Wednesday 13 - Solo/Murderdolls - MetalExile.com Posted 3/27/2005

What do you do when you are sick of all the “music” that is going on around you and you want to do something about it? You release Transylvania 90210- Songs of Death, Dying And The Dead, that is what you do. Wednesday 13, singer for the Murderdolls, has struck out on his own once again and is about to unleash what will be one of the best discs of the year. This is an highly theatrical release full of sick humor and I was hooked on first listen. After talking about our mutual musical idol, Alice Cooper, we got into what was a great interview about the Murderdolls, his career and of course, Alice Cooper.

Jeffrey Easton interviewing Wednesday 13

Jeff: Lets get into it, you have a great new CD entitled Transylvania 90210/Songs Of Death, Dying and The Dead. Why did you do this and not another Murderdolls CD?

Wednesday 13: The Murderdolls went on a hiatus around July 2003 . We knew our guitarist was going back to Slipknot to write and record and we did not know how long that was going to take and it took them longer than expected. We had planned on recording another Murderdolls CD at the end of 2003 and that never happened. 2004 came up and the new Slipknot cd was going to come out in May and they were going to tour the world etc. etc. I was not going to take 2 or 3 off and wait for the Murderdolls to come back. I was always active before the Murderdolls playing and I knew that I could not take 2 or 3 years off because this business is so cruel and they will forget about you.

Jeff: Yeah, you will get forgotten about.

Wednesday 13: Yeah, so I am going to make my record and if Roadrunner wants to put it out, great and if not I will go elsewhere. I funded this record myself and I submitted it to roadrunner and they loved it. I started this last June, finished it last September and got the mix back in November. I cannot tell you how proud I am of it. The end result the packaging, everything that is lined up with it is completely perfect.

Jeff: When you can achieve what you want as an artist you have done everything.

Wednesday 13: I know you as well as I have read articles over the years where an artist was told he has to sing this or do that or go in another direction but Roadrunner have been nothing but supportive. They came up to me and asked where do I want to go with it, how do you want the packaging to be like? They have not told me “you should not do that”.

Jeff: Growing up when I did I saw a lot of artists do certain things and to find out years later that their record company told them to do whatever and it is a shame. But now I think in some ways a label should do what you want to do. You can go to another label, you can put it out yourself and if they want this kind of project they are going to have to get behind you or you will go elsewhere.

Wednesday 13: It is a strange thing when a label pushes an artist goes in one direction but it is even weirder when an artist comes out and gets their fan base and then changes on the next. I will use Guns N Roses as an example, when they came out with Appetite, that was a great record. It was raw, it was cool and it was real, they were scumbags from Hollywood. All of a sudden they become rock stars and then you get this thing where Axl is like “I to be an artist”, “I want to bring a grand piano in“ , I want to write November Rain” and all of a sudden he wants to be Freddie Mercury. For someone like me growing up and watching this happen as it was happening I wondered where is the dirt, where is the fire, where is the danger of the first G N R record? I do not want to be that guy who steers away from what he is doing and have people wonder what in the fuck is he doing? I use this an example as Axl wanted to be Freddie Mercury and I want to be Freddy Krueger, I will stick with what I know.

Jeff: When G N R came out it was “dangerous” for it’s time and for what they were doing and by the time the Illusions came it was reduced to Smaltz for most part. It was a real letdown and I have not listened to them in a long time.

Wednesday: I have not either and all I remember about the Illusions is thinking “Wow, this is not great”. This record is being labeled a solo record and when I ask people what it is like “ they tell me that it is not a major departure from what I do”. There are some things on here that are different and some things that the Murderdolls would have done. I do what I know and I know what I do, this is 100 % me. When an artist steers far away from what they know then what’s the point you know?

Jeff: You can always tell when an artist does something so different that it is not even them anymore. Look at Axl in 1987 in leather and what not and then 1992 and he was in biker shorts and some kind of halter top.

Wednesday: I have always been an image conscious person, a lot of my fav bands like Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, WASP, all lit a candle for me to walk down their path and you can hear their influence in what I do. I have never denied what I listen and I wear my influences on my sleeve, it is pretty obvious.

Jeff: I can tell that and I am sure we will get a show like those guys when you tour.

Wednesday: With the Murderdolls, it was a great opportunity and it opened a lot of doors for what I am doing now but it was a good learning curve as well. I learned how to do certain things and with this project I am trying to go back and do some of the things that Murderdolls should have done. We did not spend a whole lot of time in America, maybe only 20 dates. So right now I have lined up 13 or 14 dates in America so far between the end of April and first of May so I am already doing what the Murderdolls did in one tour. I am breaking my U.S. tour up into several sections because I have several Europe commitments. We are going to be in Europe until June so we will be breaking them up. For me it does not make sense to do a full U.S. three month tour because not every area in America is not worthwhile.

Jeff: That’s true.

Wednesday: Unfortunately it does not work the way it used to. Even bigger bands have problems in certain areas.

Jeff: So you don’t think it would not go over in Oklahoma?

Wednesday: The odd thing is that I live in North Carolina and go to Atlanta or something. The whole Southeast is not a very good place to go to. So bands would regularly skip my area so that is what I am getting at.

Jeff: Your CD is about to come out and it sounds like nothing else out there, do you think that will help push it further?

Wednesday: I will use the comparisons on how Murderdolls was marketed, the scene was mostly Nu Metal, it was on the downward spiral but it was still there. I thought we were kind of odd ball then but now the music now has really changed but I would rather have that stuff again compared to the shit that is out there now. I do not understand what the music is doing now, I do not know what I am hearing and why I am hearing it. I do not get it and I do not know how it is doing what is doing and why it is doing it. So I know I am even more of an oddball this time out.

Jeff: Are you referring to the “screamo/emo/hardcore”?

Wednesday: All of that stuff, yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I watch Headbangers ball and all of those video shows, I am aware I just cannot tell who is who. There are about 7 or 8 bands that decided that they are going to have the same haircut and they are going to wear eyeliner and I cannot tell them apart either All of a sudden they are called…. Goth. No they are not, they are bad metal and they decided to wear eyeliner.

Jeff: I know, it is bad out there right now for the most part.

Wednesday: A friend of mine and I look forward to watching Headbangers Ball so we can make fun of them. I am not saying they are not great musicians, they could be the greatest musicians in the world but you know, I do not care. Some people tell me I suck because I only play three chord rock but at least it is memorable and you can sing along to it.

Jeff: At least I can understand what you are singing.

Wednesday: Yeah, right. It has never been my kind of music and I do not get it. I do not want to sound like an old person but I just do not get it.

Jeff: In away I get it because I go to these shows and it is a release for people, it is violent music to pit to, it is music for violence. They are taking hardcore and mending it with some death influences and taking it further.

Wednesday: My whole purpose is for entertainment, I am entertaining myself and I think in this day in age it should be a breath of fresh air for a very stale scene. If you come to one of my shows it is inspired plays like a movie, it is held together by old movie clips, I have props, my microphone stand is made of old body parts. It is a different atmosphere than the Murderdolls, we just became a dirty live band.

Jeff: I am sure it will be fun, I cant wait to see it. I hope you can come to Southern California.

Wednesday: I am sure the tour will find it’s way out there.

Jeff: Your music is very much influenced by horror movies, how did you get into horror movies?

Wednesday: As hard as it is to believe I balanced a diet of horror movies, cartoons and G.I. Joe. I have had cable since I can remember and on Saturday on the USA network there was a show called “Commander USA’s Groovy Movies”.

Jeff: I remember that.

Wednesday: It ran all day long and it was some middle age guy with a beer belly and wearing a superman outfit showing Hills Have Eyes and Friday The 13th. I would be glued to it all day long and when I was done I would play with my G.I. Joes or whatever. I did not have many friends where I lived so I had that.

Jeff: I liked G.I Joe., ever notice nobody ever died?

Wednesday 13: Yeah, a plane could blow up and he would parachute out.

Jeff: One of the first movies I ever saw in the Theaters was Halloween, it was great.

Wednesday: Wow.

Jeff: Actually taking a kid to see that.

Wednesday: That’s great.

Jeff: Also saw Jaws and all of that other stuff.

Wednesday: I think my first was Flash Gordon.

Jeff: You did a video for Walk With A Zombie, how did that go?

Wednesday: It was odd because we bought the rights to Night Of The Living Dead. It is public domain so it was not expensive but you have to still buy the rights. He shot us on a green screen all day at different angles. After that he edited us digitally into the original movie. When you see it looks like we are actually in the original movie, it is so fucking cool. It took him 2 hours to edit every second of the film, I do not know how he had the patience. If they never play it or nobody ever sees it at least I know I have a cool video.

Jeff: Nobody ever does cool videos like that, you just see performance clips. The coolest videos I have seen lately were the Nightwish ones on their last DVD that Century put out. Thing is that Uranium or MTV will never play it and they are so good.

Wednesday: It doesn’t matter because they are gods in Europe.

Jeff: What does the future hold for Wednesday 13?

Wednesday: Right now the record comes out in April and we will be in England the day the record comes out. We come back and do some American dates, go back to Europe for awhile and then back to America. We are really busy for the rest of the year and hopefully will do another video. I still believe in the old days of when KISS and Alice Cooper would put out a record every year, good quality stuff every year.

Jeff: For awhile KISS were doing Two records a year.

Wednesday: Yeah, this time next year I would like to talking about a new record coming out. It is not hard for me to write and I still have a ton of great material left over from this album that could be on the next one.

Jeff: If the stuff is as good as what is on here I am sure it is great as well.

Wednesday: Yeah? Thank you.

Jeff: Yeah, it is great stuff and it is sickly funny. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it.

Wednesday: No problem, it was fun.