Interview:1990 Scott David interviews Marilyn Manson

Scott David interviews Marilyn Manson
The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat
Interview with Marilyn Manson
Date	Early 1990
Source	The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat
Interviewer	Scott David

Scott David interviews Marilyn Manson is Marilyn Manson's first radio interview, with DJ Scott David. It is also the first track of the B-side of the Spooky Kids cassette The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat.

Transcript

Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids! How you doin' Marilyn?

Hey man, I'm spooky as always. Brand new. How about you?

Hey doin' pretty good. How did Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids originate?

Well, Scott David, the idea of Marilyn Manson has been brewing in my head, one form or another, since I was about 12 years old at a Christian high school in Canton, Ohio. Then I moved and grew up and changed my shoe size and stuff, and then I met this guy named Daisy Berkowitz who was kinda rippin' on the guitar, and we had two different styles, two different tastes of music. He liked more ethereal kind of surreal soundscapes of guitar noise, and I was more into more distinct, hard, definitive sounds and whatnot. But we both had the same ideas as far as art-wise... What we wanted to do with the band. So we got together, we made this music and it's just what we wanted. And as far as the rest of the band, they were friends of mine, Olivia Newton Bundy and Zsa Zsa Speck, and they were interested in what we were doing so we brought them in. That's how it happened.

How did the name Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids come about?

Well that's kind of obvious 'cause Marilyn Manson is on my birth certificate and all, but as far as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, this is the illegitimate offspring of the world's most, infamous, nefarious and in our eyes, brilliant cult-psycho-weirdo-wackos in the world. Specifically America of course, 'cause we're an American band.

Well personally you don't really look like a Marilyn, but I guess if your mother named you that, what can I say? How would you describe your music?

Well, you know people hate to describe their music. What we have come to call it is "beat up your mom" music. As far as describing what it sounds like, I guess you'd have to listen. I think it's pretty much like, "60's meets 90's-psychedelic-industrial-brain tumor disorder-thrash" sort of thing. It's kind of groovy, you know, groovy. I guess the word "groovy" will work.

Well I guess that's pretty specific. Is there a concept or a message you are trying to convey in your music?

Well, Scott David, as far as a concept goes, yeah there is a definite concept, stuff like that. I put out a lot of ideas in the lyrics and the way we do our things. There's a lot of ideas floatin' around and people who know what it is. People will pick it up if they know what to pick up. As far as coming around, saying anything, I don't think that I could, especially on this radio station.

Well thank you for that.

Sorry.

How do you approach writing new material?

I've got a lot of words going around in my head. It's like a "shoot up a dictionary and kinda puked it all over my brain" kinda thing, and Daisy over here is pretty much the same way with his music. So we get together with the guitar and it's kinda tribal with the percussion, and we just work with it. It's really tribal. We're a tribe.

Sounds like an encyclopedia of insanity.

Yeah, that's kinda cute, Scott.

What song did you have the most fun with?

Well Scott, I could sing it for you really quick, and this is to all the girls I ever loved before: "I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country and I fed him on gingerbread. Along came a choo-choo, knocked my monkey coo-coo and now my monkey's dead." That's my favorite.

No wonder why you never had any girls that loved you after that rendition. Anyway, what artists were influential to you in the past?

When I was growing up, I don't know... I can't say that I ever grew up. I'm kind of like an evil little Peter Pan who will never get older. As far as bands that I listened to, I liked Innagodadavita, Black Sabbath and Jim Morrison, who was one of my all time idols. A couple years ago when I got "Papa Manson," that's Chuck, his own album, it was a great influence on me. Very innovative dude. I hate that word, "dude," but I'll say it again. Innovative dude, and he influenced what we are doing right now to a certain extent.

And a number one best-selling album, may I add.

Yeah, all the time. Manson is on Billboard still.

Who do you find exciting presently?

Well Scott, not to offend you or your listeners. The Wax Trax! scene and network is really cool, and there is a lot of bands that are breaking some new patterns here, but industrial music in general is starting to get hemoginized. I'm really impressed with the new Nittzer Ebb album because they've done some really different stuff this time around and the revolting [...]