INTERVIEW: Corey Taylor on Stone Sour's New Album 'Hydrograd'

Following the release of 2012 and 2013's House of Gold & Bones (Parts 1 & 2), Stone Sour set out to do one thing this year: make a "kick-ass rock and roll album" (in Corey Taylor's own words), and the band has definitely achieved that with their latest record Hydrograd.

Hydrograd is Stone Sour's sixth studio album, and first album in four years since 2013's House of Gold & Bones - Part 2, the second part of their double concept album. The band's new album is the band's first record to feature guitarist Christian Martucci and bassist Johny Chow since each joining the band in 2014, and features previously released singles "Fabuless" and "Song #3" (which is ironically not the third song on the album).

On the "Evolution" of Stone Sour

Stone Sour's Johny Chow has called Hydrograd a departure from from the band's previous albums -- a sentiment that Corey Taylor echoes, but calls it more of an "evolution" than a departure.

"It is kind of a departure, but not really. To me, it's more of an evolution, Corey explains. "It's taking everything that we've done on the last few albums, and really honing it down and turning that diversity into more cohesion and really finding the strength in the song to be able to express ourselves through all of these different genres that we've always dipped our toes in, whether it's hard rock, or heavy, or metal, or just rock and roll, or straight up punk, or even in one of the cases a bit of California country." 

Taylor adds, "I don't think it's so much a departure, as it is just becoming more of what Stone Sour really means."

On the Writing/Recording process and "The Best Stuff the Band has Written"

With the evolution of Stone Sour, comes "the best stuff the band has written," in Corey's own words. He explains that not only is the songwriting and recording better, but each member of the band has really stepped up in different ways to make this new music the best it can be. He especially praises drummer Roy Mayorga, and calls Hydrograd is "coming out party." He tells us:

"I did say it was the best stuff that the band has ever written. It's very true. I think the songwriting is stronger, I think the energy in the recording is better, and I think that comes down to the way we recorded it, which was live in the room. No click, no grid, no beat detective, no auto tune, no fake guitar sounds, everything was real. That really allowed the songs to become very alive and very exciting. I also think that it's some of our strongest performances, obviously it's our first album with Christian [Martucci] and with Johny [Chow], and those guys shine like crazy. And with Roy [Mayorga], this is really his coming out party. People are really going to start looking at him very differently, [he's] just one of the best drummers on the planet. Josh really experimenting, doing all these crazy things, it's some of the best music that we've ever created as a band, and I hope that people listen to my singing and my writing and just can see where I'm at from a personal standpoint and from a professional standpoint. I feel like it's my best work that I've done in a long time and I don't really care if people don't hear it, say it's heavy or whatnot. It's just really good straight up rock and roll and it's amazing."

Also part of this album being their best work, is that the band had an amazing time recording it. "It was just one of those things where we enjoyed every second of it," Corey explains. "We laughed everyday, we came in early, we left late. I've never been a part of a recording process like that and we still talk to this day about just how much we enjoyed it." He adds of the writing/recording process:

"The whole experience was just a great moment, to be honest. From soup to nuts, whether it was working on the demos at Roy's place and recording everything in his garage and doing it old school like that, or just going out for lunch, coming back and laughing and just having a great time with my buddies. Whether it was that or going into the studio and really exceeding the expectations of the demos and pushing each other to be better, to sound better, to do better, and knowing that you weren't going to get negativity in return, it was all positive. It was the best time I've ever had making an album and I haven't had this much fun since I made the first Slipknot album. It was that good and this is going to make it very hard for me to make any other albums in the future any other way. It's just that damn good."

On the meaning behind "Song #3"

One of Hydrograd's singles is "Song #3," and fans will notice that despite the song's title, it's not the third song on the album, it's actually the fifth song. But Corey tells us of the song:

"As a writer you just want to write. You just want to continue to write the best stuff that you can, and it always felt like I had this potential to write a really great rock song, and just one of those big epic rock tunes that is full of emotion, makes you think about current relationships, past relationships, that heavy passion you want in your love life and whatnot. For me, that's what 'Song #3' was, was about that passion that overcomes any obstacle and grips your heart. It's just that good honest passion that can come from meeting someone that you love. The reason it is called 'Song #3' is a secret."