Staind released their latest album, a self-titled masterpiece, back in September of this year. The making of the album was an arduous and well documented process, but now that it’s out the band can sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Q103 in Albany, N.Y. recently caught up with Staind guitarist Mike Mushok to talk about the recording process for the new album, playing the new tunes live for the first time, and the origin of the band’s name.

Reflecting back on the recording process, Mushok admitted, “It was really, really tough, it was the hardest one we’ve made.” He continued to explain, “The hard part was not even the music, the music was written, and it was just getting it done with so many things going on made it really tough. We ended up losing our drummer Jon [Wysocki] along the way and Aaron [Lewis] put out his solo record while we were trying to make a Staind record. He was off doing that and people just weren’t on the same page, it just became very difficult.”

When asked about the reception of the new material live, Mushok said, “I think that the new album really lends itself to being played live, even if you haven’t heard it.”

So is there anything about Staind that fans might not know yet? Mushok feels his band is an open book, saying, “It’s not like we go out and try to hide anything, we’re not that band. If someone asks something, I’ll answer it. I can’t think of any dark secrets.” While trying to think of something fans might not know Mushok offered up, “Everyone already knows that we use to be a cover band, everyone knows that we use to be called Stain without the ‘d’. We got sued for being ‘Stain’ by a guy that we paid money to, to buy the name from.

And then, to add to that particular story, Mushok said, “I’ll get even further with it, remember the band Lit? The singer has ‘Stain’ tattooed across his stomach, because they use to be ‘Stain’ too.” Mushok laughed recalling, “We use to joke, he must be a huge fan, but really they just use to have a band by the same name, and they were sued by the same guy that sued us!”  Yikes, where are the karma police when you need them!

Listen to the full interview with Mike Mushok on Q103 here.

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