Saturday, October 27, 2012
By John Benson
After nearly 20 years together, Mushroomhead is still capable of surprises.
Such a moment took place recently when the band began writing material for what will be its seventh studio release. Original member Skinny (real name Steve Felton) said the industrial-metal act often works up a cover to get the cobwebs off. This time the band chose Adele’s “Rumour Has It” as a writing exercise.
“The middle is so creeped out and weird and strange, I didn’t see it coming,” Felton said. “I’m excited about where the writing is going. Some of it is in left field.”
The album, which is due out next spring, will be the follow-up to 2010’s “Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children.” Skinny joked that working titles include “Ugly Stories for Beautiful Children” or “Smart Phones for Dumb People,” but the truth is the band is taking this next effort very seriously.
Not only did Mushroomhead recently renew its contract with Megaforce Records, but next year marks the group’s 20th anniversary. The feeling is the new album will garner plenty of attention, so the seven-piece act — Skinny (drums), Jeffrey Nothing (vocals), Waylon (vocals), Shmotz (keyboards), Stitch (samples, drums), Church (guitar) and Dr. F (bass) — is hoping to get it right.
“I don’t want to say more of the same, but I don’t want to get too far off our direction, which has always been very experimental,” Skinny said. “I want to take some risks, and I don’t want it to be predictable. I want it to border on extremely heavy and dark, yet accessible to people who aren’t necessarily metalheads.”
Though inherently there’s a dichotomy between commercial accessibility and doom-and-gloom experimentation, Skinny said Mushroomhead has high hopes the next studio album will mark the act’s first top-40 release. Over the years, the highest the band has ranked on the album charts is in the No. 41 to No. 45 range.
Such is the life for Mushroomhead, which for some folks may seem like a where-are-they-now act, but the truth is the outfit’s last CD, “Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children” sold more than 60,000 copies. Granted, it’s not gold or platinum, but these days, those types of sales prove that a die-hard fan base remains. In turn, Mushroomhead can tour steadily throughout the year and maintain its career nearly two decades out.
“It’s alive and kicking,” Skinny said. “Sometimes we’re treading water, but I think everyone is. It’s been a long, rough road, but we’re very fortunate to be able to go to work and create music.”
Finally, one of the biggest annual dates on Mushroomhead’s calendar remains its hometown Halloween show, which takes place Saturday at Cleveland’s The Agora Theatre.
“This year we’ve got some pretty good stuff, with a lot of props and a completely different stage set,” Skinny said. “We try to change it up so people who come from all over the country will see something new. Also, original singer J Mann will be back, and special guest Jackie LaPonza will do a song, too. We’re trying to really give the people a bang for their buck.”