What's your impressions on yesterday's show ?

Kud : It was great. We had a fuckin' great time.
Gurrg : It was pretty energetic.
Kud: The crowd in front was insane. I couldn't see way back because the light was right in my face. I could only see about maybe 12 rows, and the rest all kind of dissapear into the darkness. But we had a great time. Fans are generally pretty similar all around the world with us, you know. We have very respectable fans, very energetic fans. We have very smart fans I think.

It was a very small place where you played. Does those kind of shows makes you remember the beginning of your career when you played small clubs ?

Kud: I think that playing smaller places allows you to keep your feet on the ground and remember your roots and go back to the beginning. Because when you started out that's what you do. You play small clubs. It's very intense, it's very intimate and personnel. You can see the last person in the building, except when the lights are in your face ! (big lough) As opposed to a huge fuckin' stadium, after a certain point you can't see faces anymore. And you are so high up in the air on the stage, it's a whole different feeling. But it's always fun to play big shows like stadium or festivals. From a marketing point of view it's always interesting to get your band out in front of all those people. But it's definatly always more fun to play in small clubs like yesterday. I'm pationate about this, I love playing those kind of places.

Maybe you don't remember but you were supposed to play in that place 3 or 4 times but everytime it was always cancelled.

Gurrg : Yeah those shows were cancelled like three times. Everytime we came through, he was sick and just couldn't sing. So you can't do a show without your singer you know. So it wasn't anybody's fault but once you get sick on the bus, it's like everybody get sick. That's why we got to cancel those dates.

So you finally did it !

Gurrg : Yeah we finally did it, I think we made up for those abscences.
Kud : We've played some really good shows here. The last one we played here it was like 1000 people. We were really surprised you know. So it sucks, it's unfortunate to have to cancel shows. But it's the reality. You know, in America, things are more closed together, so it's easier to make up things. It's easier to make a show if you get sick. But we are only here for a few weeks at a time so if you get sick, it's out of the window. You can't just fuckin' fly all the way back, and ship all your gear all the way back to do another show. So it sucks. I personaly hate letting anyone down. I hate when I let my band down, I hate when I let the fans down. And I hate when I become sick. But it's my instrument inside. There is nothing much I can do. I can't get up on stage and suck ! I suck bad enough when I'm well ! (big old lough)

So how about this new tour ?

Kud: Well, we started it in the US. We did fifteen shows in US and then we came over here. What's happening was that we were supposed to come over here and do just press. But I think that there is a level of equality that we want to bring to Europe and say you are just as important as the US. So that's why we decided to still play some small shows for you too. Now we are more focused on having a world by presence. We really want to reach out Europe, Japan, and Australia, New Zealand, and things like that. We really want to spread out. We don't want to be just an american band. I think it's kind of boring to be just that. We'll try to play any festivals that we will be allowed to play.

About your american shows, how was it ? How did the crowd reacted to your new songs ?

Kud : The shows were all really great. We had a really good time playing those small venues. Like we were talking earlier, it reminded us like going out in the old days you know. But about the new songs, there was a little bit of "what the hell is going on" when we were playing the news songs. That's due to the type of music we are playing. It's hard to get people's attention with new material at the beginning. But for the most parts we were getting great response.

Mudvayne hasn't as much success in France as in the US, because teens consider your music too much technical or cold. How would you describe your music to someone that don't know it yet ?

Kud: I guess I'll say it's intricate and technical ! (lough) I think there is enough music out there that is fastfood and easy. And that type of music is not within us. I think what we like to do, not to be pretentious at all, but we like to challenge people. We like to challenge our listeners to come to the table and listen to what we bring. All we are asking you is to pay attention.

Your new album "Lost and Found" is not available at this time. Can you tell us more about it ? Who produced it ?

Kud : Dave Fortman produced it. He did Evanescence, Superjoint Ritual, Ugly Kid Joe… This time we had the ability to work with many people, so we took advantage of it. So we just afford us the right to bounce around and work with a different person. And if you work with the same producer over and over you kind of play it safe. You know what you're gonna get, you know what the sounds gonna be like. And I think that's one of the great things about Mudvayne records so far is that all three of them have sounded completely different. Because they're all have different producers. We choose Dave Fortman though because of his versitality. He can do bands like Evanescence and bands like Superjoint. So we just wanted to be able to work with somebody that will produce Mudvayne instead of just putting his stamp on it.

What did he bring on your album ?

Kud : I think that it's the most real to what you could see from coming and see us play. The sound of the guitar on the record is the exact same sound that you would hear on stage, stearing in front of the cabinets. We litteraly mic the cabinets, ran through a mixing boards for the levels and bring it right to the protools. So really a raw sound. He is also a fuckin' great mixer. It's not a super polished record. There is an element of roughness in it. There aren't a lot of spacy sound and shit. It's fuckin' streat forward ! I think that's what he brought.

What's the message in your lyrics ?

Kud : I think that this record was more personnel to me and the band as a whole. It's about the things that we've been through since we've been in this music business. You know, those last 6 years of our lives. It's about being a worldwide band. It talks about the different pressures and things that you go through, trying to struggle every day, trying to keep your feet on the ground and stay focused. I think that this record kind of touches on a lot of those ideas.

Can you speak about the video clip of "Determined" your new single ?

Gurrg : "Determined" is not the new single. It's just a song that we dropped out for the fans. The single of the album is "Happy". We just shot the video for it two weeks ago in California.
Kud : You can go on mudvayne.com and download "Happy" which is the actual single of the album.

About this song "Happy", it's a kind of melodic song. I've red that your album is gonna be more melodic this time. But from what I've heard yesterday, the songs are not so melodic you know !

(Kud and Gurrg started to lough)
Gurrg : People have their opinion about how it sounds like. Some have their expectations that it's gonna be melo so they already see it this way. To me I would say it's like a half and half. There are songs with heavy parts and melo parts. So calling this album a melo record, this is incorrect. This album has heavy riffs as well as melodies, I don't even know how should we call it, it's just Mudvayne, it's our music style.
Kud : I think that the thing about our music is very much like life. It moves. Within our songs, there are different tempos, there is movement and changes. And it's very much like in life.

When you entered the studio, did you had any musical direction that you wanted to follow ?

Kud : Absolutely not. We always look at Gurrg and say what kind of riffs do you have ? So he'll start playing riff, we shake it out all that and see what comes out. We never really know exactly what the fuck we are doing. We just try, we get things done. We try to put some deadlines, we give ourselves 4 month to write a record. So for the time we get there it's like, ok we're going, try to do as much shit done as we can.

"LD 50" (first album) was more into biological or medical ambiances, "The end of all things to come" was more like an original soundtrack of a science fiction movie. What is the colour of this new album?

Kud : Well I don't really know. I would have a hard time trying to describe something like that, being one of the writters. It would be a better fit to probably ask someone that has listen to the record. Like if you had listen to it, I would have asked you what you thought it was. That would be more a question for you. But for me, being the writter, it's too hard, it would get pretentious and weird. Do you know what I mean ? It's always hard to describe your music.

So there is no concept or anything like that behind the new album ?

Kud : Really I think it's more about evolution. There is a lot of references to memory and growing up. No necessarely childhood but more from the lessons, your teen years, behind a young adult. Just growing and changing. Like you are what you are because of life's memory and experience. And I think it's kind of trying to describe the person that we've all become. If there was a theme for this record, I think it's what it is. There's a song called "Forget to Remember" and it's about your first memory of childhood. What's the first thing you can remember when you go very very far back ? That's an interesting question. What was your first defining memory? And when you think about that, it kind of define the person that you are now. What's the first fuckin memory that my character can remember ?

About the artwork of this album, can you talk about it ?

Kud : You don't want me to tell you about it ! (both of them start to lough really loud)
I think you should just see it for yourself, not the other way.
Gurrg : It is something that you have to interprate yourself what it means.
Kud : Honestly I think it's one of our most basic packaging that we've put together. There is no photos of us in it. And it's nice, I like that, that way you're not stampted. You could always change. That allows you to choose to wear make up or not when you want. It allows you to do whatever you want. So I'm glad there is no photos in it. There is some kind of concept in it, but for the most part, it's really basic.

There are a lot of Mudvayne DVD, did you ever think of doing a DVD that has nothing to do with music, but more conceptual, like a short film or whatever ?

Kud : That would be great. I would love to do something like that. I think that it is definatly within the band capability. Actually I'd like to put a DVD with just some footage, of just us being us. I think that one of my favorite video ever is Pantera 3. Because litteraly there is no performance. It's fuckin' 2 hours long and it's just them being them. And it's the funniest thing in the world. And I love that just because it's hysterical. Another video that I love is Cliff'em all. It's all shot with cam recorders. They have probably taken shots from fans and put those footages to put their music out. Because they didn't do videos at that time until One. And I like the idea of that, very raw. I don't know, this would be fun to do.

One year ago, you toured with Metallica during the Summer Sanitarium Tour. Do you have any anecdote to share?

Kud : Heineken ! I tell you what dude. We played everyday at 3 o'clock. We were off stage at 3.30. And I was drinkin by 4.00. Everyday I was drinkin' to probably drunk passed out at 10.30. Because there was free Heineken, everyday. You go in what they called the rubber room, you have pool tables, free finger foods like chicken wings and Heineken. So we were just playing pool and drinkin Heineken all day. I swear to God I probably gain 15 pounds drinkin Heineken on that tour. I looked like Elvis at the end of the tour. I was fuckin blowded and fat, idious, at the end of that tour. Stay away from Heineken kids ! (lough)

Interview Alexis & Ben
Translation Tataye