Interview by Rachel Jablonski
If someone would have told me that in my lifetime I would be called “darlin’” by a guy named Oderus I would have thought them to be insane. But this amazingly became a reality when I interviewed the one and only Oderus of GWAR. Currently on The Sounds of the Underground Tour, GWAR is as messy as ever and front man Oderus reeks of entertainment in word and in deed.
Oderus: I’m yours. Ask me anything. I’ll lie about it all.
Rachel: Where are you at?
Oderus: We are in Minneapolis on the amazing Sounds of the Underground tour. We’ve just slain thousands of people out in the Target Center, or like we call it the “Tarjay Center,” and we’re fucking slaughtering every night. We just annihilated Canada, the East Coast, we’re on our way to the Midwest, Florida, many worlds beyond, and we’re having a fuckin blast. Thousands of people are seeing GWAR who never even really wanted to. And now they’re slaves for life so that’s got to be a good thing.
Rachel: Well I’ll be there tomorrow.
Oderus: Oh very good darlin’.
Rachel: Yeah, I’m pumped. So what has the tour been like so far? What kind of response are you getting?
Oderus: It’s been awesome. Generally a lot of people don’t know shit about the band. We have a lot of hardcore fans that are out there, but a lot of people really have never seen or heard GWAR before. They’ve heard about us, but they’ve never experienced it live. It takes about one song or so for them to get shit all over them and to realize that they are completely at our mercy and they surrender. And it just pummels onwards to the big rock ending so we’re fucking kicking ass and we’re loving it.
Rachel: How are you handling the heat in costume in July?
Oderus: Well first of all it’s not a costume, man! It’s my clothes.
Rachel: Sorry. [laugh]
Oderus: Most of these shows are inside anyway in coliseums and places like that. Plus the set is only thirty minutes long. Plus I’m an undead immortal war god from outer space so it’s like it doesn’t really take anything out of me. I find myself wishing it were longer. I mean I don’t notice the heat, the humidity, the cold, the drunkenness, how many rocks of crack I’ve smoked, I’m fucking Oderus. I just get out there and do what I do best – yell at things and then break them.
Rachel: Any surprises or amusing incidents so far on tour?
Oderus: I think the biggest surprise for everyone is that GWAR has made it this far on tour and hasn’t been kicked off again. I think everyone is amazed with the level of professionalism that we’re displaying and people are really stoked. Of course at the show you never know quite what’s going to happen, what kind of nuclear power monstrosity is going to descend through the roof and try to anally probe me. But one thing I know that every night it’s loud, fast, messy, wet, and extremely violent.
Rachel: You play about 5pm every night right?
Oderus: Yeah, we play earlier in the day than we’re used to. It’s pretty cool actually.
Rachel: Your album is out Live from Mt. Fuji.
Oderus: Yeah, it’s our latest live album.
Rachel: Where’s Mt. Fuji?
Oderus: Mt. Fuji is in Japan, my dear, and it’s one of the most famous mountains in the world. GWAR played a show there, but the show was in the future. So we had to go through the future, record it, then go back in time and release it – very special. I don’t think any band has ever actually time traveled on an album before, but we have.
Rachel: How did you time travel?
Oderus: Uhhhhhhhhh pointed the everlasting Allah of undead and eternal powers in the sky in order to reality shift sevenfold.
Rachel: Sweet.
Oderus: Yeah, just one of the things that I do.
Rachel: Why did you decide to do an audio only performance?
Oderus: Well, it’s just another way to make money I guess.
Rachel: [laugh] You weren’t interested in doing a video along with it?
Oderus: We make videos. There is a video actually on the record on an enhanced track and it’s just like first and foremost we are a band and bands put out albums so that’s what we did.
Rachel: Well you said a lot of people don’t know you on this tour, but you’ve had a long span in the music business now. What’s your main goal in making music now as opposed to before?
Oderus: I don’t know if there ever was a goal. It’s a goal in itself, to make music. And that’s what we do. We make music, we make art, and it comes together in this incredible collision of weirdness that’s called GWAR. So you know we achieved our wildest dreams a long time ago. Everything else is extra credit gravy butter. Of course we would like to get rich. That would be nice.
Rachel: [laugh] How do you keep your stage show fresh?
Oderus: We don’t want it to be fresh. We like it to be stinky, pungent, potent, and retarded. We hate it when our stage show is fresh. We like our meat to be rotted and moldy. But it’s pretty much just as easy as reading the day’s headlines and checking out the evening news and finding out who deserves to have their head cut off and then doing it.
Rachel: So is that where your lyrics come from?
Oderus: Our lyrics have to do with the indictment and condemnation of all the things of society that man really has no power over. And we are the great redeemer. We are the poor man’s gigantic Cultural Revolution. We are a bludgeoning beast whose targets are confusing at best. But I think at the end of the day we’re fighting the good fight.
Rachel: Yes. You are on an episode of Viva La Bam?
Oderus: Yes, we just went up to Bam’s house and for three days filmed a bunch of crazy crap. I don’t know how the hell they’re going to edit it all together, but it’s going to be pretty ridiculous and another indication of GWAR’s growing power.
Rachel: Do you know when it will air?
Oderus: I have no idea. I think it’s going to be the first show of the season maybe in August.
Rachel: Can you tell anything of what happened?
Oderus: Uh, no. I’m not going to spoil it for you. There’s all kinds of crazy shit going on and basically they just pointed cameras at me for three days straight. So I have no idea how they’re going to edit it together or what kind of story they’re going to draw out of it. One thing I will say is that those guys have way too much fuckin money.
Rachel: Ha, how did it feel to have a camera on you for so long?
Oderus: Well I mean that’s what I do for a living. I’m entertainment. People fuckin film me constantly. Microphones, telephone interviews, people are sucking my soul every second and using it to pat out their own meaningless lives. It’s what I do for a living so it feels completely natural.
Rachel: That’s about all I have. What can we expect from your performance and do you have anything else you’d like to add?
Oderus: Well if you’re from Chicago that means you’re part of one of the greatest power bases of GWAR fans in the entire fuckin world. We’ve been slaving and hacking and destroying our way to the top for 20 years now and the support from the Chicago area has been completely unswerving the whole time. Finally GWAR is starting to arrive in some venues that people maybe thought we never could get in and a lot of that is due to support from fans like in the Chicago area. So, as much as I hate to admit it, we love you guys and tomorrow we’re going to go out there and just knock everybody dead for Chicago.
Rachel: Awesome. Well I can’t wait to see ya.
Oderus: All right baby, good to talk to ya Rachel.
Rachel: Good luck!
Oderus: I’ll see ya. Good luck to you too.