After the dissolution of the group, he formed his record label with Aaron Bieler and over the last decade has worked with such artists as Will Haven and Soil. Owl Stretching sees Bieler experimenting with various different genres, and most recently he released two brand new tracks online, All at Once and Satellite.

Jason Bieler discusses running a company and the inspiration behind Owl Stretching.

Having fronted Bieler Bros. Records over the last decade, how has your work as a businessman prepared you for your return to performing with Owl Stretching?

“The great thing about it is having built all these systems for developing bands has allowed me the freedom to do whatever I want with Owl Stretching and not have any concerns about the business side at all. So really the exact opposite of what it used to be, right now I just make the music I want and whatever happens happens… really the most fun I have ever had.”

Is the name of your new project a reference to the classic Monty Python episode Owl Stretching Time?

“Absolutely, it was actually a name we were going to use a few years back, but the reference is all about Python, kinda of a second religion around our house!”

You are most known to metal fans for your work with Saigon Kick, yet your new music bares little resemblance to your earlier band. For those fans who are unsure whether or not they will like your new sound, what would you say to convince them?

“I really am not worried about convincing anyone of anything. Not from an ego standpoint, and of course I hope people like it. I really am doing this to make music that I like and that is it. If three people like it or a million, it is all good. I love the Saigon fans and the support has been amazing so far, so it really is just an added bonus.”
Having produced several artists, do you feel that you have more control over every aspect of your music than you did when you were signed to a major label and do you feel you have enough resources to bring Owl Stretching to the masses?

“I guess I have more control for sure, but really it is just about executing whatever twisted vision I am having at that time, and in hindsight a lot of what Saigon Kick did wasn’t suited for a major label system anyway. As for the masses, I am not concerned with that really. I have been very fortunate, toured the world multiple times, had a few hits, lived the dream, etc. At this point it is all icing on an already amazing cake.”

Are you still in contact with your former Saigon Kick bandmates and have you invited any of them to collaborate with you on your new project?

“Yes we are in contact; every few months there is a new offer or idea for a reunion show or two. I am open to anything at this point, I am really just distilling this down to what it was about when I started… making music and having fun. So far… so good!”

You once described Own Stretching as “a constantly morphing project with different guests that I use as a vehicle to release new music.” This sounds similar to what Maynard James Keenan has been doing of late with Puscifer, refusing to settle in one genre by bringing in various different artists. Would you say you have always tried to avoid being formulaic and easy to categorise?

“I wouldn’t say I have consciously tried to do it, I just love all types of music, so it is really natural for me to mess around in different styles. It would be really difficult to do one thing for me. I dig Deadmau5, Barry Manilow, Beatles, SikTh, Queen, Tom Waits, Jane’s Addiction. So Owl Stretching will probably live somewhere in those cracks of influences.”

Are you concerned that you will always be referred to as the “former singer of Saigon Kick” and have you found this label restrictive when you have tried to pursue other projects?

“Doesn’t bother me at all. We accomplished a lot of great stuff, did and saw things most people only dream of. Any perception or problem is really on someone else’s side and how can I waste time worrying about that?”

What is the current status of Owl Stretching; are you the only permanent member and would you describe this as a solo project? Is there an album in the works and what kind of distribution are you hoping to achieve with this music?

“I guess I am the only permanent member, but Ricky Sanders has played drums on a few tracks so far, including All At Once and Satellite, Chris McLernon played bass on the revamp of The Lizard. Hopefully, the list of collaborators will continue to grow, should be a lot of fun! Right now the plan is to release new music every four-six weeks. Other than that, who knows?”

Will you still have time to produce other artists if you are preoccupied with your own material and do you still play an active role in the running of Bieler Bros. Records?

“I still co-run the label; it is something I am very passionate about and will continue to produce things I feel I need to be a part of and that I am humbled by. Really love teaming up on music creation with people whose talent I am in awe of.”

For more information on Owl Stretching:
- Official Site
- Bieler. Bros Records

The origin of Wayne’s World can be traced back to the mid-1970s, where Myers would often entertain family and friends at parties with his impersonation of a “metal head.” Born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto in Canada, Myers had a taste for comedy and performing from an early age and his rocker alter ego, inspired by teenage metal fans he saw around his home town, became his signature character. His talents were developed upon leaving high school when he was accepted into the Second City, a theatre company based in both Toronto and Chicago that specialised in improv and comedy. During his time there he was taught by Del Close, who had first joined the company in the late 1960s and, during the course of his career, would inspire such future stars as John Belushi, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, all of whom would later become regular cast members of Saturday Night Live. Following several minor appearances on television, including a stint alongside children’s presenter Timmy Mallett on the popular British show Wide Awake Club, Myers landed his first break as a comedian when he was hired as part of the Canadian variety show It’s Only Rock & Roll.

Created by former Saturday Night Live writer-turned-producer Joe Bodolai, who sadly took his own life in 2011, the show gave Myers the first opportunity to introduce the character of Wayne Campbell to a wide audience. Unlike the Saturday Night Live skits, Wayne’s role on It’s Only Rock & Roll included being a guest on a fake chat show, in which he explained how handshakes have involved over the years, as well as hosting his own segment entitled Wayne’s Power Minute. While some characteristics of Wayne would be developed during this time, he remained mostly one-dimensional until Myers was invited to join Saturday Night Live, where he soon formed a close partnership with another young comedian, Dana Carvey. During his audition for the show in the mid-1980s, Carvey had performed several impersonations, one of which was of his older brother, Brad. A scientific genius from a young age, Brad Carvey would later gain acclaim as an engineer, but it would be his soft-spoken voice and nervous mannerisms that Dana Carvey would use as inspiration for a new character, which he soon developed into Garth Algar, Wayne’s best friend and co-host of their own cable TV show, Wayne’s World.

Wayne and Garth became an instant success with viewers of Saturday Night Live, not only providing humorous sketches but also tapping into the alternative rock scene. One of the more popular sketches saw Aerosmith making a guest appearance on their show, in which they joined Wayne and Garth for a rendition of the theme tune from Wayne’s World. Another celebrity to cameo in this episode was Tom Hanks, who by this point had enjoyed tremendous success at the box office with the hit comedies Big and Turner and Hooch. Hanks’ role on Wayne’s World was as Garth’s cousin, Barry, who works as a roadie for Aerosmith and was responsible for bringing them onto the show. Another sketch saw a Top Ten Babes of All Time ending with Myers kissing Madonna during a spoof of her controversial promo video Justify My Love. In a later episode, Garth criticised the latest Nirvana video, Heart-Shaped Box; “What is that all about? A guy gets crucified, a kid wears a KKK outfit, some fat lady has organs painted on the outside of her body and Kurt Cobain sings that he wants to eat her cancer when it turns black. Ohh, that is really pleasant!”

A decade earlier, Saturday Night Live had made the successful leap into feature films when it adapted one of its sketches, The Blues Brothers, for the big screen. Starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and featuring cameos from James Brown and Ray Charles, the movie became an unexpected success and helped to launch the careers of its two stars. While Wayne’s World was merely based around a public access cable show, its potential to appeal to the alternative rock scene in much the same way as Bill and Ted was hard to resist. And so producer Lorne Michaels and Mike Myers sat down to discuss the best way to bring the skit to movie audiences. To assist with the screenplay, Michaels turned to husband-and-wife team Bonnie and Terry Turner, staff writers from Saturday Night Live, and the group began to brainstorm, bouncing ideas back and forth until the basic concept for a Wayne’s World movie took shape. Like most adaptations of TV shows, the characters would have to leave the confines of their familiar environment, in this case when their show is purchased by a sleazy producer. At the same time, Wayne becomes infatuated with the singer of a local rock group and soon a love triangle forms, with both men fighting for her affection.

When it came to choose a director Michaels turned to an old friend. Penelope Spheeris had already shown her passion for music through her acclaimed documentaries The Decline of Western Civilization, which explored the Los Angeles punk scene of the early 1980s, and its sequel The Metal Years, a journey through Hollywood’s hair metal scene. While a behavioral psychology student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Spheeris turned to directing with two short films, one of which, I Don’t Know, first displayed her interest in alternative lifestyles by documenting a relationship between a lesbian and a drag queen. This continued through her early feature films, Suburbia, The Boys Next Door (featuring a pre-fame Charlie Sheen) and Hollywood Vice Squad. Due to her experience with both actors and musicians, Michaels felt that she would be the perfect choice to direct Wayne’s World. Having already interviewed Alice Cooper for The Metal Years, Spheeris was able to bring in the rock legend for a cameo, including a performance of his new single Feed My Frankenstein.

With Myers and Carvey heading the cast, support came from both established stars and newcomers. Having almost ruined a promising career when a video tape of him having sex with two women, one of them later revealed to be only sixteen-years-old, was leaked to the public in 1989, Rob Lowe was cast as unscrupulous television producer Benjamin Kane. Wayne’s World would help re-launch his career and would result in Myers casting him in supporting roles in the first two of his Austin Powers movies. Following modest success with daytime soap General Hospital, Tia Carrere landed the role of Cassandra, the singer of Crucial Taunt, a popular rock group on the local circuit whom Wayne falls instantly love with.

Support came from Ed O’Neill, best known as hapless shoe salesman Al Bundy in the hit sitcom Married With Children, Lara Flynn Boyle (Twin Peaks), Kurt Fuller (Ghostbusters II) and comedian Chris Farley, as well as a cameo by Robert Patrick, who reprised his role as the T-1000 from the action blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day, released the previous year. Saturday Night Live veteran Brian Doyle-Murray, whose younger brother Bill Murray had also been launched by the TV show, was cast as the owner of an arcade franchise who agrees to sponsor Wayne’s World in an effort to promote his own company. Colleen Camp, whose prior experience as a comedienne included playing gun-happy Sgt. Kathleen Kirkland in the Police Academy series, played his clueless wife. Following a career as Michael Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo played record executive Frankie Sharp, known in the music industry as Mr. Big. Following an appearance in Jackson’s 1988 hit Moonwalker, DiLeo was cast as Tuddy Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s gangster classic Goodfellas. He would return to the role of Frankie Sharp in Wayne’s World 2.

Despite having worked on television for several years, Wayne’s World would be Myers’ feature debut and his inexperience soon showed. He had no knowledge of where he was expected to stand during a scene, or how to check what time he was due to arrive on set, yet through the support of his co-stars he adapted to the new routine relatively quickly. Carvey, meanwhile, had already acted alongside screen icons Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in the 1986 comedy Tough Guys and so was prepared when it came to working on a film set. Due to a restricted budget and filming schedule, Spheeris did not have the luxury of multiple takes and so was forced to assess after only one or two attempts whether or not the performances of her actors were sufficient. The cast were allowed to improvise though, with one sequence, in which Wayne pulled his underwear between his cheeks and sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” proving especially memorable.

The most famous sequence of the movie, but one Myers was reluctant to film, saw Wayne, Garth and their crew singing along and head-banging to the Queen classic Bohemian Rhapsody while driving through the city. Due to several takes in an effort to get the scene perfect, Myers began to complain that his neck was starting to hurt, while Carvey was unable to remember the lyrics to the song and instead attempted to mime along. For days after the scene was shot, neither Myers or Carvey were able to move their necks properly and so were forced to continue filming while keeping their heads still. Despite this, the experience of making Wayne’s World remained a positive one for all involved.

But nobody knew exactly what to expect when they finally saw the finished movie. Myers was horrified; while he had envisioned Wayne’s World to be a fun and hilarious rock comedy, upon viewing the film he was crushed to discover that it simply wasn’t funny. Yet Michaels, who had more experience than his young actor, tried to convince him that he was being too cynical and that audiences would respond well. Critical opinion was divided, with some understanding the characters, while others dismissed it as dumb. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times awarded the movie three out of four stars, in which he said, “I walked into Wayne’s World expecting a lot of dumb, vulgar comedy, and I got plenty, but I also found what I didn’t expect: a genuinely amusing, sometimes even intelligent, undercurrent. Like the Bill and Ted movies, this one works on its intended level and then sneaks in excursions to some other levels, too.” Spin’s review of the film was also positive; “Wayne’s World rules because, like public access itself, it shadow-boxes with the very category of the real, capturing the strange realities that emerge when television is placed in the hands of people whose only relationship with media is consumption.” David Denby of New York Magazine was a little more critical with his opinions; “Everything gets repeated about thirty times, and no one changes or develops. What can you do with skit characters in a feature film? Myers and Bonnie and Terry Turner, who wrote the screenplay, decided to just stretch things out. The plot they’ve concocted is halfhearted.”

It would not only be the movie itself that would perform above everyone’s expectations, however, as the accompanying soundtrack would produce three hit singles; Bohemian Rhapsody, Carrere’s cover of the Sweet classic Ballroom Blitz and Feed My Frankenstein. Having already reached number one in the UK charts when it was first released in 1975, the use of Bohemian Rhapsody in the movie would not only spark off a host of imitators (including the 1993 spoof Loaded Weapon 1) but also took Queen back to the top of the charters seventeen years later. Another track not included on the album but featured in the movie was Ugly Kid Joe‘s Everything About You, which entered the Top Ten in both the United States and Great Britain. While the TV sketches had been developed at a time when hair metal was at its peak, by the time of the movie’s release grunge had become the dominant genre, yet the sountrack album would boast such ’80s bands as Cinderella and BulletBoys, while other artists to feature were Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Much like Bill and Ted before them, Wayne’s World‘s influence was so strong on popular culture that many of its phrases became everyday language for fans, such as “schwing!” when acknowledging a sexy girl and using “not!” at the end of a sentence to contradict the previous statement. The success of the movie guaranteed a sequel, and the following year Paramount released Wayne’s World 2, which saw Myers, Carvey and Carrere reprising their roles, while Christopher Walken would replace Lowe as the antagonist. In the second film the duo attempt to host their own festival, dubbed Waynestock, which ends with a performance from Aerosmith. Following an appearance in character at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, Carvey has since expressed interest in making a Wayne’s World 3, yet Myers, who has also enjoyed success with the Austin Powers and Shrek movies, dismissed the idea. Regardless, two decades on from the release of Wayne’s World and the characters remain among Myers’ most successful creations and continue to entertain generations of metal heads and movie fans.

Yet he soon managed to make an impressive comeback with the World War II drama Valkyrie and a scene-stealing turn as studio mogul Les Grossman in Ben Stiller’s outrageous comedy Tropic Thunder. Following the hit sequel Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Cruise is set to appear as fictional rock star Stacee Jaxx in an adaptation of the musical Rock of Ages, directed by Adam Shankman (Hairspray). In the movie and its accompanying soundtrack, Cruise sings covers of Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me and Guns N’ Roses‘ Paradise City, both released in 1987.

In a new interview with Playboy, Cruise discusses working with a vocal coach; “He was an opera singer who taught me how to control my voice. It’s like learning a new sport or a skill for a character. I had to find out how to move air through the vocal cords and where to place it in my head, in the chest. It’s something you have to do every day to strengthen your voice.” Cruised also talked about performed the Def Leppard classic in front of the band; “I was down in Miami, recording different songs, and Adam called and said, “Def Leppard’s coming by the set.” I said, “Man, that’s cool.” Then I paused. “Wait, I’m rehearsing their song tomorrow.” And he’s like, “Yeah!” So we started right in the deep end, and that was the first scene I shot in the movie. It’s a great song, and I grew up listening to them. They went to the back of the Bourbon Room, and I looked at my band and was like, “Hit it.” All the crew was watching them watching me.”

In his typical half-serious boasting, frontman Jack Black has commented on how their new album is superior to recent releases from the Foo Fighters, Jack White, Tom Waits and Gotye; “I do love (Jack White’s) Blunderbuss, I love the Foo, I love Tom Waits, his new record is incredible… and Goyte… but our album is better than all of those, and because we’re clowns, we don’t get that kind of love… In a hundred years’ time, no one will remember Gotye or the rest, but the shining beacon of The D – they’re going to start religions after us.”

Their eponymous debut album, produced by Michael Wagener, whose work included Alice Cooper, Stryper and Skid Row, achieved modest success when it was issued through Atlantic Records, propelled by the single What You Say, which gained regular airplay on metal shows throughout the year.

Owl Stretching is the brainchild of guitarist Jason Bieler, who says, “Saigon was always penalised for being way too diverse, at the time the industry couldn’t fit us in any of their nice little marketing compartments. So learning life lessons from that I have created an even more musically diverse endeavor.”

Bieler has released two tracks from his new project, entitled All at Once and Satellite, and can be streamed via the links below:
- All at Once
- Satellite

Opening track Heaven in the Backseat set the scene for what was to follow; over-produced and synth-heavy, yet catchy and with a subtle touch of sex and attitude. Singer Leigh Matty (read our 2010 interview here) soon found her way onto the walls of her teenage fans, as well as being the focal point of their music videos. Fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street will no doubt have a soft spot for Heaven in the Backseat, with both Matty and franchise boogeyman Freddy Krueger starring in the accompanying video. The next two songs on the album were also singles – the upbeat Don’t Break My Heart and the power ballad I Cry Myself to Sleep at Night, both of which also provided the band with modest hits. It is interesting how similar Heart‘s cover of Wild Child was to the original, although where they began their version with guitar, Romeo’s Daughter starts with keyboard. It certainly shows how much of an initial impact they had when they first emerged that such an established group as Heart would choose to include one of their songs on an album.

In some ways Hymn (Look Throught Golden Eyes) seems like an odd choice for the record, lacking the energy of most of the other songs, but the album picks up the pace once again with Velvet Tongue. Those who feel deterred by ’80s production and synthesizers will likely be unimpressed with many of the songs, but those who still have a soft spot for the likes of Transvision Vamp and Starship will no doubt be taken with the album’s charm and songs like Inside Out and I Like What I See. The final track on the album was Colour You a Smile, another power ballad that could possibly have landed them a fourth hit single, yet soon after the release of Heaven in the Backseat in 1989 they disappeared from the charts, re-emerging a few years later for the less successful Delectable. In 2008, to mark its twentieth anniversary, the album was remastered and reisssued through Rock Candy Records, with live versions of Heaven in the Backseat, Velvet Tongue and I Cry Myself to Sleep At Night as bonus tracks. In recent years, Romeo’s Daughter have once again been performing, although a new album has yet to surface. Hey have, however, recently released a live EP entitled Rapture, containing three of their best known songs.

A friend of his at Warner Bros., whom he had briefly dated and had inspired the Eels tracks Susan’s House and Beautiful Freak, had suggested the retreat, where he was to spend ten days without communicating in any way. Although E has never specified where it was that he had visited in the early weeks of 1998, author Tim Grierson hints that it was most likely the California Vipassana Center, who describe their therapeutic process as being “for the total eradication of mental impurities and the resultant highest happiness of full liberation.” Despite not being able to talk or write, E had been told a story by Sean Coleman, a close friend who he had collaborated with on a track called Mass, taken from E’s second solo album, 1993′s Broken Toy Shop. While some of his details would be inaccurate, describing Temple as a “serial killer,” E became fascinated with the tale and, against the rules of the retreat, broke away from the group and hid in a bathroom, where he wrote the lyrics for what would eventually become Souljacker part II.

When E returned home from his meditation, he had begun to develop the concept for an album which, unlike Electro-Shock Blues, would not be told from the first-person perspective and instead portrayed a host of outrageous characters. Soon afterwards, Eels (then consisting of E, long-time drummer Butch and new bassist Adam Siegel) had reconvened in a studio for rehearsals in preparation for their upcoming Electro-Shock Blues tour, and it was during these sessions that another track, Souljacker part I, would begin to develop. The song told the story of a young couple, Johnny and Mary, who were in fact brother and sister and indulged in their incestious love affair in their “trailer park of broken hearts.” Eventually, E decided to change the name from Mary to Sally in order to avoid confusion with another track, Mother Mary, which would surface several years later on their sixth album, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. Souljacker part I was first previewed during the Electro-Shock tour and recorded during the sessions for their next album, Daisies of the Galaxy, the following spring.

In September 1998, Eels appeared on the British music show Top of the Pops to perform their latest single, which had been released almost two weeks earlier. Introduced by then-popular TV personality Jayne Middlemiss, Eels performed a stripped-down rendition of Last Stop: This Town, with their host later describing their appearance as “absolutely fantastic.” Behind the scenes, E was introduced to a young musician called John Parish, whose work with PJ Harvey had brought him some minor acclaim. Parish was a fan of the band but, despite their joint publisher’s suggestion that they should work together, neither E nor Parish had any interest in collaborating at that time.

Almost six weeks later they crossed paths again in Boston, Massachusetts. When Parish finished his set with Harvey he made his way to a nearby venue called Bill’s Bar & Lounge, where Eels were about to take to the stage. Following the show the two spoke once again and, while no concrete plans were set, they agreed that they would work together at some point in the near future. It would be a year before plans were set in motion, by which point E had completed work on Daisies of the Galaxy and was preparing to release its first single, Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues. Parish received a CD through the mail that featured cuts of Souljacker part I and Mother Mary, with a request from E that he visit him in Los Angeles to discuss their long-overdue collaboration. Taking a rough mix of music he had been working on, Parish flew from Bristol, England, to Los Feliz in California, where he presented E with his instrumental track. When he returned the following morning, Parish was surprised to discover that E had already written lyrics for the track, now titled Dog Faced Boy.

E took inspiration from a girl he once knew, who had suffered from excessive body hair as a child and had been dubbed “gorilla girl” by her class mates, causing her to plead with her mother to shave her. Changing the protagonist to a boy, the song began with E writing, “Coming home from the school today, crying all along the way. Ain’t no way for a boy to be, begging ma to shave me please.” Impressed with the result, Parish returned home to England to work on new ideas, and in January 2001 he arrived back in Los Angeles with several more tracks, which would eventually become What is This Note?, That’s Not Really Funny and World of Shit. Following on from the relatively upbeat Daisies of the Galaxy, E found that his new creative spurt saw him exploring all manner of bizarre and unpleasant subjects, often taking inspiration from those around him. Bus Stop Boxer was in reference to a tale he had been told by a studio engineer he had worked with, who as a child was dropped off at random bus stops and ordered by his father to beat up whatever kid was nearby. While Souljacker part I explored incest another song, Jungle Telegraph, told of a man who, after murdering someone following a deal-gone-wrong, escapes from the city and takes refuge in the wild.

With Siegel having performed bass on Souljacker part I, which had been recorded almost a year earlier, E and Butch had surrounded themselves with a new group of musicians. While Parish would perform several different instruments, including a melodica and stylophone, bass would be handled by Koool G Murder, a Los Angeles-based hip hop DJ and guitarist who would co-write the song Fresh Feeling with E. Joe Gore, an alumnus of UCLA, leant his guitar skills to two tracks, What is This Note? and Bus Stop Boxer. Programming on six of the twelve songs that would make their way onto the album were handled by Ryan Boesch, whose work as an engineer and mixer with the likes of Lit and Foo Fighters would come into practice on several songs.

One of the more pleasant tracks on the album was Fresh Feeling, which featured a sample of Selective Memory, an orchestral number from Daisies of the Galaxy. Its inclusion would earn composer Jim Lang a credit, despite having not worked on the record. Lang’s association with E went back to almost a decade earlier, when he played the accordion and keyboard on 1992′s A Man Called E. As noted in the inlay of Souljacker, Fresh Feeling was not the first Eels song to feature a sample of one of their earlier compositions, as Efils’ God – taken from Electro-Shock Blues – contained elements of a track of E’s from the late 1980s called Dog’s Life. Twelve tracks would be selected for the final cut of Souljacker, commencing with Dog Faced Boy and concluding forty minutes later with What is This Note?, with only one song running over four minutes in length. When the label requested that he record a bonus track he suggested an additional four, to be included as a bonus disc on the special edition. The label agreed and the additional CD, Rotten World Blues, featured previously unreleased material, while the British edition replaced the track Rotten World Blues with Mr. E’s Beautiful Remix.

Souljacker part I was released through DreamWorks on September 10th, 2001, one day before terrorist attacks in New York changed the world forever. Among the B-sides featured on the two-part single was a cover of the Elvis Presley classic Can’t Help Falling in Love, which had provided reggae group UB40 with a number one hit eight years earlier. The promotional video, directed by acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders (perhaps best known for his 1987 classic Wings of Desire), introduced E’s new image; sporting a large, bushy beard and dark glasses. In an interview with LA Weekly the following year he explained some of the issues that his new facial hair caused in the post-9/11 climate; “After September 11, I got so much extra attention at the airport, and I got so tired of the cavity searches. But now it’s back to its full glory. I like life with the beard – it does change your life in some interesting, subtle ways, like when you go to the bank and the security guard flips the safety off of his gun.”

Reviews for Souljacker were mostly positive when it was released a few days later, with NME saying; “Souljacker’s songs rock harder than most of E’s nu-metal enemies. But what’s really terrifying is that E’s just warming up. The next album will be a killer – and probably feature one on backing vocals.” Drowned in Sound added; “This is by no means an essential album, if one could really exist. It is, however, a great addition to the Eels’ already strong back catalogue and an album you will surely come back to again and again whenever you forget the potency of a cocktail of childhood sweethearts, dog-faced boys and nasty guitars.”

In a new interview with Maxim, Ulrich – who allowed his Napster status to be mocked by actor Russell Brand in the rock ‘n’ roll comedy Get Him to the Greek – discusses his thoughts on the internet metal community; “I’m definitely guilty of poking sometimes. I’m Danish, and Danish people sometimes like to stick their finger in somebody else’s shoulder and push them a bit. I sometimes think that the metal community is just so fucking serious and up its own ass. Once in a while it needs a little poke, and I don’t mind being that guy. Nobody else seems to do it. Some­times I read, “Oh, Lars Ulrich, what an asshole,” or, “Lars Ulrich can’t play drums.” I laugh at all of that. People sit there and say these awful things in the chat forums. I think it’s really funny when someone sits there and says something that he’s typed with his dick, or some 12-year-old who hasn’t figured out how to jerk off yet is sitting there typing insults about somebody he’s never met. The whole thing’s hilarious.”

Through his Twitter updates, Ginger has been whetting the appetites of his fans, with several albums currently in the works, including Mutation and the ambitious 555%.

Ginger reveals what he has in store for fans over the coming months.

You have just completed the recording your new album, what can you reveal about it and what can your fans expect?

“Which one? Ha-ha. I just finished a triple album called 555%, I finished all backing tracks and my vocals for an album I’m making with Victoria Liedtke, that project is called Hey! Hello!, and I just got back from demoing another album called Mutation. I’m enjoying something of a creative surge that I’d be crazy not to ride for as long as I’m healthy enough to do it.”

On Twitter you recently said, “Album in the bag. Starting a new one in less than a week.” Can you elaborate on this comment?

“That was in reference to Hey! Hello!, which I recorded in April, then I started writing and demoing Mutation in May with members of Cardiacs, Napalm Death, Young Legionnaire and Hawk Eyes. It is an insane body of work which I can’t wait to unleash.”

There has been a lot of activity on the Wildhearts site and your Pledgemusic profile regarding the 555% triple album. Can you explain what the idea behind this is?

“It is a direct to fan campaign that allows the listener to invest in a new album, or not. It’s a great way of finding out if people actually want your new project or not. We had no intention of our campaign being as successful as it was. Once again the fans proved that we have the best bunch of supporters in the world.

I’d wanted to make a triple album for a very long time, but the sheer volume of the workload scared me off. Still, the idea stayed with me and the only way of exorcising this project from my mind was to just do it. Once the fans said ‘yes’ there was no turning back for me.”

The internet plays such an integral role in the music industry these days and it has allowed you to release new music as and when you please? Do you feel there have been negative repercussions for you as you have entered the digital age?

“I can’t see a single negative point in the way music is evolving. I’m discovering freedom as an artist that I’d only dreamed of before, and working digitally has so many advantages that only the most bull-headed of purists would complain at this stage. I still love my vinyl and I still like to use mixing boards in the studio and analogue stuff, but the digital age is something I appreciate and embrace totally.”

In 2010 you released a decade-spanning retrospective called 10, which was available as a free download. Was this an attempt to combat illegal file sharing and downloading or did you just want to give something back to your fans?

“I just wanted to share my music. It kind of burned us, as we had a commercially available version of 10 and a free download, both with entirely different tracks. I thought it would be funny to have two different sets of songs supporting the ‘best of’ cliché. Trouble was that a lot of people, and I suspect you are included, thought that both albums contained the same songs, so the joke kind of backfired.

In the business of moving forward and learning how best to survive in the current climate you have to make a few mistakes, and I think that was a small but healthy learning curve. And I’m all for making mistakes. I think it’s really important.”

How often do you Google yourself and do you try to monitor how you are portrayed by fans and the press online?

“I don’t Google myself. I can’t say that I ever have, although I saw my Wiki page once so I must have followed a link some time back or something. Someone asked me about Wiki recently and I told them that I’m too busy getting up to stuff to care what people think I’ve been up to. I honestly have no interest in gossip, so I don’t care if what’s being said about me is true or false, I’m just flattered that they’re talking about me.”

Out of all your songs, which would you say are among your most autobiographical and are there any you feel uncomfortable about performing because they touch a nerve?

“I’m honestly not the kind of person that can sit and talk about songs I’ve recorded. If you pulled one up specifically then I could tell you all about it, but for me the most important thing is always the collection of songs I’m currently working on. I like to stay in constant motion so I don’t have a lot of time to think about the past.”

It has been almost a year since you parted ways with Michael Monroe’s band, do you have any regrets?

“None at all. Leaving was a brave move that I was pretty nervous about making at the time, but it really paid off. I love the guys and it was a fantastic band to be involved in but just not for me. I need to be constantly creating. I will have released six albums from the time they released Sensory Overdrive to the time they release its follow up. Possibly even more. I think this tells you all about how my need to create operates and how the structure of a band is too restricting for me. Plus, I really didn’t agree with how his manager operated, and one’s relationship with a manager has to be a positive one, otherwise it poisons the well.”

Over recent years a lot of musicians have been involved with the remastering and re-issuing of their back catalogue. Do you intend on re-releasing old Wildhearts albums with additional material in the foreseeable future?

“I honestly have no interest in that at all. Maybe one day, if I completely dry up of any other ideas then I’ll consider it, but I really can’t see that ever happening.”

Images taken from Ginger’s Facebook page.

In a new interview with Loudwire, Anselmo reflects on his memories of Darrell; “I probably think about him every friggin’ day. Music is music is music, but he was a gigantic part of my growth as a musician and a part of my life, a brother, a person that I loved. I loved him. Dimebag, I can’t say enough. I mentioned it before. I am the type that cannot stay put in living in the past and solely in the past. It’s not healthy and it doesn’t feel right. Yes, I’ve moved on, for the health of my own goddamn brain, but there s a part of me that will never come to f—ing grips like anyone who loses someone to murder. You can’t come to a full circle.”