Yup, I’m in Kansas,’ says Marilyn Manson, in a sexy – yes, you read it right – warm voice. – œCity.’ He specifies, with a laugh, – œwhich is not in Kansas – unfortunately – it’s in Missouri.’
When you’re Australian and you’ve never been to Kansas, you picture Dorothy, Toto, flying houses. You can’t quite reconcile the image of a striking gentleman – face fully painted, one wacky eye – with full length leather jacket flapping behind him, standing in the middle of a vast prairie. The man sometimes known as Brian Warner laughs, – œYeah, it’s a bit like that. In fact, we’ve been in that part of the world – œcause we’ve just played in Denver, which is always, you know, an event for me since Columbine.’
Marilyn Manson’s Denver – œevent’ usually means a few thousand people protesting his existence in the annals of mainstream recording history and citing his influence over a definitive highschool shooting while another few thousand people congregate in his support, and in the support of a bizarre notion: relating to one’s own children, rather than letting a stranger do it through song.
Where once there was tragedy – and still is angst – Marilyn’s experience of that geographic position is now a more optimistic one, and during the course of our conversation I am glad my assumptions about him were right. He is an optimistic guy. The alleged Satanist and deathmonger happily reports, – œI thought it was the best part of the tour so far. It was great to see things turn around; that the world realises what art is for. It’s to make people feel something, it’s doesn’t take things out of the world.’
– œIf I’m gonna get blamed for school shootings, then I want, you know, some sort of an award because I think I’ve got the blame for more of them than anybody else,’ he says in a no-nonsense tone tinged with humour and irony. As an aside he adds, – œThe year I was born The Beatles wrote Helter Skelter, probably the first piece of music that was ever associated with a violent act. And of course,’ he sighs with bemused and ever-so-slight sarcasm, – œthat’s related to Marilyn Manson.
– œThere’s no point in ever trying to make them get it,’ he says calmly, – œpart of being the villain or the anti-hero is to enjoy the stupidity of those who think that they are the heroes. [To realise] that when you sit back and watch a movie or read a book and you see how foolish the self righteous are, first of all you probably could never change their minds.’
Making that realisation is clearly a no-brainer for Marilyn but resigning himself to it is an easy way he can’t quite bring himself to take. – œPart of me – as someone who wants to put things into the world, as an artist – I at least try to put some doubt in their heads. I at least like to change their way of thinking.’ He reasons that it is possible to redirect someone else’s thought process because, – œSomeone did that to me at one point and that’s why I changed the way I thought. I was going to Christian school, memorising Bible verses… the so-called,’ he releases a soft chuckle, – œreligious officials that were worried about my eternal soul decided to play some Led Zeppelin records backwards. That was where they went wrong, ‘cause I thought it sounded good.’
Something of a renaissance man, Manson also a painter and filmmaker, with a film about Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll in the works. How does he decide which medium to present his ideas in? – œIt’s instinctual [and] very much practical as well. I like to paint on the floor. I lay out a bedsheet that I’ve had for years, that’s covered in stains – and I know how that just sounded… paint stains,’ he clarifies before cheerily continuing, – œI paint on the floor. It’s not very conducive [on tour at] the Ritz Carlton hotel and I can’t really, at the same time, have as much space and time needed to write music while I’m on tour, so it becomes a time and a place for everything. The one thing that I can always do is write.’
I ask, – œDo you ever think you’ve said too much? Do you wish you’d kept something private? That’s not to say you don’t have private thoughts that no one’s touched yet…’ He bursts into laughter at the idea of someone touching his private thoughts before replying, – œI wrote my book before I was really famous, so I told everybody everything. I thought, I don’t want anyone to try and make me feel bad about who I am in any way. I want to start at the absolute bottom with absolutely everything known. And then I only have upwards.’
He confesses that theory backfired. He found there was actually a place below what he thought was the bottom. That place welcomed him after the downward spiral of infamous relationship breakups – platonic and romantic – rumoured substance battles and, I reckon, the pressure of just being Marilyn Manson. Not everyone generates angry protests just for going to work.
– œI think the only true thing below hitting bottom is when you don’t care it’s the bottom. I did survive the experience of realising that.’ Luckily, Marilyn did care that he was at the bottom. It is despite – or maybe because of – this that he decided some self-imposed – œme’ time was in order and opted to live alone for the first time ever. – œOther people had mistaken me – in the past – for not being able to be alone. I like to be alone. I don’t mean emotionally, you know. I like to be by myself.’
– œTo me it sounds, I don’t know, to other more functioning humans that is, it seems quite normal to have gone through that experience [but] I went from living with my parents, to starting a band, going on tour, living with my best friend [Twiggy] then I went through a series of long term relationships, living with … the girls that I was with.’
In retrospect he wonders if the loss he felt after he and Twiggy’s – œbreakup’ wasn’t avoidable, – œbecause we weren’t mad, we just didn’t understand how to deal with a fight cause we’d never really had one.’
At the demise of his most recent romantic relationship, however, he found himself at the aforementioned bottom and interestingly, reconnected with his old bestie Twiggy Ramirez ( Jeordie White ) – an integral part of the original Marilyn Manson lineup and creative force, and now just as integral a part of Marilyn’s most recent release High End Of The Low.
Hopefully their reunion will mean a permanent revival of their creative and professional bro-mance, but even if their falling out created hurt, it also created a catalyst for self-reflection, realisation and optimism for Marilyn. Not to mention, a flint to spark creative ideas off for the new record.
With his old sparring partner back onside, Marilyn forced himself into full solitude, bunkering down over the festive season and working straight through to finish the record on his birthday, January 5, hence the title of the last track, Fifteen. (It makes sense if you think about it.)
While Marilyn is simply too intelligent to be high on the idea of happily-ever-after, and his musical personification is too dark to change, as a man (a lovely, funny one at that) he is ready to face forward and think about what good things lay in wait for him.
– œThere’s too many reasons to be happy. As long as I’ve got the few things that I have, I’m gonna fight for those. But I don’t need anything else. I have discovered I could survive without anyone or anything. But,’ he points out, – œthat doesn’t mean I want to.’
sarahanne
said ages ago