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Murderdolls' Wednesday 13 Dishes to Metal Insider
Metal Insider was on hand at the Camden, NJ date of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival to talk shop with the Murderdolls' frontman Wednesday 13. Though the band is not performing on the tour, Insider explains, "While his bandmate pulls drumming duties for Rob Zombie during the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Fest this summer, Wednesday is tagging along on the tour to push the band’s sophomore album Women & Children Last. He sat down with Metal Insider to discuss the process leading up to the new album, getting to work with Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars and what the future has in store for the Murderdolls..."
Read an excerpt of the Q&A below, go right here for the full story, and pre-order a special edition copy of Women and Children Last at this location! If you want to meet Joey Jordison & Wednesday 13 at the Mayhem Fest date nearest you, go right here to find out how to claim your spot in line.
After such a long period of time being on hiatus, what brought this project back into existance?
It’s a conversation that’s been going on for years. When the band went on hiatus in 2003, the idea was that we would record in six or eight months again and it just didn’t happen. Joey [Jordison] did Slipknot and I started doing my solo stuff. Then I did another solo record and he did another Slipknot record. Then he goes on tour with Korn, Ministry and Satyricon, and I did two country albums in the process. It’s been eight years, but we’ve been busy and consumed with everything. So it might feel like a long time, but maybe not as long for us because we’ve been so fucking busy. But about a year ago the conversation started getting more serious about doing a new Muderdolls record again, and Joey just called me out of the blue one morning and was like “I’m ready to do this if you are,” and I was like “Let’s do it!” We’ve been passing songs back and forth for eight years now. It wasn’t finished songs. It was like ideas and riffs and things here and there, but we had over 50 or 60 song ideas. When we got into the studio, we had 30 that we wanted to do, and we figured we can’t do 30. So we started chopping on them and chopping down and chopping down, and then we got down to 19 tracks and wrote two songs in the studio.
Were you kind of scared when Joey revealed that he was going to be touring and doing stuff with Rob Zombie?
No. He called me and told me right when we decided we were doing it. When I first heard about it I was like ‘Ok…’ But nah, I wasn’t worried at all and I’ve realized that it’s been a big help because I’m riding with Zombie on this tour right now doing press. So it works out.
You mentioned about how you’re just doing the rounds of press while you’re following Zombie on Mayhem Fest. Has it been kind of relaxing for you to just do press and not actually perform? Or are you kind of wishing that you were onstage at the moment?
Yeah, I mean it’s starting to get to that point of the tour where everything is routine every day. You know when you get up. You know when stuff is happening. It is weird to be on tour every day and not be performing, but at the same time it’s pretty awesome to be able to go on a tour like this, do press all day and promote your band, and by the time this is all said and done when this tour ends on August 14 I’ve completed ten weeks of press from Paris to Alabama. Before this tour started we were two and a half weeks in Europe doing non-stop, twelve hour interviews a day and photo shoots. So it’s been great. We’re setting this record up so good, and we have so many cool ideas. No one has been really telling us no, which is amazing. Labels are usually going “No you can’t do that!” Everything we do that we think might piss them off, they’re into it. That’s a good sign.
Was there any specific reason, besides convenience, for having a different lineup from the first album/shows?
Yeah, I mean it was a thing of, for me and Joey, it being eight years. I hate to use the word grown up or matured, but the fact is that it’s been eight years. I’m not 26 years old anymore, as I was when that record came out. We just evolved and it was a thing where we needed fresh blood. We needed new guys, guys who were on the same page as us and had the same vision as us. That’s why we wanted to get a new lineup.
Can you tell me a little bit about how it was like working with Mick Mars in the studio?
It was great! It wasn’t planned really either. We didn’t want to have any special guest on this record. We just wanted to have the Murderdolls come back and be the Murderdolls. We were hanging out having dinner. We had just finished tracking a song called “Blood Stained Valentine” which Mick plays on, and we had finished tracking everything except for lead guitar. So we come in, we’re having dinner and were just talking. I’m always the kind of guy who, I’ve got to be annoying to some guitar players because I hear solos in my head but I can’t do them that great. I can Johny Thunders a guitar solo. But I always like guitar solos that are memorable and you can walk around and whistle to them or hum them in your head. So I had the song in my head and I was just going ‘Nuh uuhh Nuhh,’ and just kind of humming, and I was like “You know honestly this almost has a Mick Mars kind of vibe.” I just kept hearing this sort of ‘Waaah wah’ and we’re talking back and forth, and this guy, we call him the ‘Mad Manager,’ who was seeing us at our house and heard us talking said “Well why don’t you just call up Mick and get him to play on it? He lives down the fucking street.” I was like ‘Well I don’t know him! You call him.’ He had worked with Motley Crue in the past, so he called up Mick and said “I’m hanging out with the Murderdolls,” and he was a fan of the band. So then he goes “Would you be interested in playing on two songs?” And he was there in two days. He came in, total pro.
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Video: Munky & Fieldy Talk 'Korn III' With Aux TV
Watch below as Korn's string section (guitarist Munky and bassist Fieldy) talk about Korn III: Remember Who You Are with Canada's Aux.TV.
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David Ellefson Talks All Things Megadeth With Montreal's MusikUniverse.Net
Megadeth have been travelling the world so far this year. Just returning from a festival run in Europe, the band kicked off American Carnage with some leftover dates from the previously postponed Canadian Carnage in Quebec City, and then stopped at Montreal's Heavy MTL festival, where founding bassist David Ellefson caught up with MusikUniverse.net. Watch the video interview complete with some killer live footage below, and stay tuned for more from the band as they bring their Rust In Peace anniversary setlist to US soil with American Carnage!
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Fuel TV: Mayhem Fest 2010 Footage and Photos
Having kicked off on July 10th in California, the third annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival is just about halfway through, and while we're gearing up to check it out in New Jersey today, July 28th, Fuel TV has been keeping a video diary from each stop along the way.
Go RIGHT HERE to check out some live footage from the fest in each city -- including shots of co-headliners Korn and Rob Zombie -- as well as some killer photos and other bonus insights into the set up and take down of the travelling tour.
If you like what you see and think you've got some killer photos from Mayhem in your personal collection, go RIGHT HERE to show us what you've got to win a prize pack and have your photos showcased on roadrunnerrecords.com.
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Watch Stone Sour's New Video For "Say You'll Haunt Me" Right Here
Stone Sour's first proper single from their upcoming September 7th release Audio Secrecy is a darkly poignant song that will get stuck in your head. Writes Noisecreep, "'Say You'll Haunt Me' is an obvious song about hope beyond struggle." Meanwhile frontman Corey Taylor contends, "It was one of those songs that I didn't really feel until it was finished... I enjoyed the lyrics but I wasn't sure about the music. I'd come in and I'd sang it, and I put my heart into it because the lyrics are about my wife and how I feel about my wife, and then I left. And I came back and [the band] had just made it incredible. Now I can't get it out of my head."
Watch the official video for the catchy track below, and go right here to pre-order your copy of the band's brand new album Audio Secrecy.
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Dream Theater Keyboardist Jordan Rudess Talks Touring With Bloody-Disgusting.com
Dream Theater have just finished up The Final Frontier Tour with Iron Maiden here in the US, but right before the trek's end, bloody-disgusting.com caught up with the band's keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess to hear all about it. In the video interview below, Rudess touches on the band's best moments on this trek, what's next in store for the band as well as himself personally and much more. Watch it now, and go right here to get your copy of the band's latest album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings.
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Airbourne and Slash: Rock & Roll Appreciation
Having just shared the bill on a few European summer festivals earlier this season, famed rock guitar god Slash has namechecked Aussie rockers Airbourne in various interviews of late. Most famously citing at Download that, "those guys are phenomenal. As far as new rock and roll bands are concerned right now, there haven’t been a lot of insanely great acts for some time. It’s hard to say who else I’d pick but Airbourne rock!”
Airbourne frontman Joel O'Keeffe comments on their legendary  endorsement of sorts, saying, "Slash is Rock'n'Roll and Soulful at the same time, he is a phenomenal guitarist that will be remembered forever. His showmanship, musicianship, guitar tone and trade mark riffs and licks have influenced countless guitarists worldwide. We are honored and stoked that he tips his top hat towards us. Slash Rock'n'Fk'n'Roll forever!"
And as if that wasn't enough, Alice Cooper has also brought up whiskey-rockers Airbourne in a recent interview. Says Cooper, "I really like garage bands... I like bands that sound like drunk bar bands. I just saw this video of Airbourne the other night ("Blonde, Bad & Beautiful") and I went 'ok, that looks like fun'."
Watch the video in question off the band's latest album No Guts. No Glory. below, and go right here to get a copy of the album now!
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Video: Murderdolls' Wednesday 13 Interviewed at Mayhem Fest
Though the Murderdolls are not performing, Wednesday 13 has joined the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival doing daily meet & greet signings with the other half of the dolls' devilish duo Joey Jordison, who is on the tour drumming for Rob Zombie. With a little bit of down time at his disposal, Wednesday has been hitting the press circuit hard in anticipation of the band's upcoming sophomore album Women and Children Last.
Check out this in depth interview from BareBonesMusic.com below, where Wednesday discusses the making of the album, his brand new band members, how Mad Manager was born and much more and find out how to meet Wednesday and Joey yourself at a Mayhem date near you by going right here.
Women and Children Last is out August 31st, but there's no need to wait -- pre-order a limited edition copy of the album with some bonus extras at this location.
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Korn Frontman Talks Oil, 'Korn III' and Close 'Encounters' With The Suicide Girls
Since 1993, Korn have made themselves known for their deafening brand of hard and heavy music, and their penchant for taking their Issues to lyrical depths. But, as SuicideGirls.com say, they're "making noise about an external issue that will likely affect us all in some way – the April 20th drilling explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig." With the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival boycotting BP, and their new album, Korn III: Remember Who You Are debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200, frontman Jonathan Davis talks about all of the above and then some with SuicideGirls.
Writes the site, "Talking the day after the new album’s release, we spoke about life, music, organized religion, close encounters of the crop circle making kind, and his hope that his wrath for big petroleum will prove to be contagious."
Read an excerpt of the Q&A below, go right here for the full interview, and pick up you copy of Korn III at this location.
The band will be doing daily meet & greets at the third annual Mayhem Fest. Go right here to find out how to claim your spot in line.
Andrea Larrabee: How did the BP boycott come about?
Jonathan Davis: That thing started out, for me, just seeing what was going on. I was just disgusted with that company. Myself, personally, I wasn't going to buy any of their products. I told my management about it and they're like, well, let's boycott it if you feel that strongly about it. So we started the whole boycott just to send a message to those companies. If enough people don't buy their products then they'll feel it. We're not going to put them out of business or anything, it's just [about] trying to say that you need to be held accountable for destroying these people's lives. Why didn't [they] spend that extra money to make sure that this didn't happen? Hopefully by us doing that - and we're getting more and more bands that are joining everyday - it'll send a message to those oil companies to spend the money to make sure it doesn't happen again. Because it's only one well - there's hundreds of them in that gulf, and thousands in the whole word. They need to be held accountable to make sure the safety measures are there. ...Obviously the government's not going to do anything about it because [the politicians] make back door deals with them. The bottom line is oil is our life. Our wars are fought over it. Everything is surrounded by this stupid fucking brown shit that comes out of the earth...[It's something that] everybody has a vested interest in so it's up to the people - us - not just sit by and let shit happen and depend on our government to work it out. It's on us to do something.
AL: You talk about oil being our lives, but really the wealth generated by it only benefits a tiny percentage of already obscenely wealthy Americans. I had a very profound experience a few years ago when I went to Norway for the Øya Festival. While I was there I learned that a massive percentage of the country's oil wealth goes back to the people. The money pays for health care, social services, education, and the arts. Meanwhile, the oil companies drilling in California don't have to pay any royalties to the local or federal governments - even though the oil is being sucked from beneath land that belongs to all of us. And we have a bankrupt state.
JD: I know, it's ridiculous. It's so ridiculous. There's countries in Europe and all around the world, people got it together. It just seems like here, in the States, it's so fucked up. I see it first hand because in the town I live in, where we did the "Oildale" video, there's hundreds of pumps around in Oildale but it's the most impoverished, fucked-up place I think I've ever been to. All these people who live near the oil fields, they don't receive anything. They're poor, it's overrun with drugs, it's disgusting, and if we [got] something out of it it'd be amazing. Just the fact that in Norway, they've got social services, art, everything - fuck! I want to move to Norway.
AL: These oil companies do seem to operate above the law, and above governments. Do you have any hope that this boycott will actually have any real effect?
JD: I hope it does. I mean I saw a report that BP's sales were down in places anywhere from ten to forty percent. I hope they go down more. I hope people get pissed off. I mean they've got lots of money and it's going to affect them in some way. They should be held accountable. I'd love to see them be put the fuck out of business. It's just unfair. It's just really unfair that a company can do that and get away with it. And the [Exxon] settlements that have taken fucking two decades, it's just a horrible situation all the way around.
AL:So would you also ask that your fans boycott BP?
JD: I would totally urge them to do that. It's a decision that they have to make. I'm not into really political shit, to me it's about seeing the environment and people being hurt. It's more coming from a human standpoint. I think if you're human and you actually see what's going on down there, you'll feel compelled to not buy their shit.
AL: In the lyrics and in your vocals you can definitely hear very raw emotion.
JD: Yeah, you can feel it. Now if I'd have done that same shit and done three or four vocals on it, it would have took away from that. That's what I love about listening to the record, you can feel the emotion on every chorus and every little thing that's different each time around. It makes for an enjoyable listen.
AL: Lyrically, which tracks are closest to home emotionally?
JD: All ten of them are. [laughs] I swear. If you knew the fucking shit I went through making this. It was basically me and [producer] Ross [Robinson]. It was one big purging of me trying to figure out what makes me so unhappy all the time. And I came up with big topics like people pleasing, or guilt, and just living in the past. All these things I figured out working with him that were sparking me to start writing.
AL: You also debuted Korn Live: The Encounter recently which features concert footage shot amidst a crop circle.
JD: Yeah. It was a TV show on HDNet that we did and it was one of the most amazing things that we've ever participated in. We're huge fans of Pink Floyd's Live at Pompei and we kind of used that as a template for it. We had circle makers come out from the UK. They stomped out a crop circle and we did a show in the middle of it. And something happened, we started jamming between songs and it just turned into one big jam concert with our new songs and some old songs. Looking at it, it's just amazing.
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Stone Sour "Say You'll Haunt Me" Video Live on MTV2 and MTVU
Don't wait one minute more to see the brand new video for Stone Sour's first single off Audio Secrecy, "Say You'll Haunt Me."
Having premiered on MTV2 and MTVU early this morning, the band's cryptic video for their poignant introspection is available online RIGHT HERE for viewing. Go watch it now!
While the MP3 "Say You'll Haunt Me" is available for purchase on iTunes, fans can also pre-order the September 7th album Audio Secrecy by going right here.
Stone Sour are set to embark on the inaugural Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival this August. For a full list of tour dates and ticket information, check our tour page.
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