An Interview with Voltaire

KILTER: You’ve met someone in an elevator and you want to give the “Voltaire overview” to them. What do you say?

 V: It depends who it is. If it’s a filmmaker, I tell them I make films. I tell them about the stop-motion station ID’s I’ve made for MTV or SyFy or about the animated short films I’m making that are narrated by singers like Gerard Way and Debbie Harry. If they are a musician, I tell them that I’m a singer/songwriter and a touring musician. I generally inform them that I write songs that are dark but funny and that I’ve written some songs for the Cartoon Network show (“The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy”). If they are someone interested in comics or toys I tell them about my comic book character, DEADY the evil teddy bear, about the DEADY comics I’ve made with people like Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker and I might tell them about all of the DEADY toys that are out there. Either way, at the end I would give them my postcard with all of my info on it. It says, “VOLTAIRE – Animation, Music, Toys, Animation, Apparel”. They look at me funny and I say something like, “Yeah, I do a lot of other things, too.”

KILTER: You are frequently asked “What is Goth?” and are often times considered the spokesmodel for the gothic/dark/black clothing wearing community. Any new insight on “the scene”? Any issues in the world at large? Acceptance? Discrimination?

 V: It’s a good thing you mentioned “new” developments because having written a book called “What is Goth?”. Any question I get on the subject is usually answered with “Read my book, bitch!”.  But since it’s out of print that puts us both at a loss, I suppose. I don’t know. I guess if I had to say something about the Goth scene today it’s that it’s gone “Steampunk”. Personally, after ten years of bright-color-wearing, glowstick-waving, techno-music-loving “Cyber Goths”, I’m relieved!

KILTER: You’ve spent time in northern New Jersey, and you’ve made it clear NJ is not your favorite place: “Okay, let me see if I’ve got this straight. You want me to write a song about the place where people go when they’ve been really, really bad. And it’s REALLY unpleasant, but there’s no devil or fire or tortures … so, basically, it’s New Jersey!” Is it truly NJ you dislike, or the experiences you had while living there?

 V: Hah! I recognize that quote. That’s what I told Cartoon Network when they asked me to write the song “Land of the Dead”. It was supposed to be about hell but I couldn’t use the words “hell” or “demons” or “devils” or mention anything that happens there! heh heh.

As far as New Jersey goes, suffice to say that I had a difficult childhood there. Recently I was talking about it with a friend and I remembered that my first bit of trouble in the suburbs of New Jersey came when I sang a song in a talent show in third grade and made some drawings of Star Wars characters that the teacher put up in the hallways for all to see. From that day forth, I was a “fag”. I had forgotten that the thing that made me a bad person in New Jersey was my love for the arts. Apparently, now I don’t need to explain to people why I had problems in that state any longer. Now, I can just tell them, “Have you seen the MTV show ‘Jersey Shore’?”

KILTER: It’s hard to imagine a young Voltaire hanging out at the Jersey Shore or the Stone Pony listening to Southside Johnny. Did you ever spend time doing “Jersey” things?

 V: Precisely! And now you know why! Actually I did go to the Jersey shore once (when I was young and naive). I went with the cast of the Rocky Horror floor show from the Verona Theater. I was on the boardwalk with a friend of mine, a black punk rock kid. And we were asked by a cop to follow him off of the boardwalk. Apparently, he didn’t like the studded bracelets we were wearing. It ended with an 80-year old police chief telling me that they don’t like “homos” in Seaside Heights that I should go suck black “BEEPS” somewhere else.  Absolutely charming. Never went back.

KILTER: “I lived in an apartment on Ludlow Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It had no electricity (by choice) so I had tons of time to learn how to play it.” Why no electricity? What did you learn?

 V: Jeez, where do you find these quotes? Why no electricity? Because it’s not necessary. Humans did just fine without it for millions of years. And now, someone thinks that if they lose their cell phone, their life is over. I never want to be that person. I never want to be so tied to ANYTHING that when it’s gone I will be completely lost. I reserve that right for air and water only …  oh, and food. And instead of zoning out in front of a television set for all of those years, I wrote and learned to play the guitar and drew and that is precisely why you wish to talk to me right now. So bah humbug to electricity!

KILTER: Cuba is changing, and it is possible that the Obama administration may open up travel for tourism to Cuba in the next few years. How do you feel about this? How do you feel this would impact Cuba and the Cuban people? Do you have some favorite places you’d recommend we visit once the opportunity is there for us?

 V: I grew up being emotionally tortured about Cuba. I never wanted to go back or I was afraid to. The fact is that my parent’s generation worked for all they had and it was taken away from them by the communists. They are all very bitter and angry. They still are. Since they knew they could never return they did their best to instill in their children a hatred for what happened there, for the people who stayed, for the government there. I’m 43 years old now. I’m over it! I want to go and drink a mojito and smoke a cigar and visit my father’s grave. And that is exactly what I’m going to do this year if I have my way.

Where should YOU go when you get there? Beats me. I’ll tell you when I get back.

KILTER: You have all sorts of followings – of your recorded music, live performances, convention appearances, graphic art, toys, stop action, Star Wars, Dragoncon … do you feel there is a common thread between your fans? If we gathered folks from all contingents together, what kind of party would it look like?

 V: My guess is that you’d be in a room with a few dozen chubby guys in armor, skinny kids with phasers, sullen goth girls gazing at their shoes, some Klingons, a Romulan, a couple hundred Stormtroopers (the 501st!), a big group of vampires, one tall, black and very scary werewolf (though he’s really just a pussy cat at heart!) and me. And what we all share is a love of fantasy and a belief that “normal” people are kind of scary.

KILTER: You have quite the devoted fan base. What is the most unusual gift from a fan? Creepiest?

 V: I get a lot of homemade plush toys. That’s pretty cool. I remember as a kid when I was a huge Duran Duran fan that they used to get tons of plush toys from girls and they would donate them to children’s hospitals because really, they’d get millions of them! I like that people give me home-made stuff. A girl in Mexico made me a REALLY cool DEADY sculpture and a Chi-chian painting. But the truth is that I live in a tiny NYC apartment so I’ve totally run out of space! Sometimes people give me things, especially BIG things and I cringe because I figure I’m going to have to give it to someone else.

Creepiest? I don’t know. I don’t love when people bring me food. I know they mean well, but really, come on? I get some really creepy weirdoes writing me emails all of the time. How do I know they are not the one giving me that oddly shaped cake. How do I know it’s not made of fingernails and clumps of hair and rat poison and day old turds?

You want to give me something? Just bring cash, kids! Cash works just fine! heh heh.

KILTER: Any particular fan behavior you would like to take this opportunity to discourage?

 V: Do you have an hour? Ah, there are so many things! heh heh. Just moments ago I got a request from a fan asking me to dedicate a song to his girlfriend at my next show (that he will not be attending, mind you.).  Man, I HATE shit like that! I still haven’t written him back because I have to wait until I’m not as pissed off as I am. Naturally when people do stuff like that, they think they are super clever and sweet, but they don’t get that they are not really doing it for their friend, they are doing it so that THEY seem awesome. I mean really, if you desperately want to send a message to your girl, I have two words, “Hallmark” and “FedEx”. I really hate it when people mistake me for a message delivery service. It happens ALL OF THE TIME. To the person sending me the “special request” it seems very special but I guess they don’t know that I get ten of these per show.

I’m seriously thinking about charging! I mean really, you want a minute-long plug at my show? That’s really no different than a commercial. You should PAY ME to deliver your message in the middle of my show. Seriously! And the people who want to propose to their girlfriends at my shows! Oh Lord! People do not buy a ticket to hear about how some random dude loves some random chick. That’s not why they are at the show.  I think when I finally write this guy back I’m going to say,

“That is a GREAT idea! I had a similar idea recently. I emailed Tim Burton and asked if he could write a scene into Alice in Wonderland where Johnny Depp is talking to the wicked Queen and suddenly turns to the camera and says, “Sorry Queen, but I just wanted to say that Voltaire is AWESOME and he loves Jayme very much. So Jayme, if you are in the audience, here’s a big kiss from Voltaire! Muah!”  then turns back the Queen,  “Uh, sorry, what were you saying?”

But for reasons I can’t understand, Tim Burton never wrote me back. What a dick!”

… and just leave it at that.

KILTER: Congratulations, you are married! How do you see marriage impacting your music, your touring, your art?

 V: Well, I’m making a country album right now and so far I have two songs that require an apology to my wife before I can sing them live! heh heh. One is called “All Women are Crazy” and she HATES IT! And other one called “On the Road” has a line that goes “Naked girls throw themselves at you and you do things you’d never thought you’d do.” So you know, I guess I don’t exactly have the same freedom to write whatever ridiculous nonsense I feel like writing without having someone to answer to at home.

But at the end of the day, she understands that I’m an artist and I am going to create the work I’m going to create.  That can’t really be changed.  I jokingly warn her from time to time not to “Yoko” the band. heh heh.

As for touring, she came to 18 out of 22 tour dates on a recent tour and she loves joining the caravan in that regard. She helps to sell merchandise and naturally it’s the best of both worlds for me because I get to do what I love, be on the road, and still have the woman I love at my side. It’s a win-win situation.

KILTER: Where do you get your clothing?

 V: I hardly ever buy clothing. My top hat is from Meyer The Hatter in New Orleans. My shirts are usually from Express. I like being able to stop at a mall on the road and replace a shirt. I get my pants at Zara, also at the mall. And then I have a coat fetish. I will spend the real money on those. That coat I wear that looks like a sea captain’s coat is by Yoji Yamamoto. Someone, maybe it was Neil Gaiman or Amanda Palmer, I don’t remember, said I looked like the Vampire Admiral of a Pirate ship in it. I have a really nice long, black coat by Prada, too. I’m a cheap bastard when it comes to buying clothes, but I won’t bat an eyelash dropping a couple thousand on a nice coat or jacket. I should also point out that I buy several of each thing. My pants and shirts and shoes in particular. I will buy 3 or 4 of the same shirt or pants. I hate deciding what to wear so I just wear the same thing every day. The only exception are my skull sweaters. I had those hand knit over ten years ago and I still wear them practically every day. They are falling to shreds. But man did I get my money’s worth! heh heh

KILTER: In 2009 you said you were working on a book, focusing on your next CD, some new toys and a new Deady graphic novel. Where are you on these projects? What is next? Are you still planning the gothic dating guide?

 V: No Gothic dating guide. That project was eventually canceled by the publisher after a couple of years of me dragging my feet on it. It was a life lesson and a hard one to learn. I was working on Ooky Spooky at the time as well as Deady; Big in Japan. And I was supposed to be writing the dating book as well. Then I get really excited about my side project band, The Oddz. I was investing tons of time into the Oddz and eventually, nothing else was getting done. I had to accept that I just can’t do it all. So now I try to be wise about what projects I prioritize. But it is definitely not easy to do.

I have a novel in the works, but I’ve quasi-shelved it in favor of stuff that can get done quicker and is more pertinent in the eyes of the fans, like new CDs for instance.  I hope to release a CD of my songs for kids this year as well as the country CD. I’m very excited about both and believe they will both do really well. I have a forth short film in the series of shorts I’m making. It’s called DemiUrgeEmesis. It’s almost done, so I’m working on wrapping that up. I don’t have a narrator yet though and these films are all narrated by well known singers, so it will be REALLY interesting to see who ends up doing it. I have a TON of DEADY toys coming out this year, presuming that the companies involved don’t drop the ball. Sadly, that’s not uncommon in the designer vinyl toy world. You never really know what’s going to come out or not.

And very soon I will be writing the second draft of a live action, feature film I wrote which I hope to direct and act in. I can’t tell you too much about it yet, but it’s a horror/comedy set in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.  I’ve also signed an option agreement to turn my comic book series, “Chi-Chian” into a live action feature. I have my fingers crossed and hope to see that come to life. There’s probably a bunch of other stuff that I can’t think of right now.

KILTER: Are you still contemplating an Afro-Caribbean CD?

 V: I had actually forgotten about it until just now! heh heh. It’s not a bad idea. Let’s see what happens after the country disc and the trip to Cuba!

KILTER: What is new with The Oddz? Any other musical collaborations or ventures planned?

 V: As I mentioned, I can’t even think about The Oddz. I loved those songs and loved working with those musicians on it, but it just took up too much time I was supposed to be working on stuff people actually paid me to do. So it’s dead or at least sleeping for now.

As for working with other people, my friend Jason Miller, the lead singer of Godhead, has made a country record and he’s working on another one. So, we have been discussing the idea of touring together. Just two Goth guys with guitars singing country songs. I think it could be really cool.

KILTER: Piracy: (No, not the kind that fight ninjas.) A number of Chinese businesses have appropriated your designs and created some product that you yourself have seen on the streets of New York. You’ve countered this by creating official versions of some of the bootlegs. Any new “official bootlegs” in the development pipeline?

 V: I’m still shocked that Chinese factory know enough about DEADY to be making DEADY bootlegs! I always say that he’s the most famous character no one ever heard of.  But hey, in the end it’s reassuring. It makes me feel that maybe I’m doing well after all, well enough that Chinese factories think my characters are a winner! heh heh

KILTER: What about your very justifiable concerns over music and movie theft (aka “downloaded it for free”). “It just baffles my mind the sense of entitlement this generation has. Honestly, it doesn’t appear to be a crime nor does it seem to be the least bit immoral nor even impolite to people who grew up downloading music for free.” What do you see as the future for music distribution? How can the rights, and profits, of musicians and artists be protected yet accommodate the attitudes and habits of the masses?

 V: I have absolutely no idea. I just keep doing what I do and I hope that people will do the right thing and pay for the music. Making music is how I feed my family so if you say you’re a fan but you are illegally downloading my songs, you are HURTING ME and you are hurting my family and my ability to feed them and that is simply not what a FAN would do. Like I always say, “If you keep taking the fruit from the tree but you never plant any seeds, eventually there won’t be any fruit left.”  In short, I can only continue to do this while people BUY the music. Once they’ve stopped entirely, I will have to find another job.

KILTER: You have done some great work with stop action, such as your recent “X-mess Detritus”, and you teach/taught at the School of the Visual Arts in New York. Are you working on any stop action projects? Still teaching?

 V: I continue to work on this stop-motion series of films that is loosely based on the station ID work I did for MTV in the 80s and 90s.  And yes, I still teach once a week or so at SVA.

KILTER: A Voltaire tribute album would be intriguing; we can venture a guess at some of the artists you’d like to have cover your favorites (e.g. Amanda Palmer). What songs would you envision on that CD and who does them?

 V: That idea makes me feel uncomfortable. I feel you probably need to be a lot further along than I am to wish for such things. I’ve always figured that if that were to happen it would be after I’ve died.

You know what actually? Fuck it! Let’s have some fun. I’m not even going to concern myself with who would ACTUALLY be on it. Let’s shoot for the stars and fantasize about crazy things!

The Night – Sisters of Mercy

Anniversary – The Cranberries

Out of Reach – Morrissey

The Man Upstairs – The Prodigy

The Beast of Pirate’s Bay – Willie Nelson

This Sea – Leonard Cohen and Pat Benatar  (yeah, you heard me)

Stuck with You – Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman (they’re going to be singing it anyway)

Hallo Elskan Min – Bjork

The Industrial Revolution – Gogol Bordello

The Headless Waltz – Flogging Molly

I’m Sorry – The Psychedelic Furs

Brains – Danny Elfman

Cannibal Buffet – Madness

This Ship’s Going Down – Tom Waits

To The Bottom of the Sea -The Pogues

The Vampire Club – Sex Pistols

Almost Human – David Bowie

Parade – Nirvana (or Foo Fighters if we have to be more realistic)

About A Girl- Frank Sinatra (yes, he’s dead but I have as good a chance of getting Morrissey to sing on my record, so what the hell!)

Zombie Prostitute – Cab Calloway (yup, he’s dead, too! Last time I checked, anyway.)

The USS MAke Shit Up – William Shatner (spoken)

and last but not least….

When You’re Evil – Sean Connery.  (What, is that weird?)

KILTER: Whom do you consider to be musical contemporaries? Who do you take your new material to and bounce it off them?

 V: I don’t know, I would say the people I tour with or bump into again and again on the road. Bands like Ego Likeness, The Cruxshadows, Bella Morte, Hellblinki. Most of the these bands I share absolutely nothing in common with when it comes to the way we sound, but we’ve all be working the Goth/ Industrial tour circuit for years and are friends. We share a lot of the same experiences with record labels, touring, etc.

Honestly, the promoters in each city are usually the first to hear what I’m working on. They are usually the ones that pick me up at the airport and when I’m working on new songs and I’m excited about them, I might burn a disc to listen to them on the airplane and I’m usually pretty eager to share what I’ve done and see what they think. So I usually end up popping that disc into the car stereo of who ever is picking me up at the airport.

KILTER: What are you reading right now?

 V: I don’t read. I really don’t. I’ve read under ten books in my whole life. Everything I know I learned by seeing and listening and doing. But I write a LOT! I’m presently transcribing from a bunch of old sketchbooks to the laptop, a couple of hundred pages of a novel I started writing years ago. I wrote this story before performing live and before creating the Chi-chian comic book series. It’s called “The Nothing” and it’s sort of a metaphysical horror story that doubles as a guide on how to manipulate reality. I’m doing my best to work on it between all of the other stuff that’s going on.

KILTER: Old Spock or New Spock?

V: You know, my first reaction was “come on, don’t insult me!” heh heh … but honestly, that young chap did a great job of capturing the Spock character in the latest film. Though for my money, EVIL, goateed Spock for the win!

www.voltaire.net