If you’ve missed the resurgence of Mudvayne; well, there’s very little hope for you. The band have made an absolute ruckus since returning to the fold in 2021, when they played their first live shows in 12 years.
What was originally slated for a short but sweet run of US shows has exploded into an international affair as the band sought to bring the returned rumpus to fans all over the world.
Progressive metal as a genre has made an impression on immeasurable audiences, but so few can claim to have made an impression on the genre like Mudvayne. Bursting onto the scene in 2000 with their debut album L.D. 50, and cementing their place as champions of the sound with 2002’s The End Of All Things To Come, Mudvayne were in a prime position to ride the wave of prog-metal at the time, elevating their sound by dialling up the brain power, implementing elements of jazz, fusion, and other weird and wonderful sounds from the ether.
With a full tank, and a new-found hunger to get back to where they left off, Mudvayne are back like we’ve never seen them before. Ahead of their overdue return to Australia, vocalist Chad Grey spoke to BLUNT about the reunion, the reception, and situation regarding new music.
This small reunion tour has blown out into a full global takeover. To state the obvious, it must feel good to be back …
Chad: There was some just some really genuine excitement I think from all of us because when it went away, I don’t even know if we wanted it to go away. It’s just happened.
We’re so excited, and I’m not just saying it to say it, man. We’re so excited to be coming back to Australia. That was a really great time in our career to come down there and do what we did and play for you guys and we talk about those shows all the time.
We kind of thought that we were really making some headway in Australia and we were excited to nurture that relationship, and some of the people that we worked with just didn’t really care. We bitched and complained all the time about wanting to go back. It just never came to fruition.
It’s really interesting to hear that we actually do hold this really special place in the hearts of many of these bands that we really adore and it sounds like it’s the same with Mudvayne. It wasn’t just a business trip coming down here?
Chad: Oh no. It was really, really important to us. It was just such a beautiful country man and the people were so radical. Everybody, the fans were just over the top and it was so much fun. We really built a strong connection because we literally played, what was it, six shows in three weeks. We had three or four days off in Brisbane. We had five days off in Sydney, we had four days off in Melbourne. We got to see it. We got to see your country and it was just like, God damn.
Screw the 12-hour plane flight. Who gives a shit. You know what I mean? The metal roots are deep down there. It’s a good place to go, man. We love it.
What’s it like being in Mudvayne now that you had so much time away from it?
Chad: It’s hard. A lot of things have changed. I’m sober now. I haven’t drank in, I just passed my two-year mark.
I haven’t even really shared that with anybody so I’m sharing with you but when you quit drinking it’s like all the voices, don’t go silent. This last tour that we did I’m just feeling fucked and really strong and really confident and really enjoying it, but there’s a lot of discipline to it, you know what I mean? There’s a lot of discipline to be able to do what I do day in and day out.
I’m excited to feel like I’m starting to get a grip. Back in the day, man, early Mudvayne days, I was just such a fucking maniac. I was just out of my fucking mind drunk and just crazy. I’m probably clinically insane with booze or without, but it’s been cool man. It’s been really fun to walk back on stage in this band and see the faces that we haven’t seen in a decade. It’s exciting now to be in this band and know that we’re coming back to Australia, probably playing maybe better than we ever have, which is awesome.
It sounds like there’s far too much momentum here. You guys have started something which I reckon you can’t stop. You risk the ire of Mudvayne fans if you stop right now, which no one wants to do. What do you reckon; Is there new music coming?
Chad: We got together and we’ve thrown some stuff together. I mean there’s a couple of things that I think are really fucking special. But again, we were just so focused on doing this tour that we just did over the summer, man, we just shelved everything that we were doing. We just want to make sure that whatever we put out is special and it’s been great because just the vibe of what we’re doing, it’s really fucking exciting for us because people could just be saying, “Come to my neighborhood and play for us.” You know what I mean? But people are literally going, “What about new music?” Just like You’re asking.
People don’t have to be saying that, you know what I mean? People could just go, “Still play your catalogue. We don’t care.”
A majority of people are going, we want new music. Which is exciting for us and flattering actually. We’ve given you guys what. We’ve been gone for a decade and people are still going, can you give us some new shit? We’re like cool, but we have to make sure that it’s special, and I think We’ve got a couple of things that have a lot of fucking potential, man.
I’ve played some demo stuff for a few of my friends and they’re just like, holy fucking shit. Only the closest people in my life have heard it or whatever. But It’s just like I said, it’s just really rough and really demo-y and We’re just like we need to just shell this for right now. Put it on jacks and go on a tour. Now, we’ve been off for what, almost a couple of weeks. The downloading is almost done so we’ll just have to reset and see. Maybe we’ll have some out by the time we come down there. You never know.
Mudvayne Australian tour dates
Wednesday, February 14th
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane
Tickets: The Phoenix
Friday, February 16th
Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Tickets: The Phoenix
Saturday, February 17th
Festival Hall, Melbourne
Tickets: The Phoenix
Monday, February 19th
Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide
Tickets: The Phoenix
Wednesday, February 21th
Metro City, Perth
Tickets: The Phoenix
