MARILYN MANSON Talks About Touring, New Album And Painting

Vassil Varbanov of Bulgaria's Tangra Mega Rock recently conducted an interview with Marilyn Manson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Tangra Mega Rock: You've been on the road in Europe for just a little while now. How has it been so far?

Manson: It's been much better than I could have imagined. It's been one of the hardest periods in my life while making this new record, and now it's the best period in my life — I'm standing in my underwear with a naked girl in my bathtub...

Tangra Mega Rock: Last year there was a rumor that you said you're almost about to quit music and concentrate on painting. Why did you get back to music now?

Manson: I didn't realize it at the time, but now that I look back I can say I was having a bad time. I was trying to figure out who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. I thought that I had said everything that I had to say in my past albums, and that being me was not the right thing to do because of the situation I was in. I had stopped enjoying being myself. Then I made a couple of songs where I described that period of my life, and I started singing and really concentrated on being a singer again... maybe more than ever. I took everything I learned from painting and things like that in order to communicate better with people.

Tangra Mega Rock: When you started the whole thing in the '90s, this shock rock image of yours brought you in the center of attention to lots of people all around the globe. Now, in 2007, there are so many shocking things like wars, bad presidents, etc. What's the challenge for you now?

Manson: I think that was the question I really had to face, to find out what is left to say. The world is a victim of itself and I can't really attack it. I thought that people are finally starting to acknowledge the obvious things that a lot of them are still afraid to see, so what was the hardest thing to do now was to talk about my human emotions on this record. I thought that taking the more difficult subject and ideas was gonna be the way I could prove myself. That's when I realized that being me is the hardest thing I could possibly do.

Tangra Mega Rock: And after all, are you satisfied with your new album?

Manson: I think I managed to really shock people for the first time - in my opinion - by showing them that I have the emotions they can relate to, so people have been very positive about this record in a time when everybody would like to take the lazy, simple side of Marilyn Manson. Shocking is something that sticks in your mind, something that moves you — that's all you can do.

Tangra Mega Rock: In a couple of days your exhibition of about 40 paintings is moving to the heart of Europe — in Berlin, Germany — for a whole month. Where is your unique artistic nature accepted better — in Europe, in the USA, or you find my question stupid?

Manson: Ha-ha, no, I think it's been accepted surprisingly to me, because it's a little naked-feeling to put yourself out in that way of art. Art is very subjective — you either like it or you don't. It's a little bit different to music. What I realized was that I didn't make music the same way yet, so when I made this record I didn't have to change something, trying to be more pop or whatever to apply to people - I just had to show something I hadn't shown yet. It seems it translates on both sides of the world, which surprises me, because I thought it's easier for art to translate, as it has no language barrier. I have somehow managed to put these feelings that I was doing in painting in the record as well. I don't know how... I think just by being myself and not being afraid to show something...

The entire interview is available in text and audio format at this location.