INTERVIEW: Puddle of Mudd’s new album passes the goosebump test
Photo: Puddle of Mudd’s new album is called Welcome to Galvania. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by Pavement Entertainment with permission.
Alt rockers Puddle of Mudd have been going strong for more than 25 years, buoyed by such hit songs as “Blurry,” “She Hates Me,” “Drift & Die” and “Control.” Now the band has released a new album on Pavement Entertainment called Welcome to Galvania, and they’re taking the tunes, both old and new, to dedicated fans across North America.
The new recording has brought lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Wes Scantlin out of a dark time in his life. He went through a divorce and also lost his grandmother, but today he is looking on the positive side and how his songwriting has helped him with the struggles.
“Everything happens for a reason, so everything in my life is totally great,” Scantlin said in a recent phone interview. “I guess God’s got a plan.”
The songs on Welcome to Galvania are mostly collaborations between the band and other artists. There are tunes like “You Don’t Know,” “Uh Oh,” “Go to Hell” and “Diseased Almost.” The title of the album actually comes from Scantlin’s father.
“So my dad is Bill Scantlin,” the singer said. “My whole entire life of being a musician and a songwriter, he has basically measured the awesomeness or not-so-awesomeness of the music that I create by the Galvanic Skin Response, which is an electrical charge in your body when you hear something that really, really makes you get goosebumps and the hair on the back of your neck stand up. He would measure the songs on that particular skin response, and if he got goosebumps, it was a hit. If there ain’t no goosebumps, then you might as well just throw it away and start over.”
For the new album, Scantlin bounced the songs off a few people, and everyone reported that he had a success on his hands. Now he is bringing those songs around the country on a sweeping tour that includes stops at The Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Oct. 11, and Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck, New Jersey, on Oct. 12.
“We’re rehearsing a new song like every sound check that we get,” he said. “We just started playing ‘Go to Hell.’ We’re playing ‘Uh Oh,’ and at soundcheck we’ll probably rehearse ‘My Kind of Crazy.’ We just pick a song, and we rehearse it at the sound check.”
“Uh Oh,” a single from the new album, is a catchy song with several good hooks, Scantlin said. “It’s got to have two-three hooks in a song, you know,” he said. “The whole song has got to hook, and then you know you’re on the right track. … I think we played ‘Uh Oh’ a few times live over the last five years. The response has been cheers at the end of the song. Everybody loves it.”
Scantlin knew he wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roller when he was growing up back in the 1980s. There was one seminal experience that forever changed his outlook on the possibilities of music: a Van Halen concert.
“I went to a Van Halen concert, and ever since I went to a Van Halen concert, I’ve always wanted to do this and be a songwriter,” he said. “It was the 1984 Jump tour, and I was like this is awesome. I missed a friggin’ soccer game to go and got kicked off the soccer team, but my mom bought me a guitar. And the rest is basically history.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Puddle of Mudd’s new album is called Welcome to Galvania. They are currently touring North America, including stops in Poughkeepsie, New York, and Teaneck, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
