After the death of former frontman David Brockie, or Oderus Urungus, there was a lot of speculation going on as to what the band would be doing. Was a breakup imminent or would they soldier on without him? Then the band started to appear on live bills, namely Riot Fest, which raised some questions. So Metal Insider sat down with current drummer Brad Roberts, or Jizmak Da Gusha as he's known on his home planet, to clear some of these questions up. First, they tackle the new lineup question, which if you don't feel like reading the whole statement basically says the band aren't going to have one definitive frontman, but a bunch of recurring characters and bring back the old chaos!
"Yeah, I mean, we have Mike Bishop, the original Beefcake bass player of GWAR. He’s coming back to fold to do some singing duties, but Balsac, Pustulus, Beefcake, they’re all singing. Cyborg, Destructo, Bone Snapper, all the GWAR characters have songs to fill in, and we’ve kind of taken the idea back to the original, old school, Scumdogs idea. Where Oderus, he was just the anchor, there were so many characters and so many different people singing songs, and so much action and gore and death on the stage in the old days that it wasn’t like it was more recently, where we stripped away all of that and made Oderus the focal point. The old Scumdogs of GWAR, there’s chaos everywhere, and Oderus is just the anchor to it. So we’re kind of going back to the old format, embracing it. The stage shows will be wilder, and more chaos probably than you’ve seen in a lot of years. We kind of stripped it away into a pretty good heavy metal band that had some cool gore to it, and I think it’s gonna be more involved now. Certainly all of the plot development that we’ve done for the upcoming shows and the tours is leading it that way. It’s really exciting, it’s interesting. I think people are going to respond to it. No one would respect us if we just threw another guy in the costume and said 'Oh here’s Oderus’ replacement.' There is no way to replace Dave Brockie, not in a million years. We decided to go back to our roots and get back the old members and reconvene as a creative collective and put forth the GWAR that we think is going to be the incarnation of it for the 30th anniversary and beyond."
Then Roberts talks about an upcoming North American tour, which will specifically address the death of Urungus (after his viking funeral).
"Yeah, there will be a fall US/Canadian tour from GWAR this year, and it will address the mythos of what happened to Oderus Urungus and give the fans, the GWAR fans that we love so much, a way to come pay their last respects and see the band that they love. It’s an exciting time, and it’s also scary because it’s a daunting task, but GWAR is always up to the challenge. We gotta saw off a couple heads to get there, no problem."
What an interesting concept for the tour, especially considering it was so recent. Oh, and a new record! Roberts talks about Bishop being the frontman on the record, but with the tour including a whole cast of characters it's hard to believe they won't make some appearance on the album.
"Well actually there is. We’re approaching 30 year anniversary, there’s talk of boxed products that will come from GWAR, and with Mike Bishop coming back in, we’re definitely writing some new songs and we’ll have something to show that GWAR is moving forward, and it’s not stopping."
