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They’re named for a drink and related to a band of mask-wearing dudes from Des Moines. But what Guitar World readers really want to know is…

What were some of the ideas behind the writing and recording of the new Stone Sour album, Audio Secrecy? —Ronnie Stahl

JIM ROOT It was fueled by a little anger, a little insecurity, a little bit of God complex, like, “This is the greatest shit in the world”—along with feeling like, “I don’t know if this shit’s worth anything.” [laughs] I was kind of right on the fence with everything, so every day was a different emotion. I’m my own worst critic.

JOSH RAND It was definitely a trying process this time around. The whole idea for us was not to recreate [2006’s] Come What(ever) May. On a couple of occasions, someone submitted a song—all five of us in the group write—and the other guys would be like, “We’ve already been there, done that.” As the writer of the song, that kind of thing can make you a little angry. I would say that between writing, preproduction and recording, we experienced every emotion possible.

What were your main guitar and amp setups when recording Audio Secrecy? —Raymond Scott

ROOT We had an endless list of amps and guitars at our disposal. My main guitar for the heavy tracks was my prototype white Telecaster. For clean guitar tones, I used a Strat and my Gretsch Brian Setzer model.

My basic amp setup for heavy tones was an Orange Rockerverb 100 with a Bogner Uberschall that was modded for me. The Orange went through an Orange cabinet, and the Uberschall went through an older Marshall cabinet loaded with Greenbacks. We used a Little Labs PCP [guitar splitter] to blend my guitar’s signal with those two amps. I also used a Budda combo on a lot of stuff. For the cleaner stuff, my amps were a late-Sixties Vox AC30 combo and a Bat Cat Hot Cat.

RAND My main guitar was a candy-apple PRS and a Hughes & Kettner Triamp. That was my main guitar for recording. And it’s the same live.

Josh, since Jim also plays guitar in Slipknot, does he ever write something that you think just isn’t right for Stone Sour? —Dan C.

RAND Actually, I’m the one who brings all the heavy stuff to Stone Sour. A perfect example is the song “The Pessimist,” which hasn’t been released yet. It’s actually the heaviest, fastest song that we’ve ever done, which is sort of why it got shelved. I used the Hindu scale for the solo, and I consider it the best solo I’ve recorded. It’s probably the fastest solo I’ve ever played, and I even harmonized it in thirds. It’s pretty cool. But of course it probably will never come out. [laughs]

What is the origin of the name Stone Sour? —Kevin

RAND I wasn’t in the band at the time, but according to the story, the band had a meeting to come up with a name. The original drummer, Joel Ekman, brought a drink menu to help get some ideas going. Corey liked Stone Sour—he thought the name stuck out.

ROOT [laughs] There was a point in time where we were trying to change the name before we put out the first record. We considered all sorts of names—everything from Tarantula Bomb to Superego to Section 8. Some of them were already taken, and some of them were kind of campy sounding. So we just decided to stick with Stone Sour. After all, what’s in a name?

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