For some Zombie fans they felt as though they lost him a little to the movie world while others have loved the creative cross-over. Either way, he himself admits that music has been more fulfilling over the past few years than it was. “I think musically everything has been going great for probably the past four years,” Zombie says. “The biggest problem I was having before was that the movies were taking me away from music for such long stretches of time. Even a long record – like six months which hardly anyone does anymore – seems like a while but when you look at films, from the time someone says they have an idea for a move to financing to making it and then seeing it on the screen, it can be anywhere from two years to ten years.”
While Zombie doesn’t feel that his films have informed his music in any specific way, he does think they helped rekindle the spark. “Films have definitely made me more appreciative of music and of touring and of that world,” he says. “If you do one thing for so long you take it for granted and for me, by going into movies and into that world, which is a much more stressful world, it made me re-evaluate the music industry and it’s always a relief to come back to it.”
For Zombie and his musical army, this latest album was recorded in a completely refreshing way. “There were just so few outside influences,” he says. “Usually every record that was ever made was made in California in a recording studio with all the same people coming and out and all this bullshit going on. We made this record at my house – I kinda live in the country so the band kinda sequestered themselves there – so for the first time ever we had no outside influences.”
So is everyone on the album staying on as the touring line-up? “I say this all the time – and it never comes true – but this line-up has been together for a long time and I don’t see any reason why anyone would leave the band but then again who knows?” he laughs. “I never see it coming when it happens.”
With a massive catalogue of films and albums behind him, Zombie is nowhere near slowing down. “I have a million ideas and I feel like there’s just not enough time to do them,” he says. “I feel like if I’m not creating something new then the day has been wasted.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
