When the creators of the upcoming WWF album Tough Enough 2 asked Cold to contribute a track, frontman Scooter Ward was baffled.
He thought, what did his music – riddled with gloomy, nihilist imagery and creepy underpinnings – have in common with the muscle-bound, over-the-top world of pro wrestling? Then it occurred to him that being in a band on the run and flying off the top turnbuckle night after night had some similarities after all.
“I was writing a song for my kid at the same time,” Ward said last week. “Leaving home all the time, never being here because we were on the road – I thought that [wrestlers] must feel the same way because they travel a lot. They leave their family and all that, so I figured I’d just send [what I was working on] to them, thinking they’d never pick it up, but they did.”
The song was “Gone Away,” a tune inspired by his yearning to be with his daughter, Raven, while keeping a rigorous tour schedule. A video for the song was shot last month in the group’s hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, by director Paul Boyd (Shania Twain, Everclear) and is expected to surface in mid-April. In it, the song’s muse is seen on one of three giant projection screens searching for her father as Cold perform in a plush, empty theater while throngs of fans are projected on the other screens.
The fans were no mere extras on the set, however. Cold sent out a casting call on their Web site, and some fans traveled from as far as Chicago to be in the shoot. To welcome the out-of-towners, Ward and guitarist Terry Balsamo performed “Gone Away” as well as selections from the band’s two albums – 2000’s 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage and 1998’s self-titled debut – in the small local venue the Ritz. Footage from that show may also turn up in the video.
WWF: Tough Enough 2, set for release May 14, according to a label spokesperson, also includes Limp Bizkit’s “Crushed,” an acoustic version of Puddle of Mudd’s “Control” and a rock remix of the Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch,” alongside tracks by Staind, Godsmack and Rob Zombie, among others.
Upon finishing filming, Cold resumed work on their forthcoming album, Year of the Spider, though they’ll lay it to rest for three weeks next month to tour Europe. The LP, on which Scooter expected Nonpoint singer Elias Soriano and Dollshead’s Sierra Swan to contribute, is scheduled for an early October release, according to the label. Cold’s third album might surprise some fans who favor the hard sounds of “Just Got Wicked” and “Send in the Clowns” from 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, as Ward said the new material leans closer to the emotive prowess of that album’s “Bleed” and “Confession.”
“Every time we put out a record, we try to step it up a notch,” the singer explained. “We’ll use more symphonic kinds of sounds, and my vocal style is going to change a little bit because I’m trying out a lot of new things. So I think it’s just going to be a step up from the last records.
“There’s definitely some heavy sounds, but this is more like a heavy Sade record. It’s different but it’s cool.”
