The masked metal band, Mushroomhead, has a lot of new things on their horizon. With a 25th anniversary nearing, the band isn’t slowing down anytime soon. A new tour coming up, a brand new DVD, new members, and new music are what fans can expect from the band. Founding member, Skinny, took some time from his afternoon to speak with me about what the band is up to. Behind the creepy looking masks, are passionate, hardworking, and down-to-earth artists. Speaking with Skinny about all of the hard work going into their recent projects gives a new appreciation for their art, and an excitement for their releases. Read on to see what makes Mushroomhead tick.
Side Stage Magazine: I read that you guys are coming out with a DVD to come out with your Summer Scream Tour.
Skinny: Yeah. I’m actually really excited about it on a couple levels. A: The Summer Scream Tour starts on the same day, August 17, that the DVD comes out. So, that took a little bit of planning to get those to line up together, so we’ll actually be out supporting a new product and on a killer tour. Summer Screams is going to be great! Mushroomhead, Powerman 5000, Psychostick, The Browning, Kissing Candice, and a couple of others–there’s been a recent roster change, so I don’t want to get any of the bands wrong. There’s quite a few bands, and they’re all really killer, I’m looking forward to it.
Awesome! Are fans going to be able t get the DVD at the merch table then?
Absolutely! We’ll have physical copies there. We’ll probably end up signing them. It’s just something we do on the road just because the boredom sets in. Plus, you know, it’s a brand new product. This one’s actually really cool. It’s packaged in a CD format, it’s not packaged in a traditional DVD case. So it’s slightly different upon first look, but it’s indeed a DVD. That was just part of where the world is going with all these format changes. Not many people are stocking DVDs on their shelves anymore. Best Buy, just July 1st said “no more CDs.” So, shelf space is getting limited, so we packaged it different. It’s a really cool product, the DVD, i’m really proud of it. It took a little over three years to put together. It’s almost entirely the last album cycle. It’s got live stuff, touring stuff, I think there’s eight videos all together, maybe nine. I forget. It’s 102 minutes, it’s really really entertaining. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we did. We had a blast making it! I hope everyone enjoys it that much too!
Is it like a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff to show what goes into your shows, or music videos?
Yeah, this one is more on the cinematic end of it. The whole first thirty-eight minutes, or forty minutes of it plays out like an album would. It’s almost like a movie, to some degree. Then it picks up to behind-the-scenes, the live shows. There’s a whole chapter of Jackie’s collection. Everything off our phones from the last three years. Everything from Australia, to Russia, to back home, and all over the world again. It’s pretty neat. It’s from the point of view from the band member, then it’s hardcore “Hollywood style.”
That’s pretty cool! Is it going to be available on a digital format at all?
I believe so. I need to get that confirmed. I’m pretty sure it will be. I know you can preorder it right now on Amazon, but I didn’t get any of the info on if it’ll be a digital download on iTunes or whatever. I hope it is, cause it makes life convenient. Especially with all the DVDs and their country codes. Some won’t play in different regions and all that stuff. If we just get the digital format, then great!
And then computers, you have to pay extra if you want a disc drive anymore.
Oh absolutely! It’s really crazy! Actually I just had one of my laptops, we took the disc drive out of it to put a solid state drive into it. Then they give you a little case to put it in, so I have an external one now.
Yeah. I’ve had to do that to. It’s amazing, though. I thought I would miss my disc drive more than I do. I only use it when I have my CD and want the music on my phone.
Right? I’m telling you, the last time I really used my CDs was to load my collection into digital format, it’s crazy! I still like to have the physical product, they say that they’re weaning it out of the system. We’re pushing more vinyl now.
Yeah! That’s coming back! Isn’t it funny?
Yeah! I mean, we’ve always had it. We started in the 90’s and we always pushed the vinyls, over the last couple years, we’ve been putting out earlier releases back out on vinyl.
That’s pretty cool! I’m seeing a lot of people who wait for the vinyls to be released.
Yeah, I stopped collecting vinyls cause i’ve just run out of room.
Yup, I hear you! So I saw one of your videos and read that you took The Evil Dead as your inspiration.
Yeah, that one was for “We are the Truth.” That one was really fun to do. We’re obviously really big horror fans over here in the Mushroomhead camp. When it came time to come up with a treatment and do something, I said “why not do an Evil Dead inspired one?” So everyone was really on point and really fun with work with. We built those sets ourselves, we rented the lights and rented out the cameras and camera crews. We literally did all that from the ground up–we built the cabin–all that stuff. Stitch and Dr. F. were heavily involved in the sets on this whole DVD and did a fantastic job on all of this stuff. A little side note about all of this, a lot of people don’t realize when they’re watching it, the four people in the cabin are actually the singers. J grew his beard in, Jackie and Waylon are wearing wigs, and then Jeff just kind of looks like Jeff. But people think they’re just actors, but it’s a fun fact that it’s actually the band.
That’s pretty cool! I did read that you guys have been putting together the videos by yourself and then I saw that video. I actually went to school for film then wound up in music journalism, so I was actually watching it from a filmmaker’s eye–it’s done really well! Is that something you normally pursue, filmmaking?
Oh yeah, absolutely! We’re actually well in tune with it, all the way down to post. I edited it in Premiere in our studio. We have a full blown studio, as well. From being an artist and making the masks and all the wardrobe over the years, you learn Photoshop and you learn Final Cut and Illustrator and everything that crosses over. It’s not just pro tools anymore. So knowing all those formats and being able to make sense of it really helped in putting it together in the post world. It was a lot of work in post! Just getting the final work into the DVDs was a lot of work, not even all the videos and edits of everything else, just getting everything compiled–I want to say I was there thirty-eight days straight just to get it. “Alright, this is the first thing, this is the last thing. We’ve got to get it through and master all the sound, we’ve got to fix all these edits, find that clip.” You know what I mean? It took a minute. But yeah, we do all of that ourselves. We’re a DIY camp. Most of those are shot on RED cameras
Oh nice!
We rented a couple of them throughout. Like I said, this was done over the course of two-to-three years, the filming. There’s a company out of Cleveland that two of my really good friends, Josh Apple and Andrew Spurk that’s called Monobloc Studios, and they’ve got a RED as well, and they did a lot of that with me. And it shared the burden of being Director of Photography with me as well, renting the lighting. That’s the whole thing, getting the lighting right, making sure there’s not too much movement. We threw away a few days of filming as well. A lot of the band members were like “what the hell? Where is all that footage?” How a lot of the actors in the movies are “I was on set for 30 days and I’m in the movie for three seconds!” Some of that, whole days I threw away and the band was like “what happened to that?” Well, don’t worry about it. That type of thing. I appreciate that you saw it that was, cause we really do try to come off as professional. Very cinematic. I want it to stand the test of time. I want to watch it in three years and think “that still looks good.”
It really does! I was kind of scrutinizing all your cuts, and it looked really exhausting to me. I know that that took days, if not weeks to edit.
You’re into the weeks, for sure. All of those takes, and you know, before they had it set up easy with all those proxies to edit footage, but on a laptop, it just couldn’t be done. It took forever when we were on the road! But when we got home, I have a few master machines so it wasn’t that bad. It’s a shitload of edits, it’s a lot of time adjusting. I tried to just capture that vibe of the Evil Dead franchise. We’ve hit it pretty spot on.
I think so. It looks really good. Now that this is underway, will you be working on a new album soon?
Yup! We’ve already started. The goal is to have it in early 2019, say march or April if everything goes as planned. We’ve got a whole bunch of tunes going, we just have to focus on that, which is right after this tour, then Bang! Right into the studio. Then we go back out for two weeks in October and celebrate the 25th anniversary on Halloween with Mushroomhead. So we’ve got a lot going on, for sure!
That’s awesome! I can’t wait to see what you guys are putting out! So, can I ask about Church and Jeff leaving this year? I didn’t see any follow up on that.
Yeah, they turned in their skates last year at the end of the European tour, which was in December, and we’ve got Steve Rauckhorst and Tom Shaffner that are replacing them. Shafner is on guitar and Steve Rauckhorst is doing the vocals. I’ve known these guys forever, they’re from Cleveland as well. The last project they did, cause Stevie’s a monster bass player as well, he played bass on the Pitch Black Forecast with J Mann and Gene hoglan. So, I mean they’re really accomplished musicians. Stevie and Jeff go way back, so he knows the Jeff inflections, even the style of what he’s doing on the right end of this record. It’s not taking it outside. The heritage is there, the tradition is there, so it sounds very proper. I’m real excited to get the new stuff out with those guys.
Would you say he sounds just like Jeff, or does he sound like himself but fitting in with Mushroomhead?
Yeah, it’s very much Mushroomhead and when he needs to sound like Jeff, he does, and he has so many other voices as well. It’s really interesting. The new album is going to be fun. It’s basically like we didn’t lose anything, if anything, we gained more cause he has so many voices. I’ll tell you what, on stage he’s a monster too. He’s not like an ominous monster, he’s jumping around and hanging off the rafters. It’s a different approach to the live version of Mushroomhead as well. Very energetic and it’s [Mushroomhead] got new life in it again. Like I said, I’m looking forward to it, cause some of it’s unknown! I’ve never written a record with these two before. I’ve known them for so long, but there’s something cool about not knowing.
There’s those fans that aren’t going to accept those new players, but I like to see what new players add to it. You know, Breaking Bejamin’s new album this year, I read that they took on new writing with it. More of the band had more say so in it, it’s normally just Benjamin Burney that would write the album, but you can tell all of their influences and I think this is probably their best album. I’m hoping you guys have a similar outcome that is revitalizing it.
Yeah, the stuff coming out is very fresh and mature with those two together. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s kind of one of those things of being in the band, and even looking on the outside looking in, Mushroomhead’s always been changing, it’s constantly evolving. That’s the one thing we’ve always had, is change. Almost every album, someone has left the band and been replaced. It’s part of the longevity, is constantly being refreshed. It’s not a Beatles type of thing.
I mean, even the Foo Fighters. I mean they’re HUGE, and their guitar player left for what, 10, 15 years and then came back. You can’t expect people to constantly be there. You will get burned out.
Absolutely! Absolutely! It’s more of an artist community here than it is a band or a bunch of rockstars hanging out, that’s for sure. So, if the passion isn’t there, it isn’t there. J Mann’s a perfect example. He left in 2004 and came back in 2013. He was almost out for 10 years, and he came back and has been back for almost 6 years. We have an open door policy here at the Mushroomhead facility. You get it, you nailed it right on the head. A lot of people think “oh you’re in a band with four dudes, you’re in a band for life, or it’s never going to be the same.” And it’s not the same. It’s going to be slightly different, and as long as you’re enjoying what you’re doing, from a fan’s perspective, you’re getting more instead of that same record over and over. This is our eighth record. If we had the same people for each record, I’m sure we would have gotten stale and possible would have gotten so sick of it, we wouldn’t want to do it anymore. Cause everything at that point would have just sounded the same and the passion would be gone. So, being forced into change and taking change that you weren’t ready for or expecting is, I think, a really good thing. It keeps you on your toes and keeps it fresh, cause you don’t know the outcome. So, I’m really looking forward to what these guys bring to the table.
Yeah, me too! So, I was reading up on some links, and I saw a rumor that you’re maybe going to tour with Slipnot?
There’s been some sort of talks. Whether it’s just wishlist stuff, or something that will happen, we’re doing for it. We’ll drop anything for those guys! One of the biggest bands in the world and they just so happen to wear costumes and masks, so that would be a great thing for us! That kind of band, and Ghost, I think it’s awesome that those kinds of bands are gaining that type of popularity. There is a demand for this kind of entertainment, so there’s still hope for Mushroomhead!
Definitely! Rock used to be that one underground thing for all the weirdos, but now all the weirdos are coming to life and rising up.
Yeah, the internet made it very accessible and almost OK to be a weirdo. Accessible and acceptable.
Absolutely! That’s all the questions I had for you. Is there anything you wanted to add about all the stuff coming up for Mushroomhead?
To wrap up, we’ve got the DVD coming out August 17 and the Summer Scream Tour starts that day, I think that’s 23 or 25 shows inside of 30 days. West Coast and back, basically. It’s not hitting every state, but if anyone wants to check out some Mushroomhead and the new version with these guys, it’s going to be really fun!
Yeah, it sounds like it’s going to be fun.
Absolutely!
Well, thank you so much for your time and I wish you nothing but the best. I’m going to be on the lookout for all the new stuff you guys have got going on.
Right on! Thank you so much for your time as well, and thanks for the interview, I had a blast.
Sure thing, have a great day!
