Interview:2007/06 Malice In Wonderland

Malice In Wonderland
All Photos: Perou
Interview with Marilyn Manson
Date	June, 2007
Source	Alternative #06
Interviewer	Alex Boniwell

A TURBULENT FEW YEARS HAS SHROUDED THE ICONIC FIGURE OF MARILYN MANSON INTO NEW DEPTHS, WITH A MUCH PUBLICISED MARRIAGE SPLIT AND AN ILL-TIMED DIRECTORIAL DEBUT. THE RELEASE OF 'EAT ME DRINK ME' AT A PIVOTAL TIME AMIDST A CHANGE OF FORTUNES.

"I didn't want people to think that the record is some kind of exploitation of my personal life," says Manson. "At the same time, it also represents exactly who I am and what I feel." His new album 'Eat Me, Drink Me' is a very personal thing. The whole record could be viewed in the light of 'what the hell has he got to moan about? He's a rich famous rock star. He has everything. How can his life be shit?' Well, he had a rather public marriage and subsequent divorce from burlesque queen Dita Von Tesse, (some would say the price of such fame is the negation of privacy) and his mother was diagnosed with a mental illness. On top of that he is still regarded as the USA's in-house bogeyman by the religious right having suffered first hand to the organised death threats and intimidation of the blinkered forbearers of the right way to lead your life in God's country. No wonder he was feeling a bit down. "Halfway through last year I was in such a black hole of depression," he says. "I couldn't make anything, I couldn't do anything. I lost hope. I got trapped in one of the classic rock & roll cliches of having people that work for me rob me behind my back" he continues "It was a strange period. I pulled a Ziggy Stardust moment where I wanted to quit music. I didn't have an interest doing it anymore because I felt the music industry had gotten to a point where I just felt completely unfulfilled, uninterested. I never wanted to make music again, but this was the only salvation I had going for me. So somehow I came out of that, and I came out of that by writing a song, and that song turned into a record." It's not a new thing for a recording artist to use their art as a means of therapy, or even just a way of expressing their anger/love/hate for themselves or others. It's still a way of kick-starting that creative process and clawing your way out of the big dark hole that you've found your self at the bottom of. Once out of the pit it can be a very satisfying moment. A big "fuck-you" to the detractors and the "friends" that deserted you. And, of course the realisation that all this shit around you is not gonna drag down and control your life. But that moment of life will always have a dirty foot print on the back of your head, but it will have made you stronger, more resilient, more forth right and independent.

Of the new record Manson is in high praise of its cathartic properties. "This is very earest and uncalculated and raw, in the sense that I know I'm fucked up, and I'm really not ashamed of it. You always have to transform, or you can't continue as an artist, and this record has been the biggest transformation for me." And how good does he think he's done this time? "This is the record I've worked all my life to get to." There you go, simple answer to a simple question. Also the recording process was a bit different this time round "For the most part, every song was written the same day it was sung; the melody was invented in the initial singing of it and that take was what we recorded." explains the singer. "The album was written as if it were my private journal." he confesses, "It begins at the first song where I say "6AM, Christmas morning", and it is actually then that it was written. There is both a story side and a side saying what's happened to me personally on the album, which I've never done until now in my songs."

Musically it's quite different too. It's still the darkest gothic rock/pop (don't think for one moment this isn't pop music. MM has always written pop, just the same way that The Cure or Soft Cell wrote pop tunes but with that sinister side to trap and corrupt the next generation of sour faced teens. Not a bad thing at all.) But its whole tone has less sheen. Gone are the glam edges of the past ('Mechanical Animals', 'Holy Wood' and 'Golden Age Of The Grotesque') and a return to the darker edge with a slower more intense feel. A record with a lot of emotion and issues that the Antichrist Superstar hasn't, until now, let the public see. "It's not a record about me crying, or songs about my woes," explains Manson, although this idea will be prominent in most listeners minds," But I think this record will probably speak to more people in different ways, because of its total human element." Something that the being of Marilyn Manson has been lacking in previous incarnations, being seen as the Devil, alien, freak but definitely not human. The idea of a rock star having the same feeling and emotions as Joe Public is always going to be a bit of a stumbling block. They do, of course, live in a totally different world. The day to day grind being somewhat different in Rock Star land than 9-5 land. But both places have there pressures and good/bad times, and as much as the tabloid gossip press love to see the rise and crashes it's always the triumphant return that sparks most interest. "As many dark places as I've gone in my life and in my music, this past year... it's a real wonder that I'm alive." Not that you'd think he was ever suicidal, it's more mentally alive. You can only take so much before you just zombie and switch off, become dead to the world around you. "I've been lying dormant," confirms Manson "but it's not going to be just a gradual sneaking back into society. It's going to be a very large swarm of pestilence." You can almost feel the Old Testament glee.

For further info on Marilyn Manson visit: www.marilynmanson.com

Scans

Credit: Norsefire's Marilyn Manson Collection

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