Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin Freestyle Raps, Open to Writing for Other Genres
Puddle of Mudd's support of the Welcome to Galvania album, their first record in a decade, was interrupted by the pandemic, but singer Wes Scantlin made use of the downtime and actually enjoyed the break over the past year. Speaking with the Sofa King Cool podcast (as heard below), he revealed it was a rather productive and prolific period creatively.
"I actually love this awesome artistic break just to write songs and record and just kind of be a little bit mellow because that's all I do is write songs," said Scantlin, adding, "I've got 75 songs right now, and I believe that I've got about six or seven just ultra jammers and some killer b-sides. It's just a lot of fun and a little bit more aggressive on this next record." Speaking about the song choice process, he added, "The big dogs shine, but the other little b-sides, they're fun just to jam. It really is a hassle to choose."
Elaborating on his love of writing, Scantlin then suggested, "All I wanna do is write music and I'll write music for anybody and I'll do any genre of music easily."
He admitted that the idea of crossing over to country has been mentioned to him in the past, but he also shared his love for hip-hop music as well. "I used to be a breakdancer when I was like 10, 11, 12-years-old and I saw the whole rap scene, hip-hop scene coming up. I was a little toe-headed white kid, a little honky, and break fighting with people," said Scantlin. "I was at the forefront of the whole hip-hop movement myself and I've been hip-hopping for a long, long time."
While breakdancing was a big part of his youth, he reveals that his dancing fascination has never really left. "I used to do a little pop. My name was Popalicious, but I like to dance. I dance everyday. It's hilarious sitting here listening to the song by Prince called 'Kiss,' and once I hear that beat I just get up and start dancing," says the singer. "I say a nice prayer to God and thank him for all the nice things he's done for my life and I just start dancing alone in the middle of the living room. I'm the biggest dork, goofball you've ever seen in your life."
Scantlin says he doubts he would dabble in rap, but he was open to production opportunities and even fired off a freestyle rap when prompted by the interviewer. Check that out at 16:57 in the player below.
During the chat, the vocalist also shared his desire to eventually see a movie based on his life (and potentially including the ascent of some of his nu metal era peers) taken on, and he would like to have Fred Durst direct it. Check out more of the chat below.