Joseph Poole, better known by his stage name Wednesday 13, is visiting his hometown of Lexington, North Carolina when he calls.
“I’ve been driving through my old neighbourhood doing some reminiscing, realising why I got out of here,” he wryly says of the small town.
The musician is known for his dark sense of humour, with tongue-in-cheek lyrics often accompanying his horror punk music. Citing Alice Cooper, KISS, Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P. as his favourite bands, it’s clear their penchant for makeup and spectacular outfits influenced him along with their big riffs. “Of course, I try to do my own thing,” he says of his unique stage appearance.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
His fascination with horror stems back to his childhood. “I lived in a little trailer out in the middle of the woods with my family and we had an illegal cable hook up, and I was able to watch all of these horror movies,” explains Poole.
“My parents worked, they were busy, and I lived in front of the television watching movies like Creep Show and Nightmare on Elm Street when I was like seven, eight years old,” he recalls. “I shouldn’t have been doing it, but it shaped who I am.”
When Poole began making music, horror and music married naturally. “I asked someone ‘How do you write songs? What do you write about?’ And they said, ‘What do you know?’ So, that’s where I started,” he explains.
Murderdolls’ debut record came out 21 years ago, though Poole says he’s still finding new fans. “A lot of the older stuff is sounding new again because the formula of rock and roll is simple and it works,” he says. “They’re realising that that’s where it’s at, or at least it is for me… I’m 47 years old so I get to be that grumpy old man.”
Though Poole has maintained an enduring solo career for the last two decades, it was his band Murderdolls that brought international success early on. He and other core member Joey Jordison instantly bonded over their love of heavy music and horror.
“He was the perfect match for what I needed as an artist, or just a person,” says Poole of Jordison who tragically died in 2021. “I never had that before Joey, I had always written stuff on my own.”
“When it came to music, he had already had his years in Slipknot, and everything he had done prior to that, and I was still a rookie in the business and not really knowing studio stuff,” says Poole. “He heard the end result before you ever thought about it and was just a great person to work with. I learned pretty much everything I know from him.”
Jordison continued as the founding drummer of Slipknot while in Murderdolls, which allowed him to perform guitars live, while still bringing his signature drumming style in the studio. “I was able to do everything except for drums and he was able to do everything except for vocals, so together we were like the two-man band,” says Poole. “Neither one of us were like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani style guitar players and that was what was cool about it, there was a little bit of the punk rock imperfections which was perfect for what we were doing.”
Poole and his band will perform Murderdolls songs from their 2002 debut record ‘Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls’ and its 2010 follow-up ‘Women and Children Last’ on their upcoming tour.
While Jordison won’t be playing, Roman Surman and Jack Tankersley, who were on the final Murderdolls tour, will be. “When Roman and Jack joined the band, we just took everything to a different level than we did on the first album, not saying it was better or anything, it was different,” says Poole.
Coincidentally, the last tour the band played was Australia’s 2011 Soundwave Festival. “[After] we went and did Japan and the earthquake ruined that very quickly, and then we only had like a handful of club dates in the US around an award show we did,” recalls Poole. “The majority of the songs we’re playing on this tour is stuff we haven’t touched in a long time.”
Wednesday 13 is performing Murderdolls at Max Watt’s on February 4. Tickets here.
