Chad Bowar: For your new CD Fang Bang I understand you had a bunch of songs written and then just scrapped them and started over.
Wednesday 13: I write a lot of music. I'm not the type of guy that spends a week on one song. I write a couple songs a day and take the simple route. It's quick and easy and usually turns out to be the best stuff. The first month I wrote 30 songs and they weren't bad, they were just going in a direction I didn't want to go. So I scrapped it all and started over.
Will any of those original songs you wrote ever see the light of day?
It's possible. There are a handful that I think are really cool songs, but when I was putting everything together with the new stuff it just didn't fit in. There was a lot more heavier stuff and I just wanted to make a cool fun rock record this time around and not take the heavy route.
How come you switched to Rykodisc to release this CD?
Originally Transylvania 90210 was going to come out on Rykodisc, but I was still legally signed to Roadrunner with Murderdolls. I told them I wanted to do a solo record and they said they weren't going to put it out. So Rykodisc wanted to do it. I then went back to Roadrunner and told them, and they said no, you're still signed with us and we're going to put it out. Last year after the record came out and it was time to renew the contract I guess they weren't happy with how it did in America. They just put it out and didn't do anything with it. They cut me loose and I went back to Rykodisc and they were still interested, and here we are.
You've put together a whole new touring band for this album. Who is backing you now?
Eric Griffin was the bassist in the Murderdolls, but he's playing guitar now. He's a really good guitar player and it's kind of stupid he wasn't a guitar player in the Murderdolls because he's so good. Our bass player is Nate Manor, who played in Amen for a while. Our drummer Racci Shay plays with the Genitorturers and played with Dope for a few years. We're a four piece and so far doing a great job.
How come you decided to tour in Europe right after the album release instead of in the U.S.?
Our fan base has always been really strong over there, and that's what I've really focused a lot of my attention on. I toured over there three times last year. There's definitely a stronger fan base. By the time we get there the record will have been out for a couple weeks. I love touring Europe and can't wait to get over there.
A box set of your first band Frankenstein Drag Queens was recently released. How did that come about?
It's everything the band ever recorded. It might be missing one or two things, but for the most part that's 99 percent of everything we ever did. I've always kept up with all the masters and all the extra tracks and put everything together. It was pretty easy. I had everything in my closet. There are over 20 b-sides. It's pretty cool to see a box set come out of something I started over 10 years ago.
Did you play some reunion shows with the band?
When we first talked about doing the box set the original thing was to do a couple new songs, but that didn't really pan out. We did about three shows in our hometown about a year ago. But right after that I started touring again. I went to Australia and Japan and Europe. We went out with Alice Cooper last year and that took all my time. When that was done I had to decide if I wanted to do another Wednesday 13 record or keep the Drag Queen thing going. It was fun for those few shows, but I don't think the timing is right to do it right now. But I will eventually do something else down the road. If we're going to do it we're going to do it right.
Was it difficult for you growing up in a small town in the South?
Once I started listening to rock music it dominated music. I wanted to learn how to play. But I always liked the stuff that wasn't as popular. I liked Guns 'N Roses and Motley Crue and Poison and all the bands that were platinum bands, but I also went for the more obscure bands. They were my favorite bands. I had 2 or 3 friends that I hung out with and we listened to the same music. I was more into the glam and shock rock thing and that was never really popular in North Carolina. Back in '93 I started playing in Charlotte in clubs and doing full on shock rock shows. People had no idea what we were doing. They just stared at us. It was fun. I look back on it now and I'm still doing the same thing. It's 12 years later and I'm still doing what I want to do.
