Paul Phillips of Puddle of Mudd

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by Deb Rao
Staff Writer

One of the top acts in music today Puddle Of Mudd is gearing up for an exciting appearance at Rock On The Range at 2:55P.M on Saturday May 22. Puddle Of Mudd is currently burning up the airwaves with their second hit single “Stoned” off their fourth studio album, Volume 4: Songs In The Key Of Love And Hate.

The band just stormed through New England with near capacity crowds at the Webster Theatre in Connecticut, Hampton Beach Casino, and Higher Ground in Burlington, Vt. Part of the success of the new album and tour is due to the return of guitarist Paul Phillips. I recently had the opportunity to discuss the new Puddle Of Mudd album in-depth with Paul Phillips with a special Track By Track. Plus we discussed the band’s upcoming appearance at Rock On The Range, Carnival Of Madness Tour, guitars, and the passing of the legendary Ronnie James Dio.

HRH: Paul, Thank you so much for checking in with Hardrock Haven. Puddle Of Mudd is currently on the road in support of your latest release Volume 4: Songs In the Key Of Love And Hate. What have some of the highlights of the tour been so far? I know the band performed to great shows this past weekend in New England.

PAUL: I don’t know if there is any one particular one. I just love to play live. Any show has the potential to be the highlight of the tour when you have a good crowd and energy going back and forth. We just had a few in a row that were really good. I just enjoy playing live and having people out there singing the words and having a good time. .

HRH: I was at the show in Hampton Beach and the crowd was very enthusiastic about the new material. I noticed a whole new generation of younger fans at the show. How inspiring is this for you as an artist to see the fan base of the band grow since the Come Clean era?

PAUL: Yes, it is crazy. This year is the tenth Anniversary of Come Clean. So we have people that have kind of grown up with us throughout the years. Luckily, we came to having success with radio with our songs. This brings in a new audience. You will see these younger kids as well. And there are these families. We see people now bringing their kids. Older people bringing their kids. It is kind of cool that we can reach across that whole generation gap. It is pretty neat to have that happen.

HRH: The new single “Stoned” is burning up the airwaves in Boston on radio station WAAF. It also marks the return of you to the band. Do you think the album returns back to your early roots?

PAUL: I think a little more so than the last record. When I left, I left during the writing of the Famous record. We weren’t getting along. We weren’t working together well. Not a whole lot of things were happening. After I left, they kind of went the route of going with different songwriters to kind of help out with the record. It is a good record. But I think it went a little poppy and a little polished than what we have done before. I don’t know if we made a conscious effort to try to strip it down a little bit and be more of ourselves. That is just what happens when we get into a room together. I don’t know if it is anything that we ever discuss. We are not a band that writes in the same room together. We always write separate. We bring our ideas in. This time I was staying up in Wes’s house during the writing and recording. By proximity we had a lot of writing sessions together. We would bring them in to the band the next day and hash them out. Doug wrote some stuff on his own. It was definitely the most collaborative and friendly good vibe that we have had making a record. Which was great compared to what it was before.

HRH: I can see what you mean. Because on the Famous album too, I got that. Maybe it was just a bit too over-polished for then band. But this record has the right amount of elements from the Come Clean era including acoustic and electric. As a guitarist what kind of sounds were you looking to achieve on the new album.

PAUL: Thank you very much I appreciate that. I always wanted to rock. When this nu-metal was going on I tried to lean somewhere between that and a little classic rock. I tried to give it as much punch and clarity out of this as you can. Like you said, the acoustics we have always kind of use a lot of live acoustics a lot on some of the slower melody things. It is a constant battle. I am always trying to find that perfect tone. I think it is something that you can never reach. You always say I can do better if I do this.

HRH: I have seen both tours your headlining one and the recent one with Shinedown. I noticed the band is doing an acoustic portion of at the show. Are you enjoying this part of the show?

PAUL: I enjoy part of it. Because it is just Wes. I get to jump off the stage for a bit and cool down. I get like a little intermission in the middle. I jump around like a monkey so I get to catch my breath, and have a drink and come back up. It is cool to do that. I have always seen bands to that. I have enjoyed it. I have seen bands that actually have a whole change in scenery with a backdrop and all that and do a whole acoustic set. Zeppelin did that back in the day. They’re a lot of bands that have done it. It is just like taking a journey. We come out and rock and then you chill off a bit and bring a different vibe and bring it back up and finish off the show. It is something different to add to the show.

HRH: Tell us about the upcoming Carnival Of Madness Tour with Shinedown. What can the fans expect to see on this tour?

PAUL: Well, it is a little shorter set for us. Because there are so many bands on the bill. Basically, we are going to go out there and rock the hits. Throw in a few songs off of the new record and go out there and do our thing. The whole tour is all great friends of great bands and ours. It is a win win for us, as well for the fans who are buying the ticket. It is a cheap ticket price. It is going to be a great tour.

HRH: I know a lot of fans are really happy that you have returned to the band. There is a really definite impact on this album. What prompted your return to Puddle Of Mudd?

PAUL: I hadn’t talked to the guys since I had quit. I have seen Doug a couple of times. I hadn’t talked to Wes since the day I quit. I live in Jacksonville, Florida and they were part of a big radio show there. It is something like me and my friends go to every year. It is an all day hangout. They were telling me go. I was like I don’t want to go. I don’t want to see Puddle and have to be around all that. But I went to it and ran into everybody. We just hung out and started talking. Wes and me went to a bar later. Oddly, enough we were getting along and not fighting. We just started talking on the phone. It wasn’t even about me coming back to the band. It was like,”Hey how are you doing man?” One day I got a phone call and they said we are playing a show down and we want you to play. Come on back. I was like under those circumstances it would be under a much better vibe. So that is the only way I would have come back. I didn’t want to come back and be miserable again. So it was a much cooler vibe and I came right back in.

HRH: How do you think the band has evolved since the Come Clean release?

PAUL: Everybody is trying to become a better player and songwriter. I think as far as the song writing I don’t think we try to re-invent the wheel. There is a sound that we make and a sound that people like. We are not trying to go in and make some crazy concert record with like 13-minute songs. We keep our lyrics to everyday stuff. Keep it real and stuff like that. I mean hopefully we are evolving as players and in writing great songs. I don’t know if we are really trying to take our song writing somewhere else.

HRH: Tell us about the making of the new video “Stoned.” It is a really fun video to watch.

PAUL: It was fun to make. Sometimes you get those videos that just last all day long. We did this one really quick. We were on a tight schedule. We had a show the day before and after, so we had to cram it in all in one day. They said you got to smash some stuff in our office. I was like cool. I got there and they had a sledgehammer and I was like I definitely have to have that. That has to be mine. I have to use that. They had all the actors do their stuff first. We got in and smashed some stuff and played the song a few times and we were out. It was quick and easy.

HRH: Are you endorsed by PRS guitars?

PAUL: Yes, I am. They have been with me from the very beginning. They came basically the time the first single “Control” came out. I have been with them ever since. They have been good to me.

HRH: Puddle Of Mudd is getting ready for a very important show on Saturday May 22. The band goes on at 2:55 P.M. How important is it for the band to play to the masses your new material at ROTR?

PAUL: It is great when you get to play when you have that many good bands. When you get to play in front of more people than you normally do. You definitely want to have your A game on and put the best show on possible. There may be a lot of fans that haven’t bought the record. It is always an opportunity to get new fans. Our good buddy is the promoter of the show. He started Rock On The Range, so we always want to impress him. He is a hard critic.

HRH: Any bands that you are looking forward to seeing perform at ROTR?

PAUL: It is kind of bittersweet. I am really excited to see The Deftones. You may or may not know their bass player who is a friend of ours that was the first tour that we did with The Deftones got in a car accident. He has been in a coma for over a year now. They went ahead and got another bass player. They are back together. They have been gone for a while. I am super excited because I am a huge fan. They are good friends of mine. It is going to be weird without the original bass player knowing his circumstances. They had to continue on but it is a little weird with him being in a coma. He is on life support and the whole deal. It is terrible.

HRH: What are your thoughts on the passing of Ronnie James Dio? The Metal world was so saddened by this news.

PAUL: It is crazy when you lose anybody like that. Like an icon. It is like when you lost Michael Jackson. Regardless of what your opinions are or what not. I mean he was an icon. He is regarded as one of the best metal singers of all time. He had success with Dio and Rainbow and Black Sabbath. It is just weird when you know he is not doing the Heaven And Hell tour one day and one day he is dying of cancer. When he was doing the Heaven And Hell tour he was out there rocking. It is a sad day anytime when you lose anybody who put great music and art out to the world. He put some great music out in the world and it will live forever.

HRH: What are the future touring plans of the band? I know you have the Carnival Of Madness Tour this summer. Will the band remain on the road throughout the year?

PAUL: I think so. I think we will probably go the end of the year. Depending on the demand at that point, maybe start thinking about another record. I am pretty sure we will definitely be going at least to the end of the year.

HRH: Paul, do you have any advice for aspiring guitarists?

PAUL: Practice, practice, practice! It goes without saying. Practice with a metronome. Get your timing together. If you got friends or whatever that play guitar or drums you got to get out there and jam with them too. It is one thing to sit around and practice scales every day. If you don’t have your feel and your groove locked in that is the most important thing when you get into a band. There are a lot of people that aren’t that technically advanced. When they deal with people and start jamming they just get it. They do it. Most of the best guitar players are just all feel and they don’t know a note. They just know a note and know it sounds good and what feels good.

Hardrock Haven is proud to present a Track By Track Of Volume 4: Songs In The Key Of Love And Hate by Puddle Of Mudd Guitarist Paul Phillips:

l. Stoned -“That is basically a F*U* song. It has a lot to do with major labels. And other bands dealing with major labels. Anybody who is stuck in that corporate world and having to do something that they don’t always want to do. Unfortunately you get pressured into doing some things that you don’t want to do in the music industry as well. So basically it is like hey instead of looking up to you I like to be doing what I like to do. You can probably kind of figure that one out.”

2. Spaceship -“That was one that was at least 3 quarters of the way done when I came back to the band. We added a few extra parts in there to just spice it up a bit. We pretty much knew all of the time it was going to be the first single. It just had kind of that novelty feel that we do a lot. We went up to Vancouver and recorded that with Brian Howes. I am happy with it too. I think the guitars are slammin’ on it.”

3. Keep It Together – “This song is probably the one I am most proud of. That was one that I actually wrote when I was away from the band. It is something that I had sitting around. It was actually a lot slower when I originally wrote it. Then there was a way more difficult more guitar part in just the result of the way Wes was trying to sing and play the guitar. He started playing the way it is now. He played it faster instead of picking out all the crazy notes I had in there. He stripped it down. So that is the way it ended up. It got stripped down a lot and sped up a lot. To me that is our credit achievement on the record. I am really proud of that song.”

4. Out Of My Way -“Me and Wes have a habit of staying up late and drinking and writing songs. We have these little hand held recorders. That is one we wrote on the recorder in Vancouver in a hotel room and listened back to it three months later. Wes is like,” Do you remember writing that?” I am like I don’t remember writing that one either. That was funny. If I didn’t have that little hand held recorder that song would have been lost and it wouldn’t have made it.”

5. Blood On The Table -“This song is fun. I like to turn that into a driving song. When you speed you put on an up tempo song like that. That was a riff and vocals that Wes had sitting around for a while. He started playing. I am like,” What is that?” Wes said I wrote that a long time ago. I like that it is cool. I wrote a chorus to it. It is basically about fighting with people in close proximities. It has a lot to do with band frustrations. Sometimes you give everything you got to each other and you bleed for each other on a daily basis. Sometimes it can get frustrating if it is not returned in the same matter. If you feel like you are doing it more than somebody else. It can apply to any kind of relationship that you have. There has to be that equal thing. ”

6. The Only Reason – That was actually a song that I had nothing to do with. That one was written for Famous. It was recorded for Famous. It ended up not making Famous. But we always thought it was a good song. So we insisted on this record that it get put on the record. I always thought it should have been on the Famous record even though I wasn’t around. I always thought it was a really good song. It has got a cool time change in it. It goes from 3/4 to 4/4 which is pretty cool. So we just re-mixed it, so it is kind of cohesive with this record. So we put it on there.”

7. Pitchin’ A Fit – “That was fun. That is pretty much about me and Wes being up late and doing our thing.”

8. Uno Mas -“That is a Doug track that Doug brought in. It is a little punk rock jammer. When I first came back to play and listened to the demo at his house, I was like that is cool I like that. It has a good up-tempo beat. It never really backs down. It took Wes a while to write lyrics to it. We knocked that one out too.”

9. Better Place -“That about Wes’s cousin who overdosed on drugs. That was basically a letter to him. You are in a better place now. I miss ya. It was a heartfelt goodbye to him.”

10. Hooky -“That was a lot of fun to write. That riff was actually written by Wes’s son who was in the “Blurry” video. He is twelve now. He has started to rock the guitar pretty well. He was staying with Wes for the summer. We were hanging out. He started playing that riff. We were like we should write a song to it. So we started asking him,” What would you rather do today than go to school?” He is like,” I rather do this. I rather so that.” We ended up writing this whole song around him with his guitar riff and vocals. Then Wes changed some of the vocals. Some of the more risqué’ vocals came from Wes and not the twelve year old kid. A lot of them are the exact same thing that he came up with. It was kind of a joke. But then we thought it would totally make his life, if we went in and recorded this song. So we waited till he left and went into the studio and recorded it. Once we got the disc and played it for him, I have never seen anybody smile that way. He couldn’t believe something that he did was on record and we recorded it.”