Wes Scantlin and Puddle of Mudd started making their new “Volume 4: Songs in the Key of Love & Hate” with a desire to work quickly.
“It’s not the easiest thing to do to go in and record a whole record, you know?” says Scantlin, 37, who founded Puddle of Mudd in 1992 in his native Kansas City, Mo. “The ‘Life on Display’ record (in 2003), man, that took forever.
“So we just wanted to go in there and get it done instead of pussyfooting around all the time. At one point or another you have to openly man up and just go, ‘Hey man, that’s it. That’s the song. That’s the melody. That’s the way it goes,’ and hopefully, you nailed it. But you can’t sit there and try to make it perfect. You can only polish (it) so much, right?”
Puddle of Mudd shined things up this time with four producers working between Vancouver and Los Angeles. The raucous first single, “Spaceship,” made its way to No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and has, according to Scantlin, been around for possibly more than three years.
“I think we were on tour with Nickelback; I think I showed it to Chad Kroeger, too,” Scantlin recalls. “It was like a lot of our songs. Some people didn’t think ‘Psycho’ was ever going to make a record. ‘She Hates Me’ wasn’t going to be on the first record, and ‘Blurry’...
“People laugh at these songs in their infancy, and you go, ‘No, this song is a hit, man. Are you crazy?’ People didn’t really like ‘Spaceship,’ either. Then, all of a sudden when we got it done, they’re like, ‘That thing’s awesome!’ And then I’m like, ‘Yeah? You hated it three years ago, but now you like it. Whatever ...’ ”
Puddle of Mudd performs with Shinedown, Skillet and Like a Storm at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (Feb. 5-6) at the Fillmore Detroit, 2115 Woodward Ave. Tonight’s show is sold out; some tickets, priced $29.50, remain for Saturday. Call 313- 961-5451 or visit www.livenation.com.
Web Site:
www.livenation.com
