MUDVAYNE's CHAD GRAY: 'I've Been Using Music To Flush My Trauma For Years'

In an interview with 93X's Kevin Kellam, MUDVAYNE frontman Chad Gray spoke about the band's first two new singles in 16 years, "Hurt People Hurt People" and "Sticks And Stones", which were made available via Alchemy Recordings. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I was just to the point where we're, like, 'We have to release new music. This is crazy. We've been back for four years. We've got to release some new music.' I put an exclamation point on it: 'We have to release new music!'"

He continued: "'Sticks [And Stones]', it's a great track, but we're MUDVAYNE, and we're a heavy band, and we've always been a heavy band. And then we're a deep band, and we have written the 'Happy?'s and the 'Not Falling's and the 'World So Cold's and stuff like that, those deeper, easier tracks. And I was just, like, 'If we're gonna release new music, we have to come back and put the exclamation point on the end of MUDVAYNE. We are MUDVAYNE, here we are, and sock people in the mouth with it. Leading with 'Sticks And Stones' wouldn't have the same impact. 'Hurt People Hurt People' is very much, 'Hi. We're back.' And then you go to the next one, the next one down the line. I think it makes them both more powerful. I don't think 'Hurt People' would have been as well received as it was if it would've came after 'Sticks'."

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for "Sticks And Stones". Gray said: "There's a lot of different things, whether it's… We talk about how we were taught our whole life, 'Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.' And it's, like, no, they do. There's a lot of references in it. I was a child that was used as a weapon. You see that a lot in the world that we live in today. Divorced parents, or whatever, treat their kids like bullets, just to fire [at] one another, and they don't even take into consideration the child. And it's just, like, words are powerful. [And it's] maybe just my — just kind of another one of those 'break the cycle' kind of things. Recognize what you're doing with your words, 'cause words do hurt. You see it all the time in social media, people being bullied and attacked and stuff by just people writing something. It affects people deeply. And we just have to understand. And to the power of family, it's just, like, the line 'blood doesn't wash out, it stains.' It's the truth, man. It's hard to get out from under family trauma, 'cause it comes from people that you love very much generally, and we've gotta be careful about the kind of we trauma that we inflict on people. So I think that's some of the backbone of it."

Chad went on to say that the songwriting process has always been a cathartic experience for him. "I've been using music to flush my trauma for years," he noted. "I thought that it was gonna be a way for me to exorcise my demons, and then one thing I didn't think about it, 'cause I was novice and new and didn't know any better, it's, like, 'Oh, okay, now you get to play these songs every single night.' … What sucks is, anytime that I play a song, I don't go back to the time that I penned the song. What I go back to is the time that created it, for me to pen the song. So I literally go back to the action, not go back to when I wrote it. I go back to the time that inspired me to write it."

On September 11, MUDVAYNE launched the "L.D. 50" 25th-anniversary headline tour, which will run through October 26. "L.D. 50" was the band's debut studio album, arriving in August 2000 via Epic, and established the band as a new yet major player in the hard rock scene. It eventually went on to achieve a gold certification. Years after its release, both Revolver and Metal Hammer deemed the album an essential of the '00s metal class, rightfully so. The tour will feature support from STATIC-X, while VENDED will open.

"Hurt People Hurt People", which was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (RUSH, KORN, ALICE IN CHAINS, DEFTONES, FOO FIGHTERS, EVANESCENCE) and mixed by Josh Wilbur (KORN, MEGADETH, GOJIRA, TRIVIUM),marked MUDVAYNE's first new release through Alchemy Recordings, a record label created in partnership between Dino Paredes, former American Recordings vice president of A&R, and Danny Wimmer, the founder of Danny Wimmer Presents, the premier production company for rock music festivals in the United States. Other Alchemy artists include STAIND and CHEVELLE.

MUDVAYNE consists of Chad Gray (vocals),Greg Tribbett (guitar),Ryan Martinie (drums) and Matthew McDonough (drums).

When "Sticks And Stones" was first released earlier this month, Gray said in a statement: "I was always told 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.' Well, it's a great nursery rhyme, but I couldn't disagree more. I've carried a lot of words throughout my life as if they were just spoken to me. The reality is — they do hurt. I've tried my best to shed them, but when they come from dear friends, family — people that are supposed to love you — the words have teeth and they won't let go. Blood doesn't wash out; iit stains. I think I'm just trying to remind people to love their children. Don't use them as a bullet to fire into your ex or whomever you're with now. They're innocent and they are impressionable. And trust me, as a child, that was used as a weapon, your words will hurt them...long after you say them."

Prior to the arrival of "Hurt People Hurt People", the reunited metallers hadn't put out any new material since 2009, which means more than a decade and a half had gone by without a single fresh MUDVAYNE song.

MUDVAYNE formed in 1996 and has sold over six million records worldwide, earning gold certification for three albums ("L.D. 50", "The End Of All Things To Come", "Lost And Found"). The band is known for its sonic experimentation, innovative album art, face and body paint, masks and uniforms.

Gray spent 15 years fronting HELLYEAH, which released its sixth studio album, "Welcome Home", in September 2019 via Eleven Seven Music. The disc marked the group's final effort with drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who passed away seven years ago.

MUDVAYNE did not tour behind its fifth album, which was barely promoted and sold weakly upon release.

Released in 2000 via Epic, "L.D. 50" produced three singles — Dig", "Death Blooms" and "Nothing To Gein". "L.D. 50" peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and No. 85 on the Billboard 200. It was certified gold by the RIAA for shipment in excess of half a million copies in the U.S. alone.

MUDVAYNE completed its first headlining tour in over 14 years, "The Psychotherapy Sessions", in the summer of 2023. Support on the 26-city trek, which was produced by Live Nation, came from COAL CHAMBER, along with GWAR, NONPOINT and BUTCHER BABIES.

Previously, MUDVAYNE made waves in 2022 when they embarked on the "Freaks On Parade" tour co-headlined with ROB ZOMBIE. The 2023 tour, however, marked MUDVAYNE's first headlining endeavor since 2009.

Gray told The Oakland Press that his "main motivation for putting [MUDVAYNE] back together and coming back was our fans", including those who discovered the band during its absence. "There's so many younger kids that are coming up and coming into our world, the metal world, and they're learning about MUDVAYNE," he said. "So you have this, like, the ground's kind of rumbling and it goes out and touches more and more people, but we weren't out there to scratch that itch. You still have your actual fan base but you're accumulating new people. So when we came back it was very exciting for us. It was about our fans and giving those new fans the experience."

Image credit: FrontRowPass