Wednesday 13 - 'I love Jesus' bumperstickers, now that's crazy!
A while back we had an interview with Murderdolls frontman Wednesday 13, who has started his own solo project. While he was crunching his Dorito’s, we had a talk about his music, his youth and even his living room! A big talk�that is, because the man is really talkative. Enjoy!
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We all know you as the Murderdolls-frontman, can you give us a short introduction of what Wednesday 13 is all about?
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I think most people got a pretty good interpretation of what I’m about with the Murderdolls, but before Murderdolls I had own band ‘Frankenstein Drag Queens’, from 1996 until 2001. We put out five independent records. After that we came out with Murderdolls. Last year I put out a ‘best of Frankenstein Drag Queens’, so that’s a total of six albums. I just completed my first solo-album which will be out on Roadrunner next year. So yeah, I’ve got quite a bit of material up under my belt. The things I did with Murderdolls wasn’t everything I had to offer, so that’s why I’m putting out this solo album.
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And musically speaking, will it be very different?
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No, not really. I mean, I wrote the majority of the Murderdolls stuff anyway, so it’s much like that eighties hard rock stuff. There was a lot of bands I listened to back then. I only felt like it needed a little bit more attitude. It was cool, but why didn’t they about grave robbing? So I always try to mold a good catchy song, which you can sing along to, even if you’re singing about zombies.
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Those are really grindcore oriented themes, I was wondering do you have any feeling with that style?
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�No, probably the heaviest thing I’ve ever listened to is White Zombie or Pantera. Those guys have great songs: they are heavy, and you can still sing along to it. I’m not into blastbeats and (does a deep grunt-voice) that kind of stuff.
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Do you expand your horror image to your home environment? For example: we were wondering if your house is decorated as a horror castle and stuff like that?
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Yeah, pretty much haha. It’s not like everybody else’s house, I would say. I mean, we have a giant coffin shelf in our living room. It has pictures of our family and Dracula dolls in it. It’s definitely decorated different.
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What is the idea behind this solo project and where is it going?
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There wasn’t really any major plan. Slipknot came back out, which caused the Murderdolls to go off the road and take a hiatus for a while. I had been writing music for a long time. I didn’t feel like sitting on my ass, looking at my watch and waiting for us to hit the studio again. So I decided to record my own solo album. I paid for it myself and when I went to Roadrunner with it they liked it a lot. But to come back to your question, there’s definitely a different atmosphere compared to Murderdolls. The image is much more darker, like we’re totally worshipping the devil. I say that while eating Dorito’s and drinking a can of Pepsi haha. But yeah it’s fun, it’s campy. I think it will appeal to a lot of different people.
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Did you recruit your musicians from other bands or..
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Our drummer and bassist are guys I’ve known for a while. My guitarist, Pig, was in the band Amen before. I met him two years ago at the Download festival in Donington. When we met we just got along instantly. He was wearing a t-shirt of ‘Return of the living dead’, and basically that started our conversation for the next two days. I didn’t really keep in touch with him but every time we’d see each other we just hung out and talked. When I was looking for a guitarist for this I figured he was the perfect guy. So I called him and said he had to come be a part of this.
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Aren’t you afraid that Murderdolls-fans will show up in masses at the tour?
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They already are, but that’s okay. It’s the same thing that Joey was going trough when he started Murderdolls. At the first tour kids were wearing Slipknot t-shirts, but the second time we came by and everybody was wearing Murderdolls shirts. I did a UK-tour before and when I came back the kids already wore horror make-up and had 13’s painted on their heads.
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Who were your musical heroes back in the day?
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When I first got into music I was a 10 year old kid playing with GI Joe toys and watching television, I loved television. One day, I was watching TV and an Alice Cooper commercial with pain, snakes and electric chairs came by. I was like ‘what is this!?’. My parents said he was the devil, he bites the heads off chickens and snakes. And I was like: ‘Cool!’. My friend had an uncle who had the Alice Cooper records. He brought them over and we started listening. And listening to these songs just totally sucked me in. Later on came M�tley Cr�e and Twisted Sister, I just thought these guys were supervillains! That’s what I wanted to be!� Those guys are my inspiration and to me it’s such a cool thing to know that those guys now know I exist. I have met them and they acknowledge me now, pack me on the back saying I carry on a tradition. That’s the coolest thing ever.
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And what about your parents, are they supportive now?
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Oh yeah. They are totally cool with it now.
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Do you live in a religious town?
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We live in a small religious town in the south, amidst the bible belt. There are churches on every street corner. There are mad people with ‘I love Jesus’-bumperstickers, now that’s crazy. Instead we put Satan stickers on our cars haha.
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What are your experiences with Holland?
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Holland has always been great! The first time we played de Melkweg with Murderdolls, that was a super cool show. The second time was in 013 with Papa Roach. We played in Utrecht the other night, that was one of the most physical shows ever. At first the audience didn’t know what to expect, and they shouldn’t, because there’s no real product out. The first couple of songs their jaws fell to the floor and you see them think: ‘what should I do? There’s so much to take in’. But then we kick in with a Murderdolls song and everybody starts loosening up, and three or four songs later there’s a huge pit! So at the end of the show, it was just insane.
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You’ve played several shows in Europe now, but your debut album isn’t in stores yet, what are the reactions so far after the live show?
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Really good! To be honest, I haven’t even heard anybody say anything bad. I’ve got an mp3 on my website off the new website. When I play that song sometimes I look up and I see some kids singing every word… Wow!
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You are fascinated by horror movies. If there was going to be a remake of one film, and you’d get the chance to play a character, which movie and who would you play?
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Aw, damn… tough one. Maybe Texas chainsaw massacre 2, I really like Choptop, the guy with the cloths hanging ‘round his head. He’s one of my favorite characters of all time OR I’d love to play Beetlejuice. I kind of feel like him sometimes. I’m always saying something stupid, yeah I’d play Beetlejuice. He always reminded me of Choptop anyway haha.
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All right, that was our last question. Do you have any words left for the readers of Metalrage.com?
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Thank you and see you soon.
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