Interview with Gwar: Endless War

Sounds has been very good for you guys, getting you in front of a new audience.

Sounds has been very good for us, and in turn, we have been really good for Sounds. Not to stand here and blow my own horn— if I was a few inches longer, I could actually blow my own horn— anyway, a lot of people have said, and I’m not just trying to be an egomaniacal hate maniac, which is par for my course if I had a course, but people say they see a lot of people trucking out, covered in blood and Gwar shirts after we play on the Sounds tour. I know we had a bit less attendance this year than last year, but we still had as many people out, as many fans just being maniacal lunatics. Our people, man, our fans are awesome. They’re such dregs and the underscored scum of the planet. It’s so cool that they come out in hordes as they do. We’re so well supported by our people. And we’re picking up more fans as they go along. You’d be surprised the culture bridges that we’re gapping— culture gaps that we’re bridging I should say—or gapped bridges to be cultured—or something—but, the fanbase is building and the resurgence of Gwar, I’d say we’re probably at the same primeval spot as ’92-’94.

You guys are kind of on your second generation of fans too. All the ‘Beavis & Butt-Head’ kids from ’92-’94 have grown up and now you’ve got the MySpacers who are coming to the shows.

Let me just touch on the ‘Beavis & Butt-Head’ kids if I might, if I might be able to touch them. I don’t know if they’ve grown up. They’ve become older. I don’t know if they’ve grown up, per se, but yeah, they come out and bring their kids and then we kick their kids. That’s what the one guy that books Ozzfest said, that was one of his points. He was like, ‘God, your crowd is so diverse. There’s guys that are 50 years old and then there’s kids that are 12, 10.’ So Gwar is timeless, seamless. Something for everybody. A little of this, little of that. A little song, a little dance, a little Batman’s head on a lance.

With this record and War Party and even Violence Has Arrived, the sound is very focused. Even to the liner notes for this record—that’s got to be at least 3,000 words.

(Laughs) Fortunately, our Lord Of Chaos, Oderus Urungus, is a very wordy beast. He’s a wordsmith if you will. It’s actually wonderful to watch him work, because he sleeps, and while he sleeps, he convulses and farts and burps and he projectile vomits, and he can write, these things he scribes in your human scribing ways, and then we leave the slaves to translate that and they type it all out. But we’re super-stoked on the record. We took a direction with it, with the Dante’s Inferno thing and we put a Gwar twist on it and what more do you need? You put a Gwar twist on anything and it’s gonna come out extra weird.

How was it working with Devin Townsend?

DEVIN TOWNSEND IS A FUCKING MUSICAL GENIUS, and you may print that in all capitals if you want [done and done—ed.]. He’s fucking phenomenal. You know he’s part alien, obviously. You’ve seen him. You can tell he’s part alien just from looking at him. I love the dude, he’s a fucking super guy, super cat. And he’s got all kinds of great ideas and visions. When Oderus went out and did the vocals with him—you can only suggest things to Oderus, he does not listen well, and he cares even less than he listens—things came out great. The way he vocalized on the record, you can really hear everything he says. You don’t have to go, ‘What the fuck is he saying? Let me read that.’ You can actually hear it. But the thing is, people say ‘Devin Townsend, Devin Townsend,’ and he is fucking wonderful, but also, our own Flattus Maximus was the co-producer of that record, and he’s also of a somewhat metal guru up and coming. He’s done some other stuff. He did the latest Municipal Waste record start to finish. And even Scott Ian of Anthrax fame said it was one of the best records he heard in a long time. It’s a killer record and we’re really happy to have those guys out with us. Municipal Waste, that’s a tough band, and I love that music, that 1986 D.R.I. shit. That takes me back. What was the original question? Oh, Devin Townsend. Yeah, all capitals, he’s a fucking great cat, man. Love that dude.

Do you think you guys will work with him again?

I’d really like to, if not in the studio—I mean, I don’t know why we wouldn’t work with him in the studio again— but we’re friends with Strapping Young Lad, with Gene [Hoglan, drums], Byron [Stroud, bass], Jed [Simon, guitar] and those cats, so I’d love to tour with them. That’d be awesome. Definitely want to do something with them in the future. I’d like to steal Gene and do a side band of my own. (laughs)

You want that part in capital letters?

He knows. (laughs)

Beyond Hell is available now through DRT Entertainment. Gwar will hit the House Of Blues in Atlantic City on Dec. 13 and Irving Plaza in NYC on Dec. 14. For more info, hit gwar.net