Stereoboard Speak To Wednesday 13 Ahead Of His Glasgow Show (Interview)
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Written by Heather McDaid
For those unaware of the man that is Wednesday 13, where have you been? Famed for his work in bands like Frankstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, Bourbon Crow, Gunfire 76 and, of course, the Murderdolls, you’ve had your fair share of projects to sink your teeth – or fangs, if you fancy buying into the horror image – into. With his fellow ‘dolls bandmate Joey Jordison was kept busy with the return of Slipknot over the course of this year, Wednesday 13 fans were treated to a new solo record and tour from the man of a million projects.
On this solo run he has both Crashdiet and the legendary Michael Munroe of Hanoi Rocks in his support. Prior to his fantastic Glasgow show at the Garage, Wednesday took some time to chat, jokingly welcoming me with the offer of beer and cocaine once I mentioned I was tired.
“I’m good. It’s still early so I’m just kind of waking up,” he begins. “Tour has been really good. We started in Amsterdam; we did Amsterdam, the two German shows and then came back over to the UK and started this run, this run goes until, I believe, Saturday in London and then we go to Sweden, Finland and then we’re back home for Christmas! Everything’s been really good so far, especially being on tour with someone like Mike Monroe, who is a person I love. Hanoi Rocks were one of my favourite bands back in the day. Getting to go on tour with someone you look up to as one of your rock ‘n’ roll heroes is pretty cool. I mean, I tour with bands all the time, but getting to tour with a man such as that is a really cool thing.”
While he admits Monroe is a hero of his, he has toured with his ultimate idol on numerous occasions throughout his career. “I’ve toured with Alice [Cooper] almost every year since about 2005 and it’s been really surreal because he was, and still is, my favourite and the whole reason I pretty much do what I do,” explains Wednesday. “I’ve told him for years all I do is kind of rip off what he’s done in my own way, but Alice is cool, we’re friends and he’s a really big fan of the band – Murderdolls and Wednesday as well. It’s such a cool thing.”
“It’s like touring with Mike as well, you know,” he adds. “You just don’t know how... It’s just really hard to explain it properly. You never thought you’d even get to meet these people, much less go on tour and become friends with them and hang out and have dinner with them. It’s still like ‘Wow. Is this really happening?’ But, touring with Alice Cooper is very surreal for me; any time I get the opportunity to do any tour with him or any shows with him I take it and I appreciate every minute of it. It’s great. I’d actually I hope to actually get into Europe and do some shows. I’ve only played support gigs with him in America with him, so I’d love to bring that to Europe and hopefully we could do something like that since it would be cool.”
With many having seen Wednesday live with other bands of his, how does the live experience of his solo project compare? “I think that a lot of people have followed what I do for years and I pretty much do the same thing overall,” he says. “With the Murderdolls, it’s different because I have Joey involved in that and he’s my song writing partner, so the music comes out a lot heavier and various things like that. I think for a lot of people it’s kind of hard to separate the two – Wednesday from Murderdolls – until the last Murderdolls album came out; that was a different record for us. It wasn’t like the first one, it definitely had a much heavier influence, the lyrics weren’t as much tongue in cheek as they have been in the past.”
“So, I think Murderdolls is more of a serious, kind of angry rock vibe whereas Wednesday’s more kind of fun, free spirited, whatever you want it to be,” he concludes. “It’s like a stupid movie. Once it’s done with you’re like ‘That was cool!’ and then watch it again. You don’t have to think about it too much. That’s the biggest difference is there’s definitely more of a fun vibe with this. That’s the only way I can really explain it."
Wednesday released his latest solo record ‘Calling All Corpses’ recently. Following the release of the Murderdolls’ ‘Women and Children Last’, he said the album makes people want to punch babies. “I think this one’s more picking up a baby and tossing it a little bit, not actually smacking it,” he laughs. “Grab it kind of hard for a squeeze then put it back. I still say that there’s certain songs on that record that make me want to punch babies, which is a good sign.”
“The response has been really good,” continues Wednesday. “People have asked me the difference between the response to this and past records and I think the difference is that I’m actually paying attention to more things like Facebook and Twitter where my fans write me things. So, I read more of what they say so it seems like the reaction’s better, but I think it’s just because I’m paying more attention to the forums. The thing I like about my fans is that they’re really honest; if they don’t like something they’re very quick to tell me ‘I don’t like this’. I started putting samples up and at first people were like ‘This is not Murderdolls’ and I was like... well, yeah, exactly.”
“Overall the reaction’s been really good; I think I made a really strong live record, it’ll stand up in a live theme. That’s what I wanted to do in the first place because we tour so much and you don’t want to get sick of playing songs. So far with this set and the songs we’re playing off the new record it’s just like ‘I can’t wait to get to play those songs again’. I’ve yet to be like ‘Ohh, I hate that song’. It’s a good feeling right now because I’ve been guilty of doing that in the past where we write a record and afterwards I’m like ‘Oh, I hate this so bad...’ Right now it’s all great.”
“With Murderdolls, Gunfire and the ‘Skeletons’ record, I kind of got all my bitching and all that shit out of the way,” laughs Wednesday. “So when it came to doing this record I wanted to make a fun, dumb album that you don’t have to think about too much. That was one of the main things I wanted to do. I’d been bitching away for three records and it’s like shut up, so that’s what this record was really about; it was about having fun. A real return to tongue in cheek lyrics, leave your brain at the door record is what I tell people.”
“2009 was the last time I did the Wednesday stuff [in the UK],” he continues. “Then I took a break and did the Gunfire 76 and Murderdolls were right after that, so I think it was a much needed break for me. When I stopped in 2009 I was just really bored of doing it and I wasn’t having as much fun as I should’ve been, so taking time off and coming back to do this new record let us revisit old songs and just recharge the batteries. I’m happy with it and I’m fine; I don’t like to lie to my fans and be like ‘I’m having fun!’ if I’m miserable. I got all that figured out, so.”
Referring to my recent feature on continuing the legacy of horror rock, the question of who could continue the legacy other than himself was posed. Like us, he found some difficulty. “With Alice, he was my biggest influence; that’s what I’ve always said,” begins Wednesday. “In the beginning a lot of people always compared me to the Misfits, which is good because I’m a big fan of the Misfits now. But back in the day I didn’t listen to them, so when I was writing these horror rock songs I took it from Alice Cooper, I got it from the Ramones. They had songs like ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and just weird songs, so I’d just take all the funny titles from those two bands and when I started to put my records out with Frankenstein Drag Queens back in the day, it was always like ‘You guys sound like the Misfits!’ I had never listened to the Misfits, but then I started and I was like okay, I get it.”
“You know, it’s just Rob and Alice. As far as front guys that went on, they were all from bands. Cooper originally started in his band, Rob was from White Zombie and so on. I don’t know someone else who really continued the horror thing. I suppose Danzig with the Misfits, but he really didn’t carry that vibe. I really love Danzig in the Misfits but he really didn’t carry that on like the Misfits did. So, I don’t know if there’s anyone else that I know of that does what I do. It’s not a bad thing, I’d say it’s a good thing. We don’t need a lot of people to do it.”
“Black Veil Brides were a cool band to tour with,” he adds. “I’m sure we played the ABC with them last time. I remember there was a huge buzz on them when the tour started. They do have their look going on and it seems to be the hot thing right now. It’s definitely working for them.”
Turning to his year as a whole, Wednesday explains, “It feels like it was almost wasted in a way. I finished the record earlier than I thought I would. I thought I was going to spend a few months doing it but I finished it in like ten days, so that left the whole summer wide open. We were supposed to be doing a festival this summer as Murderdolls, but Slipknot came back and pushed that back so I spent the summer a little bored. Now the tour’s just getting started and the year’s ending. It’s the end but we’re just getting started, but overall it’s been a good year, just a bit of a wasted summer. I think next year’s going to be great; we have a lot of cool tours lined up. We start off in America in January, then head straight to Australia after that and we’re hoping to do the festivals over here this summer if possible, so we have a lot of stuff lined up. So yes, I would say this year has been great but next year will be even better.”
“We’re looking at the idea of possibly doing a DVD or something like that,” he adds, looking to the future. “Maybe something from the live show. We’ve been videotaping stuff like that over the course of the tour and I would like to do something else. I always like to record something, so if we get a little small break in April or May, something like that, I’m not opposed to doing a new CD, getting it done and having it out this time next year. I believe in the whole putting a record out every year. A lot of my favourite bands did that and they put out a lot of quality stuff. As long as I’m putting out stuff that I like and I’m putting out stuff that the fans like, then there’s nothing wrong with putting out stuff as often. Not being on a label means I don’t have anybody telling me what I can and cannot do, so I can do whatever I wanna do. That’s a cool thing to us.”
Anything else he’d like to add? “I think we’ve covered it all. I wanna add two and two. I invented that answer ten years ago. Let’s pretend I did. Two plus two is eight.”
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
