STONE SOUR Guitarist: 'We're Looking To Do Way Bigger Business With This Record'

Morley Seaver of antiMUSIC recently conducted an interview with STONE SOUR guitarist Josh Rand. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

antiMUSIC: You've secured [producer] Nick Raskulinecz for the [new] record. What made you choose him?

Josh Rand: "For me, it was just when I talked to him. I just felt comfortable with him. And for myself who's new to have somebody come in and actually like become a member of the family… I spent a lot of time demoing. I do a lot of writing. And to have somebody come in and say, 'Can you change this or that?' is really interesting. But for some reason with him, when we were making a decision, I just felt super-comfortable with him. And what he's done…his previous work. The stuff with VELVET REVOLVER and of course with the FOO FIGHTERS speaks volumes, you know. So it was a no-brainer for us."

antiMUSIC: What is the songwriting process like in STONE SOUR? Considering Corey [Taylor, vocals] is usually involved with other things, I would imagine you guys write on your own and bring back finished songs minus lyrics whenever you reconvene. Is that right? Or do you write together?

Josh Rand: "We don't write together. The first record, I pretty much did all the music. Corey did all the vocals. On this record, however, everybody was involved in one way or another. Basically I wrote all the heavier stuff. Corey wrote all the vocals. Jim [Root, guitar] wrote several songs. Shawn [Economaki, bass] wrote a song and actually one song was written off Shawn's drum beat. So everybody has contributed to this record. Everybody writes by themselves. For myself, I write all the music and what I think the arrangement should be. Then I'll turn it over to Corey. He might make some changes and then I'll bring it to the group, if I think it's good. Then it'll grow from there because everybody will add their own little thing to it."

antiMUSIC: The last record went gold. Were the other guys concerned that the public was getting the wrong impression of what the band was all about from the success of "Bother", or that it was just the Corey Taylor project?

Josh Rand: "Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think that we're still misunderstood. We're a band. We're not Corey's side project. We're a functioning band. We were around before SLIPKNOT. For Corey to step away from SLIPKNOT…for him, it's to show a different side of him. But there's more to us. We're not, you know, just a couple of buddies getting together to jam with some other guys and tour for a month. We're a serious band. We take it very seriously. So does our record company. We're looking to do way bigger business with this record. I honestly believe this material is way better. It's more mature. We were rushed the first time around. It was basically me and Corey just jamming. We did almost all those songs basically by ourselves. It started off being just two friends together and then all of a sudden it became this other thing. The next thing you know we're signing this record contract, recording the first record and things happened really quickly."

Read the entire interview at this location.