The band Staind has had the current line-up since 11/24/95. They put out a self-released CD on 11/29/96 titled "Tormented". The 1st CD party was an overwhelmingly great success with over 900 people in attendance. They sold more than 200 CDs that night, out of the 2,000 and up that were printed. During the next year, they sold more than 2000 CDs while playing gigs throughout New England with bands such as: Honkeyball, Shed, Kilgore, GWAR, Far and God Lives Under Water.
The band's big break came October 23, 1997 when Staind performed with the band Limp Bizkit at the Webster Theater in Hartford, CT. The story begins approximately 20 minutes before they were supposed to perform. Fred Durst, the singer for Limp Bizkit, approached Aaron, the singer of the band, and Mike, the guitar player of the band, with a copy of Staind's CD in his hand. Fred spoke to the two, questioning if they were satan worshippers, due to the nature of the cover artwork of the album. Of course they weren't, but they tried to have Staind kicked off the bill. Fred and Mike exchanged words. Then, he took their CD and threw it across the table; he wanted nothing to do with Staind -so much for their big break. Well, at least until Fred saw their show!
After their set, Fred approached the band and said they were the the best band he had seen in 2 years. Also, he said that he was starting a production company and wanted to work with them. Fred and the band exchanged phone numbers and then went their separate ways.
At the time, Staind were in the studio making a demo with 4 new songs. Mike tried to reach Fred, but was unsuccessful due to their busy touring schedule. Mike found out that Limp Bizkit was opening for the Deftones outside of Boston, the night before Thanksgiving 1997. Mike thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give Fred a copy of the new tunes, so the band drove up to see the Limp Bizkit show.
Staind went to Limp Bizkit's bus and knocked on the door, where they met up with DJ Lethal -Fred was busy elsewhere. Mike gave Lethal a couple of tapes with the new tunes, then went to see the show. They tried to find Fred, but were not successful.
That night Mike went home and went to bed. Around 2 a.m., his phone rang -it was Fred. He LOVED the new songs and wanted Staind to go to Jacksonville, FL (Jax) to work on our material. After a few phone conversations, Staind decided that they would leave the day after X-mas. They would stay at Fred's house and play a show with the Limp Bizkit at the Milkbar in Jax on January 4, 1998. They had a gig the day after X-mas. After the show, they loaded the van and trailer and headed to Jax
They almost made it, but their van broke down 1,000 feet from the Florida state line. They had it towed to Fred's house and started work the very next day.
Fred played an integral part in helping Staind to develop the sound. Aaron, the singer, has an amazing voice and Fred helped to bring that out. They had a lot of screaming parts in the new songs. Fred said to Aaron, "Man, you can sing, why don't you do that more?" The trip was very productive, as well as a great gig at the same time.
While there, Fred contacted Jordan Schur, the President of Flip Records. Fred told Jordan about Staind and within a week of leaving Jacksonville, they were on a plane to L.A. where they met Jordan and recorded a 3 song sampler.
They recorded "A Flat," "Suffocate" and one of Aaron's acoustic tracks "Black Rain" (AKA Excess Baggage, The Bonus Track on" Dysfunction") , at Sound City Studios with Fred and Lethal producing. By February 1998, Staind had signed to Flip Records. Jordan did the project as a joint venture with Elektra Records in the Spring of 1998.
During this time, Staind were to play some shows with Limp Bizkit, Sevendust and Clutch. In April, they went back to Jax and worked with Fred on some more tunes.
By June of 1998, Staind were working closely with their management company, The Firm, who also managed Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube and Orgy. They were then able to persuade Terry Date (The Deftones, Pantera, Soundgarden, White Zombie) to produce their 1st album. On August 1, 1998 (the day after they played the Warped Tour in Northampton, MA) they flew to Seattle to record at Studio Litho (Pearl Jam's Studio.) During early October, the album was mixed at Studio X (the old Bad Animals) in Seattle.
Presently the band is riding the much-deserved success from their first major label debut, "Dysfunction". Staind are currently touring, while they plan to release the follow up to Dysfunction, titled, "Break The Cycle"
"Break The Cycle" Has gone on to Great sucsess. It Hit #1 on the Billboard charts in It's first week. It has had producted such hits as "Fade" and "It's Been Awhile" as well as a studio version of the hit "Outside" of of the "Family Values 99" CD.
In 2003, Staind returned with therre #1 album, "14 Shades Of Grey" in may.