Horror punk/rock act Wednesday 13 returns to Australia again in March 2017, less than a year from when we saw him last on their headline tour in support of his latest release “Monsters Of The Universe”. This time however we see him in a more intimate setting with a special unplugged acoustic show that will showcase an entire discography from all the bands he has taken part of including the legendary Murderdolls and his latest work in Bourbon Crow. We catch up with Wednesday 13 to discuss the upcoming shows as well as work on the next full length album.
Andrew: So how was your Halloween this year?
Wednesday 13: Busy but amazingly awesome as well, it was great! We did a tour in the States September- October that led up to the Halloween weekend and then we flew to the UK and did the Halloween weekend Friday and Saturday and Halloween was on the Monday but we played the Friday and Saturday in London and had 2 sold out shows. We celebrated the 10 year anniversary of my second album “Fang Bang” and we played it in it’s entirety on other nights and then we flew home and played here in Los Angeles at the Whiskey a-Go-Go on Halloween night to a packed out show and it was awesome. So yeah I basically got to go to London and play here in Hollywood at 2 killer Halloween shows so it was great. Every year for Halloween it just gets better and better for us, it’s like our busy time and I’m like Santa Claus of Halloween.
Andrew: [laughs] Cool! Well obviously you are coming back here to Australia next year, we just saw you here recently about 6 months ago so it’s good to see you coming back so soon!
Wednesday 13: Yeah I’m excited! Back then in April I was talking to Daniel the promoter of this tour who was awesome and took care of us last time and I mentioned to him the idea of doing this unplugged tour, I’ve done it twice in the UK now and it went over really well and just seeing how the audience is in Australia for us and I just mentioned to him, “Man we should really discuss bringing the unplugged tour here, I think it would go really well’. So we spoke over the months and figured out a time to do it and we announced it so here we are. I’ve only done this in the UK, I’ve done 2 tours in the UK in the past 2 years as the unplugged thing and a handful of dates here in the States but this is a completely different show from what we did in April in Australia. It’s not a full band, it’s just me and my guitarist Roman (Surman), we both play guitar, it’s stripped down, there’s no drums. It’s basically like we advertise it, it’s like a campfire thing because it’s kind of what it is. Just imagine sitting around a campfire and me and my guitarist come out and sit on stools and play some songs and basically take you through my career musically from how I started in this whole thing and where I am, I tell stories, I take questions from the audience and it’s just a really cool, interactive, fun thing for us and the fans that just went over amazingly in the UK.
Andrew: Yeah it’s a very cool idea and as soon as you mentioned campfire stories, I immediately think of the song “Ghost Stories” which is one that you are probably playing as well?
Wednesday 13: Definitely. I’ve always got slow songs over the years perfect for the acoustic shows.
Andrew: It seems like you will play a mix of everything you have done and not just the Wednesday 13 stuff and the last time we spoke you talked about the difficulties of putting a setlist together. I can only imagine this would be even more difficult than a regular Wednesday 13 show.
Wednesday 13: It’s a little bit difficult but we got a little bit longer time for an Evening With, there’s not really an opening band. But every night we basically have a list of songs that are kind of the staples ongs that we know go over well and sound good and we have a list of songs that are kind of like the ‘If we have to pull them out’ sort of stack, a question mark stack if someone calls a song out. But some of the songs don’t work but basically I think I have a song from everything from when I started up to now that we can play so it kind of covers the whole spectrum of all the things I’ve done. It’s definitely a fun show, it’s different from a full band show. There’s no costumes and crazy light show or jumping around, it’s like a campfire sort of thing. I’ts something I had an idea for years ago and I took it to the UK in 2004 and it went over great, people told me at the shows that have seen me over a dozen times that the acoustic thing is their favorite thing. When it works it’s magical as they say.
Andrew: What inspired you the first time around to do this unplugged acoustic thing?
Wednesday 13: I think back in 2007 we did the tour where we had one song where I played a song by myself, acoustic on stage and just me with everything blacked out with just a green light on me and played the song “Cursed Me” and it went over amazing! The fans were singing every word to it louder than I could sing and I was like, Woah!’ That kid of sparked the idea in my head and was like, ‘There’s a lot of songs I have like this that would be really cool in an acoustic setting’. So just had the kind of idea that had brainstormed in my head for years and years and then at the beginning of 2014 I said I had this idea and I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s do it. I’ll record an unplugged record, I’ll do an unplugged tour. I’ve had this idea in my head, stop being a pussy about it and book a tour and do it’. So that’s what I did and I had the gut feeling that it would go over well but it went over better than I could ever imagine, it’s a cool little show and I’m glad I’ve been able to do something different than what other people are doing and I can split up my touring where I don’t have to do the full band touring all the time and wear that out.
Andrew: Yeah and I know the fans will be really looking forward to seeing this. Which songs out of the back catalogue as far as the older material works best for the acoustic thing do you think?
Wednesday 13: I don’t know, there’s a lot of stuff. I mean I’ve told a story at past shows where I felt the first song I ever wrote when I was 11 years old and I tell the lyric for that, there’s so many songs. There’s stuff from the first Murderdolls album, stuff from Frankenstein Drag Queens and on this tour in particular we got the Bourbon Crow set added into it where I have my partner from Bourbon Crow who sings as well in that band. So we’ll do that in the middle of the set and do a Bourbon Crow set with all those songs so it’s going to be an Evening With and it’s going to be party!
Andrew: Looking forward to it! It’s great to see you coming back so soon, I think the fans were a little surprised where it’s like, ‘Oh it’s almost an annual thing’. So very cool to have you back so soon.
Wednesday 13: Yeah man we’ve been really fortunate to come to Australia so much in the past 5 years with Soundwave and all the little mini tours we’ve done, it’s been really cool. It’s one of my favorite places to tour and every time we get offered to play I don’t ever complain about it, I go, ‘Yeah!’ And hopefully we’ll be back at the end of the year with a new album and the full band so maybe you’ll get us twice this year.
Andrew: Yeah hopefully and I had heard you were working on a new album so how has that been going so far?
Wednesday 13: It’s all done, we finished the record on September 1st which was the last day we left the studio and it’s mixed, mastered and done. I’m just basically right now negotiating the release and how we’re releasing it and who to release it with and all the boring stuff that nobody cares about but I’m basically looking for an April release in 2017 for it. SO basically once we’re done with Australia we’ll come back, breathe for a week or two and then we’ll start rehearsals with the full band for that, start touring and pretty much all next year we’re going to be touring, touring, touring.
Andrew: OK cool! Before I let you go do you have any last words for the fans in Australia before you come over next year?
Wednesday 13: I just want to say thank you for all the years of support, looking forward to bringing this version of our tour there because it’s such a unique thing. Looking forward to coming back to Australia, I love it there so see you guys in March.
WEDNESDAY 13 UNPLUGGED AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2016:
Thursday March 23 – The Brightside, Brisbane
Friday March 24 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Saturday March 25 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets and tour details can be found at Destroy All Lines.
