Last year, a reunited Mudvayne played their first show in 12 years and have continued to perform live throughout 2022 as well. As exciting as that has been, fans have also wondered if the comeback will yield new music and both singer Chad Gray and drummer Matt McDonough have confirmed with Revolver that the band has indeed been working on new material and that "everything's on the table" right now.
The group's last release was a self-titled effort that arrived in 2009, meaning anticipation for a new Mudvayne record is likely at an all-time high.
Addressing the pioneering band's recording future amid the current reunion, Gray said, "There's two ways you can do it. You could go out, and you can go once around the rock and just play catalog. For sure, that's absolutely a possibility. Or you can try to put something together. You can gauge it, you can decide. I'm not going to say because I've been constantly writing, recording touring for the last 12 years with Hellyeah. So I don't think my well's dry by any means. And I'm excited, I would be excited to write with these guys."
The frontman also revealed that the members have "done a little bit of file sharing," exchanging riffs and working on some other loose musical ideas. "It's pretty rad, different stuff," Gray added, "I've got a few different angles that I'm working with kind of how I want it to be, my parts anyway. But it's cool, it's cool. And obviously we're not going to put something out if I don't feel like it stands up."
Still, Mudvayne aren't eager to just release anything they happen to write together.
"It's going to have to fucking blow my hair back before I would put it out, because I wouldn't want to put anything out and then people are just like, "[They] can't do it anymore." You can be your own judge of that. And maybe it's not the first song, maybe it's not the third song, maybe it's the seventh song. That's like, OK, now we're on something, but we'll figure it out, man. We'll figure it out. We'll either do it or we won't. But yeah, I'm down for whatever right now, I'm having fun with it," Gray explained.
McDonough also weighed in and stated, "Everything's on the table right now" and went on to express his excitement over reactivating the band and the positive response it has garnered from fans who waited years for the opportunity to see Mudvayne live, either again for some or for the first time for many others.
"What's it going to sound like? I can't honestly say," the drummer confessed, "Some of the stuff that we have messed around is heavy. We messed around with some typical [sounds], people wouldn't be terribly shocked, but the opportunity to experiment and given our past success, I think I feel a sense of freedom. There hasn't been any kind of pressure from any professional direction to try to, "You guys going to write another 'Dig.'" Or 'Not Falling' or whatever, nothing like that. So the headspace and the culture around the band right now is incredibly positive. So I personally just would like to be wide open and excited and positive about it. I want to be surprised.
Mudvayne spent the summer on the Freaks on Parade tour providing direct support for Rob Zombie alongside special guests Static-X and Powerman 5000. At this time, no other tour dates are on the books.
