The nine masked members of Mushroomhead have had a wild ride over these past few years. Now theyve decided to kick up their heels and try to blow themselves up. Their latest album, Savior Sorrow, has been getting some nice radio play, and if hard band like Mushroomhead can make it onto mainstream then this crazy world just might have a chance. I spoke with Rick "Stitch" Thomas just before they went on their new tour.
Check out the official website for Mushroomhead
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you guys going on tour?
Rick Thomas: Yeah, the bus just pulled up pretty much and were getting ready to leave tomorrow at midnight.
DRE: So you had some time off?
Rick: Yeah. We pretty much had the whole summer off aside from finishing up the record. Then we were chilling out and not doing much. Were just getting ready to get on the road and crank up all the new material, get the new show together and basically just do all the little things that we have to do.
DRE: Are you still living in Cleveland?
Rick: Yeah, thats where were at right now.
DRE: How was it being home?
Rick: Being home is cool but after youre home for a while, youre ready to leave because you get sick of it. You come back and you have to deal with everyone elses drama and everyone elses problems. Basically the only reason to come home is for family basically, but once youre here for a while sitting around, you dont know what to do with yourself. We dont have day jobs so we get bored. Were sitting around waiting to go on tour because at least you get to do something every day.
DRE: Do you still have friends there?
Rick: Yeah, I have friends. Not as many as I used to because when youre a little older, friends start disappearing and start dwindling down. They get married or move away, but Ive got a small handful of friends that I actually can trust and rely on. Everyone else is only your friend to get something out of you. Theres a lot of that around here.
DRE: But you guys did just play a show out there in Cleveland, right?
Rick: Yeah, last Wednesday at Peabodys. We debuted new material that were going to do on the new tour just to get our feet wet with it and try to find out whats wrong or if anything needed to be changed around or switched. That went over very well. A lot of the kids knew the songs already and were singing along and that was very cool.
DRE: So you feel like releasing some songs on the internet was working for you guys?
Rick: Well it was the day after the album had come out but I know a lot of people had downloaded it though. Im really not a huge fan of the whole pirating downloaded stuff because it screws over the artist at the end of the day. When people arent buying your record, you cant survive. The whole album somehow got leaked over a month ago and that was a big blow to us. The whole album was available for download at all these pirated sites for a month which hurts your sales quite dramatically. If youre Metallica or a band thats selling millions of records, thats one thing. But when youre an underground band that only sells a hundred thousand copies, you need those extra sales to survive.
DRE: Hows Waylon doing?
Rick: Its good. Its been two years now since hes been in the band but this is the first album with him. Hes excited because now hes going out doing his own stuff, not playing other peoples stuff. Before he was singing all of J. Manns lyrics and now its music he was a part of so its probably going to be a little more personal and fun for him. Hes been finding his niche in the band and things have been going fine. Nothings really stopped since hes been in.
DRE: Did the writing change with Waylon at all?
Rick: Yeah, because he could do more than just do the yelling. He could actually sing and harmonize and have a lot of different vocal styles so we play with that a lot and work with him on that more. We asked what this kid could actually do and I said make him scream and he actually came out with some pretty good stuff. Every time theres a part where Jeffrey Nothings singing, hes always backing him up with the harmonies. Thats something the band never had before so its pretty cool.
DRE: Will you always play older Mushroomhead stuff?
Rick: Yeah, well still be playing older Mushroomhead stuff. Therere certain songs that we have to play because fans are not going to stop liking the songs. Eventually the more albums you put out the harder it is to play the old stuff but theres always going to be a good chunk of songs from the old material.
DRE: I heard you guys had some kind of radio cage fight with Evanescence.
Rick: I heard about that. I guess some radio station does these cage matches or something where when a new single comes out for a band, they play it against another single that just came out and fans call in and vote for which one they like better. I guess in a lot of markets, our single was released the same time as Evanescence and in some spots we were beating out Evanescence, which is cool.
DRE: I didnt even know Evanescence was still around.
Rick: I didnt know either. Its funny because a month ago, I thought the same thing. The thought crossed my mind What ever happened to Evanescence? They just completely disappeared. Now a month later I hear were beating them out on the radio. Im like theyre still a band? I though they broke up. I had no idea but thats cool. Theyve sold a lot of records. They had their moment there for a while. They were pretty big.
DRE: Could Mushroomhead become a radio friendly band?
Rick: Im hoping. Thats what were trying to do with the new record because without hits on the radio, its pretty hard to stay alive because the underground isnt what it used to be. People just dont buy CDs like they used to so you really have to push forward and try to get your music out there. But I really hope we get some good commercial exposure because it does nothing but help.
DRE: At this point, besides the touring and stuff you normally do, what do you think has to be done in order to make Mushroomhead a popular radio band?
Rick: I think its a matter of the program directors getting behind the music and actually liking and believing in it. Ive heard total crap on the radio. Theres nothing pleasant about radio, nothing catchy, nothing anything. But they play it so much because the program director likes it and then the general managers wind up liking it because its shoved down their throat everyday. If you play something for people over and over and over again, eventually theyre probably going to start liking it because the radios telling them to. But we never seem to get that push which I dont really understand. Were not forced in anyones faces and thats what needs to be done. Were the band everyone knows about but they never hear or see from us.
DRE: It seems like the labels really into it. Theyve given you guys a 3D cover.
Rick: That was all us actually. We wanted to do it because we figured well, with all this pirating and downloading, how do you make the incentive for people to buy the CD? You make special packaging or you make bonus tracks, so Skinny and I came up with the idea of doing the seven different covers so you could actually collect every single band member. That helps a lot because you have those crazy fans that want the collectibles and every time they buy them, it gives you an extra scan. Then we did the limited edition 3D one too at Best Buy so it was actually eight different covers. That was all our idea and they actually werent into it at first. But then when they saw it printed, thats when they were like Okay, well now we see why you wanted to do it. We pretty much call our own shots and do our own artwork and all our designing from merchandise to videos to whatever.
DRE: Thats funny because Megaforce is not a small label.
Rick: Well I dont really know any other bands on that label right now. Its like us and Ministry. I know they made it in the 80s with Metallica and everything but I didnt even know Megaforce was still a label until they approached us. I know theyve got a lot of big backing and hopefully theyll be getting our material out there. I hope it works because it didnt work on Universal.
DRE: How did you decide on Chad Calek to direct the music video Simple Survival?
Rick: We heard of him because on the cover of Revolver Magazine, it said The documentary that Slipknot doesnt want you to see. I wondered what the hell that was. The article talked about how they couldnt get this documentary about the music scene out and how Slipknot ripped off all their fans and screwed over all these people and at the end of it, it says The director also hints on the fact that Slipknot ripped off Mushroomhead and Im like what the hell? This guy is putting out documentaries about us and we didnt know about it. So I went on the internet and I wound up tracking the guy down and made contact with him. He flew out here to show us his documentary and he said he wanted to do a music video for us. Weve always shot our own videos and we wanted someone else to see what they could come up with.
DRE: Whats the concept of the video?
Rick: We shot it here in Cleveland. Theres an old building out there, its like an old Bible press, and Jeffrey Nothings friend actually owns the building. This whole building looks like a Hollywood movie set but everything was falling apart and its just completely crumbling within itself. It was the perfect location to do a dark creepy video but we ended up doing a pretty straight up video. Its the band jamming in all these different settings with creepy camera angles. There was some really cool imagery going on but theres no other premise or any crazy hijinx in the video or anything like that.
DRE: Since your producer Steve Felton is in the band, what is his role as producer?
Rick: Hes been the producer since day one. The band produces itself, but at the end of the day hes the guy that pitches if the idea is good or bad or moves things around or works on vocal lines or arranging the songs and everything. It was really good this time around. A lot of people in the band had a lot to say in a lot of the things. I had more input on this record than I did the last one which is exciting for me. But hes good. He knows the band and knows what hes doing.
DRE: So you still think that Slipknot ripped you guys off?
Rick: We dont think it, we know it. In Cleveland, ask anyone on the street and theyll tell you Slipknot ripped off Mushroomhead because its undeniable.
DRE: Was it the label or was it the band?
Rick: The label, Roadrunner Records, knows Mushroomhead. Roadrunner was talking to Mushroomhead about signing a deal. Mushroomhead decided not to go with the deal. Roadrunner had pictures, videos, CDs; everything from old Mushroomhead look which is pretty much the Slipknot look. We had nine members, we had the orange jumpsuit with the barcodes on them, our drummer had a gas mask, our bass player wore a pig mask. The one guy wore a bondage mask, the other guy wore a clown mask. So two years later after Mushroomhead turns down Roadrunner, they obviously went out and found some band and dress them up. They knew that the timing was right for a theatrical masked band to come out and make it huge. Thats pretty much where that goes from there. Weve never met those guys; weve never talked to them. We just took the higher road when we first came out. We didnt want to come out bashing them or saying things because they were so popular and we broke the mainstream after they did. We didnt want people to start hating us but people were calling us a rip-off band and all this shit. But we were doing this three years prior, how are we ripping them off? We had our own thing. We have the material to prove it. They dont have anything. Chads documentary talks about all these bands from Iowa that were affiliated with Slipknot when they were underground and how all these bands helped them out but as soon as they got big, they didnt help anybody out. So I guess a lot of people in Iowa were pretty salty. From what I hear, Iowa doesnt even like Slipknot because they claim to be from Des Moines but they all live in California and Florida. I think one guy in that band lives in Des Moines, Iowa. We played our first show in Iowa which I thought was going to be bad. I thought kids were going to be throwing stuff at us but the show was sold out. I was talking to fans afterward and I was like I thought we were going to get hated on and there would be protestors. They were like Why? We love you guys. I was like well because of Slipknot and they were like Fuck Slipknot. They claim to be from this town but weve never even heard of them until they got signed to Roadrunner Records. But whatever, there are so many stories. A lot of the controversy between us and them was Mushroomhead fans versus Slipknot fans spreading rumors all over the message boards and things like that.
DRE: Besides playing in the band, what do feel your role is within the band?
Rick: The other side of what I do is a lot of Photoshopping and setting up photo shoots for the band and handling merchandise ordering and designing merch. I put the packaging for the CD together for this one. Aside from handling all of the business aspects, at the end of the day I do the programming and the samples and all the effects for the album. Im not the song writer of the band therefore I do the things that other people dont have the time to worry about.
DRE: But do you feel like you do have an influence on the song writing as well?
Rick: I wouldnt say so much. The song writers in the band are Gravy and Shmotz but sometimes what Ill add to the songs might change the feel of it or change around how it might be looked at, which happened on a couple of songs on the record.
DRE: How do you guys plan on keeping your artistic freedom if things get bigger?
Rick: Every deal weve signed, we always have a say in what everything winds up looking like. If they want to do a magazine ad, we want to see it beforehand because we dont like to be misrepresented like we have been. Weve built this whole idea of a band and its image and we always want to make sure its put across the right way. We dont want someone making a wrong decision and make a design that wont represent the band properly. Though it comes with the territory that you have to let things go and you have to give up certain things that you want to control because people are going to be doing it for you. You have to play ball in that sense because its just that big.
DRE: Howd you come up with your character?
Rick: Originally when the look was what it was prior, everyone just came up with their own character. It was no rules, anything goes. Go to the local costume shop, grab a mask, get a jumpsuit from the thrift store. It was just like a costume party. Everyone always wore different things all the time. As it evolved and everything, everyone became their own character but then when Slipknot came out, we changed and went to the black masks with the military outfits. But we still got hell for changing. With the new album, we wanted to head back more to characters and have more individuality again because weve been the same thing for four years. So we worked with our mask maker, Dave Grayhouse, and everyone gave him ideas and pointers on what they wanted their mask to look like. Then everyone did their own thing and everyone put together their own outfits. The look is still evolving so its going to change from day to day but were definitely going for more characterization. We almost look like horror movie characters or something like that.
DRE: What are the Mushroomhead groupies like?
Rick: [laughs] I dont know if Id be incriminating myself. Its weird because our fan base is mainly guys even though there are a lot of girls but the problem is that at the end of the day I care more about getting off-stage and actually talking to fans rather than looking for some slut. Also when you see us, were in the masks. Therefore I get off stage and Im just a guy at the show. So we dont really see the whole rock star groupie scene. A couple other guys in the band are married and actually are committed to their relationship and things like that, but Im not. Im single and 26 and ready to go. If see some hot Goth chick, Im all over it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official website for Mushroomhead
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you guys going on tour?
Rick Thomas: Yeah, the bus just pulled up pretty much and were getting ready to leave tomorrow at midnight.
DRE: So you had some time off?
Rick: Yeah. We pretty much had the whole summer off aside from finishing up the record. Then we were chilling out and not doing much. Were just getting ready to get on the road and crank up all the new material, get the new show together and basically just do all the little things that we have to do.
DRE: Are you still living in Cleveland?
Rick: Yeah, thats where were at right now.
DRE: How was it being home?
Rick: Being home is cool but after youre home for a while, youre ready to leave because you get sick of it. You come back and you have to deal with everyone elses drama and everyone elses problems. Basically the only reason to come home is for family basically, but once youre here for a while sitting around, you dont know what to do with yourself. We dont have day jobs so we get bored. Were sitting around waiting to go on tour because at least you get to do something every day.
DRE: Do you still have friends there?
Rick: Yeah, I have friends. Not as many as I used to because when youre a little older, friends start disappearing and start dwindling down. They get married or move away, but Ive got a small handful of friends that I actually can trust and rely on. Everyone else is only your friend to get something out of you. Theres a lot of that around here.
DRE: But you guys did just play a show out there in Cleveland, right?
Rick: Yeah, last Wednesday at Peabodys. We debuted new material that were going to do on the new tour just to get our feet wet with it and try to find out whats wrong or if anything needed to be changed around or switched. That went over very well. A lot of the kids knew the songs already and were singing along and that was very cool.
DRE: So you feel like releasing some songs on the internet was working for you guys?
Rick: Well it was the day after the album had come out but I know a lot of people had downloaded it though. Im really not a huge fan of the whole pirating downloaded stuff because it screws over the artist at the end of the day. When people arent buying your record, you cant survive. The whole album somehow got leaked over a month ago and that was a big blow to us. The whole album was available for download at all these pirated sites for a month which hurts your sales quite dramatically. If youre Metallica or a band thats selling millions of records, thats one thing. But when youre an underground band that only sells a hundred thousand copies, you need those extra sales to survive.
DRE: Hows Waylon doing?
Rick: Its good. Its been two years now since hes been in the band but this is the first album with him. Hes excited because now hes going out doing his own stuff, not playing other peoples stuff. Before he was singing all of J. Manns lyrics and now its music he was a part of so its probably going to be a little more personal and fun for him. Hes been finding his niche in the band and things have been going fine. Nothings really stopped since hes been in.
DRE: Did the writing change with Waylon at all?
Rick: Yeah, because he could do more than just do the yelling. He could actually sing and harmonize and have a lot of different vocal styles so we play with that a lot and work with him on that more. We asked what this kid could actually do and I said make him scream and he actually came out with some pretty good stuff. Every time theres a part where Jeffrey Nothings singing, hes always backing him up with the harmonies. Thats something the band never had before so its pretty cool.
DRE: Will you always play older Mushroomhead stuff?
Rick: Yeah, well still be playing older Mushroomhead stuff. Therere certain songs that we have to play because fans are not going to stop liking the songs. Eventually the more albums you put out the harder it is to play the old stuff but theres always going to be a good chunk of songs from the old material.
DRE: I heard you guys had some kind of radio cage fight with Evanescence.
Rick: I heard about that. I guess some radio station does these cage matches or something where when a new single comes out for a band, they play it against another single that just came out and fans call in and vote for which one they like better. I guess in a lot of markets, our single was released the same time as Evanescence and in some spots we were beating out Evanescence, which is cool.
DRE: I didnt even know Evanescence was still around.
Rick: I didnt know either. Its funny because a month ago, I thought the same thing. The thought crossed my mind What ever happened to Evanescence? They just completely disappeared. Now a month later I hear were beating them out on the radio. Im like theyre still a band? I though they broke up. I had no idea but thats cool. Theyve sold a lot of records. They had their moment there for a while. They were pretty big.
DRE: Could Mushroomhead become a radio friendly band?
Rick: Im hoping. Thats what were trying to do with the new record because without hits on the radio, its pretty hard to stay alive because the underground isnt what it used to be. People just dont buy CDs like they used to so you really have to push forward and try to get your music out there. But I really hope we get some good commercial exposure because it does nothing but help.
DRE: At this point, besides the touring and stuff you normally do, what do you think has to be done in order to make Mushroomhead a popular radio band?
Rick: I think its a matter of the program directors getting behind the music and actually liking and believing in it. Ive heard total crap on the radio. Theres nothing pleasant about radio, nothing catchy, nothing anything. But they play it so much because the program director likes it and then the general managers wind up liking it because its shoved down their throat everyday. If you play something for people over and over and over again, eventually theyre probably going to start liking it because the radios telling them to. But we never seem to get that push which I dont really understand. Were not forced in anyones faces and thats what needs to be done. Were the band everyone knows about but they never hear or see from us.
DRE: It seems like the labels really into it. Theyve given you guys a 3D cover.
Rick: That was all us actually. We wanted to do it because we figured well, with all this pirating and downloading, how do you make the incentive for people to buy the CD? You make special packaging or you make bonus tracks, so Skinny and I came up with the idea of doing the seven different covers so you could actually collect every single band member. That helps a lot because you have those crazy fans that want the collectibles and every time they buy them, it gives you an extra scan. Then we did the limited edition 3D one too at Best Buy so it was actually eight different covers. That was all our idea and they actually werent into it at first. But then when they saw it printed, thats when they were like Okay, well now we see why you wanted to do it. We pretty much call our own shots and do our own artwork and all our designing from merchandise to videos to whatever.
DRE: Thats funny because Megaforce is not a small label.
Rick: Well I dont really know any other bands on that label right now. Its like us and Ministry. I know they made it in the 80s with Metallica and everything but I didnt even know Megaforce was still a label until they approached us. I know theyve got a lot of big backing and hopefully theyll be getting our material out there. I hope it works because it didnt work on Universal.
DRE: How did you decide on Chad Calek to direct the music video Simple Survival?
Rick: We heard of him because on the cover of Revolver Magazine, it said The documentary that Slipknot doesnt want you to see. I wondered what the hell that was. The article talked about how they couldnt get this documentary about the music scene out and how Slipknot ripped off all their fans and screwed over all these people and at the end of it, it says The director also hints on the fact that Slipknot ripped off Mushroomhead and Im like what the hell? This guy is putting out documentaries about us and we didnt know about it. So I went on the internet and I wound up tracking the guy down and made contact with him. He flew out here to show us his documentary and he said he wanted to do a music video for us. Weve always shot our own videos and we wanted someone else to see what they could come up with.
DRE: Whats the concept of the video?
Rick: We shot it here in Cleveland. Theres an old building out there, its like an old Bible press, and Jeffrey Nothings friend actually owns the building. This whole building looks like a Hollywood movie set but everything was falling apart and its just completely crumbling within itself. It was the perfect location to do a dark creepy video but we ended up doing a pretty straight up video. Its the band jamming in all these different settings with creepy camera angles. There was some really cool imagery going on but theres no other premise or any crazy hijinx in the video or anything like that.
DRE: Since your producer Steve Felton is in the band, what is his role as producer?
Rick: Hes been the producer since day one. The band produces itself, but at the end of the day hes the guy that pitches if the idea is good or bad or moves things around or works on vocal lines or arranging the songs and everything. It was really good this time around. A lot of people in the band had a lot to say in a lot of the things. I had more input on this record than I did the last one which is exciting for me. But hes good. He knows the band and knows what hes doing.
DRE: So you still think that Slipknot ripped you guys off?
Rick: We dont think it, we know it. In Cleveland, ask anyone on the street and theyll tell you Slipknot ripped off Mushroomhead because its undeniable.
DRE: Was it the label or was it the band?
Rick: The label, Roadrunner Records, knows Mushroomhead. Roadrunner was talking to Mushroomhead about signing a deal. Mushroomhead decided not to go with the deal. Roadrunner had pictures, videos, CDs; everything from old Mushroomhead look which is pretty much the Slipknot look. We had nine members, we had the orange jumpsuit with the barcodes on them, our drummer had a gas mask, our bass player wore a pig mask. The one guy wore a bondage mask, the other guy wore a clown mask. So two years later after Mushroomhead turns down Roadrunner, they obviously went out and found some band and dress them up. They knew that the timing was right for a theatrical masked band to come out and make it huge. Thats pretty much where that goes from there. Weve never met those guys; weve never talked to them. We just took the higher road when we first came out. We didnt want to come out bashing them or saying things because they were so popular and we broke the mainstream after they did. We didnt want people to start hating us but people were calling us a rip-off band and all this shit. But we were doing this three years prior, how are we ripping them off? We had our own thing. We have the material to prove it. They dont have anything. Chads documentary talks about all these bands from Iowa that were affiliated with Slipknot when they were underground and how all these bands helped them out but as soon as they got big, they didnt help anybody out. So I guess a lot of people in Iowa were pretty salty. From what I hear, Iowa doesnt even like Slipknot because they claim to be from Des Moines but they all live in California and Florida. I think one guy in that band lives in Des Moines, Iowa. We played our first show in Iowa which I thought was going to be bad. I thought kids were going to be throwing stuff at us but the show was sold out. I was talking to fans afterward and I was like I thought we were going to get hated on and there would be protestors. They were like Why? We love you guys. I was like well because of Slipknot and they were like Fuck Slipknot. They claim to be from this town but weve never even heard of them until they got signed to Roadrunner Records. But whatever, there are so many stories. A lot of the controversy between us and them was Mushroomhead fans versus Slipknot fans spreading rumors all over the message boards and things like that.
DRE: Besides playing in the band, what do feel your role is within the band?
Rick: The other side of what I do is a lot of Photoshopping and setting up photo shoots for the band and handling merchandise ordering and designing merch. I put the packaging for the CD together for this one. Aside from handling all of the business aspects, at the end of the day I do the programming and the samples and all the effects for the album. Im not the song writer of the band therefore I do the things that other people dont have the time to worry about.
DRE: But do you feel like you do have an influence on the song writing as well?
Rick: I wouldnt say so much. The song writers in the band are Gravy and Shmotz but sometimes what Ill add to the songs might change the feel of it or change around how it might be looked at, which happened on a couple of songs on the record.
DRE: How do you guys plan on keeping your artistic freedom if things get bigger?
Rick: Every deal weve signed, we always have a say in what everything winds up looking like. If they want to do a magazine ad, we want to see it beforehand because we dont like to be misrepresented like we have been. Weve built this whole idea of a band and its image and we always want to make sure its put across the right way. We dont want someone making a wrong decision and make a design that wont represent the band properly. Though it comes with the territory that you have to let things go and you have to give up certain things that you want to control because people are going to be doing it for you. You have to play ball in that sense because its just that big.
DRE: Howd you come up with your character?
Rick: Originally when the look was what it was prior, everyone just came up with their own character. It was no rules, anything goes. Go to the local costume shop, grab a mask, get a jumpsuit from the thrift store. It was just like a costume party. Everyone always wore different things all the time. As it evolved and everything, everyone became their own character but then when Slipknot came out, we changed and went to the black masks with the military outfits. But we still got hell for changing. With the new album, we wanted to head back more to characters and have more individuality again because weve been the same thing for four years. So we worked with our mask maker, Dave Grayhouse, and everyone gave him ideas and pointers on what they wanted their mask to look like. Then everyone did their own thing and everyone put together their own outfits. The look is still evolving so its going to change from day to day but were definitely going for more characterization. We almost look like horror movie characters or something like that.
DRE: What are the Mushroomhead groupies like?
Rick: [laughs] I dont know if Id be incriminating myself. Its weird because our fan base is mainly guys even though there are a lot of girls but the problem is that at the end of the day I care more about getting off-stage and actually talking to fans rather than looking for some slut. Also when you see us, were in the masks. Therefore I get off stage and Im just a guy at the show. So we dont really see the whole rock star groupie scene. A couple other guys in the band are married and actually are committed to their relationship and things like that, but Im not. Im single and 26 and ready to go. If see some hot Goth chick, Im all over it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 13 of 13 COMMENTS
Fuck, I think all bands would be better off wearing masks.
Remember when KISS took off their makeup!