GameZone Chats With P.O.D.’s Wuv

by Louis Bedigian

 

You’ve heard their new album.  You’ve seen ‘em perform live on MTV.  Now check out our exciting interview with the drummer of P.O.D.

 

 

From “Boom” to “Alive” and “Youth of the Nation,” P.O.D. has become one of today’s most influential rock bands.  Recently the band crossed over into the world of video games with the release of their latest CD.  If you haven’t picked it up yet, do yourself a favor and get it immediately.  It’s got 12 great new tracks for your listening pleasure, as well as a special interactive bonus track for PlayStation 2.

 

 

 

 

Earlier today, P.O.D.’s Wuv took a break from his busy schedule to tell us about the new record and its bonus content.

 

 

Tell us about your new record.  What can fans expect from your new material?

 

Wuv: They can definitely expect P.O.D. rock 'n' roll.  Probably one of the biggest things is [that] we had a guitar player change.  So obviously Truby coming into the band, bringing his own take on rock 'n' roll, his style of playing, and with that I think there's a lot more melody in these songs, guitar-wise and vocal-wise.  The music is probably just as heavy, if not even heavier than our previous records, but there's definitely a lot more melody on top of the music this time around.

 

Where did most of the inspiration for this album come from?

 

Wuv: I think we just wanted to bring it back roots.  I think once we got done with the last record and started picking up our instruments again back in San Diego we wanted to create a more relaxed vibe.  So we basically open the doors to our studio for all the homies to come around (Sonny and friends) and whenever they wanted to stop in they could and it was more of a relaxed atmosphere.  The vibes are definitely more positive, and just more relaxed, and I think that's where we got most of the inspiration for our songs.  We tried to keep it as relaxed as we could.

 

What is the song "Revolution" about?

 

Wuv: I think "Revolution" is talking about not necessarily a physical revolution, you know, a physical world, I think it's mostly talking about people that want to spark up change, and do it in themselves first before they can actually go out and voice a real revolution.  So I think it's more of an inner-revolution than anything, that's what that song is talking about mostly.

 

Is it difficult to create a unique musical sound and still be true to the band's original style?

 

Wuv: You know what we do man?  We plug in the guitars, start hitting the drums, come up with riffs.  And if we like what comes out of the speakers then that's what we do.

 

What is the image on the cover of your new record trying to symbolize?

 

Wuv: There's this poster that Sonny's mom had given him before she passed away, and it was an old LIFE magazine poster of a lady in a butterfly costume.  We were going around looking for artists that we thought were cool and we came across a guy, Daniel Martin Diaz.  So once we found him, we kind of dug his style.  We just gave him that poster and said, "Hey dude, why don't you...not duplicate this, but whatever you think your style would be of doing this portrait, why don't you try to start off with that?"  And this is what he came up with, his style of looking at that poster.

 

How much do you play games?  Are they are a big part of your life?

 

Wuv: (Laughs) The most I play video games on the tour bus is 24/7.  That's what you do to kill the time, you know what I mean?

 

What games in particular?

 

Wuv: I mostly play like the sports games like the Maddens and the NBA games.  I play the action/sports games like the TransWorld Surfing games, or the skating games, snowboarding games, all that kind of stuff.

 

Have you played the new Tony Hawk yet?

 

Wuv: I haven't played that, but I'm gonna scoop that up for my two sons.  They have all the Tony Hawks and they definitely wanna get this.

 

It's really good.

 

It looks like it's tight man.

 

Tell us about your involvement with Amplitude.

 

Wuv: They put one of our songs on their last game, the last Amplitude game.  So when it came time for us to do this record we were kind of just shooting off ideas on what we could package with our CD and give as much as we could to our fans and whatnot.  The opportunity came across with Sony PlayStation that would actually let us use that template and twist it up and make it more of a P.O.D. theme in the background.  So we wrote a song specifically for the game that you can only really hear on this Amplitude game that you get [with the new CD].  It's a cool game, you get to remix the songs a million different ways.

 

Did you work with the developer at all or did they handle all of the track remixing themselves?

 

Wuv: No, actually we did the remix stuff.  For us we had a couple of days to do it.  The idea was to switch up the song a little bit, so we got a whole bunch of friends.  So actually on the game that's packaged with our disc are four or five different artists doing verses over our music so you can remix it not only with the Sonny vocals but with a whole bunch of our friends' vocals as well.  So that was kind of cool, it made it a little more special.

 

Are you a fan of any other music games?

 

Wuv: I'm not aware of any other music games, so I can't really be a fan of them.  Amplitude is the only one I know.

 

Has music always been a big part of your life?

 

Wuv: Yeah, it's always been a big part of my life.  I came from a young family, and my dad was an old rock 'n' roller and he played drums and stuff, so I grew up listening to all the great rock 'n' roll bands of the 80s.  That was something that stuck with me -- playing music.

 

When did you begin playing the drums?

 

Wuv: I started playing when I was about five-years old.  I'm 30 now, so about 25 years.

 

What bands are you currently listening to?  What music genres do you prefer?

 

Wuv: I listen mostly to reggae music.  I love listening to the old roots reggae-type music.

 

Of all the bands you've had the luxury of sharing the stage with, who is your favorite?

 

Wuv: I actually had the opportunity to play with Santana.  We wrote a song for his new record, and we actually got to perform that song live with him at the Latin Grammy's last year.  Which was cool, for him to ask us to write a song for him for his new record was huge for us.  It was an honor.  That's one of the perks you get, it's cool.

 

P.O.D.'s music has always been pretty clean.  Does that have to do with the band's personal beliefs, or do you guys just feel that it's not necessary to use vulgar language?

 

Wuv: Yeah, I think mostly we just find it unnecessary.  I think consciously, you know, back in the day when we started the band, we always wanted to be a band that had a more positive role to it than negative, you know what I'm saying?  'Cause most of the bands that we look up to have that vibe running through them, you know like Bob Marley, U2 and Santana, [and] The Police.  So I think just consciously that's the kind of band that we wanted to be.  We have a lot of inspiration from our personal beliefs whether it be our faith in God, or whether it be our family or our friends, or the people who have been with us from the beginning and keep us true to who we really are.

 

What was the main thing that made you want to be in a band and become a rockstar?

 

Wuv: I think I speak for everybody, it wasn't necessarily like the vision of being a rockstar, it was more of the idea of making music, you know, creating something from nothing.  And once we got a taste of people enjoying our music it just motivated to keep us writing songs and records and it kind of snowballed from one thing to the next.  And here we are 13 years later selling records.

 

What are your favorite topics or situations to write about?

 

Wuv: I don't think we've been a band that ever really wrote about issues.  I think we just write more for what's going on right now, you know what I'm saying, what's going on around us right now.  Most of the time we come up with music first, and that kind of creates the vibe for how the song will go lyrically.  And we all kind of brainstorm and work on the choruses together, that's basically how the songs are created.

 

How did it feel the first time you heard one of your songs on the radio, and what was it like to see your video on MTV?

 

Wuv: It was cool man, it's a huge accomplishment to hear a song that you create actually get radio airplay.  And then you see what you've done musically and created visually and see it on TV.  It feels good, people are out there hearing you're music and they're actually enjoying it.  What more could you ask for?

 

Do you prefer nightclubs or big arenas?  What is your favorite place to perform in?

 

Wuv: For us it really doesn't matter.  We could play in front of 15 people just as long as we get to play.  We've been a band for 13 years man and that's the thing we do best is play live.  Whether it's in front of a handful of people, or a theatre, an arena.  I think each situation has its unique vibe.  It really don't matter.  The fun of playing the big stages is because it looks all huge and it looks rock 'n' roll-ish, and it's cool, but we'll take the clubs, we'll take the theatres, it doesn't really matter.

 

Where is your next tour going to take you?

 

Wuv: We're teaming up with Linkin Park in January which is gonna be all arenas.

 

How do you feel about touring?  Are you most content when on stage, or are you happy with the whole on-the-road experience?

 

Wuv: I think we're a band of the road.  We've been touring for ten years straight.  Once you get burned out of touring and whatnot you want to go home, but after a couple of months you're needing to go back on the road and do your thing.

 

Where do you prefer to write your music?  Do you guys write on tour or do you wait to go back home and write?

 

Wuv: Yeah, we never write on tour.  We always work the album for what it is, then after that's done we take a break.  Then a few months later the rest of the band will get together and we'll just start jamming, try to do this more fresh and more spur of the moment, rather than documenting songs while we're on the road.

 

Thank you for a great interview.  I love your new album, it's awesome.  It was a lot of fun reviewing it.

 

Wuv: Thanks man I appreciate it.

 

Also - check out GameZone's closer look at the album:

“Payable on Death” Rocks GameZone; New P.O.D. Album Includes Exclusive PS2 Content