ODERUS: 'If You Change Anything About GWAR, You Might Ruin Something That Was Incredibly Perfect'

The Great Southern Brainfart recently conducted an interview with GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Great Southern Brainfart: This is an exciting time to be a GWAR fan. After the passing of Flattus Maximus, it was really awesome to see the metal community pull together to support the band and his immediate family. It made me feel proud to be a fan of a band. When you saw that outpouring of love how did it make you feel?

Oderus: Well, it made us feel very proud to have such awesome fans. They weren't going to let us fail or stop and they were going to support us every step of the way. They all came out and showed us how much they really love us and it really meant a lot to us. We couldn't have done it without their strength and we may have never made it through that period. There's not a day that goes by that we don't miss Flattus but somehow we've made it through and Pustulous Maximus is settled in his new position and he's kicking fucking ass. Life goes on.

The Great Southern Brainfart: What can you tell us about Pustulous Maximus and what can we all expect to see from him?

Oderus: Well, he's a little bigger than Flattus. He's a little more obnoxious and meaner. He's a little more rowdy on stage and he breaks more stuff. His guitar playing is a big more vicious as well. He's a different player than Flattus. Flattus has a smoother shredding style whereas Pustulous is just all over the fucking place. He's capable of playing the smooth shit but yet he can play incredibly vicious as well. His sound has definitely taken GWAR into a new direction musically. I'm not exactly sure what that direction is. Maybe even a little more like our old-school thrash metal kind of sound. It definitely doesn't sound like "Bloody Pit Of Horror", that's for sure.

The Great Southern Brainfart: I've been listening to the new album, "Battle Maximus", a good bit and I fucking love this album. It sounds more like the old-school stuff than anything GWAR's done in years. Was that intentional or was this brought on by the new blood, pun intended?

Oderus: [laughs] No, it just kind of happened naturally. We just kind of let it kind of rally behind Pustulous' playing and we didn't try to make it go in any direction. We just let it kind of organically suggest itself. That's the way Pustulous sounds when he plays guitar so there for GWAR followed right along with him. It's got the sound of those old GWAR albums but it has the additional excellence of the fact that it sounds better. We've been in the studio longer and we know what we're doing now. We've got our own studio and we know exactly how to get the best sounds out of it. It's got that old-school GWAR sound that everyone likes, but it sounds better than all the old records.

The Great Southern Brainfart: Looking back on GWAR's vast catalog, is there anything you look at and say, "I wish we would've done that differently?"

Oderus: Nah, I wouldn't change a fucking thing. If you change anything about GWAR, you might ruin something that was incredibly perfect. I'm not really how GWAR started to begin with, but I do know that it's hard to change or mess around with it very much. You could ruin that balance that made it so great to begin with. I've been completely satisfied with everything we've done. I wouldn't change a goddamn thing.

The Great Southern Brainfart: GWAR not too long ago released a great cover of ALICE COOPER's "School's Out". Are there any future covers that we can look forward to hearing GWAR unleash on us?

Oderus: Right now we are working on a cover of "Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car" by BILLY OCEAN for The AV Club. We did KANSAS' "Carry On My Wayward Son" last year, so we're doing this one this year. Matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you see an entire GWAR covers album at some point.

Read the entire interview at The Great Southern Brainfart.