Flashback Interview – Wednesday 13- The Murderdolls- 10/02/2002

One of the most talked about bands in rock music right now is the Murderdolls. Formed by SLIPKNOT’s Joey Jordison, the Murderdolls have quickly become one of the biggest buzz bands in the world. Their debut CD “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls,” reached the #102 position on the Billboard Charts during its first week of release.

The band was also on the cover of Metal Edge Magazine before they even had a CD on record store shelves. Jordison obtained massive success with his other controversial band, and it looks like he’s about to strike gold again.

The Murderdolls currently consist of Jordison-guitar, Wednesday 13-vocals, Ben Graves-drums, Eric Griffin-bass and new guitarist (ex-Dope member) Acey Slade. Slade replaces Tripp Eisen, who left the band prior to the release of “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls.”

The band recently embarked on a five-week European tour supporting Papa Roach. When the tour concludes, they plan on doing their first major North American tour.

What follows is an exclusive interview with Murderdolls vocalist Wednesday 13. This interview was conducted on Wednesday Oct 2, 2002.

RMS- The Murderdolls have just recently completed a tour of Japan and Europe. What was the reaction like, and did you headline or support someone else?
Wednesday 13-It was great! Japan was unreal, you can’t really even explain how cool the fans over there are. It was a totally different experience for me and Europe as well. There is definitely a big difference from the States to there. I think they appreciate bands coming out over there a little bit more. The response to the band was great, so it was really, really cool. We were headlining over there. Tonight, we head out over to Europe to begin our five-week tour opening for Papa Roach.

RMS- How well did your CD sell overseas?
W13- Great, especially in the UK. A lot of stores over there were sold out, I mean people over there are really getting into it. They realize that this is a true band and not just some little side project of Joey’s. They are accepting the band and really getting into the music.

RMS- Why did you decide to go over and tour Japan and Europe first when the CD came out?
W13-It was what we got offered first. In Japan we played a festival in front of 30,000 people. So, this was opposed to playing in America in clubs. It just seemed like a better idea. In Europe there were just more opportunities for touring than the summer in the USA, with all the competition like the WARP tour and Ozzfest and so many tours not doing so well.

RMS-Great answer. What’s the strangest thing that you have in your tour rider?
W13-We really don’t have anything that crazy. Our bass player Eric wanted Nair, but we never actually put that into our rider. No, we’re pretty cool about it. We don’t have anything really ridiculous at the moment.

RMS- You were overseas on September 11, 2002. Being an American, were you at all intimidated by being in an unfamiliar foreign country?
W13-Yes, a little. I definitely wanted to be home. It was really hard for us to get US TV and find out what was going on and that really sucked. We definitely thought about it, that’s for sure.

RMS-Your CD debuted at #102 on the Billboard charts, was the band satisfied with that?
W13- Yeah, we really aren’t on the radio, on MTV our video is only being shown late at night once a day at three in the morning or something like that. It’s like we are building up this small underground force that keeps building up, so we thought the amount of success that we’re had so far is really cool. It’s better that what we expected.

RMS– You were also on the cover of Metal Edge before you even had a CD out. I don’t remember ever seeing anything like that before.
W13-Yeah, that was pretty weird. It was very cool; I’ve read that magazine ever since I was a little kid. The guy who did the interview just heard of the band and came out to see us perform live and loved what we were doing as opposed to everything else that was coming out. He just really wanted to help in promoting the band and he supported what we did. He was tired of putting bands on the cover that looked the same, so he wanted to put us on it. It was very cool to see it on the newsstands.

RMS-Now that you’re an insider in the music industry, what are some of the most eye-opening aspects of being a rockstar?
W13-I don’t know, it’s definitely work. It’s better than a regular job, but there are days when it’s not so great. But it’s cool and it does have its ups and downs. It beats working a day job.

RMS-Yeah, try working retail for 14 years.
W13-(Laughs)

RMS-Well, now the questions that everyone has been asking. Why did one of your original guitarists, Tripp Eisen, leave the band before the CD even came out?
W13-It was a really weird thing that he kind of sprang on us at the last minute. Warner Brothers had told Static X that they wanted them to start working on their new album immediately. In order for Tripp to be part of the writing process, he couldn’t tour with us. He couldn’t give us a time when he could, and we had to promote the record and go out on tour. We asked if he could do it or not and he said that he couldn’t do it. So that was pretty much it. He had to get back to Static-X , he didn’t write or play on their last CD. So, it was important for him to be involved on this one. But he has to understand that it was also important to us to have a member of the band who was able to play every show with us and not confuse our fans. So, we went with Acey, whom I’ve known for a few years. He was our first and only choice.

RMS-Will Tripp be involved at all on the next record?
W13-No, he didn’t even write on our record at all. Joey and I did the whole album, Tripp basically just played a few guitar solos. He was never actually a part of writing. He’s no longer a part of the camp.

RMS- How does Acey Slade compare stylistically and musically to Tripp?
W13-Acey should have been with us in the first place. He’s on the same page with us completely. Having him come in was great. I’m glad that everything worked out the way that it did.

RMS-Did you hear what Edsel Dope had to say about Acey and Tripp?
W13-Yes, I did. (Laughs) It’s a real long story about how that whole thing developed. Not to get too deep into it, but the drummer of DOPE was originally involved in the project with Joey before he joined DOPE. Edsel wrote about how we steal all of his band members. He attacked us and is bitter. I don’t know much about this guy, but I’ve known Acey for several years now. Acey told Edsel that he was looking for other projects and that if something else came up, he was going to do it. Yes, Tripp was with DOPE at one point too, but we never set out to dissect his band at all, but if he’s pissed off, oh well.

RMS-Were you in the band when it was called THE REJECTS?
W13-Yeah, when it was called the Rejects, I came in as the bass player. I meet Joey in November of last year, we wrote some songs. After a couple months working with Joey, he was really into what we were writing, and he really wanted me to be the singer. He then fired the singer, and I moved up to vocals. That’s where I wanted to be in the first place because I really suck at playing bass.

RMS- Was it a difficult transition moving from bass to lead vocals?
W13-No, not at all. I was a lead singer in the band I was with before I teamed up with Joey. I just came in playing the bass because Joey needed one and I wanted to be in his band. I was never really a bass player, because I suck.

RMS-How long did it take to record the CD?
W13-We started working on sessions in November 2001, and we used a couple songs from prior sessions. Basically, from November to May. It wasn’t all that long. Some of those months Joey was out touring with Slipknot.

RMS-Was recording and writing a pleasant or stressful experience for you?
W13-It wasn’t stressful at all. It was so cool working with someone like Joey, we were like two of the same people. We had a lot of the same ideas; we would finish off each other’s sentences.

RMS- Have you had a chance to write any new material yet?
W13-Yes, we are playing a few new songs on tour right now which will be on our new album. The next album will be a million times better. We’ll have over a year to work on new material, I just think that it’ll be so much better. We plan on doing more albums, this just isn’t a one-time thing.

RMS – Do you play any cover tunes in your live set?
W13-No, but we want to. If we did it would most likely be something from the 70’s like Alice Cooper or the New York Dolls or something like that. We will definitely do some covers in the future. We been so busy recording and touring that we really haven’t had any time to work on playing covers.

RMS-How many records are you contracted to do with Roadrunner?
W13-You know, I really don’t know. There are several things in the contract, but I’m not really sure how many. But it’s not just a one CD deal, we will definitely have more.

RMS-What’s the next single and will you do a video for it?
W13-Yeah, “Love art First Fright,” is our next single. I hope we get to do a video for it because we have a really cool idea for it.

RMS-Who were some of your influences growing up?
W13- My biggest influence was Alice Cooper, the 70’s version when he did “Billion Dollar Babies,” and stuff like that. The Sex Pistols and Ramones, early Motley and Twisted Sister, lots of things like that.

RMS- What do you think about Guns N’ Roses going out on a major tour with only Axl Rose?
W13- It’s going to be quite different now. I was a fan back in the day just like everyone else.

RMS- Where do you think rock music is headed right now?
W13- That’s difficult. I wish I knew because I would be a really rich man. Hopefully, we are headed in the right direction. I think that this whole nu-metal, rap-rock thing is wearing thin on people. I don’t personally think would we’re doing is the next big thing, but I honestly don’t care. We just play what we want to play. We didn’t put this band together to try to revive the rock n’ roll theme. The style of music we do has always been inside of me. Joey and I are both into bands like Kiss and Alice Cooper, we definitely have a heart for that type of music. If people catch on to what we do, that’s cool. We get some flak where people try to compare us to a lot of the 80’s proofed hair bands, we are definitely not like that. We have a punk edge to us and we’re not singing about girls. Unless we’re singing about picking up dead girls.

RMS- Have you heard the STONE SOUR CD?
W13- No, I haven’t. I ‘ve heard only two songs from it. It sounds cool. I actually saw them live at their first show in L. A. I think Corey has a great voice and it’s a lot more commercial than SLIPKNOT or what we’re doing. But it’s really not my type of music. It’s not something that I would go out and pick up. I’m into more image conscious harder bands.

RMS- What do you think is the greatest misconception of the MURDERDOLLS?
W13- I think some people think we’re like those 80’s bands where we all spin around on stage at the same time as a POISON or WARRANT. We are way more aggressive and harder.

RMS- Does the band have any pre-show rituals?
W13- Before we go on stage, we make our drink which is called the Murderdoll. It’s Jägermeister and Red Bull. We have several of those and that’s pretty much our ritual. That gets us pretty weirder up.

RMS-Last Question, what are you going to be for Halloween this year?
W13- Well, we will be over in Europe, and they don’t celebrate Halloween over there like we do. So, I’m pretty bummed about that. I told my manager that he better send me over a pumpkin. But Acey and I will properly still dress up, maybe like something from the Night of the Living Dead.