Doyle-Biersack-IdolWorship

Idol Worship: Black Veil Brides’ Andy Biersack & Misfits’ Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein

Black Veil Brides frontman ANDY BIERSACK lives and dies by celebrated punk band Misfits. It just so happened that guitarist DOYLE WOLFGANG VON FRANKENSTEIN had released his latest solo album, Abominator, which features former ’fits drummer Dr. Chud, vocalist Alex Story (Cancerslug) and bassist Left Hand Graham, released on the guitarist’s Monsterman label. We were able to get the rock god of lore together with the apt pupil of today to discuss everything from the Misfits’ place in Biersack’s headspace (and punk/metal history) to how technique is overrated to whether or not Doyle would ever be in the same room with founding Misfits members Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only. We can safely say it was a discussion both parties were stoked to be having.

ANDY BIERSACK: I saw you at NAMM briefly for a minute, but I wanted to say hello and thank you for stopping to take a picture. That was very cool of you.
DOYLE: Okay, man. It’s nice to meet you.

I’m going to ask you some questions spanning my fandom of your career with Misfits, as well as your new stuff. As a vocalist, I really enjoy your new singer on the new record, and I wanted to know a bit more about how you met Alex Story and how you came to want his voice in your band.
He’s great, man. I put out a bunch of ads for singers for [my previous band] Gorgeous Frankenstein. His try-out CD was the only one I listened to the whole fucking thing from start to finish. Every other one I would listen to and as soon as the singer would start, I would take it out and throw it in the garbage. There were some people that I found out later were famous and it’s like, “Oh shit, I threw that dude’s shit in the garbage.” But yeah, his songs were greatly written. The recordings were horrible, you know. Some of them were so bad I was just like, “Man, I don’t know if this dude could do it,” so I didn’t use them, and then I started writing again. I wrote like 12–I call them musical compositions. They are written out and recorded in song format, because once I write them I can’t do a melody over it; for some reason, all I see is my hand playing it. I’m saying to myself, “Who do I know that writes great, that I love the way they write,” and the first guy who popped into my head was Alex Story. I immediately called him and he was, ironically enough, walking into a Danzig concert in Houston. So I’m like, “You wanna write with me?” and he was like, “Fuck yeah, I want to write with you! Send me everything.” I sent him three songs; I didn’t want to overwhelm him and just get quantity; I wanted quality, because he is fucking great. One of the songs he did was “Mark Of The Beast.” He sent it back in two days just like it is on the record, and I was like, “That is exactly what the fuck I wanted, and I couldn’t do it.” I just write the shit out. I write a note to him, you know, “the intro, don’t sing; this is the riff, don’t sing, blah blah blah,” just so he doesn’t have to figure it out, and I swear he will send them back in two days, just like you hear it on the record.

In terms of process then, I would imagine this is different than previous stuff or even Misfits stuff, where you are writing separately from one another—or are you writing together, at any point?
We write through U.S. mail. I don’t know how to send songs through email yet. [Laughs]. He yells at me, but I’ll figure it out someday. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. We’re never in the same room and that’s it. I write all the drums; I write all that shit and he does the rest.

And you hadn’t worked with Chud since the Misfits then or am I incorrect? Did you guys work together on Gorgeous Frankenstein this record or is this the first time you’ve worked together again?
We did a little, like, five-show tour with Danzig. We opened up for Danzig, and I had Alex and Left Hand Graham, and we played five shows. I was living out here in LA and I went back home, because I needed to see my children, and I wasn’t allowed to see them and a bunch of horseshit. He only lives 20 minutes from where I live now in Jersey and I was like, “Hey, man, you want to be in the band? It’s a lot of double bass [drums], and if you can’t play it, we’ll just throw it in the garbage and we won’t use it.” He had never played double bass. As soon as he tried it, he could do it. I was like, “Why didn’t you ever try it?” And he was like, “I don’t know.” Are you fucking retarded? That’s the first thing I would have tried. [Laughs.]

That’s actually crazy because listening to the record, I could hear that. It’s definitely a different kind of drumming style than any of the Misfits records he did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah and he’s a real hard worker, and we recorded it ourselves. Once we started writing, me and Alex wrote for, like, two or three years straight. We wrote 40 songs, and we’ve already finished a second record. We’ve got 13 songs on it; we just gotta mix it. We bought all this shit and recorded it ourselves. I did the bass and guitar, Chud recorded the drums, and Alex recorded the vocals. Then we started our own record label called Monsterman.

I saw you at NAMM and you were in your full gear. In my band, I wear makeup, and some of the theatricalities are heavily influenced by you guys and what you’ve done in your solo career. Does it ever get tedious for you to put on all the warpaint and everything and be the monster every time you go out there?
Being the monster is easy: Once I finish the eyes, my whole personality just switches to the other one. [Laughs.] The only time it’s a problem is if they don’t give me enough time to get to the show and get to do it. Then I’m in a panic.

Have you ever had any shows where you couldn’t do the whole thing and you had to wing it?
Once I got [to a show] late because there was a time difference. My tour manager didn’t tell me there was a time zone change. We were an hour late, and I had to go on without it. I was so pissed and it was a real horror show, because I didn’t get any water that day, and if you don’t have any water, that’s your gas—you die. You get dehydrated. >>>

I think the whole appeal of what you were doing in Misfits was that I was always attracted to the darker stuff and the horror-movie aspect and theatricality. In terms of a live show, do you place a lot of importance on the surroundings, or is it mainly just the act of going onstage and being the entertainer? Do you put a lot of stock still into the accoutrements of the stage?
Once we get some capital gain, we’ll have a much better show. I’m sure we’ll buy a bunch of stuff—fire and bombs and a bunch of shit like that. But as far as I’m concerned, I tell almost everybody, you don’t have to be a fucking virtuoso or shredder. Don’t waste your life learning all that shit. Write great songs. I don’t do fucking chords, and the only songs I know are the ones I play. I know nothing else, and I was fortunate enough to work with great songwriters and play great songs. You can be the shittiest musician in the world; if you play a great song, it’s a fucking great song. That’s all there is to it.

Absolutely. I guess if you aren’t into playing other music, what would your influence be musically, in terms of a distinctive style? Was there anybody that made you want to pick up a guitar in the first place?
The style that I’m pretty much styled after is Johnny Ramone. He plays two chords; I play two chords. [Laughs.] It’s all downstrokes with the Misfits and then later on with the Doyle stuff, for some strange reason the way I play is that Misfits style.

On the Misfits record Famous Monsters, your guitar and the tone of your guitar became much more pronounced and much more of an element in the songs. I don’t know if that is accurate at all, but heading from American Psycho into Famous Monsters, it seemed like the largest element of the band. Certainly on the mix of Famous Monsters, your guitar is hugely prevalent and hugely important to just the sound of that record. I can definitely hear the progression moving forward. Was there any resistance in the songwriting to go heavier, or to go more guitar-driven with the later Misfits stuff?
Um, no, man. I just think we did what we did. You know, we all kind of wrote together on that shit, you know, so, uh, I don’t know. I mean once we started doing Earth A.D. we kind of changed the whole style of the band and got more metal, you know?

Do you ever see any sort of situation where you would tour with, the Michale Graves camp?
Like, separate, my band and his band separate?

Yes.
Sure. I don’t care who the fuck I play with. Well, I would like to play with you guys. I would like to play with Slipknot and Rob Zombie and fucking Slayer. I want to play good shows, man.

A lot of artists have hang-ups about playing with previous band members. One thing is you joining up with Danzig. I saw you guys play last year, and I saw you at the Golden Gods, as well. You have always given the fans a great show and an opportunity to old songs played live, as well as the new stuff. I just wanted to say thank you for that. As a fan for my entire life, I really appreciate that you give fans that opportunity in a live setting.
Well, it’s all for them, man; you gotta give them what they want. I’m the only one that’s gonna get the original lineup back together, so I think I’m going to work on that, and hopefully I can pull the two bulls together and get them to fucking stop.

You think that could happen? Do you think you could get Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only back together?
You know what? I’ve just decided this week that I am going to make an attempt, and I wanna do it. I’ll put what I’m doing right on the fucking side. I’ll go do it tomorrow.

That’s awesome. Well, I’m going to ask you, then, is there any validity to the rumors that have been around for years and years in the Misfits fiend world that you guys made an attempt to reach out to Glenn early on in the resurrection period?
We had a meeting with Glenn in 2002. Me and Jerry [Only] flew out and we were going to do it: We were going to write a record and everybody agreed that nobody leaks it, and the very next day somebody leaked it. I didn’t leak it. I wouldn’t do it. It didn’t happen and it’s a shame. It’s stupid that we’re not doing it. It would be huge, and I just want to get out there and fucking break shit.

Well, that’s great. Anything you are plugging or anything new that’s going on?
Well, we’re looking to tour. We want to open for somebody, rather than just go out and headline and play a smaller show. Just trying to get on festivals and do our thing.

As a kid if I could have said that I would have the opportunity to talk to you on the phone about your band’s music, I don’t think that the little version of me would have believed it. Thank you so much for doing this. It means the world to me, and I’m definitely a fan for life.
Anytime, man. Any time that you want to do it, just fucking contact me and we’ll do it. alt