Although the masses have yet to embrace Sevendust [ tickets ], frontman Lajon Witherspoon and the rest of the band are considered "musicians' musicians" because of their ability to deftly explore their instruments, as well as Witherspoon's dynamic vocals.

While the band--one of the few mainstream rock groups fronted by an African-American--has yet to venture into platinum territory, three of its four studio albums have gone gold, signifying shipments of 500,000 copies each in the U.S.

The Atlanta-based band is currently on the road to support its recent release, "Seasons," which the group's friend Butch Walker--who headed up Marvelous 3 before heading out on a solo career--produced.

Earlier this year, Sevendust toured with Staind and Lo-Pro (which includes former members of Snot, Ultraspank and Godsmack), an experience Witherspoon called "a big old family reunion." Sevendust took a fledgling Staind on the road after Staind's breakthrough album, "Dysfunction," hit stores. Staind lead singer Aaron Lewis and Sevendust also recorded the song "Follow" for Sevendust's 2001 album, "Animosity."

Sevendust will be touring with Ill Nino through the winter.

Witherspoon talked to liveDaily about working with Walker and the evolution of "Seasons."

liveDaily: Tell me about Sevendust's songwriting process

Lajon Witherspoon: We write everywhere. We write at home, we write on the bus. It just depends on when the creative bug hits you. A lot of times I feel it is a lot more distracting to write while being on tour because you have so much stuff going on. I definitely like it when we have time to go home and think about what's going on and sit down and really focus. But, you know, we write everywhere.

Is it a group effort, or do you write most of the lyrics and most of the music?

Nope, it's a group effort because I think it would be very foolish for everything to come from one person's point of view. We're all five grown men. We all have feelings and we all have to express them. We write together and separately. Sometimes you go home and come up with an idea, bring it to the table, and we all put it together and work with it.

Did you record "Seasons" any differently than your previous albums?

We recorded in Atlanta, at home. We recorded with Butch Walker, who is an incredible friend of ours and an incredible artist. So everything was so laid back and comfortable. It was great.

What was he like to work with as a producer?

Butch did our first demos that we ever did when we got together. So it was a very comfortable feeling. Nothing was stressed. He wasn't like this normal producer that came in [and said], "I'm the producer." Butch was an artist, a friend and then a producer.

What did he bring to the table?

Of course, he's a singer. We'd sit in the studio and Butch would sing a melody and we'd be like "Oh my God, that's great. You're a singer. You've been doing it longer than we have." So it was just such a pleasant experience. We wanted to work with Butch just because he was incredible. He does R&B stuff too, so he's just talented.

Sounds like it was a good, easygoing experience.

That's exactly [it]. You nailed it right on the head when you said that, baby. Sometimes it's stressful. It depends on what's going on. We went into this album with 50-60 songs and all we had to do was weed out the ones that we didn't think should make the album.

How did you chose between 50 and 60 songs?

Very hard. But I think the older songs get less exciting to you, and the newer material always seems to grow, if that makes any sense. You kind of narrow it down.