It will be a while before Staind returns to the scene. Following the release of the new compilation “The Singles: 1996-2006,” frontman Aaron Lewis says that the Massachusetts quartet is “gonna take some time off. Everybody needs some time off. I like to try to make sure the surface is clean. You’ve got to let all the build-up from being on tour and playing the same songs over and over again go away and have a clean slate to start over with so we don’t repeat ourselves.” Consequently, Lewis says, there isn’t even a loose plan to reconvene and record a follow-up to 2005’s “Chapter V.” “We’ve kept a pretty rigorous schedule from the word go in our career,” he notes. “We’ve been around for 10 years and made five records; that’s a pretty serious work schedule. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with slowing that down just a little bit and giving people a little bit of an opportunity to miss what we have to offer.” Domestic affairs will certainly occupy some of the Staind members’ lives in the near future. Guitarist Mike Mushok’s wife recently gave birth to twins, while drummer Jon Wysocki got married. Staind is playing a handful of shows this month to promote the “Singles” set, and Lewis kicks off a solo tour on Dec. 27 that will stretch well into 2007. Though he says reports of an imminent solo album are overstated — “It’s there in concept and thought, but there’s a lot of things that have to fall into place for me to bring it to the table.” — Lewis hopes that recording on his own will give Staind a chance to recapture the headbanging reputation that’s been obscured by mellower hits such as “Outside” and “It’s Been Awhile.” “I think that there’s gonna be kind of a separation of the two styles,” explains Lewis, who’s also developing a reality show about rock’n’roll roadies called “The Crew.” “My (solo) thing will go more in the direction of the songs that I’ve always written — ‘Outside,’ ‘It’s Been Awhile,’ ‘So Far Away,’ ‘Everything Changes.’ That’s more in the line of what the solo project will be, and let Staind go back to being the heavy band that you get to see if you come and see us live.”