ['Confessions Of The Fallen'] that we did on this [upcoming] one, so there really wasn't as much anxiety that went along with it. And it actually went pretty smoothly, really well, and I'm really, really excited about it."

STAIND's first new LP since 2011, "Confessions Of The Fallen" was produced by Erik Ron (GODSMACK, PANIC! AT THE DISCO, BLACK VEIL BRIDES).

Last September, Mike was asked by Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio if he thought STAIND's future efforts would follow a similar experimental path as "Confessions Of The Fallen", featuring the "electronic element" which was incorporated into the latest LP. He responded at the time: "I do think that that's gonna happen. Yeah, definitely. In fact, there's some new music kicking around, and it's definitely still kind of following that same vein a bit. So, I'm real excited about that as well. So, yeah, I definitely think that we'll continue down that path, for sure."

Back in December 2023, Mushok told Germany's Riot Vision about the electronic element on "Confessions Of The Fallen": "Well, that was something that [STAIND frontman] Aaron [Lewis] really wanted to explore. We had talked about it before, but we'd never really done it. So he really wanted to make that a part of what we were doing. And it was funny, 'cause I do remember saying to him, like, 'I play guitar. I don't know how to do that.' So that's where I feel like Erik played a really big part in helping make that a part of what this album sounds like. Some of those verses where you hear [and] it's like more electronic[-sounding], that's a guitar part I wrote just played on a synthesizer, [using] some crazy sound. So he was able to take some of those things that I wrote and adapt it to kind of bring in some of those elements into the music. And I think he did a great job. I like it. I'm pretty happy with it."

Asked what new musical elements he would like to explore on future STAIND albums, Mike said: "I don't know. To me, it's just really about trying to write great songs. It's really just kind of trying to take what we do and make it better. And I don't really have any kind of guidelines. If it calls for more electronics or — I don't know — a guitar solo or whatever the case may be, whatever really the song calls for, I think that that's what the best thing to explore is. But I was very happy with the process of making this record and how it came out. Some records have been really difficult to make. This one wasn't one of those. The way we did it, it took us a while, but we got there. And by the end of the day, once we got there, I was really happy with the end results."

When "Confessions Of The Fallen" was announced in April 2023, Lewis stated about the LP's musical direction: "I did want to modernize the sound and bring us up to date. You can certainly recognize the band but at the same time you can hear that we've been paying attention and understand what kind of sounds and approaches we can use that maybe weren't around the last time we did this."

STAIND has released eight albums since 1995, including 2011's self-titled effort. The band has had a number of hit songs during its first two decades, including the Top 10 smash "It's Been Awhile" from the No. 1 album "Break The Cycle". Follow-up LPs "14 Shades Of Grey" and "Chapter V" also topped the Billboard chart.

STAIND released its first album in nine years, "Live: It's Been Awhile", in May 2021 via Yap'em/Alchemy Recordings. The "Live: It's Been Awhile" album was accompanied by "The Return Of Staind", a two-part global streaming series in partnership with Danny Wimmer Presents.

This past February, STAIND announced the "Break The Cycle 25th Anniversary Tour", celebrating the groundbreaking album that cemented the band's place in rock history. The 25-date trek will feature SEETHER as direct support, with special guests HOOBASTANK and HINDER as openers, bringing together four defining forces of modern rock for one massive run this fall.

Produced by Live Nation, the "Break The Cycle 25th Anniversary Tour" will kick off in September and make stops across major amphitheaters and arenas in the U.S. and Canada, concluding in Dallas, Texas.

Formed in 1995 STAIND recorded and released eight studio albums, with their most notable being in 2001 with "Break The Cycle", an RIAA-certified-five-times-platinum album that produced a top-five Billboard Hot 100 with their massive hit "It's Been Awhile". The single was one of the most played songs in modern rock radio history spending 20 weeks at number 1. Several of their other hits also topped the Billboard 200, including "Fade", "For You", "Prince to Pay", "So Far Away" and "Right Here". In 2019, after a five-year hiatus, STAIND reunited for unforgettable festival performances and a hometown reunion show that was recorded for the album "Live: It's Been Awhile". The band has been called one of the defining bands of the post-grunge movement, securing awards, including Billboard Music Awards the MTV Video Music Awards, among others.

"Confessions Of The Fallen" reached #1 on Billboard's Active Rock Album chart. The debut single from the album, "Lowest In Me", and the second single, "Here And Now", both reached No. 1 on the Active Rock Chart. One year later in September 2024, STAIND digitally released "Confessions Of The Fallen (Deluxe)" that contained three additional songs, including "Better Days Feat. Dorothy", a radio version of the album track, and "Full Of Emptiness".

Press photo credit: Steve Thrasher