Interview With Wendsday 13
Roadrunner: Cory (Murderdoll's manager) left me an email this morning saying you wanted to do this at 10:30am instead of noon…an early bird, eh?
Wednesday 13: Fuck man, this is still late for me. I'm used to getting up at 4:00 in the morning.
Roadrunner: You're kidding? That's not too rock 'n' roll.
Wednesday 13: Yeah man, I haven't had the rock star life yet. I've been going to work - getting up at 4:00 in the morning and delivering magazines.
Roadrunner: That's right, I remember Joey (Jordison) saying that you can't wait till you go on the road so you can stop slinging newspapers.
Wednesday 13: Yeah, it's ridiculous. So now when I get to sleep till 10, I'm like "Wow, this is the life!"
Roadrunner: Guess you're in for a treat when you finally go on tour then.
Wednesday 13: Oh yeah…
Roadrunner: What is your first memory of music?
Wednesday 13: First memory of music would probably be my brother bringing home vinyl from the record store, bringing in Number Of The Beast, Iron Maiden, and Shout At The Devil (Motley Crue). Playing it with the lights out, candles lit, and scaring me to death. But I loved it. And I wanted to hear more and more. Honestly, that's really my first memory of music.
PRESENT:
Roadrunner: You live in North Carolina, right?
Wednesday 13: Oh yeah, the home of Andy Griffith.
Roadrunner: What's the cigarette situation down there?
Wednesday 13: Cigarette situation? We got the Phillip Morris plant, nothing major…
Roadrunner: I take it you don't smoke cigarettes, then.
Wednesday 13: Nope.
Roadrunner: That's not too rock 'n' roll…kidding…All right, one more North Carolina question, Denny's or Wafflehouse?
Wednesday 13: DENNY'S! Wafflehouse is horrible, I never go there. Denny's rules because you can get chicken all the time, and I'm a chicken fanatic.
GETTING STARTED:
Roadrunner: How did you meet up with the Murderdolls? When did all this get into motion?
Wednesday 13: I guess it was around Halloween last year. I actually always take Halloween off for vacation. I was at home and I got a call from Tripp (Eisen, guitar), who I had met when he was playing in Dope about a year prior to that. He called me up, was like "Hey, I'm playing with this other band and we're looking for a bass player." I'm like, "I'm not a bass player, I'm a singer/guitarist." But I can play bass too, so I decided to give it a shot.
Shortly after I started talking with Joey and everything clicked, and maybe two weeks later they flew me out to Iowa and I was in a studio recording with them. It was that quick, no audition. First time I met Joey was the first time we went into the studio. Joey and I bonded - we liked the same movies, the same music - and it just kind of took off from there…and then at the beginning of the year, Joey's like "I think I want to get rid of the singer, and I want you to sing." I was like, "This rules, I don't like playing bass." It was just really cool, and it all kind of changed from that point - the music, the lyrics…monsters & grave robbing, fun stuff.
Roadrunner: The kind of movies you and Joey found in common, what would they have been?
Wednesday 13: We both enjoy Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Joey's a big fan of Part I and I'm a big fan of Parts I and II. We still argue about the two crazy guys from Parts I and II - Joey says that the hitchhiker from part I is the best, and I have to argue and say that the guy from part II with the plate in his head is topping him.
Roadrunner: The world may never know…
Wednesday 13: We're also really big fans of Slingblade, too. So we always use movie phrases to each other. We're kind of strange like that.
EVOLUTION:
Roadrunner: From the time you became the singer compared to back when you were just the bassist, how much did the songs change?
Wednesday 13: They took a change. There were some songs that I wrote, had a basic structure to and Joey took them, rearranged them, added parts, brought a whole new energy to them. After the singer left, we kind of redid everything, restructured everything…everything took a total change.
Roadrunner: You still did play some bass on the album?
Wednesday 13: Yeah, I played bass, played some guitar, a few leads…it's really strange how this all came about (laughs). It was just like, "Here, why don't you play this…"
Roadrunner: Yep, as Joey said, "Everything is ass backwards with this band."
Wednesday 13: Yeah, but it's cool…very cool the way everything turned out.
WELCOME TO ROADRUNNER RECORDS
Roadrunner: What do you know about Roadrunner Records?
Wednesday 13: I just know you put out a ton of stuff…actually you put out a glam band in 1994…
Roadrunner: Yes we did, can you name the band?
Wednesday 13: Star Star.
Roadrunner: Yes, and you like?
Wednesday 13: I love it, man. I'm looking at the cd right now. I've got it, Star Star, The Love Drag Years.
Roadrunner: You're shitting me…there's about a handful of us here (Roadrunner Records NY) today who just love that cd to death.
Wednesday 13: It's great. I was into a lot of weird stuff like that which never made it out…people are like, "who the fuck is that?" But I could sing you every song on the record.
Roadrunner: You will make Monte Conner (V.P. of A&R) very happy. There is not a bad song on it…Anything else in your Roadrunner collection?
Wednesday 13: Type O Negative, of course.
Roadrunner: How does it feel to have a debut record coming out just around the corner?
Wednesday 13: It's great, I feel like all this bullshit work I've done over the years with previous bands has finally paid off…ya know, driving from North Carolina to Pittsburgh and playing in front of twelve people. I've been doing gigs like that since I was fifteen years old. And now, having an album done the way I wanted it done, it's just great. I think it's what every musician wants to do.
THE NEW YORK EXPERIENCE:
Roadrunner: Roadrunner Records is here in NYC. What was your first NY experience?
Wednesday 13: Ohhhhh…we (previous band) went out for a month one time, and our first gig was at CBGB's in New York. We were all like, "Wow, CBGB's…home of the Ramones, Dead Boys, this is gonna be great." Our drummer booked the gig. On the way driving up, we kept asking him if he had called the club, followed up & made sure all was cool. Pretty standard questions, to make sure this 10 hour drive wouldn't be for nothing. "It's cool, man. They put us on the books. It's great," he kept answering.
We finally make it to New York. We make it to CBGB's, find the owner and tell him who we are. He's like, "Oh really? We didn't know you guys were playing. I guess you can you can still play, but you'll go on at 3:30am." The show started at 6pm. There were 15 bands. At one point there was a good audience there, but of course they left. Right before we went on, there was one guy, one single guy on stage with an acoustic guitar and he had a drum machine on a stool. He played for 45 minutes in front of three people.
We finally went on. We played in front of the bartender and the owner. They felt so bad for us that they bought one t-shirt…which still didn't pay for our parking. That was pretty horrible, that was my first experience of New York. That was the longest drive to have such a shitty show.
LIVE SHOW:
Roadrunner: What is a typical jam session like?
Wednesday 13: It's kind of weird, with everybody spaced out like we are -Joey in Des Moines, Tripp from New Jersey and he's touring with Static X - there really hasn't been a 'typical' jam session. We did two shows in January. We got together for basically a week and rehearsed almost 12 hours a day. The real sessions we'll do before going out on the road really haven't begun yet.
Roadrunner: Well, what do you guys have in mind for a live show once you start touring?
Wednesday 13: Live Show…visually I can see it…I always compare things to movies, because that's all I do is watch movies…I guess the movie that I can see explaining it would be the final scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The first one, where it's just complete chaos - people screaming, chainsaws running down the road, people getting hit by trucks. That's a good way to explain it.
Roadrunner: All the good fun stuff…and this is a vision shared by the whole band?
Wednesday 13: Yeah, definitely. We want to keep it visually spontaneous. That's what Joey and I talked about with our shows before, we want to shock each other as much as (shocking) the audience. Ya know, like, "All right, I'm gonna do something tonight that's gonna freak you out." "What?" "I'm not gonna tell you, just wait till it happens." That's the kind of way Joey and I have discussed doing things on stage, and I think it's better that way. I don't want it to be a format where every night we do the exact same thing, without adding a bit surprise into it. I guess we'll see what happens. (laughs)
Roadrunner: HA! Much like the Grateful Dead summer tours of past with people following, waiting to see what jam they'd do at the next show, this could be the modern day summer tour for kids to follow around this summer…
LAST WORDS:
Roadrunner: From speaking with you, I get the feeling a lot of your influences are from horror flicks.
Wednesday 13: TV man, TV period. I watch everything.
Roadrunner: What do you think of the sudden resurgence of ALF as a pop icon?
Wednesday 13: ALF? ALF is a pop icon? (laughs) Alf was cool…
Roadrunner: What tattoo will always remain a classic: Mom, an anchor, or an 8 ball w/ flames coming out the back?
Wednesday 13: I'd have to definitely say an anchor, just because of Popeye. Popeye always had strange arms…and I've always liked strange things.
Roadrunner: Famous last words?
Wednesday 13: Beware, because we're coming…
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