Madonna Wayne Gacy

Stephen Bier
Stephen Bier aka Pogo 2001
Background information
Birth name	Stephen Gregory Bier Jr.
Born	March 6, 1964 (age 60)
Origin	born in Maywood, New Jersey; Fort Lauderdale, FL
Genre(s)	industrial metal, industrial rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, music producer, sound engineering
Instrument(s)	Keyboards, percussions, programming
Years active	1989–present
Label(s)	Faultline, Interscope, Scorpian Rising, Empire MusicWerks, Nothing, WYNF, Beat Up Your Mom Music
Associated acts	MMII, Faultline Productions, Marilyn Manson, Mrs. Scabtree

Stephen Gregory Bier Jr. (born March 6, 1964), better known by his stage name Madonna Wayne Gacy, is a professional musician. He is the former keyboardist for Marilyn Manson, and a current member of mmii (m²i ²). His stage name is formed from the names Madonna and John Wayne Gacy. Though he prefers to be known as "Pogo," Gacy's clown name.

Biography

Stephen Bier was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to a Jewish father and Catholic mother. His mother taught first grade and his father was a school teacher also. He was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) when he was a child, and was given Ritalin by his parents. As he grew older, he stopped taking the medication because of the way it made him feel. Supposedly having an IQ of over 150, Bier attended college for six years, achieving a degree in industrial engineering. After completing college Bier initially applied for a job at NASA, but decided to join Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids as keyboardist instead.. Bier has a fascination with all things German, Japanese, and Kabbalah. He was married to a woman named Kim for three years as revealed by his Facebook page. Stephen is currently married to Melissa Mayumi-Bier.

Career

In music

Gacy did not play keyboards until he joined Marilyn Manson. It has been said that it took less time for him to master the keyboard than it took for him to save money to buy one. He was nicknamed "Pogo", early in the history of the band, as neither Madonna nor Gacy seemed to suit his personality, and Pogo was the clown alter ego of John Wayne Gacy.

He has played the following other instruments or sound-shaping techniques on Marilyn Manson's albums as well: acoustic drums, bassoon, calliope, electronic drums, Hammond organ, idiophone, keytar, mellotron, music loop, overdubs, piano, sampling, saxophone, synthesizer, theremin, and other various brass instruments.

He is responsible for much of Esoteric and numerological aspects of Marilyn Manson's work.

In an exclusive conference conducted by Marilyn Manson in April 2007, he revealed the upcoming album Eat Me, Drink Me was recorded in collaboration between himself and Tim Skold. Essentially this meant Gacy did not partake in the album, but not ruling out the possibility of him performing as live keyboardist on the upcoming tour. Later, Manson revealed that Chris Vrenna (who previously drummed for the band during Ginger Fish's hiatus in 2004) would be performing as live keyboardist on the tour, in Gacy's place. This stirred fans' speculations as to whether or not Gacy, who up until this announcement was considered the only member of the band other than Manson himself to never leave for any cause and has been in the band since 1990, had finally left Marilyn Manson.

MMII

In June of 2011, Bier and his band MMII released "Delta-9" which features Stephen Bier on vocals. The artwork provided by MMII contains the imagery of a triangle or a delta with the number 9 on the upper right. It can be inferred that the title of the song "Delta-9" stems from the chemical name of the psychoactive compound found in marijuana, "delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol" in the center of the triad lies the symbol for Pluto, which a sample is heard in the beginning, "This is the planet Pluto, the ninth planet from the sun." The song can be heard in full at the following link Listen to MMII Delta 9 on Reverbnation

As of July 14, 2017 Bier is no longer apart of MMII and in his own words said "I was not even given the proper paperwork for the forms/project, let alone paid for it, and then tonight I get the insult of being removed as an administrator, as if I have ever posted s*** there. It is all part of that Bells into whatever thing... this man is another f****** rip-off artist".

Lawsuit

On August 2, 2007, Gacy filed a lawsuit against Marilyn Manson seeking a back pay of $20 million dollars. Gacy claimed Manson has been using the band's money for personal interests, among which are his collection of Nazi paraphernalia, his drug addictions, his wedding with Dita Von Teese and the production of Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. Later in the year, Manson countersued for breach of contract.

Manson and Bier settled out of court in 2009 for the sum of $380,000.

Discography

Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids

• Big Black Bus (1990)
• Grist-o-Line (1990)
• Lunchbox (1991)
• After School Special (1991)
• Live as Hell (1992)
• The Family Jams (1992)
• Refrigerator (1993)
• The Manson Family Album (1993)
• Lunch Boxes & Choklit Cows (2004)

Marilyn Manson

• Portrait of an American Family (1994)
• Smells Like Children (1995)
• Antichrist Superstar (1996)
• Remix & Repent (1997)
• Mechanical Animals (1998)
• The Last Tour on Earth (1999)
• Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) (2000)
• The Golden Age of Grotesque (2003)
• Lest We Forget – The Best Of (2004)

Equipment

Keyboards

• Roland AX-1
• Sequential Circuits Pro-One
• Yamaha CBX K2
• Roland PC-200
• Waldorf Pulse

Percussions

• Premier 15" × 14" and 16" × 16" floor toms
• Zildjian Z custom china cymbal

Samplers, mixers

• Akai S950
• Kurzweil K2500RS
• Mackie 1604-VLZ
• Peavey PC-1600

Trivia

• Pogo's first sampler was the Akai S950.
• Pogo is heavily interested in the Occult including but not limited to Numerology, Alchemy, and Kabbalah.
• Gacy's musical influences include Big Black, Black Sabbath, Buffalo Tom, Butthole Surfers, Pink Floyd, Fear and Ramones.
• He has been described by Manson as ". . . a genius too mad to use his intelligence in any constructive way."
• He hates when people call him Steve, or if people spell his name with a "v" instead of "ph", according to The Long Hard Road Out of Hell.
• Gacy speaks some German.
• He's a big fan of early 20th century horror author H.P. Lovecraft.
• Other than Manson himself, Gacy was the longest lasting member of the band.
• Due to the money issues and not being paid by Manson what he claimed to be entitled to, he has come under less than friendly terms with Manson, with Manson even saying "I wouldn't piss on Pogo if he was on fire"

External Links

• Official YouTube channel.
• Official Twitter account.
• Stephen Bier at Internet Movie Database.
• Stephen Bier at Instagram.