“We’re 22 shows down on a 50 show tour,” he says. “I’m in the wonderful world of West Virginia right now.” The front-man – the driving force behind The Murderdolls, Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, and Gunfire 76 – and his band will be spending Halloween gigging in Australia. “It definitely adds to it, but I think we carry the Halloween flag 365 days a year. But on Halloween there is an extra special feel. Last year we played Halloween and I saw Beetlejuice crowdsurfing – it was awesome.
“The first time I went to Australia was as Wednesday 13 in 2005 in support of my first album. Once Murderdolls had started a lot of guys who were playing in that were also playing in my other project Gunfire 76. We came back in 2012 as Wednesday 13 and did Soundwave, and that’s the same lineup I have now.”
Wednesday 13, otherwise known as Joseph Poole, has had somewhat of a revolving door of band members supporting his solo project over the years. “A lot of those other guys in the band were strangers,” he explains. “We didn’t know each other. It takes a lot of work to be in a band at this level. It means a lot when you have friends and people on the same page. It’s taken me years and years to find the right guys to complete that. I have that now and we’ve been going strong for the last couple of years. We’re a much better band, we’re in a good place.”
While it hasn’t always been like that, the singer has been nothing if not prolific. So much so that he can’t quite remember just how many albums he has released. “I don’t know exactly. I’ve released my fifth full-length Wednesday 13 record, a couple with the Murderdolls, then you add the Frankenstein Drag Queens where there were like six albums…it starts to add up. I’m really bad at math but it’s probably close to 20.
“There was a point where it felt like it was a little harder to get it going. That was back in 2008 after I had recorded the Skeletons record. We had the revolving door lineup and I wasn’t confident as Wednesday 13 the way I am now. I feel more inspired and I feel like I’ve got more of a drive for doing this stuff. I feel like it’s taken me all this time for me to grasp what Wednesday 13 is and what I want it to be. I’ve got that vision.
“I’ve been inspired by movies, and I still get inspired by music. I constantly listen to music, a lot of heavy stuff. I’ve been a punk rock guy and also listened to a lot of old classic rock like Alice Cooper and things like that but I listen to Gojira and Lamb of God just as much. I’m inspired by different things, and my fans are probably the most inspiring thing of all. With social media I can hear them when they praise me, I can hear them when they bitch at me. I think a lot of bigger bands lose sight of what their fans want. You don’t have to do exactly what they say, but you do have to listen to them, because they’re the ones that put you where you are.
“You know whenever I put a record out I never know what my fans are going to think about it. I might have a gut feeling – they’re really going to like this song or they’re really going to like this album cover. You want the fans to accept it but you never know.”
BY JOSH FERGEUS
