dronepool
03-10-2012, 07:18 PM
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I love it. Can't wait to hear the album!
A few parts from his interview in Revolver Magazine-
Born Villain sounds like less of a throwback to his early records than an update of the post-punk music that originally inspire him.
"It doesn't really sounds like any of my old records," he admits, "In fact, it sort of sounds like what I listened to before I made records - Killing Joke, Joy Division, Revolting Cocks, Bauhaus, Birthday Party...
"It's very rhythm-driven," he continues, "and it's actually very bluesy. It's the first record where I repeat verses. I just sing the words in a different key, the next time. I've never done that before, because I've always felt like I needed to write a lot of words in the past. There's certain songs, like 'The Gardener' and 'Children of Cain' that really tell a story, so I put them in the center. When it's finally sequenced the right way, I think this will probably be the grandest concept record of all. And it's not as fictional as it might have been... It's not third-person."
The listening party is over, we repair to the living room, where - over absinthe for Manson, red wine for Revolver, and several handfuls of Gushers fruit snacks for both of us - we get down to dissecting the latest incarnation of his artistic evolution.
Q: Do you think the current mood of the country is less puritanical and uptight - and that we’re less consumed with looking for scapegoats - today than it was when Antichrist came out?
Marilyn Manson: No, I don’t think they care anymore. It’s what I’ve always said - although people always mistook it as me saying, “I Love Bush” - when there’s Republicans in office, it makes art more important. Now it’s sort of like San Francisco for the whole country. It’s like, “Yeah, man - free love! United Colors of Benetton! Let’s have fun! Let’s think about the trees, man. Let’s be green!” Anal sex is “green,” by the way - you don’t use condoms, you don’t make kids. So that saves the environment! Green thumb - brown thumb! [Laughs] I voted for the first time in this last [Presidential] election - maybe just to say that I voted for the black guy. Or maybe not. I just thought I’d do it, because I didn’t like Sarah Palin’s face. It was strange when I went to do it. I went in and mumbled my name, and they said, “Oh yeah, just go over there.” I didn’t show an ID or anything. So I don’t really understand how the whole process works. I think I’m more into, like, a hierarchy or a monarchy or a dictatorship...or a dick-taster ship. [Laughs]
Q: Several people, who knew we’d be interviewing you, asked, “Is he still scary?” Are you? Or is that just missing the point entirely?
Marilyn Manson: Yeah, it’s not about being scary. I’ve never found me scary. I mean, if I was a girl and I’d finished having sex with me, I’d be pretty scared. Which is why I use girls as AIDS tests - if they start dying 18 months later, I think, Oh shit, I’ve gotta worry! [Laughs] People expect me to be a “shock rocker,” but there’s nothing you can do anymore to be shocking. All you can do is be confusing. Don’t ever empty the bucket of mystery. Never let people define what you do. It’s not about zigging when you should zag. It’s not about doing something unprecedented and unpredictable. It’s just about never being a word, or something that is not in the process of a transformation.
Q: Where did the title Born Villain come from?
Marilyn Manson: Born Villain was not my original idea for the title. I was thinking of calling it Co-Morbid, but that sounded too mis-perceived death metal, because of the word “morbid” in it. Of course, the word refers to a psychiatry idea - and I don’t believe in psychiatry or psychology. I’m open-minded to things, but psychiatry is not really something that has ever proved to be successful. But co-morbidity is when you have more than one mental disorder, and they can’t prove which one you have. it’s really just an excuse to give people medicine, so that’s why I didn’t call it that. Born Villain started with me saying to someone, “Gentleman prefer blondes... but I’m a villain.” And villains have always been, for me, the most interesting and captivating and exciting - my favorite characters in any book or film.
Q: OK then, who are some of your favorite fictional villains?
Marilyn Manson: Well, you’ve got Ming the Merciless [from Flash Gordon], you’ve got Lucifer... People confuse Lucifer with Satan, but I like Lucifer, because he was strong. He was an angel cast out of Heaven bcause he was like, “Why the fuck fo you get to sit on the throne, motherfucker?” Lucifer’s the all-time one. Hannibal Lecter’s a good one. I think in most Edgar Allen Poe stories, the villain is always strong. I think Robert De Niro in Cape Fear, he was a great villain. That was a great movie, because Nick Nolte was technically more of a villain that he was. I like a movie where the moral code is ambiguous, where the protagonist-antagonist line is completely skewed. Dexter, strong villain. Boardwalk Empire, as show that I love, it’s hard to say who’s the real villain in that one. I like Chalky White - he’s black. Just wanted to give a shout-out to the black villains! [Laughs] Snow White, the witch is strong. Bobby Peru, Willem Dafoe’s character in Wild at Heart. Humbert Humbert in Lolita. Marcbeth is a villain. Dracula’s a villain. Frankenstein’s a villain. But they’re all victims of circumstance. It’s almost nature versus nurture. They’re fabricated. They’re almost built to play that role.
Q: In fact, most villains aren’t born.
Marilyn Manson: No, they’re not. That’s the irony there. Thanks for noticing that. You’re not born a villain. And the refrain of that song’s chorus is, “I’m a born villain/Don’t pretend to be a victim.” People assume that you’re born into it, but when you grow up with people always telling you that you’re doing bad things, that is nurture, not nature. So Born Villain is a contradiction in itself. But honestly,it’s hard to think of all the great villains... I don’t like women villains, though.
Q: Why not?
Marilyn Manson: Because they will cut your dick off and hurt you, metaphorically and spiritually. [Laughs] OK, I’ll tell you my favorite villain - Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Most amusing villain. It’s a toss-up for people when they talk about the movie and the book, and I love both of them. Is it imagined? Is it a statement on how the boy next door can be everything that you don’t imagine him to be? Is it a comedy? Is it a horror story? It’s one of my favorite books, I would say. I find that character to be so humorous, because he cites pop songs as his reasons for doing his murders. And when you think about it, seemingly innocuous pop songs are the most violent. When you listen to something like Neil Diamond singing, “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon,” that’s rapey! That’s like child pornography. There’s so much darkness in all those pop songs.
I love it. Can't wait to hear the album!
A few parts from his interview in Revolver Magazine-
Born Villain sounds like less of a throwback to his early records than an update of the post-punk music that originally inspire him.
"It doesn't really sounds like any of my old records," he admits, "In fact, it sort of sounds like what I listened to before I made records - Killing Joke, Joy Division, Revolting Cocks, Bauhaus, Birthday Party...
"It's very rhythm-driven," he continues, "and it's actually very bluesy. It's the first record where I repeat verses. I just sing the words in a different key, the next time. I've never done that before, because I've always felt like I needed to write a lot of words in the past. There's certain songs, like 'The Gardener' and 'Children of Cain' that really tell a story, so I put them in the center. When it's finally sequenced the right way, I think this will probably be the grandest concept record of all. And it's not as fictional as it might have been... It's not third-person."
The listening party is over, we repair to the living room, where - over absinthe for Manson, red wine for Revolver, and several handfuls of Gushers fruit snacks for both of us - we get down to dissecting the latest incarnation of his artistic evolution.
Q: Do you think the current mood of the country is less puritanical and uptight - and that we’re less consumed with looking for scapegoats - today than it was when Antichrist came out?
Marilyn Manson: No, I don’t think they care anymore. It’s what I’ve always said - although people always mistook it as me saying, “I Love Bush” - when there’s Republicans in office, it makes art more important. Now it’s sort of like San Francisco for the whole country. It’s like, “Yeah, man - free love! United Colors of Benetton! Let’s have fun! Let’s think about the trees, man. Let’s be green!” Anal sex is “green,” by the way - you don’t use condoms, you don’t make kids. So that saves the environment! Green thumb - brown thumb! [Laughs] I voted for the first time in this last [Presidential] election - maybe just to say that I voted for the black guy. Or maybe not. I just thought I’d do it, because I didn’t like Sarah Palin’s face. It was strange when I went to do it. I went in and mumbled my name, and they said, “Oh yeah, just go over there.” I didn’t show an ID or anything. So I don’t really understand how the whole process works. I think I’m more into, like, a hierarchy or a monarchy or a dictatorship...or a dick-taster ship. [Laughs]
Q: Several people, who knew we’d be interviewing you, asked, “Is he still scary?” Are you? Or is that just missing the point entirely?
Marilyn Manson: Yeah, it’s not about being scary. I’ve never found me scary. I mean, if I was a girl and I’d finished having sex with me, I’d be pretty scared. Which is why I use girls as AIDS tests - if they start dying 18 months later, I think, Oh shit, I’ve gotta worry! [Laughs] People expect me to be a “shock rocker,” but there’s nothing you can do anymore to be shocking. All you can do is be confusing. Don’t ever empty the bucket of mystery. Never let people define what you do. It’s not about zigging when you should zag. It’s not about doing something unprecedented and unpredictable. It’s just about never being a word, or something that is not in the process of a transformation.
Q: Where did the title Born Villain come from?
Marilyn Manson: Born Villain was not my original idea for the title. I was thinking of calling it Co-Morbid, but that sounded too mis-perceived death metal, because of the word “morbid” in it. Of course, the word refers to a psychiatry idea - and I don’t believe in psychiatry or psychology. I’m open-minded to things, but psychiatry is not really something that has ever proved to be successful. But co-morbidity is when you have more than one mental disorder, and they can’t prove which one you have. it’s really just an excuse to give people medicine, so that’s why I didn’t call it that. Born Villain started with me saying to someone, “Gentleman prefer blondes... but I’m a villain.” And villains have always been, for me, the most interesting and captivating and exciting - my favorite characters in any book or film.
Q: OK then, who are some of your favorite fictional villains?
Marilyn Manson: Well, you’ve got Ming the Merciless [from Flash Gordon], you’ve got Lucifer... People confuse Lucifer with Satan, but I like Lucifer, because he was strong. He was an angel cast out of Heaven bcause he was like, “Why the fuck fo you get to sit on the throne, motherfucker?” Lucifer’s the all-time one. Hannibal Lecter’s a good one. I think in most Edgar Allen Poe stories, the villain is always strong. I think Robert De Niro in Cape Fear, he was a great villain. That was a great movie, because Nick Nolte was technically more of a villain that he was. I like a movie where the moral code is ambiguous, where the protagonist-antagonist line is completely skewed. Dexter, strong villain. Boardwalk Empire, as show that I love, it’s hard to say who’s the real villain in that one. I like Chalky White - he’s black. Just wanted to give a shout-out to the black villains! [Laughs] Snow White, the witch is strong. Bobby Peru, Willem Dafoe’s character in Wild at Heart. Humbert Humbert in Lolita. Marcbeth is a villain. Dracula’s a villain. Frankenstein’s a villain. But they’re all victims of circumstance. It’s almost nature versus nurture. They’re fabricated. They’re almost built to play that role.
Q: In fact, most villains aren’t born.
Marilyn Manson: No, they’re not. That’s the irony there. Thanks for noticing that. You’re not born a villain. And the refrain of that song’s chorus is, “I’m a born villain/Don’t pretend to be a victim.” People assume that you’re born into it, but when you grow up with people always telling you that you’re doing bad things, that is nurture, not nature. So Born Villain is a contradiction in itself. But honestly,it’s hard to think of all the great villains... I don’t like women villains, though.
Q: Why not?
Marilyn Manson: Because they will cut your dick off and hurt you, metaphorically and spiritually. [Laughs] OK, I’ll tell you my favorite villain - Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Most amusing villain. It’s a toss-up for people when they talk about the movie and the book, and I love both of them. Is it imagined? Is it a statement on how the boy next door can be everything that you don’t imagine him to be? Is it a comedy? Is it a horror story? It’s one of my favorite books, I would say. I find that character to be so humorous, because he cites pop songs as his reasons for doing his murders. And when you think about it, seemingly innocuous pop songs are the most violent. When you listen to something like Neil Diamond singing, “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon,” that’s rapey! That’s like child pornography. There’s so much darkness in all those pop songs.