Jeffery Nothing: It’s great; the crowds have been really responsive with the new songs.
RM: Savior Sorrow, from a fan point of view, is completely epic! What influenced the band to create such an album?
JN: State of the world today; it’s more or less a calling to get our act together. I have a six year old daughter and I’d like her to be able to breath without a gas mask. The humanity of man is on the upswing. Shit like that. Every level needs to get it together and settle arguments. Just settle them and stop shooting at each other, the wars going on too long, turning into another Vietnam again. I just read in USA today, the rise of people coming home with huge injuries like missing arms and legs. We just need to get it together.
RM: Do you base a lot of your writing on current events?
JN: I wrote a lot of my other songs about what’s happened to me in my life; with Savior Sorrow I took a look at more of the world picture. But it still effects me; it’s really what’s happened to me and what I’ve been through and the bands seems to like it a lot.
RM:I understand J Mann suggested Waylon; was the change from J. Mann to Waylon a smooth transition?
JN: Yeah, it’s kind of been a blessing in disguise; no pun intended really (laughs). When we first put Mushroomhead together we wanted to be able to have harmony vocals and just do whatever we really wanted to do. Savior Sorrow is more of a picture of that. Instead of J singing, Jeff singing, there are some moments when you don’t know who’s singing on the record. We just realize this is a dream we’ve had more than any other to this day.
RM: In the new album you can hear every side of the music spectrum from Faith No More to Nine Inch Nails to Old-School metal; who were your main influences growing up and did anything your parent’s listen to influence your creativity today?
JN: I don’t think so much as what my parents listened to; I just sang everything I ever heard on the radio. I was walking along when I was a kid, and not to date myself, but remember picking up an 8 track of Grand Funk and got their album Survival and it really moved me; it had a lot of around-the-times thought on their. The Beatles, Priest, Maiden; just grew with the time and just find whatever I could listen to; I’d go to the record store and find the stuff I never really heard of instead of getting what everybody else picking up because it was popular; surprising things that you never would have found that aren’t mainstream or things they push on you.
RM: What was growing up in Cleveland like and what type of music scene was there?
JN: It’s always been very metal; very aggressive, angry; it’s kind of like dead steel-town, kind of like Pittsburg, just that area of the Midwest; Allentown, Pennsylvania just a lot of places where the bread-and-butter were gone cause that part of the industry dies, everybody’s fighting just to make it. It’s very metal but there’s also Honkytonk; just any kind of stuff you’d get like anywhere else, pretty much. There are a lot of good bands and good clubs that will give you a chance so it’s a good place to start.
RM: Were your parents supportive of you getting into the music business and what is your relationship with like them today?
JN: My father passed away in 2000; the person I consider my father, he raised me really. My mother is my biggest fan and biggest supporter and was never “when are you going to quit this and get a real job”. She still comes to the shows and cried when I gave her my first gold record.
RM: Let’s get into recent events over the last couple weeks; tell me, and the many people who haven’t seen it or may not even know about it, about the rockumentry “A Clown Short of Destiny”; the content and what reaction you had viewing it.
JN: I thought it was really well put together; it shows a city’s dream, I could never do that to Cleveland. What it was really is that they (Slipknot) told everyone on their way up, the people that got along with them, the people that went to their shows to support them and played all their benefits they had, that Slipknot was going to take the whole town with them. Somehow, they were worried that they weren’t going to be as special if everybody was focusing on Des Moines instead of just on them. They turned their back on their town and told everybody it’s a dead town and there’s nothing else there. If you see the movie, there are countless good bands; I was pretty shocked overall of all the talent there; and how they felt betrayed, like what happened to a lot of the people that were involved. It’s just really well done, and I think there was only really small little section that we were showed but I think it will peak a lot of peoples interest and make them think someone was really selfish and had no reason to be; they would have done just as well and happy.
RM: Along these same lines, the remarks Skinny made, the interview with Midwestmovement.com, I’m sure you must have received some comments from your PR people or Megaforce about it, negative or positive.
JN: You’ve got Blabbermouth.net, which is a Roadrunner run board in the first place, and you get people on there saying the same crap that they always do. The thing is when J was in the band he really felt we should take the high road and be men about this, pretty much. A lot of us feel as though we were “F’d” over, to keep it nicer; it feels so weird cause it’s been so many years later and probably doesn’t matter to anyone, but it still matters to us because a lot of people look at like “Mr. Bungle did it first; Kiss did that first; Gwar did that first” but it isn’t that; there are so many little things that are exact that’s there’s no way they could be coincidence. For the outside fan, they wouldn’t notice things that we did cause we’ve lived this stuff since ’92-’93; they (Slipknot) never knew us so, it’s not so much a stab in the back cause they were never our friends but it feels that way in the same sense.
RM: Do you feel as though they directly copied Mushroomhead?
JN: Yeah, I feel that everyday, every time I see a magazine; it’s not so much “that should be us” or that’s where we would’ve been but at the time they came out it was this “new novelty” “nothing was happening like this” thing yet we were doing it two or three years earlier, and just the time when we being courted by Roadrunner, we sent them everything we ever made so they had every possible image of us; they made a very good copy of it. That’s the only way to put it.
RM: Do you think Roadrunner records had…
JN: I think Roadrunner had a big influence in it; I think it was a hand-in-hand thing; I think their original singer left because he didn’t want any part in it. Then they got Corey; Corey wasn’t even in the band until the Roadrunner stuff started happening. I think it was a marriage between the two and I hope they are always happy with what they did.
RM: Do you worry about any sort of backlash this may cause?
JN: No, I kind of welcome a backlash; we’ve had phone calls from Corey, we have friends that are…Shaun from Gizmatli, who’s got a new record, demo’d at our studio and recorded his record with Clown, so there’s areas where there are friends in between the two things. Then Corey called us wanting to get everything behind us and move on and not have ill will then a week later he’s in a magazine saying we couldn’t be anymore in that band if we were up his ass; its like, talk the same every time.
RM: On a lighter note, tell me about the work with Chad Calek?
JN: Chad’s talking to people who have a horror convention lined up and we’re talking about playing in the middle of it, within the movies that are going on during the show, and that will be a whole new thing, I don’t think any band has ever done. I’m not sure what they are planning on a project other than that. Chad’s a really good guy; it’s cool when you can meet people who are the same type of person as you in the world of DVD and “everyman for himself” in a lot of senses; hopefully it will be a lot of good stuff.
RM: Are there any talks of doing a documentary with Chad?
JN: I haven’t heard that so much; we’ve been kind of throwing around the idea of spoofing ourselves like Spinal Tap; recreating events that happened and making them a little funnier as they go. I’m sure the sky’s the limit with a lot of creative people involved.
RM: What do you do on your time off?
JN: A lot of us go to the mall and go see movies and stuff; I just hang out, take a shower, wash some clothes; nothing super exciting.
RM: Do you get recognized a lot?
JN: They recognize me or Waylon more than the other guys cause we just have the paint on; our face is the same basic shape just very random. It’s happens more closer to home than away but I can still go to the mall and pass 5 Mushroomhead shirts and have no one recognize me (laughs).
RM: Tell about what has been going on the last three years.
JN: Just the whole thing of changing singers and getting off Universal and just trying to write the record, really; finishing up the DVD (Volume 1) before it came out. I think the new blood in the band has brought a lot of energy; change is almost inevitable with everything. It’s been three years but seems a lot shorter to me; the way time flies, it’s like a blink.
RM: Every artist strives for that “perfect” album; do you believe you’ve reached that goal with Savior Sorrow?
JN: I think it’s our pinnacle so far; I think they get better as we go. I think it’s the most wide ranging; I think we have a song that could cross over to dance radio and one that could go onto country with “Ending”. I think we just strive to push the envelope every time. I think it’s a combination of XIII and Super Buick; just moves all over the place and I think the fans receive it pretty well too.
RM: Do you like playing the smaller clubs?
JN: I like being in the closeness of the small clubs; watch the crowd sing, more or less. Just seeing the dots of people moshing in the distance; I like the closeness but I’d like to do a small arena run and get more people to get to know you.
RM: What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
JN: We’re talking about taking a couple weeks off cause of the holidays; we don’t really have anything concrete lined up for next year yet.
RM: Do you feel as though you’ve achieved success or is there something specific that will make you feel that success has been achieved?
JN: Modern day, I think we’ve achieved success; there’s less possibility of sales cause of downloading and everything. I think life-experience is pretty successful; career so far numbers are hard to gauge as far as the internet and downloads.
R
M: Lastly, anything you want to add?
JN: Just go out and get the new record; I think there’s something on there for everyone to enjoy.