Staind Plan Next Album

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Staind will begin writing new material for the follow-up to this year's triple-platinum LP Break the Cycle, when they embark on the Family Values tour next month. "Once we head out on the road again, I'm going to start putting down some ideas and working on some of the stuff we didn't finish for this record and see where it goes," explains guitarist Mike Mushok. "There was a couple ideas that I actually hadn't finished [for Break the Cycle] that I didn't even get to present to the band... There's definitely a few that are still remaining that could be worked on, plus some other little ideas that could maybe make themselves into new songs."

In addition to songwriting, Mushok says the Massachusetts outfit is looking forward to using the tour to catch up with fellow Family Values tour members. "It's really cool to be on the road with a band you are a fan of," he says. "Since their first record, I've been a huge, huge fan of STP, and we were fortunate enough to play some radio shows with them as we were winding down touring on Dysfunction last year. And Linkin Park is a great new band, and Static X also."

The tour - which also features Deadsy - opens October 11th in Cleveland. As for what surprises Staind have planned, Mushok says, "I'm playing nude for the whole set of every show . . . No, we really just kinda play music. There's not a lot of gimmicks to what we do."