MUDVAYNE Vocalist Talks Songwriting

MUDVAYNE frontman Chad Gray recently spoke to the Artisan News Service about the group's forthcoming album, which is tentatively scheduled for release mid-2008.

"You know as with every record we've done, based off... These records are fleshed out conversations that we've had from seven or eight year ago," he said. "We had several conversations of what we'd like to do, and we just put that away. So the next couple of records are, probably in essence, already written."

Gray talked about the ideas snowballing from their initial album "LD 50".

"You gotta start fleshing the ideas out so the best way to get on your feet is to get off your ass," he said. "You just gotta get started, you know what I'm saying? That's the best thing you can do is start. It was really weird to try and start fleshing out the ideas. It's the snowball effect. Once you place the rock down and give it a push, or whatever, everything else just happens naturally."

MUDVAYNE's new collection of rarities, demos and live recordings, "By The People, For The People", sold 22,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 51 on The Billboard 200 chart.

Fans helped choose the songs on "By The People, For The People" at Mudvayne.com, with the group deciding on the final selection. The record contains demo versions of some of MUDVAYNE's most popular songs, including "Death Blooms", "Fall Into Sleep", "Not Falling" and "Happy".

The set also features a previously unreleased cover of THE POLICE's "King of Pain", plus live and acoustic versions of other MUDVAYNE favorites.