Interview:1990 Scott David interviews Marilyn Manson

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Scott David interviews Marilyn Manson
TheBeaverMeatCleaverBeat.png
The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat
Interview with Marilyn Manson
Date Early 1990
Source The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat
Interviewer Scott David

In early 1990, Marilyn Manson was interviewed by Scott David from WYNX-FM. This was Manson's first radio interview. Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids included a recording of the interview on their 1990 cassette The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat.

Transcript[edit]

Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids! How you doin' Marilyn?

Hey man, I'm spooky as always. Brand new. How about you?

Hey doin' pretty good. How did Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids originate?

Well, Scott David, the idea of Marilyn Manson has been brewing in my head, one form or another, since I was about 12 years old at a Christian high school in Canton, Ohio. Then I moved and grew up and changed my shoe size and stuff, and then I met this guy named Daisy Berkowitz who was kinda rippin' on the guitar, and we had two different styles, two different tastes of music. He liked more ethereal kind of surreal soundscapes of guitar noise, and I was more into more distinct, hard, definitive sounds and whatnot. But we both had the same ideas as far as art-wise... What we wanted to do with the band. So we got together, we made this music and it's just what we wanted. And as far as the rest of the band, they were friends of mine, Olivia Newton Bundy and Zsa Zsa Speck, and they were interested in what we were doing so we brought them in. That's how it happened.

How did the name Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids come about?

Well that's kind of obvious 'cause Marilyn Manson is on my birth certificate and all, but as far as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, this is the illegitimate offspring of the world's most, infamous, nefarious and in our eyes, brilliant cult-psycho-weirdo-wackos in the world. Specifically America of course, 'cause we're an American band.

Well personally you don't really look like a Marilyn, but I guess if your mother named you that, what can I say? How would you describe your music?

Well, you know people hate to describe their music. What we have come to call it is "beat up your mom" music. As far as describing what it sounds like, I guess you'd have to listen. I think it's pretty much like, "60's meets 90's-psychedelic-industrial-brain tumor disorder-thrash" sort of thing. It's kind of groovy, you know, groovy. I guess the word "groovy" will work.

Well I guess that's pretty specific. Is there a concept or a message you are trying to convey in your music?

Well, Scott David, as far as a concept goes, yeah there is a definite concept, stuff like that. I put out a lot of ideas in the lyrics and the way we do our things. There's a lot of ideas floatin' around and people who know what it is. People will pick it up if they know what to pick up. As far as coming around, saying anything, I don't think that I could, especially on this radio station.

Well thank you for that.

Sorry.

How do you approach writing new material?

I've got a lot of words going around in my head. It's like a "shoot up a dictionary and kinda puked it all over my brain" kinda thing, and Daisy over here is pretty much the same way with his music. So we get together with the guitar and it's kinda tribal with the percussion, and we just work with it. It's really tribal. We're a tribe.

Sounds like an encyclopedia of insanity.

Yeah, that's kinda cute, Scott.

What song did you have the most fun with?

Well Scott, I could sing it for you really quick, and this is to all the girls I ever loved before: "I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country and I fed him on gingerbread. Along came a choo-choo, knocked my monkey coo-coo and now my monkey's dead." That's my favorite.

No wonder why you never had any girls that loved you after that rendition. Anyway, what artists were influential to you in the past?

When I was growing up, I don't know... I can't say that I ever grew up. I'm kind of like an evil little Peter Pan who will never get older. As far as bands that I listened to, I liked Innagodadavita, Black Sabbath and Jim Morrison, who was one of my all time idols. A couple years ago when I got "Papa Manson," that's Chuck, his own album, it was a great influence on me. Very innovative dude. I hate that word, "dude," but I'll say it again. Innovative dude, and he influenced what we are doing right now to a certain extent.

And a number one best-selling album, may I add.

Yeah, all the time. Manson is on Billboard still.

Who do you find exciting presently?

Well Scott, not to offend you or your listeners. The Wax Trax! scene and network is really cool, and there is a lot of bands that are breaking some new patterns here, but industrial music in general is starting to get hemoginized. I'm really impressed with the new Nittzer Ebb album because they've done some really different stuff this time around and the Revolting Cocks album is pretty good for what they are doing right now. Al Jurgenson, anything he does is great. Other than that... Crispen Glover, who is not really known for his music, but he is a crazy actor from Rivers Edge and another one of my idols. Of course, his album is one of the greatest things around. So that's what I like right now man.

Another Bestseller

Ya, to find the good stuff you gotta dig deep. You know?. Like cemetery's *cough*

In general, do you find that many bands now are pretty much lacking in their live performance?

Well, you know, lacking? Its hard to say, 'cause, locally everybody does their own thing and who's to judge whats good and bad. Um, I don't really see any bands locally that I was dis-impressed with. You know, I have been impressed with a lot of local bands, but as far as national bands, I've been seeing a lot of acts that are just, you know, standing their singing the album verbatim and who wants that because you can just get a little pin up out of Tiger Beat Magazine (laughs) put on the cd and stand their in your towel... or whatever you like to wear when you come in the door from work.

Speaking of Tiger Beat, aren't you guys on the cover this month?

Ya, ya, that's definitely us. No, no, that's New Kids on the Block. Who we want, well I can't say what we want to do to them.

Ya, you guys certainly look just like them.

Hey man, those guys are evil. 'Cause what kind of young, prepubescent punks that don't even shave yet, have captured the attention of all the women in America. They're evil, that's all I have to say, alright.

Why did you decide to do a cover of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man"? You had mentioned them earlier as an influence.

Um, I always thought that it was really powerful song, and uh, it was a really guitar oriented song, so Daisy was all for doing it, and um we just wanted to make it more powerful and put it into a 90's context because I've always said from the beginning we are what Heavy Metal could have been. Black Sabbath was like the last great Heavy Metal band. Now Heavey Metal is a curse word to me now. But as far as that goes, um, and since the song was guitar oriented, I decided to write the lyrics as a homage to Daisy by uh, writing about the Son of Sam. We called it Son of Man because it's second generation of Iron Man. Son of Man is a religious reference too, but I'm not going to preach to you, so you can look it up yourself.

So pretty much, the music remains the same, but you added your own lyrics.

Ya, definitely, we changed everything but the chorus, because the chorus pertained to what I was singing about, and it appears that David Berkowitz himself had a lot in common to Iron Man.

You have a song named "Strange Same Dogma". What is that about?

Well in general, that song really is dealing with prejudice and ignorance and certain people that are in authority positions. Um, specifically it is directed toward the PMRC, and uh, that whole scenario, and we are not the first person to sing about this and I'm not trying to jump on the bandwagon. I just want people to know how we feel about Tipper Gore, and that she is speaking her mind when she shouldn't.

Ok, well lets check out a tune right now from Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids. This is "Strange Same Dogma", on 88.5 WKPX and the alternative beat.

We are back here speaking with Marilyn Manson from Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, and we just heard "Strange Same Dogma"

Ya.

Marilyn, there's all this reference going on that um, people have actually accused you of being insane. How do you react to that?

(laughs) Ya ya ya ya ya. People want to know if we are insane. Um, I don't know. To quote papa Chuck himself, "The World of Madness, is a lot bigger than the world of sane". Sanity is a big shoe box you can run around in. Insanity is a universe.

So what does the future hold for Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids?

Well man, we want to be brand new at what we are trying to do, and want to affect as many people as we can with our music. We want to make changes in this town. We want to develop our cult and make it stronger. We have the Spooky Kids Hotline, we got people calling in all the time. Mass amount of people, wackos, crazies, I love 'em all, and I want to thank them all. And we're just going to move something, that's what we are going to do.

Well, I'd like to thank you, Marilyn Manson. It has definitely been a rare pleasure, and I do want to mention that you'll be playing in downtown Fort Lauderdale this Wednesday, May 30th, is that correct?

Ya, down by that new River Bridge and all the fun stuff that has been happening around that area.

Ok, lets just check out one more tune by Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids. This is White Knuckles on 88.5 WKPX.

You know, just because you say your progressive doesn't mean that you're on the cutting edge.

I guess you've got to go beyond the wax trax.

Ya

Anyway, so what does the future hold for Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids?

Well, we want to affect as many people as possible with our music and we're doing everything we can. We got the Spooky Kids Hotline, I can't give out now, but check the record stores, they will give you the number. We got wackos calling all day and all night. It's great! So we just want to make some changes in this town, is what we are going to do. So be at our show.

Audio[edit]

Scott David interviews Marilyn Manson (1990)