MIKE 'BLÖTHAR' BISHOP Talks How Being 'Uncool' Has Kept GWAR Alive For 40 Years

By David E. Gehlke

Four decades of existence are quite the accomplishment. Perhaps an even greater one is sticking to one's guns and remaining singular in a sea of like-minded acts. The long-running intergalactic metal troupe otherwise known as GWAR is celebrating 40 years as a band by releasing the "The Return Of Gor Gor" EP, a seven-song collection that includes three new numbers and resurrects the Gor Gor character, who, in GWAR lore, "mysteriously disappeared" following the 2014 death of frontman Oderus Urungus (real name: Dave Brockie). The EP is almost a throwback of sorts for the band, for it resurfaces the humor and fun that was toned down in the wake of Brockie's death. If anything, it allows GWAR to re-embrace an older character and find ways to keep Oderus at the forefront of their minds more than a decade after his passing.

GWAR has proven remarkably resilient in light of not only Brockie's death, but also after some notable down years in the late 1990s, which produced albums like "Carnival Of Chaos" and "We Kill Everything" that have become almost afterthoughts in their massive discography. However, with new blood in the band, including guitarist Grodius Maximus (real name: Tommy Meehan) and a steady stream of new devotees, there's little to suggest that GWAR won't be around for another couple of decades. With that in mind, BLABBERMOUTH.NET caught up with Mike "Blöthar The Berserker" Bishop, who previously played bass for GWAR during various stints in the 1980s and '90s and replaced Oderus in 2014.

Blabbermouth: In your promo reel for the 40th anniversary, there's a line of 1.3 million albums sold. How does it make you feel? Is it accurate?

Mike: "I feel ripped off! [Laughs] How does it make me feel? It's a lot of sales, but it's GWAR. It's not what it should be, honestly. GWAR, I feel satisfied that we've reached a lot of people. I don't think that GWAR has joined the pantheon of the elite in shock rock the way it deserves, especially in terms of commercial success. I think the reason for that is that the band is funny. I think the band has a sense of humor. We're never going to stop mocking the subculture that created us. That's why we started this. People say, 'You started it because you were tired of art school. Tired of this. Tired of that.' We were tired of punk. We were tired of metal. We were tired of that seriousness and bullshit. Tired of people forgetting Dr. Demento, and that novelty was a huge part of punk rock. It's where I learned about it: On Dr. Demento. That's where I first heard punk rock. I know what this music is. We all do. It's not about posing as macho, tough-guy dipshits. GWAR never did that. The other thing is that GWAR is not cool. If you're not cool, you get cool by attaching yourself to it. You can see yourself as an outsider or a geek and still be uncool."

Blabbermouth: While still on the 40-year subject, you exited the band for the first time in 1993. What would you have said to someone if they told you GWAR would have lasted this long?

Mike: "I would have said, 'I believe it, but only for the same reason that the average age of the military is 18 because you're stupid.' You know what I mean? I would have been, 'Yeah, yeah! Fuck yeah we are because I'm stupid!' Seriously, I think that we thought GWAR would do what we always wanted to do, which is exactly what we're doing, but in coliseums. We couldn't stop thinking about the possibilities for the show, such as how much more we could do. That's what we have been thinking about. I remember the conversations. That's the great and special thing about GWAR that not a lot of people realize is that the fun of it, honestly, I know people watching it, but I like being in it. [Laughs] You come up with something stupid and you do it. Other bands, you sit around and you do bits and you make yourself laugh, but nobody ever does it. These guys make the shit happen. It's great in that way."

Blabbermouth: Do you think there's an element of having the right mixture of super-creative people?

Mike: "That's the other thing: Yes, GWAR has lasted 40 years. Our fans and some people in our band say, 'GWAR can last forever. We just have to train the right people to do it.' Then I'm like, 'Where are these people coming from?' I don't see 'em. There's not a big, long list of people."

Blabbermouth: It's not really a plug-and-play thing like KISS has debated on doing.

Mike: "That's been one of the issues with finding somebody, even musicians. Not every player that we've had has been somebody who really understood what GWAR was doing. We got really close with Tommy [Grodius Maximus] because he loves GWAR. He understood it. Now, he understands it. He also understands that he doesn't understand everything about it, like there are some things to learn. That's cool. That's what you need. GWAR is founded on insecurity and fear. We need to amplify those traits in the people that work with us!"

Blabbermouth: Where does the EP fit into all of this? Is it a segue into another full-length?

Mike: "Yeah, I think it's a bridge towards a full-length. We've talked about trying to release music in different ways. We are trying to do that with this. When we're doing this, we're going to keep baking smaller, more manageable releases. What we didn't like was having to wait so long between releases. But we're a bunch of older guys who don't live next to each other anymore. We're trying to find a way to have things come out more consistently. The third one that comes, the third smaller release, we're going to add some extra stuff to it and make an album. That's what we're doing. I think it's a good plan. We'll see if it works. I know that it definitely felt good this time to focus on just one subject. Gor Gor's life and carrying a character through and developing it. It's so much fun. This is a really good example of how GWAR creates things. We come up with an idea and expand it in ridiculous ways, like, why not take inspiration from Disney's "Dumbo"?"

Blabbermouth: How does a three-ton T Rex go missing? It is a bit like Dumbo, isn't it?

Mike: "Dumbo was the most traumatizing film I saw in my life. It was fucking horrible! They were taking kids out of the theater, like 'Get them out of there!' It was horrible! His mommy died. God! We wanted to do something like that, which would traumatize children. [Laughs] Kids have it too easy. It's time to knock them down a peg. We said, 'What can he do?' He can be out there, and let's work a little Pinocchio. He winds up being a lot lizard. Not that Pinocchio is turning tricks or anything. [Laughs] That would be funny."

Blabbermouth: Would you like to delve a bit more into Tommy and how you were able to incorporate him into the GWAR framework?

Mike: "It was easy. Basically, Tommy has listened to GWAR for so long. It influenced his musicality. It influenced his thoughts on what music should be. He has some ideas that differ significantly from ours. I think the aesthetics of younger metal musicians, or musicians in general, seem to suggest that they believe in something… It's like this real lack of attention. They think something new should happen every four measures of a song. We don't do that. [Laughs] What we did was learn from each other and say, 'Once I figured it out, it was like, 'Oh, you think this needs to be constantly changing because you're bored.' It's like, 'Let's think of ways to let that shape what we're doing.' So we did. He's really into making weird sounds with the guitar, which [Mike] Derks [guitar, BalSac, The Jaws Of Death] has always been into, too. I always thought that might clash, but it doesn't. If you've got two guitarists with that mindset, then they're able to make different kinds of decisions in songwriting. Essentially, we listened to the stuff Tommy had, and Casey [Orr, bass, Beefcake The Mighty] came up with a super riff. 'Lot Lizard' is basically Casey's song. Then we added lyrics to them. I really like it. 'Lot Lizard', in particular, I'm enjoying doing it. It's hard to pull off. It's like the only three minutes in the set where I have to be totally alert. Otherwise, I'm going to get off beat!"

Blabbermouth: It sounds like he fits the mold of being someone who understands GWAR and can bridge the generational gap.

Mike: "Absolutely. He's also improved the energy in the room. He has the right sort of expectations out of the behavior of other people, which is important. People need to treat each other well. Not everyone is like that."

Blabbermouth: Is there much of an appetite within the band to now really dig into the catalog since it's your 40th anniversary?

Mike: "Yeah, we're trying. One thing is that we kept letting Tommy pick a couple of songs. [Laughs] 'We'll let you pick a couple.' He always picks ones that we wouldn't do. He's like, 'I want to do 'Fishfuck'!' We're like, 'We don't know how to do that song!' Then we did it and we loved it. That helps. We're digging into it. That Setlist FM website is so interesting. You can look at it and I'm like, 'God damn. We haven't played much of 'Carnival Of Chaos' or 'Ragnarök' at all.' 'Ragnarök' is the least played album. We're looking at it, trying to think of songs we can play off of it. It's hard because so many character songs are on it."

Blabbermouth: How much is Dave brought up these days, especially now that you're doing all sorts of anniversary promo?

Mike: "Yeah, it sucks. He's always there. We always mention him onstage. He definitely figures on all of the things that we've done. It's fun because Bob Gorman is our archivist, and we're lucky to have him in the band because every band I've been in besides GWAR, we didn't have that. Things get lost, and you have to go back to your friends who saved your flyers. We've got everything. We've got all of the art Dave made for GWAR. We're able to look through it. Right now, we've got t-shirts coming out. Dave did a lot of art for Gor Gor so that we can do some stuff with it. It's fun. It's always a meditation for me when I learn the lyrics and perform them, especially with Dave. Occasionally, I'll go back and listen to how he did a song just to refresh my memory and do it the way I know how. He had a lot of juice, a lot of interesting skills that are hard to replicate. I will say this: It took a while for us to feel like being funny again. We weren't sure what to do. Maybe we didn't do the exact right thing on the first couple of records after Dave. However, we were doing what we felt was right. And what we felt wasn't like, 'Oh, just go out there and replicate that kind of humor.' That's one thing we felt like we shouldn't do. Now that some time has passed, we're able to be funnier again. I look forward to that. We're moving towards that."