WHETHER it’s the Garage, the Barrowland or the SSE Hydro, Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand isn’t fussed.

The axeman can’t wait to get back to Glasgow next week for their biggest ever Scottish gig, and he just loves playing – no matter the size of the venue.

“To me, I’m still just playing guitar wherever we are,” he chuckles.

“I mean, it’s great to be playing bigger places and that means more people are coming to see us now, and it’s nice having a production side too. We’ve done the stripped back stuff on previous tours, and now we can start bringing an actual show over, and that’s exciting.

“We’ve never been able to do that until now, and it adds to the show. It makes it more fun. I’m not going to say that it sucks doing bigger shows but I just like playing wherever.”

Although their show a week tomorrow will be down at the Hydro it’s no surprise that it’s another Glasgow venue that springs to mind for Josh.

“The memories that come to mind are always the Barrowland,” he says.

“It’s a venue that has always stuck out to me, there was an atmosphere, a vibe, to it that’s special. When we first toured, which was 2002 or 2003, the crowds were amazing and people have always turned out to see us in Scotland. That will always stick out to me.

“It’s a shame that we never get any time to really explore the country too much – hopefully this time I’ll be able to get out in the daytime a bit!”

Josh formed Stone Sour back in the early 90s with Corey Taylor, prior to the frontman finding fame with masked metal titans Slipknot. However back in 2002 Stone Sour was revived, and they’ve alternated with Slipknot ever since, playing whenever Corey has had time off from his other band.

This time around however, things are a little different. New album Hydrograd, their sixth release, is going to be the main focus for Corey over the next couple of years, and Josh expects they’ll be touring through until November next year, while it is the first record made since the departure of lead guitarist Jim Root.

The album is one of the most rock n’ roll releases Stone Sour have made, placing a stronger emphasis on grooves and anthemic rock. For Josh, this shift came from the band enjoying a lighter approach in the studio.

“We had a ton of fun,” he explains.

“We recorded this record really fast. We did 19 songs and then another four acoustic versions of songs, plus a couple of videos, in under two months. We recorded live and the main thing going into it was the covers EP we had made going into Hydrograd, that really helped us. Recording live and old school meant we were averaging a song a day, which is pretty amazing.”

The covers EPs he mentioned were the Meanwhile In Burbank and Straight Outta Burbank releases, which saw the band tackle tracks by bands that influenced them when they were younger, such as Iron Maiden, the Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath. It is a project Josh is eager to return to.

“We were originally going to release three covers EPs,” says the guitarist.

“We did Unchained (by Van Halen) for the Japanese album release and we have a couple more after that in reserve. We haven’t discussed them too much yet, because they will see the light of day at some point.

“To be honest, I’d love the Burbank EPs to become a series that we’d do on and off for the rest of our career because it’s really fun to do. So the three that are remaining might turn up somewhere else, or they might form part of the series down the road.”

Stone Sour, SSE Hydro, £28.50-£35, Friday, 6.30pm