"It wasn't our plan to do an album of cover tunes," says Puddle of Mudd guitarist Paul Phillips of the group's new record, re:(disc)overed, due out 2 August. "We were on a bit of a break, during which time some touring offers came in. We didn't want to go out there without something new, and one day the idea of a covers album came up. The whole thing felt very exciting."

And with that, the band (which also consists of vocalist Wes Scantlin, bassist Paul Ardito and drummer Shannon Boone) who already included AC/DC's T.N.T. and Steve Miller's The Joker in their live show, drew up a wish list of other rock classics to fill out re:(disc)overed. "We tried to pick songs that inspired us, by artists who really influenced us," Phillips says. "With the exception of a couple of songs, we made our selections pretty quickly."

The songs were tracked with as few takes as possible; overdubs were kept to a minimum. “We really tried to stay true to the vibe of the originals and not murder the hell out of them. Pro Tooling our performances just isn’t out thing.”

While the guitarist expects Puddle Of Mudd to start recording an album of all-new material sometime early next year, he says that the band found the process of interpreting songs they grew up to be an important growth step.

“It was a lot of fun, but at the same time quite a challenge,” Phillips states. “‘Can we do these songs justice? Will we fall on our faces?’ – those were the questions we asked ourselves. And the greatest thing to come out of it all was that we learned that we can do other things, that we can sound different if we want to. Making this album really opened up our creativity.”

Before they hit the studio again, however, the band will tour behind re:(disc)overed, a prospect Phillips is eagerly anticipating. “We’re going to expand our lineup to play these songs. We’ll bring out a piano player and background singers – it’ll be a blast!”

On the following pages, Phillips talks re:(disc)overed track-by-track, offering his thoughts on the original songs and artists and how Puddle Of Mudd approached each cut.