By: Jess Redmon from altrockworld.com
Danzig return with the stunning new album "6:66 Satan's Child" out in stores on November 2nd. After some legal troubles with Hollywood Records, the band has signed a new deal with E-Magine and will finally release the long-awaited album in the Danzig series. ARW recently chatted with Glenn Danzig about the eminent release, touring, that 8MM shrine, what the guys of Orgy did on the record and lots more.
ARW: What have you guys been doing for the new record?
Glenn: We just did the CMJ thing, a bunch of MTV stuff. VH1 still doesn't know if they want to do anything because they think Danzig is an MTV band and not a VH1 band.
ARW: With the title "6:66 Satan's Child" people are obviously going to be intimidated by that.
Glenn: (laughs a bit) I don't give a fuck.
ARW: Do you care if people think you're a Satanist trying to steal the souls of little children or something, that seems to be most people's mentality.
Glenn: As opposed to some Christian trying to steal the souls of children or some Islamic trying to steal the souls of children....
ARW: Is it a really personal record?
Glenn: It's about a lot of things. Of course there's personal stuff in all the records. As far as that whole Satanist thing, I'm just shocked that in this day and age of political correctness that there would still be a religion that you can be persecuted for. You can do it in public and get away with it. It's just shocking. I haven't seen the ACLU defend that. You should be allowed to do whatever it is you want to do.
ARW: How do you think this record sounds differently from some of the past stuff?
Glenn: I always try and make each record sound different. This one has got tuned-down guitars, more guitar-driven. There are a couple songs you can hear on the net now.
ARW: I really liked "Belly Of The Beast"
Glenn: Cool. That's going to be on the Crow 3 Soundtrack.
ARW: What is Jay and Amir of Orgy's role on this record?
Glenn: I've known Jay for a long time. I heard their record when it first came out and it sounded awesome, they worked on the Coal Chamber thing. So we took those guys out. So I asked them if they wanted to mix some of the songs on the record and they said yeah, so it's cool.
ARW: How is the Internet release different than the store version?
Glenn: The cover has a nude scene. We thought Tower's not going to display this, so we decided to do an Internet only release and you could pick which cover you want. If we would have just released that cover, of course Tower and everyone would say we can't sell this cover. Then they came back later and heard we were selling an Internet-only cover and everyone wanted to get it. So, it's kind of like, you can't win.
ARW: What is the single/video for the record?
Glenn: I guess the first one we're going to do a video for is "Five Finger." I think we're going to be doing a video for "Five Finger" and "Unspeakable" at the same time.
ARW: Any concepts? Going through treatments?
Glenn: We're talking about lots of ideas. One we were talking about is a drive-in where you see the band on screen...
ARW: What are some of your favorite songs on the record and why?
Glenn: It changes all the time, but I really like "Belly of the Beast," I really like "Lillin." I like this song called "Eternal," it's a ballad.
ARW: With a song like "Belly of the Beast" is that a song that you can explain what it means?
Glenn: The record is going to come with all the lyrics and people will be able to read them.
ARW: Has it been hard for you to now have a record out for so long with all the legal hassle?
Glenn: It's just the whole Hollywood situation, we finally got out of that. Finally after we got everything done last Summer we went out and did some shows in Europe and as soon as we came back we started recording the record, after the paperwork got signed. We didn't want to record until then, even though I kept on writing and we kept rehearsing. I didn't want to record until we had the papers that released us from Hollywood because I didn't want them making a claim on the record.
ARW: How is your current label situation now?
Glenn: It's actually so much better because there was so much bullshit at American, so much bureaucratic red tape. I didn't really think it could get worse until I ended up at Hollywood.
ARW: What was up with the shrine in 8MM?
Glenn: That was really funny.
ARW: It like didn't even surprise me at all, that seems to be the perception.
Glenn: I guess that's how the director or writer felt too. They called to get clearance for a Danzig shrine in this movie. I asked what's the movie about? Well it's about this, uh, snuff film. And I said it's ok. The guy's like wait, he's like the killer for these porno people and he's this guy named Shred and he's got this Danzig shrine and everything. I was like, cool, that's fine.
ARW: What did you think when you finally saw it?
Glenn: I thought it was pretty cool (laughs)
ARW: With this record are you planning on totally backing it, going out on the road. The next chapter of Danzig.
Glenn: We're going to go out here for at least a month, it looks like 5 weeks in America. Then we're going to take a break around Christmas time and then we're going to go out again in later Winter/early Spring. That might be a co-bill. I can't tell you who that is.
ARW: What do you want people to know about Danzig?
Glenn: Danzig is no compromise. Straight-on, aggressive, in-your-face music. It's like a big ride. Basically the live show is basically come and go crazy.
~THE END~