A grimly glamorous ghoul who first slithered from the cobwebbed shadows of Charlotte, North Carolina, in the early 90s, Wednesday 13 has firmly established himself as the world’s premier purveyor of balls-out horror punk insanity. With a vivid and vile imagination that has endeared him to countless fans of riff-driven macabre over the last two decades, he has been one of rock’s most prolific protagonists, spreading his credo of grave-robbing rock ‘n’ roll and Hallowe’en debauchery around the globe and unleashing a seemingly endless stream of bloodspattered albums and EPs.

“All my favourite stuff, like Kiss and Alice Cooper and Twisted Sister, those guys set the bar pretty high,” he states. “I always wanted to do something in the worlds of those bands. That’s the blueprint. It had to be as outrageous and crazy as that and I wanted to be on someone’s wall one day and have their parents say ‘Oh my god, what is that?’ I knew from the beginning I wanted to do something that was cartoon-ish and full of that B-movie horror vibe. The formula’s still there from when I started doing it as a kid and started wanting to be in a band. It’s just GI Joe and Dracula!”

After several years of sharpening his creative teeth, Wednesday 13 emerged from the fetid crypt of obscurity with his band Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, those masters of snotty schlock rock that released an astonishing five studio albums and six EPs between 1996 and 2002. Always the leader of the revolting pack, Wednesday 13 then became a bona fide international rock star as frontman for the Murderdolls, his collaboration with Slipknot’s Joey Jordison. The band took the world by storm, with Europe and the UK in particular succumbing to the feral charms of 2002 debut album, ‘Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls’; a raucous eruption of big tunes and bad attitude that noisily redefined the horror punk genre. After Murderdolls went on an extended hiatus in 2004, Wednesday 13 embarked on a widely lauded solo career that again provided him with an outlet for his relentless outpouring of fiendish musical and lyrical ideas. Albums like ‘Transylvania 90210’ (released by Roadrunner in 2005), ‘Fang Bang’ and ‘Skeletons’ all cemented our pallid hero’s reputation as the bastard son of Alice Cooper and The Misfits, while his outlaw country project, Bourbon Crow and one-off glam metal vehicle, Gunfire 76 proved that he had sufficient versatility to survive outside the graveyard and abattoir.

 

Murderdolls reconvened in 2010 for the vicious ‘Women And Children Last’ album and another successful world tour before disappearing once more into the freezing midnight fog, leaving Wednesday to revive his solo career with a few thousand volts of wicked electricity and an acclaimed studio album, ‘Calling All Corpses’. Now backed by a stable line-up that includes members of both Gunfire 76 and Murderdolls, he is ready to hit the gory campaign trail all over again, commencing with the release of a brand new EP, ‘Spook And Destroy’, this October. Fans of Wednesday’s remarkable back catalogue will definitely pleased with the EP’s hideous contents, as the man himself explains:

 

“We recorded two new songs and I went back and re-recorded an old Frankenstein Drag Queens song called ‘Mr Motherfucker’ which I first recorded Mister Motherfucker in 1997. I’m revisiting the grave! There’s also a new song called ‘Mother Fuck The World’. It’s a harder song compared to anything on the last album and it kinda sets the tone for the new record, because it’ll definitely have a heavier, harder side to it. Last time round I was listening Cheap Trick, The Wildhearts and the Ramones, but this time I’ve been listening to Hatebreed and Zodiac Mindwarp. It’s not a new sound for us but it’s a different sound.”

 

With live dates set for the end of 2012, including a special Hallowe’en show in London, Wednesday 13 is more passionate and unstoppable than ever right now. And, naturally enough, he is extremely enthusiastic about his plans for the next year: a year that could hardly be more suitable for another onslaught of black-hearted horror punk mischief. A brand new studio album, ‘The Dixie Dead’, is scheduled for release in February 2013 and will be followed by another campaign of international touring mayhem that will continue throughout the year. If Wednesday has his way, ‘The Dixie Dead’ promises to usher in a whole new era of fame, fortune and gruesome glory for this unstoppable malevolent force.

 

“The year 2013 is kinda close to my heart! That’s my year to shine,” he proclaims. “It seems like over the last couple of years, with True Blood and Twilight and Walking Dead and all these TV shows, entertainment is all about horror movies now, so it’s finally caught up with what I’ve been doing since I was 15 years old! When someone thinks about horror punk I want them to always think about Wednesday 13. I want to be that infamous household name! I want to keep putting out music and as long as I’m having fun, that’s it. I hope the fans keep enjoying it too!”

 

Dom Lawson, September 2012