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25th ANNIVERSARY OF GWAR

Fearless leader of the band GWAR, ODERUS URUNGUS phones in to talk about the 25th Anniversary of his mighty band of intergalactic chaos warriors, his crack addiction, the taste of the Pope’s nether-regions and the band’s upcoming appearances throughout Florida.

Matt: On the phone with us today we have the mighty Oderus Urungus, fearless leader of the band of chaos warriors known as GWAR. How’s it hanging?

Oderus: Ahhh, I’m doin’ great… Ahhh… I’m kicked back in the GWAR temple my latest sex slave I’ve summond from hell, and I’m contemplating having Uber-children right now. Actually I have to fly out to Houston in a minute and rock a show out tonight, so I’m feeling pretty great.

Matt: Although GWAR has existed for thousands of EONS, GWAR is now touring in support of their 25th anniversary? That’s a pretty hefty accomplishment even for a band of intergalactic chaos warriors!

Oderus: Well, it’s a very special time to be in GWAR right now, it’s been 25 years since we’ve been de-thawed, and every year our power grows. Every year we get a little spaner, a little mightier and we add more people to list of GWAR fans. When we first came out we were like, frozen-solid, so the first couple records, you know, try recording a fucking record when your hands are frozen solid. But it’s taken a little while, but we finally, I think, de-thawed to the point where our maximum skills of metal have been attained finally. So our new album is fucking, like, every one has been like de-frosted a little bit more, like got better than the one before it, and I think this is the greatest one yet. Unlike most bands who just get fat and ugly and stupid and shitty as they get older, GWAR gets more and more powerful, because we are after all, the un-dead overlords from outer space.

Matt: The new album "Lust In Space" is pretty damn METAL – is it safe to say that this it the MOST METAL of GWAR albums?

Oderus: It’s hard to put labels on music. It’s all heavy shit, so it’s hard to tell what is the heaviest, or the most metal. My favorite in regards to metal is "Violence Has Arrived", that’s kinda the one that got us back into the genre. We kinda fucked around and played a bunch of ridiculous comedy music. We were like soooo on drugs in the ’90’s. When we finally, completely de-thawed and realized that unless we try to bank in the metal that we are best at playing in, the heavy metal that we love to play more than any other type of music it was going to be all over. So fuckin’ "Violence Has Arrived" is my favorite because it marks our return to metal. Since then we’ve been straight-up doin’ it and lot of the old fans are like "We want silly shit again", and yeah GWAR will always be funny, but I think GWAR is always greatest and funniest when playing mother-fucking top of the line heavy metal. I mean it’s easy to criticize GWAR like "It’s just a show", sure, that might have made sense 20 years ago, but anyone who has seen GWAR, especially in the last 10 years knows that every single minute of our career has just been getting better and better and better and better, and now this band is fucking as powerful and as mighty and as awesome as any other band that is fucking out there. Then on top of that we have the greatest fucking show in rock-n-roll, so what do you have? One of the most important bands in rock-n-roll history celebrating our 25th anniversary.

Matt: Not sure how you feel about it, but "Lust in Space" being release METAL BLADE seems like a natural fit.

Oderus: Oh yeah, we are very very happy about that. I’m really not sure what the fuck happened. We ended up on some other label, and apparently I signed a contract, I thought it was for a SHOE endorsement, and that ended up with 2 years of fucking legal difficulties. I mean we put out a couple of good records with DRG, but the whole business kinda just fell apart. We are very fucking happy to be back with Metal Blade, and in my opinion we never should have left. You can tell already just by being back on Metal Blade all kinds of amazing things are fucking happening again for GWAR, so its great, it’s awesome, we are very happy to be back.

Matt: Who did you enslave to produce and engineer "Lust in Space", and where did you record?

Oderus: We actually recorded it in Antarctica, with some in Richmond Virginia at the slave pit there. We actually let FLATTUS (maximus) produce the record this time and BALSAC (the jaws of death) and BEEFCAKE (the mighty) helped be produce my vocals. So it was a completely self-produced, self-managed affair at our own studio. GWAR is not the easiest band to work with in the studio, we have a tendency to kill famous producers eat interns. So if you let the band do all the work it actually turns out a lot better, and you get what you want. You can’t blame a crappy album on someone else, the band is accountable for everything and I think that’s a credit to the record.

Matt: The original "Beefcake the Mighty" is back, that’s a good thing if I do say so myself.

Oderus: Oh yeah, you know he’s gone through some metamorphisisis… metamorphisisis? I guess you can have a metamorphisisis… but he’s had a metamorphisis, or more than one. He is back, the original. Some people go, "It’s always been Beefcake", but yeah, we’ve stuck a few different people in that suit, that war-suit over the years, and the current incarnation I can assure you is by far the best, and it’s one of the reasons why GWAR’s METAL SOUND is sounding so fucking METAL because BEEFCAKE is one of the most fucking awesome bass players out there, and has been for fucking a long time. A lot of people don’t realize before he was de-frosted and drafted into GWAR he was part of a little band from Texas called RIGOR MORTIS one of the most classic legendary speed-metal bands there ever was, so the metal pedigree in this fucking band is very very fucking high, and we take our music deadly seriously. Anyone who criticizes GWAR saying "It’s all show and no music", is a fucking idiot.

Matt: Can you give us a little teaser about what unexpected pleasures fans can look forward to at your upcoming appearances here in FLorida?

Oderus: With our latest album "Lust in Space" GWAR is telling a story about our final return to outer space, yes, just in time for our 25th anniversary. GWAR finally hijacks a scum-dog warship the "S.S. Cripple-Killer", and we go back to outer-space, only to go back to all of our favorite bars only to find out that they’ve all been converted into fucking strip-malls, and basically the entire universe has been ? it just sucks. It’s all because of this one intergalactic asshole, the intergalactic dick-weed, cyborg KKK member fucking Cardinal Syn who has basically stamped out all naughty fun in outer space including crack cocaine and heavy metal, so the only thing GWAR could do out there in outer space, you know, because the entire fucking universe has been fucking conquered, was to retreat back to Earth, back to the only place in the universe that is unconquered by Cardinal Syn, so it’s a lot more than just a tour, and just a record. This is a last-ditch effort to save everything that you hold dear. If Cardinal Syn takes over the fucking planet earth there ain’t gonna be any more GWAR shows, that’s for sure. Basically the entire planet will become like that… that city in Tennessee… where all the old people go to get entertainment. The whole world will become like Branson, can’t have that. Yeah, how would you like that? The whole world is like "DollyWood". Yeah, that would be fucking terrible. GWAR is here to protect you, and it’s very ironic isn’t it, that the very place we tried to escape for fucking millions of years, we end up fleeing right back to, but hell! I was on crack! It’s a pretty sad state of affairs, but it is the fucking truth. I couldn’t hook-up on the cook-up, I had to get all the way back to earth to lock-up on the rock-up and stock-up! Maybe I’ll go back to outer space for a little while, but unless the can re-open my old favorite planet "The Crack-teroid", which is an actual asteroid made out of crack. Oh, it’s a fucking great place. Cardinal Syn has turned that into land of the pussy little bleeping huge thing that lives by the chocolate waterfall world, so that place completely sucks.

Matt: So who tasted better? Paris Hilton, George Bush or the Pope?

Oderus: Oh without a doubt, the Pope’s asshole. Paris Hilton, ugg, tasted like dog vomit. President Bush, he really didn’t have a taste, just kinda plain. I had to use a lot of spice on him. The daintiest, tastiest fucking mouthful of flesh I had on that tour was when I cored out the Pope’s asshole. I made sure he shit in my mouth right when he did it. I was like "Thank you Pope". As I was knocking out the Pope’s ass, he shit in my mouth. What a guy. He was like "Hey Oderus, and chance of a reach-around?", I was like "Fuck you Pope, who do you think you are?"

Matt: After playing WACKEN festival, doesn’t everything else kinda suck?

Oderus: Well no, actually the Wacken Festival was kinda wierd, yeah, it was a lot of fun to play and it was amazing to headline the "black stage" on Saturday night. It was a great indication of GWAR’s power, it’s growing globally. But it was really weird because the crowd was like half a mile away, I mean it was all we could do to get the blood unics to hit the audience. I was actually worried because I couldn’t even see the fucking audience, so I fucking squinted and realized that there were like 150 Germans stareing at me. I realized there hadn’t been that many Germans standing in one place since World War II. They were all on our side, and they didn’t quite get our humor, but as fun as Wacken was, I’ll take a headlining show in America in front of 1,200 homicidal, crazy GWAR fans any day. Especially one in Florida. You fuckers are crazy!

Matt: Any famous last words?

Oderus: Fuckin’ Hell Yeah, and hearty fucking horns out to all of our Florida fucking metal freaks and supporters of GWAR, it’s our 25th fucking anniversary, so get your asses out there for the big show. Job for a Cowboy, fucking Red Chord, fucking going to blow it the fuck up. Get out there and celebrate GWAR’s 25th anniversary. Defend the human race from the intergalactic threat of Cardinal Syn.

Many thanks and metal hails to Oderus Urungus as well as Nicole from Adrenaline PR for the amazing interview!