Another Day

"I don't know how or why and I'm not gonna question it because I love it,” vocalist Wednesday 13 (real name Joseph Poole) says when asked about his rapidly swelling Australian following. He was last seen Down Under in February/March for Soundwave. “It just blows my mind how the fan base has grown over the past couple of years. I came back in 2010 to do a couple of headline shows; they were my first shows in five years. I had no idea if my records were even available in Australia, or if people knew who I was anymore. The shows were packed and bigger than the ones I did five years ago when I was on Roadrunner, a major label,” he laughs.

“It's things like that which reassure me that I haven't been wasting my time, and when people told me when I was growing up that what you're doing is stupid and no one will ever want to be a part of that, or there's no one out there who wants to hear what you're singing about. I've proven people wrong with that and it's become worldwide. I can go to Australia and just have this rabid fan base of kids that eat and breathe what I sing about. I think Australia right now is the most rabid audience that I have anywhere in the world that I've seen so far.”

The frontman attributes much of this success to maintaining a hectic recording and touring schedule. The sometime Murderdolls screamer (alongside partner-in-crime, Slipknot's Joey Jordison) and solo performer recently unleashed the Spook And Destroy EP, and will release a proper follow-up to 2011's Calling All Corpses next year. “It's something I've done for a while and that a lot of people have asked about over the years; 'why do you put out so many releases?' I put out one release a year, whether it's a full-length, an EP or something else. This EP is coming out in time for this tour; it's just for this tour, to hold people over until we put a new release out in 2013. I've done this since 1996. I feel like I've put out stuff that I like and the fans seem to like it. As long as I'm putting out quality stuff I'm going to keep putting records out. All of my favourite bands did it back in the day; KISS and Alice Cooper, my favourite records of the '70s, those bands put out one record a year, sometimes two a year. That's the work ethic and where I come from. It's fun for me – I get bored easily. It's busy, but it's a fun busy. I'm having fun with it, not being on a label and being able to do what I want.”

Wednesday has a well-established signature sound and horror movie-obsessed lyrical approach, though. Does he ever find it restricting that some fans don't want him to operate outside of these parameters? “People say, 'Oh, Wednesday 13 is the horror punk king' or whatever. It's not hard to be the king of something like that to me, because as far as that 'genre' goes there's not a whole lot of competition,” he laughs. “Of course I got a lot of my ideas from people like Alice Cooper and I just kinda took it and put my own stamp on it over the years. I like to keep people guessing all the time. I think people expect me to do certain things and if I ever get into the situation where people expect me to do something, I won't do it. I'm constantly trying to change stuff up. There's no formula to follow with what I do. It's a good spot to be in, because I can do whatever I want. I can write metal songs or punk songs. It's just a big melting pot of all my favourite stuff.”

It's remarked that there's a neat symmetry to him releasing a new LP in 2013. “Yeah, that was the whole plan,” he chuckles. “The reason we put this EP out was I didn't want to release the full-length in 2012. For me, having the name Wednesday 13, to do an album in 2013, I don't think that's going to happen again anytime soon,” he laughs again. “I just thought I should take the opportunity and go with it.

“We just finished recording the 2013 release and it's awesome, man. I wish I could explain it, but I can't fill you in on the details too much, because it's a while before it comes out. The new record was really important. My plan was to make my best record ever for 2013. I didn't know if I could pull it off. But we finished the record, I've been sitting on it for a week now and listening to the mixes, and feel like I've set out and accomplished my goal. I think I captured the best of what I do, and it's all across the board. This record's heavy, dark, fun; it's nothing like the last record and I don't think it's anything like any of my records per se. But it has hints of everything I've done; I feel like I took the best of everything and made this ultimate record.”

There won't be any road-testing material from the next record here during the October Australian visit though, or over-emphasising Murderdolls either. “I don't want to make it too much about that band with my solo stuff. There are a couple of songs that we do that we've played with the Murderdolls; that were also prior to Murderdolls a couple of my old band Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 songs. But I do try to steer away from playing the other stuff and stick with my solo stuff.”

The vocalist also gives an update on Murderdolls' status. Due to the much-vaunted new Slipknot record and Wednesday's solo activities, an album's arrival may be a similar wait to the eight-year gap between their debut and sophomore efforts. If one happens at all. “That's definitely on the backburner and has been since early 2011 when we took our break. It's just the way it is with the band. Initially we had hoped we could do it a little bit longer than we did, but looking back on it now, I'm just glad we got to do another record. Because that record was really great in my opinion and one of my favourite things I've recorded. Every day working on that record was a special time. I didn't think it would ever happen again, so if that's where it stays, then I'm okay with it.

“I wish I could say that [it will be a shorter wait between albums] but I think it could be as long, or even longer, if it ever happens again. I think it might have been the spark that band has. I don't want to say never, or [destroy] anybody's hopes or dreams of it ever happening again. I don't know the future; anything's possible.”

Wednesday 13 will be playing the following shows: