Chad Bowar: How has the tour been going so far?
Brendon Small: It’s been really great. The crowds are really big, they are totally energetic, and we are spoiled rotten by how excited the audience is.
When you first started touring, what was the reality of life on the road compared to your expectations going in?
I thought it would be more difficult than it was. It ended up being a little more nice and easy. It’s not like we’re starting out as a band. We have this weird anomaly situation where it’s a TV show, so it has this awareness. And so when we put a tour together we can book places because there’s a TV show component and people understand that will sell tickets. That means we aren’t going to be traveling in the back of a dump truck. It means we get a tour bus, which is really nice. They are like luxury cruise liners. There’s wi-fi, satellite TV, and the bunks are easy to sleep in. I prefer this to my regular life producing a TV show. It affords me the ability to escape from my responsibilities on the show.
Season 3 of Metalocalypse just started, and it’s 30 minutes instead of 15. What led to the change?
I wanted to do it. I didn’t want to do as many episodes per season. It would have cost more. I suggested doing longer episode lengths. It’s budgetary stuff that drives a lot of the decisions. And I knew the show could move into a half hour really well. I know the characters can continue to grow and figure out who they are and keep us excited about them.
Will there be more music now, or will the format be the same as before, just longer?
It’s going to be the same, pretty much. I find that unless you’re telling a story while you’re showing music, the music gets boring, even if it’s the coolest music in the world. I want to tell a story that allows for music and shows the energy, but I don’t need a 15 minute musical odyssey.
You always have metal musicians do voiceover parts. Who do you have lined up this season?
We are using a lot of guitar heroes of mine, including Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ace Frehley, Slash, Scott Ian. We also have Enslaved and Mastodon. We recorded Mastodon even before we went on the road with them. Those are some of the bands you can expect to hear from.
You created the series with Tommy Blacha. What’s his involvement now?
During the second season he was removing himself more from the show and pursuing other things, so I wrote the majority of the second season. The third season he got a development deal elsewhere. I brought in a bunch of co-writers for this third season, like Brian Posehn and people I worked with on the series Home Movies.
What’s the status of the Metalocalypse video game that was announced earlier this year?
The video game is on this weird hold thing, so I don’t even know what I can say about it at this point.
You’re also working on a comic book?
Yes, that’s in the early stages, too. We’re still figuring it out. There’s so much stuff happening at the same time. It’s kind of ridiculous.
Have you considered making a Metalocalypse movie?
I would love to. I think it could be a badass, really great movie that totally functioned on its own. If you didn’t know what the show was, it would still be fun to watch. But I would want to do something that has a good size budget, not something I’m trying to do while I’m doing the TV show. It would be a big, gigantic epic rock opera, except with death metal and murder and stuff like that. I want the script to be fantastic, and not to rush into anything. Those would be my conditions. I’ve seen people make movies while doing TV shows, and only one has done it right, and that’s the South Park movie.
The Dethalbum II has been out for a few weeks now. How is it doing?
It’s outselling the first one like crazy right now. It’s really cool. I almost didn’t do the second record, because they thought it wouldn’t perform as well as the first one. They based it on DVD sales. The first season does well, the second season not as well, the third season even worse. That’s true with The Sopranos, The Simpsons, all that stuff. But records don’t necessarily do that. I think they pick up an audience as they continue. My whole idea was betting on it doing better than the first one, and I’m glad to see my hunch was right.
When you’re writing the albums, do you start with the short pieces you’ve done for the TV show, or do you start from scratch?
I take those things from the show, especially on the second record. I committed to those exact same tempos. The process is very organic and fast. I try to work as quickly as possible. If it takes me too long, then I feel I should throw it away and start with something else.
Where does drummer Gene Hoglan come in?
I show Gene clips of the songs from the show. I show him the riffs, and he listens to the drums. I tell him to do better patterns than that. Then we jam out for a while. He’s a very musical drummer and will do things I never would have thought to do. It’s a very good collaboration between guitars and drums.
How did you guys first start collaborating?
I talked to Century Media Records and asked them to recommend a drummer. They said Gene Hoglan. I was very familiar with who he is. He knew about the show. He and I got along and clicked very nicely.
