Manson interviewed in Metal Edge magazine...
Manson interviewed in Metal Edge magazine...
Pick up the September 2003 issue of Metal Edge magazine or read article here
http://www.marilynmanson.com/press/030700metaledge/01.html
[posted 7/17/2003 U.S.A.]
THE GOLDEN AGE IS UPON US
By Paul Gargano
Babble babble, bitch bitch, Rebel rebel party party, sex sex sex
and don't forget the "violence," Blah blah blah got your lovey-dovey
sad-and-lonely, Stick your STUPID SLOGAN in: Everybody sing along…
So sings Marilyn Manson in "This Is The New Shit," the opening track of
his latest canon, The Golden Age of Grotesque. He's tired of the same old shit.
He has been for quite some time, actually. And while critics may cite
Manson's overpowering persona as yesterday's news, his music says otherwise.
His Portrait of An American Family debut and Smells Like Children EP
follow-up exposed an artist who wasn't afraid to turn his back on anything
and everything the music industry had embraced, in turn, forging a path
directly into the American psyche, a twisted amalgamation of everything
that's come before him, with everything he envisioned his future becoming.
It was candy-coated horror, an evil so sweet, it mesmerized onlookers
with a sadistic Grin. As the Antichrist Superstar, Manson turned religion
on end with an album so brilliant, it may have scarred his enemies more than
it inspired his fans-No small feat, as he single-handedly hoisted the gothic
subculture from the reclusive ranks of teenage bedrooms,
to a noticeable presence in the malls of America.
On Mechanical Animals, he turned his image on end, transforming from
the prince of darkness, into an androgynous superstar bent on twisting
his extremes into an uncanny crossbreed of pop-cultural commentary.
Holy Wood shrink-wrapped the two existences into one, the final tri-mester
of a three album birth process that brought us to The Golden Age of Grotesque.
If America has truly reached a point, as many suggest,
where nothing's shocking, what does that mean for Manson,
an artist whose shock value has often overpowered the impact of his music?
"It doesn't mean that I would take back or change anything I've done
on the past," says the prolific poet of rock'n'roll rebellion.
"But I could take another step further and show people all the parts
of my personality that you get from hearing my album, or from seeing may art
show, or from hearing what I have to say in an interview, or in a movie like
Bowling For Columbine, or spending time with me personally and getting
my sense of sarcasm."
In other words, it means that The Golden Age Of Grotesque stands to be
the crowning achievement of Manson's rise to superstardom.
Rather than rely on shock value, Manson is relying on his sense as an artist
to unveil his latest decree. The album isn't the overwhelming opus
that his previous three concept albums unraveled into, but there's still
a method behind the calculated madness, as Manson and his band of merry hell
raisers-guitarist John 5, drummer Ginger Fish, keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy
and bassist Tim Skold-have but one focus: Art. From the origin of,
through the creative process, to the public interpretation of the finished
work, this Golden Age is Manson's answer to a commercially-minded
entertainment industry that all-to-often falls short of its primary
objective-Entertainment.
"You have to realize that you are creating things for the world,
and no piece of art is complete until the world accepts it- It doesn't matter
if they hate it or love it," our protagonist reasons. And he knows a thing
or two about love and hate, as the extremes have been underlying factors
in his worldwide success. His fans love him, and his critics love to hate him,
the results fanning each other's flames and building the larger-than life
entity that has become Marilyn Manson. Metal Edge sat down with Manson-
the man, the myth, the artist and the art- to dig a little deeper into the
phenomenon he has dubbed The Golden Age Of Grotesque…
Metal Edge: Having seen your performance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show,
is that a little bit what we can expect from your stage show?
The "grotesque burlesque" dancers and all?
MM: That was the simplest form of it, but there's a whole lot more
to it. I mean, the stage kind of goes from one end of the
spectrum to the other, from Julius Caesar to Walt Disney,
and everything in between, and it's really taken all the stuff
that inspired the record-vaudville, cabaret, grotesque burlesque
and all that stuff- and put it into reality. I collaborated with
this magician Rudy Coby, and he's worked in a lot of different
places, like Paris, a lot of interesting places.
ME: What inspired this direction for you? The album's still dark,
but the themes have shifted from your previous few records.
MM: It's maybe closer to where we were in the Smells Like Children
and Portrait [Of An American Family] era. I've always shifted
between the heavier-handed political and religious references,
to the vaudeville and cabaret, and the more theater of cruelty
kind of element. Also, the show has a very heavy-handed political
overtone to it, but it also adds in the sarcasm of the American
Disney elements mixed with the carnival, grotesque deformation
of beauty, with Siamese-twins, the girls playing piano…
There are performers that we have brought along with us,
not to try to make the show something that it's never been before,
but also to build on what it has always been and make it even more.
So it's got everything it always has, and then some.
ME: You went out in broad daylight on the first OZZfest, as well.
Are you tailoring your set to that, or are you stripping down
what would be your headlining show?
MM: Not at all, I think it's a matter of realizing that Disneyland
and Nuremburg, and any protests that you have ever been to on
any city street, all work during daylight, because there is
sprit behind them. The spirit of the performance, there is a
bombastic, political element, and there is the childish insanity,
eccentricity element, and it's all going to be combined together,
which will be the most entertaining thing for me.
I'm looking forward to it more than anything.
ME: What's the significance of the mouse ears?
Was that ever intended to be the album cover?
MM: Well, all the artwork that we created was part of The Golden Age
of Grotesque, but none of it was intended to be album artwork.
What ended up being the album was allowed to be on it.
We used a different approach- We didn't say we were going to
design things for an album, we designed a bunch of things,
and then we chose ones that we wanted. Many were denied and
some were accepted, so we decided to show those that were denied
elsewhere. What you're talking about is a big part of the show,
because the show has a lot of statements about politics and
religion, and about art, and how I fit into all of it. They will
be a major part of the performance that I think everyone will
be surprised by.
ME: The OZZfest experience has become somewhat predicable.
I presume you are looking to change that?
MM: Absolutely. I mean, there is going to be a moment where I call
for Siamese twins, I might have three legs, or I might need two heads.
Whatever the case might be, I'm there to entertain people, and I
am there to make them think something different than what they
thought before I went on the stage, that's for sure.
ME: Disney loves the lawsuits. Are you anticipating any legal problems from
them?
MM: No. Everything that I have done, doesn't do anything but challenge
or evoke people with images that they might associate something
like Disney, because I'm representing myself in a childish way,
that is drawn from my imagination. Images that I create don't exist
anywhere but in my head, and through the artwork of Gottfried Helnwein,
so therefore they can't be infringing upon anybody, but they
can really provoke people to feel a certain way. And the way
that they feel is the intention of art. Art is a question mark,
and the answers are how people react.
--
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