Date: 09/21/99
By: Interview from by Anthony of www.indepthzine.com
After a three year absence, Glenn Danzig returns to
the dark metal world with "DANZIG 6:66 SATAN'S CHILD". A lot has happened
over those three years for Glenn, including a shift from Hollywood Records
to E-Magine Entertainment. On September 20, 1999 I caught up with Glenn
at E-Magine's office in New York City. Get ready DANZIG fans because
we will be seeing a lot more of Glenn over the next few years! Here
is what Glenn had to say about the new record, touring plans, 8mm and more!
Anthony : How has your experience with E-Magine
Entertainment been so far?
Glenn: It's been great. I've had a lot of fun so far.
A: "Danzig 6:66 Satan's Child", will be released
on November 2, 1999 to the public, are there any other releases in the
works?
G: Yeah, well actually, starting today you can pre-order "Danzig 6:66 Satan's
Child" over the internet through the E-Magine website. It's a big change
from the last record to this one. Radio has become global! Now
we have the radio stations over the internet where you punch in the call
letters and your off listening to a radio station in California or Germany.
It's great because you can listen to the format you want. Internet
stations have a bit more freedom than the standard radio stations. Yes
there will be more material coming out. Blackacidevil has been out
of print for over a year now, well that is going to be re-released with three
extra songs. The "Sacrifice Remix EP" by Foetus will be coming back
out with a few extra songs. The X-Files song I did will be released. Black
Aria as well will be re-released and that has been out of print for the last
four or five years. A Samhain box set will be coming out. It's
going to be great. It'll have all the Samhain stuff on it, a killer
package plus 2 live CD's, unreleased tracks, and possibly a video as well.
So that is going to be a real "box set" with tons of stuff that you
couldn't get anywhere else! There will be a Danzig double live album
after Danzig 6 comes out. All the home videos that never made it out,
I have all that packed away. Unreleased tracks from Danzig I to V,
that you've probably never heard or if you did they were really crappy bootleg
copies of but all that is another album as well.
A: Wow, so we'll be seeing a lot of you in the
next few years!
G: Yes, yes, yes. It's going to be
great!
A: The first two Danzig albums were a bit more
straight forward metal, the third and fourth got a little darker in terms
of tempo and lyrical content, then the fifth album really went in another
direction musically, where can the fans expect Danzig 6 to take
them?
G: What I did was take all the Danzig records,
one through five and thrall, and picked out all the cool elements that I
wanted, added some new flavors to it, some current technology, some tuned
down guitars and there we are. It's pretty cool. It's been getting
a great reaction so far.
A: While recording Danzig 6 did you go about
anything differently than you did on previous
albums?
G: Well this was the first time I have ever recorded my vocals digitally.
From my mic right to pro-tool, into a computer system. Actually
everyone's been asking me what I did to my vocals, they sound fantastic.
Everyone had always warned me in the past to not record digitally but
I tried it this time around and it's awesome. I love my vocal sound.
I always heard it when I sang but now I can really hear it. It's
really cool. Where I recorded my vocals, people go to just record their
vocals at Peter Lorimer's studio, who also co-produced the album.
A: What are some of the newer bands you've been
listening to and would you bring any of them out on tour with
you?
G: I like Orgy. Unfortunately they're
done touring and they've gone back to the studio. Jay Gordon and Amir
actually mixed a few songs on the new record as well. Coal Chamber,
we took them out during Blackacidevil for three or four weeks. Bands
like that. I like Korn but they're not really new anymore.
A: Are there any songs that you like to perform
live?
G: I know i'm going to love playing some of these songs live (from the new
album). We went to Europe for a few weeks and did some shows and played
some new stuff there and I love it. It feels great! We played
"Lilin, Belly Of The Beast, Unspeakable" it was a lot of fun.
A: Are you mixing those songs in with the older
ones or are you trying to keep the sets mostly new
stuff?
G: We used to do a varied cross section. But this time we're going
to concentrate on the new record and add in our favorites from past records.
A: Do you have any favorite cities you like
to play in?
G: I like to play anywhere. There are of course cities that have massive
DANZIG fans. Detroit, L.A, New York. Those of course a cool to
play. I like playing everywhere. Even if one market isn't as
big as another, you still have your fans there and they're gong out of their
minds. It's not like there are only five people there, we're talking
thousands of people out there. Still it's fun everywhere.
A: Are there any embarrassing stage moments
that come to mind?
G: No, I don't give two fucks! Anything
happens on stage, if I'm a little off or I trip over something, I don't care.
I'm out of my mind anyway. Who cares, it's all about having a
great time and going off, who cares.
A: Being in the industry for 20, 25
years....
G: 22 years now
A: ....you've had many albums, you now have
a comic book company, been in a movie "The Prophecy 2", is there anything
else you'd like to get into like more movies?, art?,
writing?
G: As far as art goes, not really because I do a lot of the design of the
characters for the comic book and some cover layouts. Maybe direct
a few movies, i've already directed a few videos, something like that. But
music is the first love for me so everything else just revolves around that.
A: Being a veteran to the music industry, what
is the best advice you could give to a band just starting
out?
G: (laughter).....That's funny because in some
circles, i'm still considered a new comer! Which is pretty funny because
like you said I've been in this for 22 years now and you still have a lot
of the old school stations that are like "oh Danzig, that's that new guy".
And they don't know or remember the Misfits or Samhain or Bowhouse
or any of that. Unless it's Pete Townshend or Led Zeppelin they don't
know anything about it. It's funny because a few musical movements
have come, gone and passed these people by and they are oblivious to it.
My advice to bands is to stick with it. If you are a musician,
you are going to play music. If you are a musician playing music and
someone says that your music sucks, you'll be like "fuck you". But
you have to be objective about it and ask "does it really suck? That's
the best I can do? How can I make it better?" Be honest and be
objective about it.
A: I noticed the cover art for DANZIG 3 How
The Gods Kill was H.R. Geiger's "The Master and Margarita", will we see any
more Geiger works pop up in any future Danzig
efforts?
G: Nope. That was a nightmare. I'll never do it a again.
Lawsuits and it was just a hassle.
A: MTV. How do you view them now? I
can remember when Headbangers Ball was sponsoring the "Dirty Black Summer
with Danzig" contest. It's seems that they have been shying away from
the heavier side of music until recently with the likes of Limp Bizkit and
Korn, do you think that heavier music is starting to make a
comeback?
G: It definitely is. The response to the record has been phenomenal.
Korn, there's another band that MTV has that relationship with like
they did with us. The love / hate thing. One minute they wouldn't
play us, the next minute they have to play us. Same thing with Korn.
At first they wouldn't play them now with this last record they were
playing them like crazy. I think MTV is like that in a lot of aspects.
If it's cool to play, they'll play it, if it's not cool then they won't.
A: What's the plan for the first single and
or video from Danzig 6?
G: We're actually going to shoot two back to back. When I get back
to L.A. it'll be "Five Finger Crawl" then "Unspeakable".
A: Will there be any other musicians joining
you on tour? I only noticed three members pictured on the liner notes.
G: Yeah, Jeff Chambers and I did the guitars
on the album but Todd Youth is our guitar player as well. He was in
D-Generation and Murphy's Law.
A: What are the tour plans after the release
of Danzig 6?
G: November 1 the tour kicks off. We
have two radio shows on the 30th and 31st of October. One in Dallas
on the 30th and the other in Boston on Halloween. Then back out to
L.A. to kick off the headlining tour.
A: Have the support acts been named yet?
G: I'm actually supposed to be informed on who that is later today. There
are some people that we want to take out and as part of the Danzig set Samhain
will come out and do a quick set, then a 15 minute intermission and Danzig
comes out to finish things up.
A: What kind of a stage set up can the fans
expect?
G: It's pretty wild. We'll have two big video screens, with some cool
stuff on them.....
A: Definitely a visual show then....
G: Oh yeah, for sure. It's going to be really cool.
A: What was your reaction to the idea of using "Danzig" posters etc, in the
movie "8mm"?
G: I thought it was cool! I asked what
it was about and they told me it was about a guy that calls himself "Machine"
and he kills people in Snuff movies and wears a leather mask and I was like
"ohh cool! Where do I sign?!".
A: Thanks for your time!
G: Thanks.
~The End~