Stone Sour: Audio Secrecy Isn’t a Secret

By Jeannette Madden
Staff Writer

The Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Tour will be hitting Fargo Sunday, October 3, at the Fargo Dome. One of the headlining bands, Stone Sour, just released their new album “Audio Secrecy” and plays plenty of their new songs during the show. I talked to Stone Sour’s drummer, Roy Mayorga ,on the tour’s opening day at the Target Center in Minneapolis and asked him a few questions about the band and why “Audio Secrecy” is already so hot.

High Plains Reader: Can you give me a brief history of Stone Sour?

Roy: Okay, since I’m the new guy in the band I can give you some limited info on it. As far as I know the band started in ’92 originally but then they disbanded when Corey [Taylor, lead vocals] and Jim [James Root, guitar] joined Slipknot and then the band got resurrected again in 2001, I think, and they put out a record in 2002 – 2003. Toured, and then they stopped again for another couple of years. They met up with me, or I met up with them, and joined and made “Come Whatever May,” toured for a couple of years on that and now we’re here talking.

HPR: How did you get hooked up with them, or meet up with them?

Roy: A mutual friend, producer Nick Raskulinecz, an old friend of mine, called me out of the blue one day and said he needed drums on the “Come Whatever May” record. Their drummer at the time, Joel Ekman, quit the band so they were in dire straits. They called me and I agreed and I ended up joining the band after I recorded.

HPR Are you currently playing with anyone else besides Stone Sour?

Roy: Just Stone Sour, but I do play in another band called Ameobics from England when Stone Sour’s on hiatus.

HPR: What’s the difference between that band and Stone Sour?

Roy: Stone Sour’s a whole different animal. I mean, compared to Ameobics we’re corporate and we’re a hard rock band. Amoebics is DIY punk rock, an underground pock rock band that’s been around for 30 years and has a huge history. Totally different world, totally different scene.

HPR: What’s their history?

Roy: They started in 1978, they’re from Bristol, England and they came up through the second wave of punk in England with bands like Crass and Discharge, GBH and that whole era. That era of punk in England. They came out of that scene. More of the anarcho-anarchist punk movement. But, they disbanded in about 1987 - 1988, and then just got back together a couple of years ago, when I ended up being in the fold and kind of helped them resurrect their music. We became a band again and I became a part of it.

HPR: Are they like older than you? Because you don’t look that old.

Roy: They’re like five or six years older than me. We’re all well into our forties.

HPR: Tell me about influences of Stone Sour. I’m assuming it comes from everybody bringing stuff into it but are there any particular bands that influenced this band as a whole?

Roy: I can’t really speak for the other guys but for me I’d say my main influences come from like Zeppelin, Pink Floyd to punk rock to classic Motown, film scores and stuff like that are my inspirations to write.

HPR: On “Audio Secrecy” you wrote your first song for Stone Sour on an album?

Roy: My first song being published, yeah. There’s actually three that are on there. Threadbare, Nylon and Let’s Be Honest are the three that I was fortunate enough to get on the record.

HPR: What’s the usual writing process? Does everybody contribute?

Roy: Yeah, everyone did. Everyone pretty much took the individual route, you know, as we do. We don’t really live with each other so everyone on their own time wrote songs. Me, I had a little practice space recording studio built in for two years and I just basically locked myself in that room with my drums and my Pro Tools rig and guitar and bass and just went at it. You know, I wrote that way and then brought the demos into the guys and they learned my songs and put their twist on it and vice versa.

HPR: One of the things I was reading about Stone Sour, and I think it was something that Corey said, that Stone Sour is more about melody, that being in Stone Sour is almost like being a complete musician. Do you think that’s true? Is that still the case on “Audio Secrecy”?

Roy: Absolutely. It’s definitely a more well-rounded situation than the last two situations that we’ve had before. We have five different writers in the band so you’re going to have five different angles, five different vibes. So, it’s pretty well-rounded colorful palette of a record.

HPR: How is it working with Nick?

Roy: Amazing. I’ve been working with him on and off for the last ten years on other projects but we definitely gelled really well together on this. The chemistry between us and him, it fits like a glove. He’s like our sixth member. Definitely an amazing producer.

HPR: Who came up with the idea for the video “Say You’ll Haunt Me”?

Roy: Paul Brown, the director. He elaborated more on the Illuminati edge that we were going for and just went to a whole other level with it that we wouldn’t even have thought of so we’re just like right on. The first treatment out of the gate that he sent to us, we’re just like that’s it.

HPR: Who are your favorite bands?

Roy: My favorite bands? Zeppelin, Floyd, The Who, Rush.

HPR: So many of the bands that are popular now are using their status to promote causes they believe in. Do you guys promote anything?

Roy: We don’t really get into the whole political side of things, usually. Just kind of more stay with the music and we’re musicians, we’re not politicians. I have my own political ideas and beliefs but that’s more my thing.

HPR: I didn’t mean to say political. On this tour, Uproar, is promoting awareness of children that are…

Roy: Well, that’s one thing we definitely are behind and supporting and actually, Corey did a public service announcement on child abuse. Yeah, I support that. Not abusing children - I’m against abusing children! Let me rephrase that. I’m totally against child abuse but I’m totally for making people aware of it.

HPR: We’re good on that [laughing]. Tell me about your live performances. What can the crowd
expect from a Stone Sour show?

Roy: We don’t hold back, we don’t hold any punches back and we give two hundred percent every show. No tricks. Just the band, just the gear, our hearts and souls.

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If You Go

What: Stone Sour
Where: FargoDome
When: Sun, Oct 3
Info: 701.241.9100