Mudvayne vocalist Chad Grey pulled no punches in a latest interview with The Underground Australia. In accordance with Grey, too many rock and steel bands all take from the identical influences and just about sound the identical.
Which I might argue could be true in any period the place streaming providers and the Web exists – a selected type can attain the plenty inside days, and everybody’s off to the races. Particularly now when there’s a lot new music going round any given day, and the way tough it’s to rise to the highest of that pile. One thing’s in style and it is inevitably going to have drove of imitators.
“Dude, possibly I should not say this, however I do not give a fuck. As a result of I am me and I’ve bought stuff to say, and I am gonna say it. Music now to me, God bless them, new bands, however they sound the identical. All new music jogs my memory of the identical fucking factor. There’s nothing separating it, one band from one other. It is, like, one band kinda does one thing, 100 bands comply with that band, then one other band does one thing, then 100 bands comply with that band and sound identical to that fucking band.
“I used to be on Ozzfest 2001. So that you had Slipknot, Manson, Papa Roach, Disturbed, Mudvayne, Drowning Pool… Each fucking band, each band I simply named, none of them sound the identical. None of them. And I believe that is why it was such a particular time in music, as a result of everyone was bringing what they have been bringing to the desk. You had System Of A Down and shit-tons of bands, man. And all very unique and all doing their very own factor. We have been a part of that. We have been extra progressive than lots of our counterparts from that period.
“So we have been doing our personal factor. Simply lots of actually good fucking music and lots of people actually digging into what they have been. No one was fucking following any individual else. We simply did not see lots of that. A pair bands right here and there, possibly, you already know what I imply? However for essentially the most half, bands have been doing their very own factor and actually pushing the boundaries, actually difficult the listener. And that is what music’s all about, proper? It is individuality.”
Grey then talks about his influences and the way they have been from generations earlier than him. Or in his personal phrases, “I wasn’t ripping off a band from 1999 and releasing my album in 2001.” Which once more, at the moment’s world transfer a hell of a misplaced sooner than it did 25 years in the past. I am undecided everybody’s as unimaginative as Grey is making them out to be, a lot as it’s that the world in 2024 is just not the identical because it was in 1999.
“I’m Chad Grey and what I do is me. However the issues that make me Chad Grey are James Hetfield, Layne Staley, Phil Anselmo, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I may fucking go down the listing and identify you in all probability 50 totally different singers that I — Chris Cornell —that I used to sing each fucking factor that they ever put out of their songs and on their albums. And I’ve taken all that affect that impressed me a lot to wish to do what I do and I’ve processed that within myself. And now all these people who I am speaking about, they arrive out as Chad Grey from me. You recognize what I imply? I really feel like that is what everyone was doing. I imply, the one means you’ll be able to have or not it’s music, be that pure and true is that if individuals are drawing from their affect. All these influences create who they’re and what they contribute to the musical equation.
“I did what I did and I contributed what I contributed, however I could not have contributed what I contributed with out the people who influenced me. And I could not have contributed what I contributed if I did not study and sing together with each single a type of fucking people who I discussed. So I believe there was lots of that occurring. I believe there was lots of people that weren’t wanting like… What bands do once they have a look at this new band and everyone follows that new band, it isn’t even an affect often because they’re present. My influences, even once I got here out in 2001, with L.D. 50, my influences have been from 1981, 1983 — like 20 years, nearly 20 years prior of me dropping my first album.
“I wasn’t ripping off a band from 1999 and releasing my album in 2001. My influences have been lengthy — my influences have been 18, 19, 20 years. The people who impressed me — James Hetfield together with his ‘yellody’, the best way that James — he mainly yelled in key, which I do so much in my music. And my scream. I positively consider all of the screamer individuals — Philip Anselmo. It is my scream now, however it began being his scream. I simply took it and twisted it and made it one thing else.”
“I believe that that is what was taking place then. I believe that the whole lot that was taking place within the late ’90s, 2000 was coming from a really pure place with all of the musicians that have been creating it at the moment. I believe all of it got here from previous affect that over time had been cultivated and nurtured changed into one thing utterly totally different. And it takes time with a purpose to try this. I can not be influenced by any individual that simply got here out with an album that is model new final 12 months. I haven’t got time to course of that to be one thing totally different than in all probability what it was a 12 months in the past. However over 20 years, I can one hundred pc completely course of that and switch it into one thing that simply now belongs to me, that is Chad Grey‘s, what he provides the music world, which I believe is essential.
“Music is fact. It ought to be fact. It’s for me. That is the place I get my success from music, is the honesty and the love that I put into it. So whether or not individuals prefer it or not, it does not fucking matter to me. It’s what it’s. I do what I do. I am sincere about what I do. I like what I do. I care about it. I defend it. I nurture it. I domesticate it. After which I put it out. And if you happen to prefer it, cool. In case you do not, eh, no matter.”
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