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Mudvayne - Blank
Amsterdam, the day after the Slipknot show in Paradiso. I was reasonably hung over and tired, but totally ready for a Mudvayne show, which had been quite a while for me. But before I saw one of the best shows this year, I had the opportunity to interview bassist Ryan Martinie, one of my personal heroes.
 

So after three albums and a re-released demo, are you feeling happy?
 

 

Sure, why not you know.
 
All right, great. Why is there no facial paint or gimmicks with the release of Lost and Found?
 
Because god didn’t like it. He came down and said men wearing facial paint just makes me real mad. So we’re not gonna wear make-up anymore.
 
Never again?
 
No, god said no make-up. Not just him but every other being we come in contact with. They’re just hideous, telling us what to do, push us around because of the make-up. Just horrible.
 
Ok, no more make-up then. Next question, you’ve used a different producer with every album. Which producer has given you the best “Mudvayne” sound?
 
I think they’re each on to their own. I don’t really think it’s an option to make comparisons between them. You can say like this one is more ambient and this one is more raw but it’s not really in question or what I’m concerned with, or what people listening to it should be concerned with overall, even when reading it in a magazine. It’s not the first thing they listen to, they hear the songs and then they create the whole picture in their mind.

Do you have a personal favourite?
 
I like them all, equally. Or hate them all equally.

You hate them? Why?
 
Why not? It’s mine to hate.
 
But why hate something you created?
 
I love it, but I hate it at the same time. I can, so can you.

All right. How did you get to such a unique level of writing nu-metal?
 
First of all for me to say a unique level of writing metal is a little bit presumption based  I think. I’d hate to flatter myself by thinking that we’re creating something new but in theory it’s all been done.
 
Yeah but you’re putting it together in a different way, that counts for something doesn’t it?
 
Yes but to say that you’re creating something different is far fetched. We just part of a whole that is music’s existence. Therefore we are part of a long legacy that is music, that goes beyond lifespan.
 
Well in my opinion you’re doing something unique, I haven’t heard anything like Mudvayne ever.
 
Well thank you, I appreciate that. I’d say that our music is born from our own search, you know. We do what we wanna do and wherever we wanna go we’ll go. And that’s something that some of our fans expect you know, to keep changing. And whether people like it or not, we have no bearing of what direction we go, I’m not even concerned about people liking it. Yeah sure there are things you can do that’ll able you to play in front of more people and visit more countries, meet more people and experience more cultures which is a real cool thing in my life. Which I look forward to, and it gives me a real cool vehicle to do that .

But do you not agree that in the end you're standing there on stage for yourself?
 
You know, there’s a part of me that agrees with that completely, that there’s something very selfish about it, something that I need in my life. Personally speaking I need it in my life, because when I look back there were parts in my life that were very depressing and I was very down; and music helped me with that. So for me it’s not a choice, it’s a necessity in my life.
 
But also there is something beyond me, bigger than I am, the bigger picture you know. Something that is not defined by my existence, my existence in this band or this band’s existence per se.

So would you say Mudvayne has a musical goal then, as a foursome?
 
No, a goal is some kind of wish for an end, or a conclusion. Looking for some kind of answer to a certain question. And I think it’s much more broad than that as far for our approach, where not specifically looking for anything. Our channels are open to whatever we’re exposed to. And whatever comes to mind, whatever we want to bring to the situation we will. I think that’s something very satisfying about working in the context that we work in.

We promote inner beauty and ourselves and the music that we create, and leave a lot of space for people to interpret, even for you to make it you own and build your own relationship to it rather than telling people “this is what we’re doing, this is what it’s about, this is what it should mean”. I don’t know that seems to me to be a little redundant. It’s seems to me that a lot of music I really enjoy speaks for itself. It speaks to people and with people and connects them to something that’s them as it does for me. It connects me to something that is me, like I said I’m inseparable from it, part of who I am. And I think that it’s part of who everyone is.
 
Okay… back to a bullshit question then! Who do you prefer, the Terminator or Robocop?
 
(thinks long and hard)
 
Woody Allen!

Okay didn’t see that one coming! Next question, you got to tour with the biggest band that metal has ever seen, Metallica. What was that like?
 
Great, a great opportunity, they treated us with a great amount of respect. We’ve had more opportunities like that, opening up for Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne, so we’ve pretty much closed the book on opening up for legends. We feel very fortunate to have been introduced to them and to be able to open up for these legendary bands. They’ve actually changed music. It was not something that we ever expected.
 
Right, so that were pretty much all of my questions. Do you have anything to add for our readers?
 
(thinks long and hard again)
 
Blank.