|
just signed with Nuclear Blast, which is a heavy metal label. So instead of doing a side project, I just experimented with my sound, and I enjoyed it. I can still listen to that record and enjoy it.
When I go back and listen to the entirety of the Wednesday 13 catalog, to me it all goes back to that first record, maybe even
that second Murderdolls album [ Women and Children Last ] – that’ s the sound I like the most. It ' s the sound that ' s most natural for me. And that ' s what I zoned in on. I didn ' t really try to do anything new. I didn ' t try to experiment. I just tried to focus on what I used to do really well: write fun, catchy, heavy, hard rock songs that had a sense of humor to them. It wasn ' t all doom and gloom. It had a little bit of comedy in the tragedy.
IE: If it ain’ t broke, don’ t fix it kind of mentality. And there ' s nothing wrong with that because you’ re a master of your craft. W13: Thank you. My view on music right now is everything is heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy. There ' s nothing wrong with that, but I do a unique thing that stands out from that, especially my latest record. I ' m not doing anything different; it
|
just sounds different compared to what ' s going on right now. So, I just sort of just honed in on what I think I do the best.
IE: That energy and mindset you put into your albums, you also put into your music videos. The videos for this album have been fantastic. You ' re one of those rare
artists who still put a lot of thought and effort into their videos. It ' s not just a performance clip of you miming on a screen or something. There are sets, costumes, and little stories happening. How do you come up with ideas for your music videos? W13: There ' s a lot of time to think when you ' re recording these songs and you ' re in the studio for a few weeks working on lyrics and listening to playback. I get ideas immediately for certain songs; some songs I don ' t get a vision for at all. It’ s like pulling teeth, and I ask other people to help me with it. With this record, I had a video concept for every song or at least three different ideas for each song. I had the high budget to the low budget; what we could get away with. What it all comes down to is when I ' ve made these videos, I ' ve usually been in a good mood and a good place. I take it seriously because they ' re going to last. They ' re
|
like mini movies of your song. So, it ' s important to try to capture something. I don ' t always nail it with my videos. I ' m not always walking away 100 percent happy.
But with this album, I was really happy with all the videos, especially“ In Misery.” That might be my favorite video I ' ve ever made. It just captured a vibe. We built that set from scratch. It was literally nothing. We built that entire graveyard, and behind the scenes, a fire broke out in the middle of that whole thing. It was this time last year, with fires breaking out every five seconds. We found out later that some homeless encampment started a fire on the side of the highway. It was right where we were filming. We put out the fire and ended up filming the video afterwards. It’ s hard to believe that actually happened and we pulled it off. If we hadn’ t put it out, it certainly would have burned down our entire video set.
IE: Unbelievable. I remember hearing about that. So, you already have some new music out. You recently did a collab track with tour mates Lord of the Lost called“ I Hate People.” It’ s an appropriate anthem to start 2026, considering all the crap that ' s going on right now. Tell me a bit about this song. How did you guys come to join forces for this one?
W13: Lord of the Lost came on my radar several years ago. Some of my fans had their T-shirts and were talking about them during COVID, so I heard of them around then.
|
Somehow, our booking agents spoke about touring. I can ' t remember exactly how it happened, but I got in touch with the singer Chris [ Harms ] and found out he was a big Murderdolls fan. He sent me a picture of him and me hanging out in Germany from years and years ago. We must have been drinking because I don ' t remember it. He ' s been a fan for years, and we had this tour coming up. And then he was like, hey, would you want to sing on the song? It’ ll be coming out right in time for the tour. It ' d be a perfect setup. And I said yes. I recorded this back in June or July and I kind of forgot about it. Chris wrote all the lyrics and sent them to me. He was really cool about it. He goes, " Hey, I know this title might just come off sounding like I hate people, but it ' s not really about that. I read the lyrics and thought they were cool. They ' re smart and really fit the world right now and the way a lot of people feel and how people are being divided. It covers a lot of subjects, so the words speak really loud on it.
It ' s a cool track. Our voices fit well together. Our fans seem to like it so far. It ' s cool that we have a tour coming up and we have a single out a week before. It ' s a cool way to set up a tour. I ' m going to be playing this song with them live every night as well. So, again, just trying to get in front of a different audience. We might have a handful of fans there that may know us, but there ' s probably half of the Lord of the Lost fan base who have no idea who we are. So, it turns them on to our band. I ' m always looking for new
|
||
Continued on page 14 |