WEDNESDAY 13: GI Joe Villains & The Devil Himself
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
Creaking coffins and ghoulish screams in the middle of the night are the sound of music to the horror king himself, Wednesday 13. Fresh from the grave with a new album – ‘Condolences’ to share, the campy schlock style he is so well known for is taking a bit more of a backseat this time around.
Your new album Condolences comes across a lot darker in places, is the camp shtick you became so well known for being put to one side for a while?
Well our image is always ever changing and it’s just over the last year that the music and the look have shifted into a darker direction. And when I say that the camp is gone it’s not, it’s never totally gone, my sense of humour has to shine through in the music and I never ever leave it. We just did the video ‘Cruel to You’ and that’s about as campy as I think I have ever been! That’s why I wanted to do a video like that to show people that there is still that side, in case they thought we were trying to be too serious or something.
But yeah the camp is a little less than what it used to be over the years and I think that is just due to the fact that I’ve gotten older and the music has changed and evolved but we are still very much Wednesday 13. We still pay respect to the past; so if this record is not anyone’s favourite – compared to the old stuff – I think if they come to the live show they’ll be completely happy because it’s a mix of everything, I span the entire career.
The Devil character that you play and which features in the music video for ‘What The Night Brings’ is still a part of the show though?
The devil character is something I have been doing live for the past couple of years now, it’s a staple in our live show; when I come out dressed like that it’s like I can just see it in the audiences eyes, they are just kinda hypnotized by it. It’s just a really cool thing, especially when we capture the vibe it’s just like a full on big satanic ritual or something (laughs). But that character that look, was inspired from an old black and white film. The silence of the hex and witchcraft for the ages; it was based off of silent films of witchcraft and all these different devils.
Well speaking of the past, you have always been very open about the fact that you are an admirer of the likes of The Misfits and Alice Cooper – are there any bands that have influenced this heavier and darker vibe to the record?
I don’t think there has been anything that we have been listening too that has changed the look or the sound; it’s just naturally evolved into it. A lot of people would look at us and go ‘Oh these guys are Black Metal, or this gothic type look meets Black Metal’ and it is. But in our minds, when we make our outfits – we have all our stuff custom made by this dude here in Los Angeles who makes all of our clothing – we base it off old comic book villains and star wars villains. Mad Max characters and things from the movies, and we get ideas for our clothing like that and so that’s where a lot of the inspiration comes from as well as the darker imagery and stuff because we look like space villains and I think we’re, ah, pullin’ that look off (chuckles).
So are you are fan of the latest version of the Mad Max movie (starring Tom Hardy)?
I thought it was great, I mean I grew up on those films and I thought the new one was…I mean visually it was something I had never seen before and so just that alone was great but the cool story; it entertained as well. The imagery alone was supercool and I’ve always thought about how Mad Max and the Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome that whole look, those are like summer movies for me, when I was out of school I would like watch those all summer. And [going back to clothing] GI Joe – that’s kinda where I get a lot of our clothing from, especially for these upcoming tours. That’s it really, I’m basing my new outfit off the GI Joe villains, the super villains it’s pretty cool when I put on my clothes I look like a life size GI Joe villain.
One thing is for sure, with this new album Wednesday 13 is back and better than ever, releasing no less than four music videos already, each one steeped in the imagery we have come to know and love from the devil incarnate himself. Title track ‘Condolences’ with its throbbing guitars grabs you by the throat and shakes you like a rag doll, both the song and accompanying video something that 13 is quite fond of..
I won’t say it represents me or anything; it’s just as far as capturing the atmosphere on a song, this song, it sounds like a soundtrack to a movie. You can close your eyes and visualize the lyrics and everything. Basically it’s about my funeral and we captured such an eerie vibe to it. We just got the video back last night and it gave me chills when I watched it, I can’t believe that we captured the vibe in the video along with the song! It’s just insane how it turned out. So that’s the one that was already my favourite track and then when I saw the video to it … it’s just something that I really want people to focus on.
I can hear in your voice that you are pretty excited to have this new album see the light of day!
Very excited, we’ve had this record done since September last year! Spent a lot of time working on it, three months writing and recording and we are super excited to be finally getting it out. We’re like caged tigers, we’ve been waiting so long, and it’s a big moment for us.
Well I have to say that my favourite, is ‘Blood Sick’, the intro to that is killer, what influenced that sound?
That is a thing that our guitarist [Roman Surman] uses; it’s a horror whammy effect. He’s always making up all these strange guitar sounds and he makes things sound like space ships and just lots of great characters. Anything that sounds spacey and out of this world we use and that was something that he came up with and it fit; I don’t know if people realise it’s a guitar making that sound, but it is!
Funnily enough though it was the second track of the album ‘What the Night Brings’ – that you chose to film the first video for – why was that?
Well for this record, you know honestly it’s the first record I have recorded where I didn’t know immediately like what songs should be videos or singles or whatever you want to call them, we’re not a radio band so I don’t think we write for that. On this record all the songs stand out so I couldn’t really pick a favourite because I liked every song on the record, we didn’t put anything out there that we weren’t sure about. So basically I let the label listen to it and we asked a couple of people there – I trust their opinions – and we kinda bounced our ideas back and the tracks that came back are the ones that we have done the videos for so far. Not that they’re my favourite songs or anything, they’re just the ones that we felt would be best to kinda represent what this record is about.
Also you know, [it will] show the fans the new direction with ‘What The Night Brings’ but then also a video like ‘Cruel To You’ with the comic book and so it’s like two different sides, there’s the new and darker side and there’s shades of the older side. There’s still the fun, campy Beetlejuice side to us as well (chuckles).
You have been involved in the music industry for a while now in many different forms, and you recently stated that you ‘needed to make it fun again’. Obviously a factor that is important to you?
Yeah I mean, just for me I have to keep things busy and I have to keep things fun for me. I do this so much, I tour nine months out of the year you know, I play every night. We’ll do one hundred shows a year or more. To keep it fun for me I have to reinvent myself. I don’t want anyone to come to my show and say ‘Oh here comes Wednesday 13 again, I bet he’s going to play that same song, maybe he’ll do this, that same show, blah, blah, blah, boring’.
I don’t want to get stale and I always like to keep my audience guessing so every time they come to a show, it’s like a magic show! I have so many costume changes, masks and hats; just our light show and everything; we’ve turned it into a full on production now. Which keeps me extra busy on stage but it [also] keeps our show alive and it makes it original which stands out from anything else out there.
So audiences can expect an even bigger stage show for the tour of the ‘Condolences’ album?
Yeah definitely! There will be a bigger light show and we’ve got a lot of these new props and there are a lot of things that I do as far as the visuals that go along with the shows. [It’s] very much inspired by Alice Cooper and Kiss, Wasp, Twisted Sister all of my favourite bands that I grew up on.
So I sorta like carry on the torch in my own way cause you don’t see a lot of people doing that anymore. I really take pride in my shows, putting on the best that I can and I think the fans will be more than happy with what we’re bringing along with this new album live!
While this maybe the seventh studio album for Wednesday 13, it is their first with their new label, the ever growing Nuclear Blast. This also means that we will hopefully be seeing a tour down in New Zealand very soon!
Well I am hoping that we can include New Zealand along with Australia and then do Japan after that on the next round. I’m hoping we can do that on the first trip next year. I haven’t been to Japan since 2011, since the earthquake there so … well for me I wanna get back there just cause I feel like I need to mentally feel that in my head, because that was a pretty devastating thing to go through. But also it’s my favourite place to play too, so if I can make New Zealand and Japan and Australia all in one tour I don’t think I could be happier because they are some of my favourite places to visit.