During his visit to Delhi, Puddle of Mudd frontman Wes Scantlin opens up to Rupinder Kaur about how he gave opportunities to new artistes in his band and his imaginary fights with his guitars
Wes Scantlin, the lead singer of the American alternative rock band Puddle of Mudd, has a knack for nicknaming people. For example, God is “big dawg”. If he finds your name a bit difficult to pronounce or remember, he’d christen you with a new one. We, too, willingly accepted our new names especially since it was being given by the man whose songs like Blurry or She hates me helped many, including us, get over the teen love drama.
The band recently performed in Hard Rock Cafe across five cities (Delhi being the final leg) and Scantlin was visibly tired when he came in after a quick sound check.
like every other conversation, we, too, started with the ‘How has the sojourn beenIJ’, to which he responded, after a long sigh, “The experience is different. We’ve just been running around. But there has been a culturalistic type of a shock for sure.”
Talking about the band’s next album Wiping The Slate Clean which will be out in March 2016, he said, “It has endearing and a couple of nice, fun songs. They are all great heartfelt songs. We’ve been working and I’ve not been slacking.”
Scantlin tried his best to explain the reason behind calling it Wiping The State Clean. “Because it just had to be done. There comes a time in your life where you’re just like ‘All you people have got to just go (exaggerated)’,” he smirked.
And those people are... we asked, our eyebrows raised. “Well they are gone now. Now we start fresh,” he quipped with a gesture of hands.
The hiccups interrupted the flow, followed by a quick exchange of antidotes on how to get rid of them. “They say you should hold your breath, but I don’t believe that,” Scantlin shared mid-hiccup.
Formed in 1991, the band saw many members come and go but Scantlin remained. Did it ever affect or alter the music-making processIJ “Not to belittle anybody but it doesn’t really affect the music. I have actually given many a lot of opportunities to step in and give a cool shot at it. I’m trying to let people into my artistic world, but I guess they just didn’t get it,” he told us. There was no stopping the emotional tide he let himself in. He continued, “Right now, I’m really inspired by my band and I’m proud of these guys. I almost get teary-eyed just thinking about how incredible these people are. I’m shocked that I’m still surrounded by these amazing producers and people.”
Discovered by limpbizkit frontman Fred Durst, the musician has had his conflicts with Durst in the past but now, was all praise for him.
“Somebody said he’s trying to get hold of me. Probably he wants to sign me again. I talk highly about this man because he signed me and he went through the wall for me. He is the funniest guy ever. I never met Kurt Cobain, but David Grohl said that he was one of the funniest people he had ever been around. He was grumpy, but then he was the funniest dude in the world. Fred’s grumpy too, but he’s funny. I’m the same,” Scantlin said.
The song-writing process is another intriguing anecdote he shared as he muttered between his teeth. “I’m sitting in a room and there is a guitar which is in front staring at me with fury and it’s like ‘Pick me up, Wes. What are you going to doIJ Just sit here all dayIJ If you’re not going to pick me up then I’m not going to be able to pick you up. Pick me up or everything is going to vanish’. It’s like having a little fight with the guitar and then there is a little song bird which lands on my shoulder sometimes and tells me that I should pick up that guitar. That is when the process begins. You also need a paper and a pencil. It takes seconds to pen it down,” the 43-year-old signed off.