Interview:2003 Dutch Interview Footage

Dutch Interview Footage
Interview with Marilyn Manson
Date	2003
Source	Universal Music

The following interview has been included in a 2003 promotional DVD distributed by Universal Music to various TV channels in Greece. It has been listed as "Dutch Interview Footage" with no further information.

Transcription

This page or section contains speech recognition generated transcription and may be incorrect.

Marilyn Manson: Kids don't want to go to a museum and see art. Art seems boring, it's pretentious. Entertainment seems like puppets. It seems shallow and empty. But I wanted to show people that you very much can be the union of the two, if done with proper style and a nice tie. And good-looking women.

("mOBSCENE" break)

Marilyn Manson: Berlin seemed to me like a woman. I wanted some symbolism and the city is much like anyone you get involved with. There's good intentions at first and things. Sometimes you behave a certain way when you start a relationship. You act like you're someone else to try and impress somebody. But the city came off with an innocent sort of way and things built to a passionate height of decadence. And then someone's always afraid, as in a relationship. And the fear of losing control makes people then destroy something very great. And the city was destroyed. And relationships were destroyed. And the record comes to an end also. But you can always push play and start over again.

("mOBSCENE" break)

Marilyn Manson: Berlin and Hollywood were the two symbolic cities that inspired the record. Because of the birth of expressionism in the time of pre-war, Weimar Republic. People were living like there was no tomorrow. And they were creating dangerous art because they didn't know if there would be a tomorrow. And we live in a similar time now. So it's ironic and unfortunately appropriate that The Golden Age of Grotesque takes place now, why America is at war.

The interviewer: But do you see the same kind of decadence in America as there was over here in the 30s?

Marilyn Manson: I don't see enough of it. So that's part of my aim is to remind people, and not in a nihilistic way, rather than being hopelessly depressed that there could be no tomorrow, make it a desperate celebration of life, and make it, you know to... I wanted this to usher in a re-appreciation of style and art for the simple reason of life is meant to be enjoyed.

("mOBSCENE" break)

Marilyn Manson: It couldn't be a better time to show people an escape, an escape that they can stay with, that it can be something that they can always go back and remember, or they can go back and listen to, or whatever it might be. Because what I saw in the need or the strong point of decadence and cabarets and vaudeville and burlesque, was not just the entertainment but what it did for people. And it's not a heroic goal for me to try and save the world or anything of that nature, but it is a goal for me to not let the world be bored and not let the world be depressed, because of all of the violence that's going around. And it's also not even fair to compare America now to the 30s because people were suffering in a much different way. But it's symbolic to draw parallels and to show people that it's important to take a negative situation, you know, being in a conservative government in America that's very much about duplicity and if we're fighting for freedom and we're representing democracy, then it's my job to represent art and freedom of expression. So it's important for me to be alive now.

("The Beautiful People" break)

The interviewer: Are you always living with a kind of dandy lifestyle?

Marilyn Manson: No, absolutely not. As a kid I was invisible and afraid to express myself altogether. It was creating Marilyn Manson gave me a way to become myself finally. So now as an artist, a performer, rather than feeling like I'm in my 30s, I feel 10 because that's how old Marilyn Manson is and that's how I'll behave.

("Disposable Teens" break)

The interviewer: How did your image change when Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" was released?

Marilyn Manson: Well, the movie did a similar thing that happened when I wrote an essay for Rolling Stone. Because I was attacked so much by the media, as I explained in that essay. I didn't feel the need to respond or become involved in the very thing that created Columbine or an instance like that, anything in history. You know, people do things because the media allows them to become famous for it. That's where the name Marilyn Manson comes from. So it's very ironic and almost silly at times when people blame me for something that I'm already condemning or at least questioning. So the movie, when it came out, a lot of people who hadn't heard what I said or don't know that I represent certain things, did get a chance to see that part of me.

("I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" break)

Marilyn Manson: It was inspirational to me when people were attached to or gravitate towards something like that that I say, but they hadn't heard the music. And also, for example, if someone likes my paintings or someone likes something else, that made me want to put more of my personality into an album. I wanted to really sharply focus in things that maybe I had neglected or things that I had not done good enough in the past. I don't want to change anything I've done in the past, but I wanted to make this record even better. And rather than explaining my personality, this record has a very strong stream of consciousness to it so that people feel like they're inside my head.

The interviewer: Yeah, because the thing is that the whole movie and the reactions on it, it all made you more human in a way.

Marilyn Manson: I suppose so. I don't... For me, I wasn't saying or doing anything that I already haven't. But I think it may have led people to think that they understand me more, but that makes me just want to confuse them further. For example, I can't support or agree with everything in the movie even though I'm in it because it's very political and it's very left-wing or right-wing at times, and I can be neither. It's my job to challenge both and always to smash extremes against each other.

("mOBSCENE" break)

The interviewer: Do you have any idea how people might react when you say Marilyn Manson was walking in the Berlin of the 30s right now?

Marilyn Manson: I probably would not have had a problem blending in because there was a lot of underground culture with transvestites, and I would probably seem almost mellow I think at times, but I don't know, I wasn't there. I'd probably get beat up for sure by the government, but that seems pretty much like America at times.

The interviewer: Yeah, it's comparable?

Marilyn Manson: Only in that people have very, very strong judgmental qualities still in America, you know. I think if I wasn't famous and I walked down the street looking like I did, or if I was with these two girls, people get upset because they don't understand. If people don't understand things, they always want to break it and .... So that's part of, also. It's a burden that you have to accept and not complain about when you want to be provocative. You can't be provocative and then complain, oh, the whole world's picking on me. It doesn't go that way. You have to be tough and also still be a sissy at the same time. I'm a question mark, just in general. Art is always a question. People always think that art is an answer, but art is a question.

The interviewer: What's the main question you'd like to ask with your art?

Marilyn Manson: What can you offer back? You know, I like it to be a mirror. I like it to be something that hopefully other people see and realize. You don't have to be a singer or a painter to make something. That style and expression should be things that you're not afraid of. And that the imagination has so much to be excited about, not ashamed of. People really, all religion and politics, everything really just wants to shove down your imagination. Whether you call it sin or call it law or whatever it might be, it's always trying to squash your imagination. And I have too many dirty thoughts that I need to express. Thank you.

("mOBSCENE" break)

Video

Marilyn Manson Dutch Interview Footage (2003)