So first, how is this new tour goin’ on ?
It’s going great you know. It’s been 3 weeks since we started the tour, and we’re really excited about it. So far the reaction with the crowd has been great. What better way to start of a tour than in Europe, playing all the big festival? It’s amazing!

You’ll have a new record in store very soon, “Come What(ever) May”...
Yes, it will come out in July 28th, I think. We move the date. We’re like the only rock band in history ever to pump out an album ahead instead of pushing it back. We had 3 different dates for released and we keep moving it forward but I’m pretty sure for now it’s gonna be the 28 of july.

How would you define this new record compared with the previous one?
It’s a lot more mature I believe. I think that the song writing is better. I think it’s a lot more diverse than the previous one. The previous one was very diverse for us, but this one is even more.

What does mean for you the title of the record, “Come What(ever) May”?
The title came about, we had a lot of stuff coming on in our personel lives and also within the band. And it was like you know, we’ll take whatever we’ll get. That’s the whole conception of the title. We’ll get through any obstacles or whatever. That’s what it means for us.

Do you also have on this one a song like “Bother”, like a superhit song ?
There are songs I guess you can say are in the vain of “Bother”. We don’t like to put anything like that, we just do what we do. “Through the glass” in the US is actually doing really great. Over here we have the song “30-30-150” as the main single. And in the US it is “Through the glass”. This song is maybe more in the vain of “Bother”. And it will be released as a single in September I believe in europe.

What are the lyrics talking about ?
The lyrics are more a question for Corey because none of us are involved in this. But I can just say that the main topic for the album is simply life. But you definatly gotta ask Corey about that. I write the music, not the lyrics. The only thing I can say for sure is that this album is very political towards Bush, and after that it’s all on Corey to answer. I won’t go any further on that. I don’t wanna say something and be completely wrong.

For the new record you worked with Nick Raskulinecz, how did you end up to work with him?
Nick was great. I’ve never seen a person more energetic, when it came towards music. I mean there was time believe me that I wanted to struggle him (Big Laugh) but that’s just the tention that you get when you’re an artist trying to create and you got all this different people with different ideas. Nick definatly help the band to get to a whole different level, as far as performance and with what he brought to the table. So it was great working with him.

You have a new drummer now, Roy Mayorga. What happened with your previous drummer and how did you end up to choose Roy?
Well there was some peronel issues that we’re not gonna go into just out of respect for him and the group. He had a lot of things going on in his life that were affecting the way he was playing drums. We sat down and discuss how we could have somebody coming. Nick Raskulinecz said hey, I know this guy that would be great for this project. Roy came in as a session drummer. Played the drums for the record and went on with Sepultura. Later on like a month later, the 5 of us sat down and come to the conclusion of that would be best for the band. From there it kind of make sence to ask Roy to join the band since he played on the record. And that’s what we did.

I heard that you had like 40 songs for this record. Will you try to record the others?
Well the rumor is more about 30. We did had about 30 songs. The way that we write as individuals, when we start to put all those stuff together as a group, some of those stuff just don’t work. So we put some of those away. We ended up I believe with 17 songs. Actually, 16 songs that we recorded and 1 spoken word. Some that are not on the album will probably come out as B-sides with the singles, or website exclusives for the fans, well see what happens.

Stone Sour had a lot of success with the first record without going through the steps bands usually had to go. What’s your feeling about that?
We’re lucky. (Big Laugh) Well I don’t really know what else to say. We’re very fortunate. You know, there was Stone Sour previous to Slipknot. But for the Stone Sour that the world knows, we’re very fortunate because we played something like 2 shows and went straight to record the first album. And we went out immediately on tour, and we were able to headline in the US We’re totally happy that it happened this way.

That’s very courageous for Corey & Jim to come back here, even with another band. Did they talked about the experience they had here 2 years ago ? How do they feel?
I’m aware of it obviously. I’ve only heard a little bit of the story, I wasn’t there so. I heard that a bunch of stuff were throwned, this and that. To me , regardless of who it is, I don’t understand what is the point to try to hit an astist playing his music, whatever music he’s playing. It’s really stupid. Specially if you’re playing at night. Because you can’t see what’s coming. I mean you’re completely blind on stage. You can really hurt somebody. We’re here to entertaine. It doesn’t make any sence to do that.

I read on the web that Mick Thompson is already working on new Slipknot materials. Will that give you inhalf time to promote perfectly this new Stone Sour record ?
You know, we’re working on stuff, they’re working on their stuff. For me I started 2 and a half years ago. This time around we’re not stopping until the circle is done. What Mike does I don’t know honestly. I can tell you that with Stone Sour we’re gonna go as far as the record sells will let us go. Right now it’s looking that it’s gonna be about a year and a half of touring. Actually I was told earlier today that “Through the glass” wich isn’t out over here yet is number 6 already in the US on radio acrross the country. Which is pretty good. And it was just officially released last week.

What will be the plans for Stone Sour for the next month ?
So we’re gonna finish up here, doing festivals. We’ll take 2 weeks off. Then we’ll go out in the US with Korn and Deftones on the Family Values Tour. Then we’re gonna take a couple more weeks off and come back here in Europe. So we’ll be back in the fall and then back in the US for another tour. We’re gonna do a lot of touring for the next months.

Do you have something to say to your french fans ?
Well I would like to say thank you for all the support. The french fans have been awsome for us. I mean everytime we played the shows have been great. Look forward to see you in the album tour.


Interview Manu and Pierre
Translation Pierre