Interview with Dave Brockie by David Lee Wilson

When that space-scum villain Oderus Urungus of GWAR and I last met he was promised that should his warted face be seen on my planet again it would take all the fires of Ragnor's twin suns to burn his ass in such a way that he would forget the beating that I laid on him. Being wiser than he appears, Oderus took my advice and has gone underground, fitting for the worm that he is, and now maintains the form of a musician human by the name Dave Brockie. As he did in GWAR Brockie belches out a twisted version of the Metal art form only in this incarnation he is without the elaborate staging and costuming which I must say allows him great dexterity both as a vocalist and a bass player. Brockie has accomplices is this latest endeavor, two mates who have also gone AWOL from GWAR, Mike Derks (Balsac) and Brad Roberts (Jizmak). Together this trio of intergalactic criminals leaves a bestial scar on the face of music in the form of a compact disc entitled, "DIARRHEA OF A MADMAN." For those who worship at the alter of GWAR fear not for I feel that creating music of high caliber and low morals is worthy of my forgiveness and I do hereby lift my previous sentence freeing Oderus and his crew to return with GWAR but only after a full tour in support of this DAVE BROCKIE EXPERIENCE record is complete. With this knowledge Urungus and accomplices are now writing the next GWAR album, to be released by years end, and staging a DAVE BROCKIE EXPERIENCE tour of North America. Brockie begged my consent to approach and as he knelt before me I did hear his fantastic tales. As these tales were pleasing to me I now bring a portion of them to you for your enjoyment. Davidous Leeounius, Grande Sector of Milt.

With all that you have gotten into with this band lyrically and as part of the live presentation was there ever, would there ever be any subject that you just wouldn't touch?
Well, I don't like to make boundaries or lines in the sand because then things become sacred and in my mind there should be no difference between the sacred and the profane. It is all made of the same clay and it is only when you empower objects with negative energy that they become negative forces. To attack artists for making disturbing commentary about disturbing events is as good as trying to put a Band-Aid on an amputation, it is bullshit so there is nothing sacred to me in this "their" world. What is sacred to me is life and the human spirit but for the people who run this world there is nothing sacred to me. They are an obscenity in fact, a blot to be wiped out. They are nothing less than the enemy. To think that I can do a skit about the murder and rape of Jon Bennett Ramsey and take my cock out and rub my balls on here little prostrate rubber body and blow cum all over it, I can understand why people are upset about that imagery but what upsets you more, the fact that I did that or the fact that somebody really did that to Jon Bennett? I mean really, to blame artists for societies ills is really just a misdirection play so that people can get away with murder. How could you allow your daughter to be murdered in your home when you are a rich motherfucker like that? Don't tell me that they didn't have anything to do with it! Don't tell me that the justice system works, don't even tell me that bullshit. So, I strike back the best way that I can by making some really shocking art that really fucks with people. I feel instinctively that it is the only thing that I can do to fight back. I draw a muddy canvas, I know that but people need to draw their own conclusions but anyone who thinks that I am an evil man who advocates the murder of children is a fucking idiot.
Could you do GWAR music as effectively without the explicit visuals? Does the music stand up by itself?
Yeah, we just did it Saturday night. I have all the guys form GWAR here now because we are working on the album and we just did a DBX show where we started the show with DBX and played pretty much the whole new album and then we introduced Casey and Zakk and we went up and played a bunch of GWAR songs out of costume. When we do that we call it RAWG, that is GWAR backwards if you didn't get that.(laughs) They, RAWG, is a GWAR tribute band and we slay them! We blew it out Saturday night, big time and we will do that regionally occasionally. It is hard to play that shit with those costumes on and when you start jamming without all that shit on the songs sound tighter. Those are some jammin' songs!(laughs) "The horror of Yig," "Baby Raper," those are crushing Metal songs. Don't tell me that we can't play our fucking guitars! There are so many idiots out there that are in the music industry and they make me sick and violent, I hate them! My peers are such a bunch of cocksuckers and I couldn't express my complete disgust with them all any better than to be a complete musical herpe on the lip of their bullshit
industry.
Is it maybe that they can't understand what you are doing?
Oh yeah. It is not enough to say that they don't understand it they have to master the concept that they don't understand. They never get a grip on it and never give it a chance. People look at comedy and horror
as the "lowbrow arts" well, GWAR is nothing more than comedy and horror and you are never going to get the critical respect so it is a good thing that, that is not why we are doing it. If we lived or died by what critics said about us we wouldn't have made two albums!(laughs)
Any regrets over anything that you did with GWAR?
No, never. I don't regret a thing. I can say that honestly too. I don't have any illegitimate children, I never killed a man or anything like that so no.
But its not that you aren't willing to learn?(laughs)
No, I am always willing to learn! I don't even regret any of my tattoos and some of them look stupid as fuck!(laughs) Some of them are turning into huge blobs of ink. The one on my back especially but I don't have to look at it because it is on my back.
So whomever is back there. . .
"What the hell is that, a steak?
(Laughing) I guess that isn't much to regret then.
Nothing dude. Even when we told Warner Brothers to fuck off, actually I loved doing that.
That was more a feather in your cap than anything to regret anyway.
Oh hell yeah, that was the best. Not everyone who was in GWAR would agree with me on that, it was a controversial time. I was like, "Oh my god, should I take the song "Baby Dick Fuck" off the album and maybe enjoy the benefits of Warner Brothers distribution and maybe getting hooked up with Warner Brothers proper?" I said, "I want "Baby Dick Fuck" on my album!" and I definitely think that it was to our credit. I have this weird thing called integrity and though my personal life may be all fucked up and I might be a total flake and a loser but I have this artistic integrity despite it all. We never sold out and that is our "Red Badge of Courage." That was never us anyway. You can never sell out when making money isn't the goal. It has always been about expressing ourselves and keeping shit going when things were hard whether it was getting a part time job or whatever. This is not a fad, it will keep going. Look at fuckin' AEROSMITH for Christ's sake! When we are that old you still won't have to look at us because we can just pour all this shit all over us but by then we will have bred replacements.
Sounds like KISS, you just put somebody else in the makeup?
Fuck yeah! We will see what the future hold for GWAR, we only take it a year at a time and every year seems to be great so fuck it!(laughs) We love touring and we love making music and these side projects help
keep the whole thing fresh. The GWAR album is out in November.
You do a Halloween gig here in Detroit every year don't you?
Yeah, well, I don't know if we are going to do that this year because we are working really hard on the new show and we are going to have the new album coming out and I want everything to peak at the right time. I want to have this be the leanest, meanest most perfect GWAR war machine that anyone has ever seen and the album be the sickest, heaviest most epic GWAR album that anyone has ever heard. This will be the most incredible tour that GWAR has ever had, that is the plan right now anyway. If anyone starts bitching, "Oh no it is Halloween, what are we going to do without GWAR?" Tell 'em to go burn down a building, you'll feel better and we will be there when we are good and ready.
There was to be a GWAR movie, what became of that?
Oh, everyone always says that and that is a bunch of crap. Movie this, movie that, a video game, blah, blah, blah.
It never happens. Why does it never happen?
I don't know, all kinds of retarded reasons, people are full of shit basically.
Can you be happy just doing the records and the shows?
Yeah, the music is the backbone of everything that we do. We are not made or broken by the number of videos that we sell. It always depends on how many records that we sell and how many people are willing to come out and see us live. We are still very strong in both of those areas and we still sell enough videos and merchandise so everything is good! We have the Internet sucking everybody's bank accounts dry. Our automated cyber-slaves basically go into your bank account and basically tell you what you want to buy, it is awesome.
Then a little brown package appears on the doorstep and no humans need be hurt in the transaction?
No, no, no we don't actually send anything, we just take the money. You see, if we sent stuff then we wouldn't make as much money!
Are you taking out a support act on this DBX tour or are you using local talent for support?
It is a very extensive tour and we are playing all over the place, lets see, we have regional support everywhere pretty much. I have a million bands calling me to get on this tour and they can all fight for it! (laughs) They can fight like dogs over a scrap of meat! We are going out on tour, playing some music, playing lots of golf and hanging out on the beach and then on to the next one basically.
Is there an heir apparent to GWAR?
No, there is no one who does what we do so you can't classify us with anyone. You can't say SLIPKNOT or any of these other bands though we are all kind of members of the same genre. I think that GWAR is still the undisputed king of theatrical Shock-Rock. I mean, we take it to a level that no one else does. We have taken it past the level of what KISS did though they are ridiculously more successful than us as far as the monetary thing and their impact on the world has been colossal whereas GWAR is more the weird cousin of KISS. We are right there on the cutting edge still. I haven't seen anybody else though I think that a lot of these new bands are really cool I don't see any of them as the Heir-apparent to what we do. They are smart enough to know that to try and do what GWAR does would be stupid and they know they have to do their own thing.
How is the body holding up to all the punishment of being in GWAR for a decade and a half?
The tattoos are turning into blobs and the gut is expanding!(laughs) Actually, the gut is shrinking, Lite beer had a huge impact on the gut you know. I mean, I can drink Amstel light or Miller Lite. This stuff does not taste like that much worse of a piss than Budwiser to tell you the truth. Amstel light and Slim-fast, that will drop the gut right off of ya!
Gotta try that!(laughs)
Hey can you chill for a second, I want to go get a beer? I'll be right back, don't hang up.
Sure.
PHONE LINE GOES DEAD
http://www.oderus.com/
http://www.gwar.net/
Photo Credit: Victoria Belanger - http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriabelanger