WEDNESDAY 13: An Acoustic Date With Australia (2017)

By ANDREW McKAYSMITH
JOSEPH Poole AKA Wednesday 13 is the insanely talented front-man of half a dozen bands. Ranging from his own eponymously named comic book/ horror themed glam-punk outfit and of course, Murderdolls, who famously count former Slipknot drummer and one-time Lars Ulrich replacement, Joey Jordison, as a member. Poole’s recorded output is so prolific that it is rare to find a year between 1994 and 2017 where he has not produced significant content.
Sounding just a little fatigued, Wednesday (as he shall be known from here) was still chipper at the idea of a few hours talking to foreign media types.
“I’m on a weird schedule. I just got back from an east coast tour and I’m on the west coast now. I’ve been getting up early to go do my private label stuff. I get up early after a little bit of sleep and now I got up just in time to do the interviews and talk for the next two hours.”
HM had listened to Wednesday’s discussion with Jamey Jasta on the Jasta Show Podcast recently. Jamey is an adept interviewer and the discussion covered a lot of ground, from the tragic 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that Wednesday experienced first-hand to the GI Joe line of toys and action figures.
“That was a fun time with Jamey and we thought about doing that for a while. We talked about everything and just bounced from subject to subject. It was a cool thing. We brought up a lot of stuff, we got to talk about my earthquake experience in Japan, G.I. Joes and whatever! So it was a lot of fun.”
Having been a fan of GI Joes and Action Man figures in my own youth, I always thought the bad guys had the coolest outfits, weapons and machines. Wednesday must also prefer the bad guys surely?
“I am definitely a Cobra guy. That is my team! I based my look after Cobra, a lot of those guys.”
So there you have it: GI Joe’s mortal enemy, the villainous Cobra, is the inspiration for Wednesday’s corpse-paint after-dark aesthetic!
As Wednesday is a very visual artist, HM ponders how important the artwork and associated image is to the music the man creates.
“First and foremost, the music is the most important. That is was what we strive to do and when it comes to doing the shows (the image) is sort of like putting icing on the cake. I’m always thinking about a visual thing to accent the show or bring the song to life. Making the music is one thing, making the visual side of it and all that is a whole other thing. It goes hand in hand in the end and over the years I have taken both sides a little more seriously.”
With any artist there is always that subject you feel a little coy about broaching, Wednesday is no different. Slipknot are a very popular band and I’m assuming there is a lot of crossover from fans. Does he ever get sick of questions about Joey Jordison and Murderdolls?
“Oh yeah that is a pretty common question that I get every day around shows and during interviews.”
Gulp…
“But everyone knows me from Murderdolls. That is where they heard of me first and it’s a question I never go ‘Oh God why do you keep asking that?’. My answer for the question usually is what’s up with Murderdolls, and there really is nothing going on with Murderdolls. We have sort of stopped since our last show in 2011. That question always comes up, ‘if you guys are going to do it again’ and I always say ‘never say never’! I didn’t think that the last record would happen and it happened eight years after the first went out. It’s approaching about eight years again. When I heard through the news and stuff online that Joey has been interested in doing something again, that is really interesting and looks like something we can do in the future. But it won’t be anything this year or it won’t be anything until probably late next year if we can even do anything at all. So, that is exciting to hear that he is into doing it, so we will see what happens.”
Something perhaps as unlikely as a new Murderdolls album was a Trump POTUS, yet here we are…
“I don’t like to talk politics but I think anybody with a brain and morality knows that guy is a clown. If anyone thinks he gives a shit about them more than anyone else they’re just fooled by the whole thing. It’s all a big joke, I can’t believe it came down to (Hillary Clinton and Trump) being our two choices and we had to go with that. There is an agenda to it and we’ll see what happens. But that guy does not represent me or what I feel about America. He doesn’t represent me but he is what we voted in.”
In a career that contains almost 30 official releases, Wednesday is a career musician and performer with few peers. How has he found dealing with record labels?
“This whole music business has been a rollercoaster ride. Things are going good, we just announced the new album (Condolences) release date and our new label (Nuclear Blast) today. It’s looking like it’s going to be a big and busy year for us. I kind of went this whole DIY self-releasing thing for past three (Wednesday 13) releases. When it came time for the new album I want to reach out to a bigger audience and Nuclear Blast was my number one choice. Based on a lot of the bands they have on their roster and a lot of those same people I have actually worked with before on my past releases with Roadrunner. I am excited to be working with all those people again. I can’t think of a better label than Nuclear Blast.”
Finally, as is always the case when talking to distinguished musicians and artists from abroad, HM asks Wednesday for an opinion on touring Australia and for a comment on his experiences while visiting our island home.
“Australia is definitely one of my favourite places to tour, if not my favourite place to tour period. I’ve been fortunate to go there for so many years and tour doing Big Day Out festivals, Soundwave, all my solo shows, and bringing this (2017 tour) back acoustically. I’ve been really fortunate to do all this stuff and Australia has been one of my favourite places and the fans there are just a whole other breed of animal! So, I thank them for that. “
Catch Wednesday 13 at the following venues on the acoustically themed Australian tour:
March 23: The Brightside, Brisbane
March 24: Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
March 25: Corner Hotel, Melbourne
The new album Condolences, is scheduled to be released 2nd June 2017.