Veronica M: How do you come up with songs? (Every day inspiration, childhood memories, fantasies etc...)
V: Honestly, most of them just pop into my head while I'm walking down the street! Sometimes I'm strumming on my guitar in an airport or something, between shows and I'll come up with a melody I like. I'll call myself on my phone and leave a voicemail of me singing the melody so that I don't forget it. When I get home, I listen to it again and keep playing it until a subject comes to mind. Right now I'm working on a western song about vampires that
happened just that way, it started with some strumming in an airport. Other times I get the idea for the song before I have the melody. Zombie Prostitute was that way. Somehow those words popped into my head and I thought... "man, that would be a great topic for a song! Zombie Prostitute! Just think of the possibilities!" heh heh
Veronica M: You have a very unusual sound are there any notable influences you would like to share? (I hear Gypsy Music, Theatrical Goth, Pirate Ballads, Chanteys, Rockabilly (ala Reverend Horton Heat) and even Hellbilly music.)
V: When I first started writing songs and playing guitar I was listening to a lot of Tom Waits and a then unsigned local NYC band called Rasputina (3 girls who sing and play cellos while wearing turn of the century underwear). Both of those bands had a big impact on my style. I liked the idea of making music that was new but had an old world feeling about it.
Veronica M: Do you consider yourself a story teller?
V: Absolutely! You'll have a very hard time finding one of my songs that DOESN'T have a story of some sort in it.
Veronica M: What has inspired you to perform music?
V: I get the "what inspires you" question a lot and I have to tell you that I'm inspired by mediocrity and crap! Seriously! When I see something that's really amazing (Like Pan's Labyrinth) I tend to get overwhelmed. I can't imagine myself making something that amazing and I wonder if there's any point in trying. But when I see CRAP on TV or hear CRAP on the radio or see CRAP in a magazine, I get fired up. I think to myself... "I can probably do better than that... I sure as hell can't do worse!" and it inspires me to get off of my ass and get to work!
Veronica M: What are you currently listening to? Any favorite bands?
V: I've been listening to a lot of gypsy punk bands or dark cabaret, I'm not really sure what people call this stuff. Dresden Dolls, Circus Contraption, Creature Feature, stuff like that. I also get a lot of demos and CDs from people when I'm on the road. Eventually when I get back I listen to them. Some turn out to be pretty good. I think a lot of people give them to me thinking I'm going to get them signed or make them famous or something. If that's the case they're shit out of luck because I DON'T RUN A RECORD LABEL!!! heh heh.. but I do listen to the discs.
Veronica M: Any thoughts on present bands?
V: No, not really, I'm just glad that there seems to be more variety in the Goth scene these days. Five years ago it was nothing but a million bands playing that "oonce oonce" techno crap. What EBM has in common with Goth is completely beyond me! I prefer a mix of things. Some old school, some electronica, some cabaret, in short, some variety!
Veronica M: How do you think our current state of politics in the States is affecting music, art and free speech?
V: Personally, I think we're all in big trouble. One day I woke up and realized that I was afraid to say certain things in public or on the telephone. I thought this was the United States of America not The Soviet Union! We should never be afraid to be arrested for our thoughts... but now with the way things are, they can cart you off as a terrorist, through you in jail with no trail and not even tell you what you may have done wrong. It's scary, really. I'd like to say that in turn you will be seeing a lot of hatred in music (like when punk was born) but sadly I believe the opposite is true. I think the mainstream will choose music that is more and more "safe" which will mean more and more LAME and devoid of soul and meaning. I hate to say it, but I think things will get worse before they get better.
Veronica M: What is your favorite instrument?
V: My mouth.
(I am not gonna go there...)
Veronica M: Is there an album you cannot live without?
V: Nope, but there are some that make my very very happy! Like Bjork's Vesperine and Homogenic records and Duran Duran's first record. Ohh, also So Red The Rose by Arcadia (made up of members of Duran Duran) and just about anything by Morrissey!
Veronica M:What was your experience recording “Ooky Spooky”?
V: Well, I wrote a lot of those songs years ago and have been playing them in my live shows for a long time. I started recording Ooky a year or two ago.. finally while trying to juggle lots of other projects. After 3 songs though, I stopped, threw everything out and started over. I just wasn't happy with the direction we were going in. The songs were good but I felt they sounded rushed. So I started over. From that point on it was very systematic. I'd record a demo for a song, the drummer would come in and lay down drums. A week
or so later the string players would come in and record violin and cello. Then I would come back in and record the guitars and final vocals... and so it went on and on for months. Then when all was recorded we started the LONG process of mixing. I have to say though that after listening to a set of songs several million times, I never want to hear them again. Usually when one of my CDs come out, I don't listen to it again for a couple of years. This CD is different. I love it and I still listen to it once a day just for fun!
Veronica M: How is this album different from previous Voltaire albums?
V: Well, other than the fact that I wasn't sick of the songs after mixing them for 6 months... heh heh... it's definitely the funniest record I've ever made. All of my other CDs are a mix of the funny and the serious... this one is different. It's a non stop party of funny songs about zombies and other dead shit! It's really a party record if there ever was one!
Veronica M: What is the most crucial part to getting your music heard?
V: Making it. Seriously.. most people don't even get that far. Whether it's being a musician or a writer or a film maker, it's easy to talk about doing something. It's a whole other thing to actually sit the hell down and get it done. But after having finished it, I guess the trick is to play lots of live shows so that people can be introduced to the music. If you are a local band, you REALLY have to get out of your home state! It makes all of the difference in the world! But at the end of the day, the best way to get your music listened to is to make great music that people will want to hear. Yeah, I know, it sounds really simple. But it isn't of course. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself.
Veronica M: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
V: I'll be fifty! Holy Shit! heh heh...
I'm not sure but I hope by then I will have saved some money because it would REALLY suck to not have bought a home or an apartment or something by then! Work-wise though, I have my heart set on making a feature film next year so I hope that 10 years from now I will have made a couple more movies.
When you write lyrics do you use pen and paper or is it easier to type out your ideas?
V: Neither actually, I just sing the song over and over until I simply remember the lyrics.
Veronica M: Growing up what genre of comics did you read?
V: Ironically, I never read any! When I made my first comic book series (Chi-Chian) in 1997, I did so mainly because I knew i'd never find the 180 million dollars I would have needed to tell her story as an animated film. But I had never read a comic book at that point. I read Famous Monsters of Filmland instead, when I was a kid. And Fangoria and Starlog and Cinemagic. I was mostly into films, not so much the comics.
