Now you say you’ve already started work on new material, or at least thrown ideas around. Does it have anything to do with Phantasmagoria, or is this separate?
No, nothing to do with it at all.
What is the status on that?
I had a meeting recently about scheduling and when this tour is over, we’re trying to figure out exactly when in the Spring—May, June, I don’t know—in Prague and Romania, is probably where it’s going to be shot. The status is that it is going forward, obviously this tour took precedence, now that this tour is ending, I think I’m in a much better place mentally and physically, and I’m focused and I can make a better movie than I would have last year.
It seemed like it was kind of in production hell, but not even really production hell, more like pre-production hell. I’ve been hearing about it for a very long time.
I started talking about it when it was in such an infancy, and it made people think because of my enthusiasm, that it would happen right away. I didn’t realize that it took so long to get things accomplished, and then when it was time to do it, Eat Me, Drink Me started to come about.
I think everything happens for a reason. If I wanted to do my movie right now, I wouldn’t be able to anyway because of the writer’s strike. I think this year is going to be working out that way for me. All of the right things are lining up for once. I’m back on track, and when things start to align themselves, you gain momentum and you gain confidence and power, and I feel like so far this year, it’s only been good.
As far as writing any material for it, score-wise or anything, do you have things floating around?
I’ve done a lot of music on my own, orchestral, not rock music in any way, a lot of children’s music based off of children’s sheet music and things like that, a while back, and that was sort of just something I would give to people as sort of a sonic inspiration, that this was the feeling of what the movie would be like. I’ll probably have a heavy hand in the scoring of it, but I’m not going to try to take on every single role in making it. It will end up watering down what I can do with directing and acting.
When I was working with Danny Elfman for a little bit, I did talk to him about if he would be interested. He said he would be interested. I can’t promise that’s going to happen, but that would be real interesting. But Tim Burton has now decided to do a 3D Alice In Wonderland, which my movie isn’t Alice In Wonderland anyway, but I’m sure because he always works with Danny Elfman, that would probably not be something that I would want [for Phantasmagoria].
Are you planning on seeing this movie through by the end of the year?
I hope so. I’m not going to make any more assumptions. The plan is to take that on after this tour. That’s all I know from there.
There was a long time—of course, relationships and farewell records notwithstanding—between Golden Age Of Grotesque and Eat Me, Drink Me. Are you planning on taking that length of time to write another record?
No, no absolutely not. I think it’s going to be, as far as the record goes, I would really like to put something out right away. I don’t want to take that sort of time anymore. I think that the urgency that I’ve always had to try and communicate immediately, whether it be through interviews or through my website, the technology now has kind of opened things up for artists obviously that you can do things differently than the traditional spend a year in the studio.
There doesn’t need to be any rules anymore, it doesn’t have to be an album, it can be a song, it can be anything. Finally, I think that the record industry can accommodate that. I just want to do something immediately. I know that we’re not going to want to stop touring once we start this, ’cause I can tell already, the tour just started, even though it’s been going on for almost a year.
And you don’t have any idea what kind of direction it would be, at this point?
I think Twiggy and I are both pissed off at what we allowed ourselves to go through, so instead of getting ourselves out of that mode, I think we’re now ready to move forward. I know it’s going to be heavy, and I know it’s going to be ruthless and cruel. (laughs) The way it should be.
On the side, are there any other projects, books, any other kind of medium that you’re working with?
Someone’s publishing finally at some point a book of my paintings, and I started writing the past couple months and I had already found a lot of things that I had written about since my first book. I don’t necessarily feel like I need to do a second part of an autobiography, but I think just the idea of all the stories that I have to tell that have happened in the past 10 years I think are some things that people would enjoy reading, or not enjoy reading. But either way, I think people will read them.
They probably will.
(laughs) Other than that, no. We are open to working with other people on new music together too. Twiggy and I were hanging out with Kerry King and I became pretty good friends with him on the tour with Slayer, and he gave me one of his trademark spiked nail armbands for my birthday, which I thought was something I can actually beat everybody in the band with. I’m trying to get him to come on stage with us on this tour and play a couple songs.
But it’s not Slayer this time; there’s Ours as the opener.
Yes, they’re the opening band. I think because of what’s going to happen on our show, between Twiggy and me, a full blown musical apocalypse, I just feel bad for anybody going on before us. (laughs)
Marilyn Manson will be performing at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30. Eat Me, Drink Me is available now. For more, visit marilynmanson.com
Photo Credit: Perou
