Interview #631: Murderdolls

Take the drummer from modern metal's biggest band and put a guitar in his hand. Add one man who has done nearly as much to shock-horror as guillotine-master Alice Cooper. What do you get? Why, Murderdolls of course! The long-standing collaborative project of Slipknot's Joey Jordison and gore-loving Wednesday 13. Their 2002 debut album Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls took the world by storm and after a long period out (concentrating on other musical commitments), they returned in 2010 with Women And Children Last, produced by Chris “Zeuss” Harris, famed for his work with Hatebreed, Chimaira, Municipal Waste, Shadows Fall and more...

We caught up with Wednesday 13 to chat about the new Murderdolls line-up, his long lasting kinship with Joey Jordinson, kissing Alice Cooper and whether it's still possible to shock an audience today...

“I Like Music because…I like to party.” Wednesday 13, Murderdolls

ILM: You have a lot of experience when it comes to playing live, what do you look forward to about getting up on stage?

Wednesday 13: It’s the most rewarding thing. It just makes you want to get up and play every day. A lot of people don’t realise that when you’re on tour constantly for months and months at a time, you get tired of putting on your clothes. It’s hard to get motivated to get on stage sometimes. But for me, no matter how bad I’m feeling, when I hear our intro start and the crowd begin screaming and then singing along to songs that we've written, it’s the most rewarding thing. This whole tour we’ve been playing all these great places and they’re packed with everyone singing our words back at us. From the old record and the new one… It’s just the most rewarding part, seeing people sing along to your songs.

ILM: How’s it been going with the new Murderdolls line up?

Wednesday 13: It’s been great. Before we went out on tour we'd just finished making the record and we wanted to re-group. We don’t want to take anything away from the old guys, it’s just that so many years have passed and it just wouldn’t have worked out the way we wanted it to. So we decided to move on and get some new guys under us. It’s been great! I think we have a really, really cool band! And the good thing about it is that we’re all friends, we’ve all known each other for a while. There’s nothing better than going out on tour and having all your friends there!

ILM: You started putting together shock-rock shows very early on in small venues, when you were a teenager. Can you tell us about those early shows?

Wednesday 13: We were from North Carolina and when I first started with my old band, everything else was kind of run of the mill. We had rock bands, but there was nobody that wanted to do anything to scare anybody. I was always the kid that wanted to do anything that was weird. We would play maybe three Saturdays out of each month. When I would get my gigs it was all I could think about. Whether I was working or week or at school, I’d just constantly write down ideas. I used to save my lunch money at school and also sell cigarettes to get money. Then I’d go to thrift stores and buy props. Anything that I thought would look weird on stage, I would get it. I had everything from a trampoline to a plastic swimming pool filled full of cereal, even when we were playing to like, 20 people. I would do the dumbest stuff too. That’s why I became the weirdo in my county. I’d just do weirder and weirder things...and then I got the Murderdoll’s gig! That was kind of a cool little slap in people’s faces. Everyone was like “you’re an idiot, no-one’s going to be into this kind of stuff, your songs are dumb, no-one wants to hear about grave-robbing.” Well actually...it seemed there are quite a few people that want to hear about it!

ILM: So much has changed since the pioneers of shock-rock took to the stage. Is it still possible to shock a modern audience to the same level?

Wednesday 13: It’s different. It’s harder to shock an audience now because everyone’s done everything. Once you get past kissing Alice Cooper - which I pretty much did on stage…! Ha ha! It’s funny actually, speaking of Alice Cooper - you know, the dude that cuts his head off and kills himself on stage - we played with him. When I first played with him I thought “he’s one of my favourite artists of all time, his audience are gonna relate to us,” but then we walked out and everyone was like “who the hell are these guys?” We just came out jumping around and all of a sudden I start saying ‘fuck’ on stage every five seconds or so, and the audience were like “gasp!” I was like alright, so this is how I’m gonna shock ‘em, Alice can cut his head off, I’ll just say fuck a lot! And it worked! After the show people wanted to come and talk to us and buy our shirts, “you guys say ‘fuck’, that’s great, I want your t-shirt!” Haha! So that was kind of an example of how we shocked someone on that side. But really, as good as props and shock-tactics are, it's all about going out to every show and putting every ounce of energy we got into it. That's always the most important thing.

ILM: How would you describe your song-writing process?

Wednesday 13: Back in the day when I lived in my parents’ house, I had a different kind of writing process. I had a little place to go and it was easy. But now I tour so much it’s hard for me to write on a tour bus. So I just write wherever I’m at, whenever I have a guitar. Normally, when I finish recording a record I try not to write for months. Now I’m kind of getting into writing because it’s been a year since we recorded the album and it’s like “alright, time to write some new stuff.” So we’ll see where that goes...

ILM: How do you push yourself to grow as a musician?

Wednesday 13: I just open my ears a lot more and listen to a lot of different bands. When I was younger I probably only listened to ten bands: Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Sex Pistols… Now I listen to everything from Slayer to Killing Joke, as well as all that stuff. Having those kind of bands enforced on me has changed the way I approach things, which is all for the better I think.

ILM: How would describe your working relationship with Joey?

Wednesday 13: It’s really unique, the writing connection that we have. It’s just easy, that’s the only way I can explain it. He and I can get together and we almost finish each other’s sentences sometimes! We never fight, we never argue over any kind of music or anything like that. We have the most fun, we had thirty days to do that record and it was the most fun thirty days I ever had!

ILM: What did Chris Harris bring to the table as a producer?

Wednesday 13: It was really cool because I didn’t know Chris – we call him Zeuss – before the recording. Joey had worked with him prior. Zeuss has a track record for doing much heavier bands like Hatebreed and Shadows Fall and things like that. But when it came down to pick a producer, Joey was like “I wanna get my buddy Zeuss to do it, he’s awesome, he gets great sounds.” Zeuss also wanted to break out of his normal area, and when he heard our music he was like “holy shit, this is cool! This reminds me of Cheap Trick or Kiss!” He just heard all these influences and we were like “wow, you’re right! That’s all the bands that we listen to!” We were right on the same page as him and we had a blast. That guy’s a really good friend of mine now and he brought a lot out of me that I didn’t think I could do. He’s a real strong producer; like when I did my vocals he’d be like “alright man, you can do that better. Do it again, try this.” He pushed me to the level I wanted and I like that kind of pressure. I don’t let it bother me.

ILM: When you look back across your music career, what have been some of the biggest highlights for you?

Wednesday 13: Man, there’s millions! Being able to go out and do all these amazing shows and play with some of my favourite artists is incredible. Having Mick Mars from Motley Crue playing on our record was an amazing thing. Going to do the farewell Hanoi Rocks tour in Japan just as Wednesday 13, not even Murderdolls, was great. That was the last time that band ever played and I got to see their last two weeks. So there’s so many things, I don’t even know which is the best! I’m just very grateful for where I’m at and the things I’ve been able to do. I don’t take it for granted at all. I couldn’t tell you one ‘cause there’s so many. I’ve been very fortunate!

ILM: What would your advice be for young artists?

Wednesday 13: A lot of people ask me for advice and I think it’s different for different people. This business is way bigger and way more work than you could ever think as a kid watching TV. You go “oh that guy’s playing guitar. That looks cool, I wanna do that.” That’s what I did; I saw Twisted Sister and Kiss and Alice Cooper and thought “I wanna do that.” Then you go on tour and realise it’s work. Today I’ll do press up until I have to get dressed for the show. And that’s five days in a row. My advice to people is not to think that this is an easy way out of the real world or real life, because the real world will follow you whether you’re in a band or not. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you gotta have the dedication and devotion to wanna do it. You can’t take no for an answer. You gotta be focused, and you gotta be in this for more than just wanting to be famous. It’s gotta be in your blood and you’ve gotta want it ‘cause you love music. You can’t fake it.

ILM: Do you really believe it can’t be faked?

Wednesday 13: Well, you can fake it! Haha! American Idol is a perfect example of that! But I’m talking about bands and people that start out writing in their bedrooms and garages. They work for years and years, playing gigs in front of five people who are saying “your band sucks,” and you go “yeah, well so what? We’ll get better.” You don’t take ‘no’ for an answer, you don’t let anyone beat you down. That’s what our song Nowhere is about on the new record. That’s my middle finger back to the people who said “you’re never gonna make it, you’re an idiot” and I’m like “alright, this is for you.” So my advice is just to be focused and know what you want to do. Don’t look at it as an easy way out and don’t do it just to get chicks.

ILM: What music have you been listening to recently?

Wednesday 13: I live on my iPod! I mean constantly! I’m always the DJ and always playing. Honestly, it’s a mix – you may walk in one day and hear us playing Slayer, then you may come in and we’re playing country music. It’s all over the place, I listen to everything.

ILM: What are your future plans?

Wednesday 13: We really don’t know beyond what we’re doing after Japan, ‘cause Joey has his commitments with Slipknot and things like that. So I don’t know exactly where everything falls from that point. We’ll just play it by ear and figure it out. We’re just happy to be doing what we do and to be on this tour. After this UK round we go to Australia and Japan, so by the time we’ve done that we’ve hit all the places that we wanted to hit this time around, for the most part. But there are still a lot of places that we want to go…