MUDVAYNE frontman Chad Gray says the band’s new material is “something special”
In a recent conversation with Australia’s Heavy, Chad Gray, the frontman of MUDVAYNE, provided an update on the band’s songwriting sessions for their upcoming studio release. It’s worth noting that the reunited metal group hasn’t released new material since 2009, marking nearly fifteen years without a brand-new MUDVAYNE track.
“We’ve started putting some new stuff together a little bit and people that have heard [some of the early demo] stuff are really excited about it,” Chad said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “Only the people that are closest to us have heard anything, and, like I said, it’s really rough; it’s demos. But you can tell it’s special. And I think that we have to make sure it’s MUDVAYNE. We have to make sure that it’s what we want. So we’ll just have to see. We were working on it, working on it, working on it a little bit here and there.
“We all live states away from each other — nobody lives even close to each other — so it makes it a little bit difficult,” he explained. “But we were able to get some stuff demoed up or whatever, but with us being so far apart, it’s a little slow going. And then we just kind of hit a wall. We were, like, ‘Okay, we’ve gotta get back into touring.’ So we put everything together and we went back out this summer.
“We’ll see what this fall brings,” Gray added. “We all just got home [at the end of August], so we’re still kind of decompressing. I’m feeling pretty good now. We just put everything on hold and we just wanted to focus on touring. But now that we’re done with it, as everybody starts raising their head out of the sand, hopefully we can get together and do something. I don’t know — maybe we’ll have something new by the time we come down there [to Australia in February 2024] and see you. We’ll see.”
MUDVAYNE launched their inaugural headlining tour in more than 14 years, appropriately titled “The Psychotherapy Sessions,” in July. The 26-city tour, produced by Live Nation, featured supporting acts such as COAL CHAMBER, GWAR, NONPOINT, and BUTCHER BABIES.
Prior to this, MUDVAYNE had grabbed headlines in 2022 with the “Freaks On Parade” tour, a co-headlining venture alongside ROB ZOMBIE. However, their 2023 tour marked a significant milestone as MUDVAYNE‘s first independent headlining tour since 2009.
Founded in 1996, MUDVAYNE has achieved global recognition with over six million records sold worldwide. Their albums “L.D. 50,” “The End Of All Things To Come,” and “Lost And Found” have all earned gold certification. The band is renowned for their innovative sonic explorations, distinctive album artwork, as well as their signature use of face and body paint, masks, and uniforms. MUDVAYNE‘s lineup includes Chad Gray, Greg Tribbett (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew McDonough (drums, synthesizer), and Ryan Martinie (bass).
Chad Gray spent 17 years as the lead vocalist for HELLYEAH. HELLYEAH released their sixth studio album, “Welcome Home,” in September 2019 under the Eleven Seven Music label. This album marked the band’s final collaboration with drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who tragically passed away over five years ago.