Independent Perspective News

It's gonna be hard for Staind frontman Aaron Lewis to be his usual dour self on the band's fourth album. Last year's Break the Cycle has sold nearly five million copies, and the singer's wife recently gave birth to a daughter.

Aaron Lewis has had it pretty good these last 16 months.

Staind's Break the Cycle debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, selling more than 716,000 copies its first week. The disc, which is nearing the 5 million mark in sales, spawned five singles and a successful tour. In April, Lewis' wife gave birth to Zoe Jane.

So, after three emotionally tumultuous albums, what will the singer with a reputation for being among the most dour in rock draw upon for his next opus?

"It hasn't been all that bad," Lewis agreed of his mood over the past several months. But just because he's not as miserable as he seemed on 1999's Dysfunction or as angry as on 1996's Tormented, don't assume Staind have turned into a peppy pop band while you weren't looking.

"I don't think it will be happy, but it won't be so sad," Lewis said of Staind's still-untitled fourth album, which is partly being recorded in Los Angeles by Josh Abraham (Limp Bizkit, Crazy Town), who also produced Break the Cycle. Because some wounds never heal, there's still plenty of hurt to go around.

"Everything that happens to you in life, or throughout life, still sticks with you," he said. "And it still molds you and changes you and makes you the person that you are. So no matter how good things are going in your life, you still can't get away from the bad things that have occurred before. Some things just don't go away."

Drummer Jon Wysocki and bassist Johnny April have recorded their parts for the 17 songs the band has written, and guitarist Mike Mushok is now doing his parts. Lewis' vocals are the only piece of the puzzle missing. Since Staind intend to release the album around May, the same time of year that Break the Cycle hit stores (the old "if it ain't broke ..." philosophy), they'd be ahead of the game right now were it not for Lewis having to still write lyrics for some songs. He doesn't sweat deadlines, however.

"I don't have very many words yet," he said. "But I'm not feeling any pressure. It all comes when it's supposed to."

Wysocki, April and Mushok began working on the album in July, and, as is customary, Lewis entered the fray a few weeks later to add his input to the musical framework.

"I let the three of them work stuff out, and then I'll come in and, for lack of a better term, arrange ... . Then we kind of create the songs from the core songs that they had with my input. Once we get that squared away, then I start coming up with ideas. And all through that process I ask those guys for approval or disapproval on what I'm doing. It's a very open and democratic process."

Lewis described what has been hatched out so far as diverse but still noticeably Staind. One track in particular ranks among his favorites because it was written about what he considers to be the best thing that's ever happened to him.

"There's a song written about my little girl," he said.

"It's unbelievable," he continued, exposing the perks of fatherhood. "She sleeps between us, and I wake up in the morning to the sounds of her cooing or grabbing me by the face or trying to suck on my nose. It's such a better way to wake up in the morning. It gives you a reason to jump out of bed."