A Little FYI

Aaron Lewis wrote the song Zoe Jane about his first born daughter. 

Aaron and his wife, Vanessa became the proud parents of another daughter, Nyla Rae in June 2005. 

Layne was written in tribute to one of Aaron's idols, Layne Staley of Alice In Chains. Layne passed away in April 2002.

 

 

 

Aaron's Interview with Fly Magazine (June 2005)

Staind frontman Aaron Lewis puts on a happy face Aaron Lewis isn't nearly as mopey as his songs would make you believe. In fact, when the Staind frontman checked in with Fly Magazine last month to talk about the band's forthcoming album, Chapter V, he seemed downright cheery. Some of that good mood could be attributed to the birth of his second daughter just a week before. As we spoke, she was cooing away in the background while Lewis' elder daughter, Zoe, sang songs and raced around the table. To read some of his gloomy lyrics, you'd never suspect that Lewis had such a "Leave It To Beaver" home life. But even during what seemed to be a moment of pure joy, Lewis' various insecurities and complexes were never too far from the surface. It was like he could only keep the wolves at bay for so long before they started eating him alive. From his apprehension about Chapter V's release to his paranoia about being famous, Lewis gave the Fly an honest and open look at the psyche of a reluctant star. Fly: So, now that you've got a one-week-old baby girl at home, are you feeling ready to face the craziness of another album cycle? Aaron Lewis: Yes and no. I'm definitely ready to jump back in the game and hopefully solidify a spot in the game for us still, but I'm not in any hurry to want to leave my family and go out on the road again. F: I got to preview the first three tracks off the new album. It's sounding pretty triumphant, man. What sort of things were you going for sonically this time around? AL: The only thought going into it was to really try to outdo what we did on the last record [14 Shades of Grey], which I guess we ended up feeling more strongly about than the critics did. But critics are just bitter people that can't do it themselves. F: There was definitely some positive press about it ... AL: It was fleeting, here and there, little pieces of positive reaction. But for the most part, because of the success that we had on the record before with Break the Cycle - they lift you up, they lift you up, they lift you up, and once you have that taste of success, they smash you down. That's just the nature of the beast. F: If you had been a new band, everyone would have been freaking out over you for going platinum. But since you sold like a billion copies of the previous album, it was considered a total flop. AL: It was a "complete disaster," and by the end of the cycle we had sold a million and a half [copies]! F: Your guitarist [Mike Mushok] said that Chapter V gives him those old feelings again, like you guys are sitting on something big. Do you feel that same way? AL: You know, I do. That's not something that I would normally say. I've never been one to bust out the record and go, "Yo, check this out. This is the best shit going!" That's just so not me. I have a hard time even playing it for people. F: A lot of people noted that the last album had a more positive feel to it, and the news songs seem to continue with that. Is that something you did intentionally? AL: It's always been there. It's just never really been noticed. I've gotten a bad reputation for being down at the mouth and kind of negative all the time. What that says to me is no one's listening. You can take my songs for what the obvious is - what's obvious in the songs is that there's pain and there's questioning and things of that nature. But in every song that's been labeled a down-at-the-mouth song, there's always, always a glimmer of hope in there somewhere. My goal in writing a song is to be perfectly vague, to be as perfectly vague as I can possibly be so that 10 different people get 10 different ideas of what the song's actually about. And they might all be wrong. F: So you're not really this brooding, gloomy guy everyone makes you out to be? AL: [I'm] uncomfortable being the center of attention, so in order to protect myself from that, I tend to be a little standoffish. In the past, I tended to give a lot of one-word answers, just short and sweet - and people read that as something else. They don't look at it as me being uncomfortable in my own skin. It's not me being miserable or down. I am what I am. I can't change. I'm 33 years old, and the first 26 years of my life weren't all that great. I'm a product of what I've been through in my life. F: Do you think you've grown more accustomed to the fame over time? AL: No! I live in a town of twelve hundred people out in the middle of nowhere. Everybody in town knows who I am, and nobody cares. Nobody treats me any differently. Everybody lives up here in this town for the same reason, basically: to be left alone, to be able to just live life. And I'm a father. I'm more of a family man. I don't go out. I don't drink, so there's no reason for me to go out on the town. I'm too busy with my real life to get sucked into my pretend life. F: Do you think you have a real understanding of how big this band's really gotten? AL: That's a comment that I get all the time. People say to me that they don't think I realize the magnitude of how big we actually are. And I don't think we are. I'm just as scared right now as to what the outcome is going to be when this record comes out as I was for our very first record. I feel that that's the kiss of death in this business, is to sit back on your laurels. If you dwell on your accomplishments and act like that entitles you to something, you're going to disappear in this business really fucking quick. F: For someone as private as you are, you end up putting a lot of personal substance into your lyrics. Is it especially hard for you to put yourself out there like that? AL: I never really thought about it enough for it to become an uncomfortable thing. The words that I'm able to get out in the process of writing songs - I'm not really good at saying those things in conversation. I tend to internalize everything. I stuff everything down. Without the vent of being able to write lyrics and to get stuff out that bothers me, I would explode. F: You said in the past you used to be more closed off. What happened that has helped you to change? AL: I met my wife and then I had kids. Having some success in life doesn't hurt at all either. You try to grow. You try to realize your shortcomings and do something about it. F: So, what sort of goals do you have for yourself from here? AL: I'm just holding on, brother, seeing where the ride's gonna take me. I try not to dwell on the past, I try not to formulate the future. I just try to be. You can't control what happened five minutes ago, you can't control what's going to happen five minutes from now. The only thing you can do is be.

Staind's Discography

Tormented - 1996

 

1. Tolerate              7. See Thru

2. Come Again          8. Question

3. Break                   9. No One's Kind

4. Painful                 10. Self Destruct

5. Nameless             11. 4 Walls

6. Mudshovel                   

 

Dysfunction - 1999

 

1. Suffocate              6. Home

2. Just Go                 7. A Flat

3. Me                       8. Crawl

4. Raw                     9. Spleen

5. Mudshovel

Break The Cycle - 2001

1. Open Your Eyes                 8. Suffer

2. Pressure                           9. Safe Place

3. Fade                               10. For You

4. It's Been Awhile                11. Outside

5. Change                           12. Waste

6. Can't Believe                    13. Take It

7. Epiphany

14 Shades Of Grey - 2003

 

1. Price To Play                        8. Layne

2. How About You                     9. Falling Down

3. So Far Away                        10. Reality

4. Yesterday                           11. Tonight

5. Fray                                   12. Could It Be

6. Zoe Jane                            13. Blow Away

7. Fill Me Up                           14. Intro

 

Chapter V - 2005

 

1. Run Away                                        7. Devil

2. Right Here                                        8. Please

3. Paper Jesus                                      9. Everything Changes

4. Schizophrenic Conversations               10. Take This

5. Falling                                             11. King Of All Excuses

6. Cross To Bear                                   12. Reply