Brides Of Destruction |
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Thu. April 01.2004 12:00 AM EST |
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Brides of Destruction: A Match Made in HellNikki Sixx and his new pals fly the flag for Sunset Strip rawk. They talk FCC, classical debauchery, and L.A. vs. N.Y.C. by Courtney Reimer and C. Bottomley |
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(Sanctuary Records) |
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When Nikki Sixx detailed his rock star misdeeds and near-death experiences in the Motley Crue autobiography The Dirt, it seemed like he was taking stock and closing a chapter in his life. The question remained as to what the bassist and
With plenty of snarl and sass, the Brides sound exactly like the 21st century Sunset Strip rockers they are. Like Motley Crue, they're long on attitude and short on subtlety. The first single, for instance, is called "Shut the F*ck Up." Their debut album Here Come the Brides finds Guns bending strings for all he's worth and singer London LeGrand mixing heart-on-sleeve emotion with grungy menace. There are enough metal thrills here to stuff several issues of Circus magazine. A film version of The Dirt is in the works, but Sixx is committed to a future with the Brides. He even turned down a high-profile support slot with KISS when he learned '80s throwbacks Poison would also be on the bill. He and LeGrand told VH1 why they couldn't call the band Cockstar, how they love a fight, and where MP3s can help the music industry. VH1: Where did the band name come from? Nikki Sixx: At first we called the band Cockstar. Then some of my radio programmer friends said to me, "We love the new music, but we won't be able to play it because we can't back-announce it." So we made a hard decision to change the name. Tracii's idea was either The MILFmen or the Motorhomeys. I was instant messaging this friend: "We don't have a new name yet, but we love [bands like] Lords of the New Church, Mott the Hoople, Sisters of Mercy ..." And he said, "Brides of Destruction." We went, "What is a Bride of Destruction?" Then we realized that it was a black widow. I was like, "I kinda like this. It sounds a little bit different. It kinda makes sense, it kinda doesn't make sense. Kinda like us." VH1: But your first single is called "Shut the F*ck Up". Have you run into any problems getting that played on radio or TV? NS: No. A lot of people said, "Oh my God, what bad timing!" But London said to me, "What good timing!" The FCC's on a witch-hunt, and this is rock 'n' roll. Are we smart enough to edit it for radio? Of course. But we weren't gonna choose a different single, because that song was really our message right now: "Shut the f*ck up." That's what we gotta say. London LeGrand: Rock 'n' roll is so safe nowadays. All you gotta do to prove that to yourself is tell somebody about our song. People are like, "Gasp!" Things have gotten so weak and watered down. If a seat gets broken, somebody gets sued. VH1: So what's the story behind "Shut the F*ck Up"? NS: After 9-11 all these talking heads and newscasters were saying all this stuff [about] Saddam Hussein and Bush and Bin Laden. Me and London looked at each other and said, "It doesn't matter what we say. They're gonna do what they wanna do. They're gonna bomb us. They're gonna drop anthrax on us." What we say doesn't matter. So we were looking at the television like, "Shut the f*ck up!" VH1: How would you describe your music? NS: We sound like the Brides. Are we going to be in the rap section of the music store? No. They'll put us under rock. Some people have said we sound punk, some people have said we sound pop, and some people say we sound metal. I think it's interesting because we love all that stuff. So maybe we're everything! LL: I think we sound classical, actually. Like Rachmaninoff maybe. NS: There's a little Mozart in there. Which of the guys was into chicks and drugs? Beethoven? Franz Liszt? That's us then. We're the Franz Liszt of this generation! VH1: I was surprised to hear a ballad - "Only Get So Far" - at the end of the album. NS: Well, we're human beings. We've got a lot of emotions. I'm sure there are days where you're pissed off and there's days when you're feeling sad, there are days when you're in love and there's days when you just want to say, "Kick that guy out the door" In my case it would be, "Kick that girl out the door." That's what we do as musicians. We find a feeling - we tap into it. LL: That's strength. Because if you hide the fact that you've got that, then you're just giving in to a lie, and that's weak. NS: That's right. Then you're an emo band. VH1: London, you're the new guy. Who are your vocal inspirations? LL: I love Alice in Chains. Perry Farrell's cool. Peter Murphy's cool. Ian MacKaye from Fugazi and Minor Threat, the guy from the Exploited ... I don't say I sound like them, but people tell me, "This sounds like this or that." I thought to myself, "I did grow up in that era. Is there any possible way that subconsciously maybe that's embedded in me?" NS: I'm amazed at the amount of different voices London has. We go anywhere from "I Gotta Gun" to "I Don't Care" to "Only Get So Far" on the record. We cover a large field, musically. It's amazing for us. It leaves us not feeling limited as musicians. VH1: What do you say to people who think the Brides of Destruction is a Motley Crue thing? NS: I love it. Without gatekeepers, I have no resistance. Without resistance, I have nothing to push against. I need friction so that I can feel that I'm fighting. I'm a fighter. So please say as many bad things as you can. Please judge me, please listen with closed ears. Because I'll knock you on your ass every time. VH1: Does living in L.A. inspire your sound at all? NS: We don't sound like anybody out of Los Angeles. LL: I've stopped listening to everything for about a year now because I don't want to be influenced by anything except us: what I'm feeling, day-to-day; something happens to me, I want to write about that. I don't want to capture the emotion that that guy on TV felt when something happened to him, because that's not what I'm feeling, and it's so easy to do that. VH1: Do you get treated differently when you're in New York as opposed to L.A.? NS: [To London] What is it you said when we got off the plane? You said, "What's that smell?" And I said, "What are you talking about?" LL: I said, "Do you smell it? There's no L.A. bulls**t." [Laughter] It smells like people will tell you to your face whether they like you or not. Which is good. VH1: Could you ever do anything else than music? NS: I can see myself helping people. London and I want to help homeless kids and kids with drug habits, because they're some of the most creative people. That's where I came from. London's seen a lot of the rough streets in his life. It's something we want to give back. LL: All you have to do is walk down the street. Not every single person in the world knows who Nikki is. He'll still get a stare here and there to remind him it wasn't that long ago when people were stereotyping and closing doors and taking chances away from you. There are a lot of kids out there that are totally talented and have all this potential to do so much. People aren't giving them that because they don't understand them. If we can help them out, that would be great. NS: You get back what you give. That's something I think the Brides is going to be about: trying to give back, because these people are people. They're not animals. Their belief system doesn't fit in with a family value or something, so they've rebelled against it and ended up in some really bad places. They can look at someone like London or myself and say, "Those guys came from where I came from. If they can do it, I can do it," but they may not know how to get there. Maybe they just need a helping hand. VH1: With radio and MTV being the way it is, how do you get your music out? NS: The Internet is a beautiful thing, that we can spread music and share it. A lot of people are concerned with their financial means. I think that maybe artists should start [realizing] this thing is bigger than them, and maybe there's different ways to get paid for what you do. People are trying to fight their own fans and it's wrong. Music is a gift. It's not something to be controlled. VH1: So it sounds like you don't disapprove of people trading MP3s of your album. LL: If you have the ability to be able to experience something and write about it, that's a form of therapy. You also have the ability to share it with somebody that could be going through the exact same thing that you were going through. It would be totally wrong to not share that with somebody. Maybe it would keep them from sticking a gun to their head or something. NS: Is the industry selling less records because of downloading or because record companies are fabricating bullsh*t and putting it out there? A perfect example: Liz Phair is a very reputable independent artist. Her record company says, "We're not gonna release your record unless we can hear a hit." So they put her together with the people who wrote Avril Lavigne's music. She doesn't want to do it, but she caves in. In Billboard, she says, "I win either which way: I have a huge hit and I win, or if I don't have a huge hit, I'm still alternative and independent." That's not true. She sold less records, she lost her credibility and she can't sell concert tickets now. She looked like Avril Lavigne's mom, not like Avril Lavigne. Jewel is another great example. Her record company has her do a dance record! So is music sucking because of people downloading or is it sucking because people are greedy? |
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