Staind

Staind release their seventh studio album today, and the band recently sat down with longtime friend, WCCC/Hartford's Mike Karolyi, to discuss the self-titled released in a syndicated FMQB Productions radio special, Staind: The Whole Story.  In this program, Staind's Aaron Lewis, Mike Mushock and Johnny April provide the whole story as they discuss the dysfunction, tension and challenges that went into making this release and what's ahead now that the band has come out the other side. New songs from the album are featured along with the introspective and revealing conversation between Karolyi and the band. 

Guitarist Mushock was quite honest in his conversation, discussing recent issues surrounding the band, including the split from drummer Jon Wysocki. When asked about the future of the group following Wysocki's departure and the end of their deal with Atlantic Records, he said, "Obviously [Staind will] go out and promote the record and play some shows and we’ll have to see where things end up at the end of the day. I know I'll have songs and riffs, it’s a matter if we still want to do it. We set ourselves up in a situation where we could go record a song tomorrow. We have a studio and everything set up and don’t have to rely on anyone else at this point. It’s like working towards that free agent year, and we actually made it there. It would be nice to be a free agent and see where that takes us."

Karolyi also asked if Wysocki would still be in the band "if there wasn’t so much of a stressful environment in this recording process?" Mushock said, "It’s 16 years. There was really no question that it was the making of the record that brought things to a head. Being in a band is like being married to three other people... It's four people, and it's work to stay together. Look at the track record of most bands out there. Even bands who are super successful, there’s times where you lose somebody along the way. That was another piece of the pie. Part of the thing that was so stressful was figuring out how this was going to get handled and what was going to happen. A lot of that stress was watching it come unraveled too. And seeing it unravel right in front of your eyes and knowing that it was time for us to part ways."

Frontman Lewis also talked about the dangers of reading criticism online, saying, "I made the mistake of going on to Blabbermouth. There’s two postings on there of good things that I’m doing. Like the school, and I’m going over to Kuwait and I played for the troops. And they had nothing to say but bad things about that. There’s just people out there who have nothing better to do than sit at their computer and talk smack about everybody and anybody that they want to. How does it bring somebody pleasure in some way to do that? That’s why in the song I’m like, 'Why don’t you focus on your misery instead of me?'  You have to be pretty miserable to choose to take time out of your day to seek out places to comment and just lay into somebody for no reason whatsoever."

In other Staind news, their new documentary The Making Of Staind debuted today on YouTube. The documentary also reveals the tension and difficulties during the making of the new record. The one-hour film can be seen here.

You can hear the entirety of Staind: The Whole Story, featuring tracks from the new record, below:

Staind: The Whole Story radio special, Hosted by Mike Karolyi by FMQB Productions