Mudvayne’s guitarist Greg Tribbett sometimes goes under the alias Gurrg or Guug (this second pseudonym comes with the French accents – the short dash – over each u) and sometimes paints his face and once in a while takes on the identity of an alien. Notwithstanding those embroideries, he is truly a player full of unique ideas. On The New Game, their fourth CD, he doesn’t wear cake makeup but he does apply healthy dollops of wah-wah, acoustic guitar, and clean tones to the eleven new tracks here. In fact, Tribbett so mixes it up, that a lot of listeners may be taken slightly aback when first hearing songs like "Never Enough," "Scarlet Letters," and "A Cinderella Story". In that respect, the Peoria, Illinois native has brought a new face to Mudvayne’s music. And he didn’t have to use lip gloss or cheek rouge to make his point.
UG: Mudvayne seems particularly indebted to their fans. You try to make CDs and concert tickets available to them at discount prices and you truly seem cognizant of their wants and desires.
Greg Tribbett: Oh, it’s definitely accurate. We always try to pay back to our fans; they’re the reason we’re here so we need to respect that. Without them we wouldn’t have the life that we have; so yeah, we definitely do that.
Where did the Album As a Ticket concept come from?
Uh, it was a concept that we all talked about and wanted to do something to where it was like a bundle so somebody didn’t have to spend a hundred dollars or so to get into our fan club, to get the record, a DVD; we’re gonna stream a live show at the end of this tour also so they can get that. We’re just trying to make it a better bargain for our fans; instead of going out and buying a CD, a DVD, and all this other stuff for $120. So you can do all of this for $40.
Are you as a band seeking to expand the boundaries of the metal style as it were? A song like “Do What You Do” with its acoustic pieces suggests that you are seeking to push things along in front of you.
Um, I think it’s more of a natural progression for us; I think we never want to write the same record, you know. And we’re rockin’ and I don’t think we want to be put in a certain genre either; whether it’s a metal band or a light rock band or pop band or whatever you want to call it. We’re just kind of maturing; we’ve been touring and writing records for ten years now and it’s easier for us to write and we’re more tasteful about what we’re doing, I think.
Has that acoustic element always been a part of your style?
Umm, well, it’s something that we wanted to do on this record for sure. I used it before but not as prominent as it is on this record. Like “Scarlet Letters,” for instance; that song is definitely a venture out for us but we thought the song was cool and as long as we’re happy with it, we’re happy. We’re not trying to please a whole bunch of people and fit into a genre per so, you know.
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| "We’re not trying to please a whole bunch of people and fit into a genre per so." |
If it raises eyebrows or causes someone to respond, “That’s different,” then that’s the response you’re looking for?
Yeah, man, I think we’re always trying to raise eyebrows no matter what we do.
What about that track, “Scarlet Letters?” There’s the 12-string as part of the rhythm track; is the song still built initially on electrics and then acoustics are added?
I build it off the electric guitar and I wrote the picking pattern first; I had the whole idea in my head first before I even wrote it. And then I kind of sat down and figured out the picking patterns, figured out the chords, and figured out a bridge for it. I figured out the bridge while we were actually jamming live on that song and wrote it on the spot; it was like a ten-minute thing. And it just happened and it fit into the song so well and we were like, “Let’s put the song together.”
Were you following acoustic guitarists when you began playing?
Absolutely; I’m a big fan of Led Zeppelin so you can throw that in the mix if you want.
That answers a lot of questions.
Yeah; a lot of my chord work and my progressions was from Jimmy Page.
When people think about Mudvayne, is their first impulse to think about a song like “A New Game,” the semi- title of the new album (The New Game)? Or would it be songs like “Scarlet Letters” and “Do What You Do”?
Uh, I don’t know, man. I think a lot nowadays people are associating us with, of course, “A New Game.” And then they associate us with like “Happy?” and “Not Falling” just because we happened to reach a lot of people ‘cause there was so much airplay on the songs. I think that’s what people associate us with. Even new fans, they go, “Oh, yeah, they’ve got that song named ‘Happy,’ right?” It’s kind of like that.
Interesting.
It is pretty interesting.
Truly. Because the first assumption someone would make about Mudvayne is they’re only about the intense rhythm thing and the screamed vocals.
Right. You see, that’s why we kind of stay away from that; there are a zillion bands out there that sound like that. That’s why we wanna really concentrate on making our own sound and especially with the four musicians in this band. Only the four musicians in this band could be Mudvayne; if one of us left it just wouldn’t happen no more.
Another side of Mudvayne is revealed in “A Cinderella Story” that has a kind of prog feel to it. This sounds like a riff that belongs in a Yes song. Does that ring true with you?
Oh, it totally makes sense to me, man; it’s like a scale riff. Dangita dangita dangita dangita duh dup (sings riff). It’s a cool riff I came up with when I was messing with it and I brought it to the band and everybody loved it. So it was, “Alright, let’s roll with it.” We can be sitting around just jamming, you know, and I’ll be jamming around while they’re doing something and somebody will hear something and I’ll be like, “Well, put a beat to that or something.”
How important is producer Dave Fortman to this process?
Oh, man, he’s been real important. We get along with him and he’s a great musician and a great drummer. An all-around musician; he’s got great ears. We bounce ideas off of him and it just really comes together with Dave Fortman; he’s just a really good producer.
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| "We wanna really concentrate on making our own sound and especially with the four musicians in this band." |
Dave had made some statements online about there being some elements of more vintage rock on the album. We talked about the Zeppelin stuff already.
Yeah, it’s encouraging to hear that you were surprised by how the record sounds and by the songs because that’s what we set out to do. We don’t wanna sound like the last record.
Talking about earlier records, your cover of the Police’s “King of Pain” on By the People, For the People compilation was an interesting choice. You’re a Police fan?
Yeah, for sure. We actually covered that song like nine years ago. We did it in a demo form and we started talking about throwing a cover on there and everybody was like, “Well, let’s re-record it again and put it on there.” That’s how it happened.
The entire format of By the People, For the People was pretty unique with the little spoken sections before each track and everything.
Yeah, we did the little spoken sections to kind of explain what the song was or whatever. But all the songs were picked by our fans.
Which reaches back to the first statement about how important Mudvayne’s fans are to the band.
Right; even all the artwork and the record cover was drawn by a fan; it’s all fan-oriented.
“Never Enough” was a really good song; I dug it.
We did too! That originated on an electric guitar. We just started writing for Lost and Found and it was a riff I was playing around with in rehearsal and Chad happened to be in there, I think, with me and I was kinda humming this melody or whatever. It was real hooky and we just kinda stopped and it was like, “Work on that riff, man,” and I worked on that riff and came back with the full song the next day or something like that.
Would you be able to play a song like “Never Enough” live?
Umm, yeah, sure. I would probably play it on an electric guitar on a really clean channel. Because to me, I don’t try to duplicate the recordings live. I’m one guitar player, man, you can hear all the overdubs. To us, the studio is completely different from live and that’s what gives us a variation of the song, you know. If I have to hire two other guitar players and backup singers, it ain’t happening.
Changing speeds for a second, what is it that you get creativelyfrom the Hellyeah project that you don’t get from Mudvayne?
Uh, all of the riffs are in 4/4.
Is that true?
(Laughs) It’s absolutely true! That band is a straight up 4/4 rock band compared to Mudvayne being the metal, quote, or whatever band, it’s a completely different process. I don’t have to think as much in Hellyeah and I can drink more (much laughter).
Now we’re getting at the crux of the matter.
Of course!
Then you songs you bring into Hellyeah could never translate into a Mudvayne riff?
No, man; it’s just a totally different vibe. And we definitely want to keep both bands separate.
Do fans lay claim to you as their Mudvayne guitarist and don’t want you wandering off to do other projects?
Yeah, we did get that a little bit, you know. Umm, we probably still get it; we can tell. But I mean, it’s something me and Chad wanted to do and I think our fans understand. And of course we’ll have our haters out there. “Hellyeah sucks! When are ya coming back to Mudvayne?” All this other shit. It’s all good, man. Me and Chad really wanted to do it and we did it and we’re playing with Vinnie Paul, dude. I mean, what else can I say?
Back in the day when you were dressing up and going by the alter egos and stuff, were you any type of a different guitarist?
I wouldn’t say that, man; I think I’ve always been the same guitar player. I think that I’ve grown as a guitar player in the past ten years that’s for sure. With the ability to play live and just expand my art of playing the guitar. But as far as wearing the paint and all that other stuff, it doesn’t affect my guitar playing; it affects my state of mind when I get on stage.
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| "Now it’s easier for us to write and we’re more tasteful about what we’re doing." |
You’re doing that guitar playing on a Washburn?
Yeah, the Washburn V; we went out with the Signature series actually.
What is it about the V that attracted you? It’s not the world’s easiest guitar to play.
Yeah, I don’t know; I’ve always liked Vs. I mean, I love Les Pauls and all that stuff but to me they’re just more bulky. For some reason and I don’t know what it is, I just love Vs. Randy Rhoads.
There weren’t many V players around.
Randy Rhoads did it; Zakk Wylde plays Vs (on rare occasion). I’m just a fan of ‘em and now I’ve got my whole line of Vs and I’m happy (laughs).
You work with so many different tones: the overdriven thing, the clean sound, the picking effects. What is your fallback sound? Where does it all start?
It just depends on what heads I would use. Right now, I’m using a Randall RM100 with the switch out modules. Right now, I’m using an Ultra module for my dirty sound; and a Blackface for clean sounds. It’s just a matter of dialing up an EQ for me. Some amps have more noise, some amps have less; so you don’t want to use as much treble, you don’t want to use as much presence. Bring out the buzz more, you know what I’m saying.
Mudvayne has another record in the works currently?
We have another record that is done; in the hopper. And it sounds nothing like this record.
Is it meant to represent the sort of bookend to The New Game CD?
It’s some of the fastest stuff we’ve ever written. But it’s very diverse.
I’m glad I was proven wrong in assuming what kind of music I’d be hearing on this new record.
What did you think we were?
Just another straight up metal band with blast beats and the same old guitar riffs and unintelligible lyrics.
Well, that’s good, man, I’m glad you feel that way about the record. It makes me feel much better that we accomplished our goal. Awesome, man …
Interview by Steven Rosen
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