There’s a lot going on in the world of Wednesday 13. They are currently out on the road on an extensive North American tour. They are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first album, Transylvania 90210, and are putting out a new album, Mid Death Crisis, at the end of this month. With all of this in mind, we were able to speak to the man himself, Wednesday 13 about all of these goings-on, as well as toy collecting (and it’s impact on his outlook on band image), Wednesday 13 action figures, horror conventions, and staying on the road as you get older.
Dead Rhetoric: The tour is starting up in a few days, taking songs from the 20th anniversary of Transylvania 90210, a Murderdolls set, and a new album. What’s got you particularly excited about it at the moment?
Wednesday 13: As I would realize now, as time goes on, I’m getting older and my records are hitting these landmark anniversaries. My first album, Transylvania 90210 turns 20 years old this year. It turns 20 years old in the same month that my brand new album, album #10, comes out. I was just thinking about that this morning. I was in my 20s doing that album, and next year I will be 50. Hence the name, Mid Death Crisis. I’m just excited. I didn’t know it would go this long. I felt that the Wednesday 13 solo thing would be a temporary thing in between Murderdolls. I didn’t know that it would outgrow that, or the time and work I would put into it. So to go out and play songs from the new album, and to go out and celebrate the first album, and to also play songs from Murderdolls as well, it’s just literally a best-of setlist. I was looking at it yesterday and right now, it’s 21 songs on the setlist. Luckily our songs are short, which is how we are able to fit that. Good thing we weren’t a band like Tool, who could only play 4 songs.
So it’s exciting, and talking about it online – you can hear what your fans think, whether you want to or not. But the response is ‘I can’t wait to hear these songs again,’ whether it’s Murderdolls or the first album, it has become this nostalgia thing now. People are excited for the new stuff as well. These aren’t problems at all. These are all good things, and we are just excited to play. We didn’t do a lot of touring last year. I’m excited for this record, rehearsals have been great, it’s just what I do. If I don’t play shows, I don’t feel right. It’s a lifeline for me. To get back on stage and plug in to that live world, it does something to me, so I can’t wait to plug in and do that.
Dead Rhetoric: As you keep going, there is that growing nostalgia piece. To have fans that are just as excited for new material, that’s not something that every band gets. It’s cool to see.
Wednesday 13: If you care about your fans and you do it this long, I feel a responsibility to hold up to what I have done in the past. It can never go down, for me. It always has to be up, up, up. To do this new record, I never thought I would be doing this, but for the new album, I’m looking back on the first one. I’m chasing the past and wondering, ‘how did I do that?’ I’m looking at it like a math problem, but how did I make that record? That was the blueprint for this new record. It just kind of got me back in that mindset and world. I played guitar again on the record. It has just been a good two years for me, mentally and getting back into just being me, if that makes sense. COVID knocked the wind out of me, like I’m sure the rest of the world. I’m sure it took a while for me to get out of it. This album and tour is like revenge for me. I am at the best I have felt mentally and physically, and I’m ready to go out and perform this.
Dead Rhetoric: You said there was a direct looking back at Transylvania 90210 when you were planning for this album?
Wednesday 13: Yeah, it was just when I think back to that record, a lot of people will look back at a band’s albums and go, “well I just like that record the best.” For me, when I look back at albums, they are like periods of time. I don’t necessarily think about the songs, it’s more like, “oh I just moved here,” or “for this record, I just had this happen,” or “during this record, I had a car accident.” All of these records have different themes. The first album just seemed like nothing could go wrong with it. There were no problems. Everything was just perfect in my world, and I created something out of happiness.
I think that is why the album reflects a very energetic side of me and to get back to that, I guess people have that expression, “you captured lightning in a bottle.” I captured lightning in a bottle on that record and I often wonder how I did it. So I went to thinking about that for the blueprint of the new album, and I found myself enjoying this album recording process. Everything was very similar to that first one. Everything was really good for me last year and there were no problems. I didn’t think about anything except for this music. I think that’s the first time I have done that in a while. Just to shut everything off. I recorded literally down the street, so I could go to the studio and be home in 3 minutes and turn it off when I wanted to. It was just a good experience. My last few albums weren’t fun recording experiences.
Dead Rhetoric: That must make a world of difference. If you go in and you are exhausted, if you are three minutes away you can just go and get rested and be ready to go.
Wednesday 13: It was a cool thing. And I recorded in a studio. My last few records weren’t necessarily done in studios. It was done in bedrooms or something. You do the drums in a studio and then do the vocals in your friends closet. The vibe wasn’t there. I made this record perfect for me. I think the reflection shows on this album, because I was happy. It’s energetic and I’m proud of it.
Dead Rhetoric: There is the irony of making heavier music and saying, “I’m happy.” Compared to the stereotype, which I think is funny to see. I think that’s fantastic!
Wednesday 13: Yeah! I know because I’m a frontman in the band and I engage with the audience. I know it’s all about energy and connecting with people. If your upstairs is not a good place, it’s going to reflect. If you are good up here, you are going to make everyone else feel good when you are talking to them and it just resonates. That’s the way I feel right now, and it’s a good thing. To say that you are happy and in a good mood when you put out a record that looks and sounds like this may not be the case, but it is.
Dead Rhetoric: Was there anything else you wanted to hit with Mid Death Crisis in terms of how it came out?
Wednesday 13: I think it was more about what I thought about not doing than what I did want to do. I knew that I did not want to make a dark record, and when I say dark I mean like my last few records – they had more of a sadness to them. It was on purpose, and this has a lot more life. Even the title, Mid Death Crisis. It has a lot of energy. So I knew I didn’t want to make a record like the last few I have made, and I wanted to make something that was different. So I mentally made a list of things I didn’t want to do and avoided them. By doing that, it instantly made this record happen. It was a good thing to shut down that mindset for a bit and just return to what I do. I always say, ‘leave your brain at the door,’ that’s what this album is. Forget everything else, just get lost in this for 45 minutes and be done with it.
Dead Rhetoric: Sometimes that’s what some people want and need, that little escape from reality.
Wednesday 13: That’s all it is. And if you like it enough, you’ll play it again. We are like a bad movie – you can put it back in, watch it and rewind it, and share it with your friends. That’s just the kind of vibe I have.
Dead Rhetoric: Over the years you’ve worked with a number of big names in the music scene with different projects and collaborations, what do you feel you’ve taken away from those?
Wednesday 13: For me, I always leave my ego at the door with my brain [laughs] on things. I am always learning. I never ever stop learning. I never try to stop being better at what I do. I try to be a better vocalist, I try to be a better frontman. That’s just something I do. I just want to be the best at what I do. I learn from things, so every time I do a collaboration with someone, I try to take something away from that session. For example, I just did a recent collaboration with a band called Dead Rabbits. A song called, “Hellscape.” It has all the band that will be on my upcoming tour. I thought it would be a cool idea to collaborate with the opening bands. It would be a cool way to promote the tour, and as a song. What could go wrong? Plus it’s a cool thing being in a different genre than myself. It opens up a new group of people to me. That’s always a good thing.
But in that recording experience, the recorder that produced it is huge. Howard Benson, he has platinum records all over his house. All of these bands like My Chemical Romance and big bands that aren’t particularly my influence or anything. However, he got his start doing all of the ‘80s hair metal bands that I loved. I knew his name, so when I went into the studio, I was like, “I can’t believe I’m recording with Howard Benson,” who did 6 records [that no one had heard of for the most part] that he did in the late ‘80s. So just recording with him, I walked away with some knowledge. So I’m always learning. I’m really enjoying collaborating with people. I just did a new one that I can’t talk about yet, but I just collaborated with a cool band and did something with a band overseas and it’s really cool. So I’m always learning and trying to be better and not get jaded in the music business, which is very hard to do.
Dead Rhetoric: How important is the image that goes along with the music? Like when you are on stage, or when you make a video, or do something related to the band.
Wednesday 13: It’s everything. It’s as important as the music. When I look at newer bands, I don’t want to pick on people because it’s a different time. But when I see bands not putting the effort, or don’t even care about packaging [grabs the new album to show it off]…this is the new album. The packaging, we spent so much time on this. It’s a 24 page booklet with lyrics and photos. It’s a library book. Every page was discussed and we figured out what to do and not to do. It was just like the record. When it came to the video, it was all thought about, constructed, and pieced together as an idea. I knew the location, and I had to put it mentally into my head and make a script.
When you see all the stuff behind me that’s where it all comes from. From collecting He-Man and GI Joe. The packaging was so amazing. It blew me away as a kid. Here I am with the same stuff as an adult and I’m blown away by the packaging! That’s where it comes from. It will never die with me. It has to be that. It has to look as good as that. When I am making my art, it has to stand out like this stuff does. So a lot of people will ask if I get my influences from a particular band, but I’m like yeah, I have my musical influences, but I pulled as much from this [collecting] world, when it comes to visuals. The image, when it comes to the look of the band…this is my day look, but on stage, it’s an extension of that. I have always had this look. I have looked like this since I was 15 years old. That’s how I looked. I have been wearing velvet hats, like a little Willy Wonka in my town. That was a reflection of what I looked like and listened to at the time. This is all important to the sound for what I do. That keeps me focused on it, but it can also drive me crazy. It’s a lot of components to think about. I can’t just release a song. It’s a lot of work [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: When you are passionate about something, there’s a lot of gaps for you to fill in details with. If you are really excited, it shows through in the product even if it is a lot of work.
Wednesday 13: But it’s a labor of love. It’s never like, “oh this sucks!” There are days when I find myself complaining and I’m just like, “shut up!”
Dead Rhetoric: Somewhat related to what we were just saying, in terms of your influences and background…what do you find to be the reason why horror blends itself so much with heavy music?
Wednesday 13: That’s just something that has always been there, since the beginning. I don’t know when it started but you can take Black Sabbath, and the song “Black Sabbath,” for example. The lyrics to that song, “What is this that stands before me?” and getting the visual to that is scary. Horror and all of that has always blended with metal. You can make it because when you watch horror movies there is music to that. That’s what makes most horror movies is the music. If you take the music away, it kills the suspense. When bands started mixing that, and as it went through time, thought, “what if you did this?” and you get all of these bands blending these amazing sounds.
For me, when I started writing music and playing guitar, I didn’t know how to write a song. When someone asks that, they say, “well, what do you know about.” I look around as a kid/teenager and I have this [toy] stuff around me, I have heavy metal posters on the walls, and all this. I wrote what I know. Horror has always been there. I was watching The Addams Family and The Munsters in between Bugs Bunny after and before school, during school if I could. That never seemed odd to me. When I started doing imagery as a teenager and had to make an ad for a band – we were going to play this weekend in a back yard, so we made a flyer. What would I use? How about this Night of the Living Dead picture? I have been doing that since I was a teenager, so I just do it a lot better now I think.
Dead Rhetoric: Yeah, age and experience.
Wednesday 13: Yeah, but a lot has not changed for me. I have a formula that works for me. Over this time, I have created a formula, I have created a sound, and I have a look. It’s just a cool thing. It feels good to be me some days.
Dead Rhetoric: As you continue on as you get older, what do you feel that some of the challenges are that come with it, in terms of touring and trying to stay ahead in the changing musical landscape?
Wednesday 13: The music business is a whole different animal. It’s always changing and I’m just trying to adapt with it. I self-manage and handle all my business stuff. But I’m used to that. That’s easy as a challenge. The hardest challenges with my band, and with my peers around me, was staying on tour and changing the lifestyle that you used to do to what you do now. I grew up on the ‘live fast, die young’ Motley Crue diet of rock and roll. I went into this doing exactly that. Partying and drinking. All of that was something as natural as the show and the recording.
When that started working against me, or the band, then you have to make a change. That’s difficult. How do you do that? It’s taken years to work out those bugs. We go out on tour, our band is sober. Or California sober, as they say. We enjoy playing. We enjoy being on the road. In the past, there have been struggles. To answer your question, you live and you learn. There are certain things you have to change, or it’s never going to last. Unfortunately, that rock and roll lifestyle that I idolized and thought could last forever, you have to turn it off at some point. Or it will kill you. Unfortunately, I know that from too many close friends. I guess their valuable lesson taught me a lesson.
Dead Rhetoric: It’s good to be able to recognize that. For some people, the domino just keeps falling.
Wednesday 13: Yup, yup, yup. Every day is a new day. It’s really good to be at this stage and age, and still be enjoying it…almost or more than I did in the past. I am in control now. I am in control of the ship. Before I was on it in the front somewhere, but I was getting knocked all around. But now I am Captain Wednesday 13 now [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: You’ve mentioned working on a horror movie in a few interviews. What would your ideal horror movie look like in your eyes?
Wednesday 13: I would love to do it, and I’m going to do it. Either on my own, or if someone offers it to me first. But I plan to do it. My video director, who has done all my videos for the last five years, he and I are currently discussing how to work it. The idea has been there, so now we are discussing how we can actually piece this together. So that will happen. What it will be…that I don’t know yet. It will have my stamp on it for sure, and will pull on the heartstrings of the weak and the meek.
Dead Rhetoric: So is that an area where say comics/graphic novels or even action figures be something as well?
Wednesday 13: I did some action figures during COVID with an independent company in New York. I lost count of how many we did. During COVID, we were just putting out 100 here and 100 there, special edition. I want to say there are 15-20 action figures that we released in the last five years that reflect what was going on, either the record or a theme. They are really cool. They are in another room or I’d show you. But to do more of that, is in the works. I’m speaking with a company to make a doll of me. Not a Barbie doll, but more like Eddie Munster’s Woof Woof. We are looking at one of those. I love it. I love creating my merchandise. I love seeing my fans with it. It all comes from [toy collecting]. To have action figures, toys, anything in that world, I am going for it. You will see that coming soon, more of it.
Dead Rhetoric: As a collector, what do you find as the most satisfying part of the experience to you?
Wednesday 13: I’m finding myself collecting toys, a lot of what is behind me are my 1980s, before I was a teenager. This stuff. To find it in the boxes…as a kid, you tore the box out and you looked at it for a day and then your parents threw out the box. You didn’t think about the box. I am left with a lot of the toys, but when we are on tour and I’m in a venue and look up toy stores and I go on my walks, and I pop in and find this stuff. I found most of this stuff on tour. I bring it home, so it’s like a little trophy thing. I go out on tour and hunt for my childhood and sometimes I come back with some gems. That’s all behind me.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s planned for the rest of the year after this tour and the album release?
Wednesday 13: Touring, touring, and touring. Some more videos. Just getting my whole year planned out. This tour is 37 shows across the US and Canada. We come home and I am going to do some, in between touring I go out and do some horror conventions. I appear at those, because I am in the horror world now because of the music. I am able to attend these conventions. I have a few I will be at in May and June. In July, we go to Europe for a small summer tour. Then we come home and are discussing going to South America for the first time in September. Then we go back to Europe. It’s a lot of traveling. That goes into next year and we are already starting to work on our next year plans.
So it will be two years of touring and supporting this record. Right now there are three videos that have been filmed. The third one will release just before the album comes out. Then there will be a few more after that throughout the year. Lots are coming, and I’m using these videos as practice for my movie.
Dead Rhetoric: In terms of going to conventions, what do you enjoy about going to a convention and being among similar-minded people?
Wednesday 13: There are so many plusses for this. I’m a collector and nerd myself, so I would be at these conventions whether I was invited or not. But to be invited and get a table set up, then I am next to…my last convention I sat next to Linda Blair from The Exorcist. She is on my arm [tattoo]. I had conversations with her and got to know her. I got free photos and autographs! That’s what I get out of it, personally.
What helps the band, the brand, and me, is that I’m at the table and 10,000 people walk by and I’m like a car dealer who is like, “Hey, I’m your favorite band that you have never heard of!” I’ll get 100 people in a weekend that become die-hard fans of the band because I met them. Sometimes I make more fans at conventions than I do concerts. The concerts are full of my fans. These are the people who happen to have stumbled across me. But that’s my pitch line, “I’m your favorite band that you have never heard” and I’ve been around for 30 years! Then they go, “How are you 50 years old? You don’t look it.” and I say, “It’s all in the theatrics here.”
Photo Credit: Anabel D Flux