ROB ZOMBIE: 'I Don't Really Think About Music When I'm Not Working On It'

July 19, 2011

Darryl Sterdan of the QMI Agency recently conducted an interview with rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

QMI Agency: What percentage of your time, energy and brainpower goes to film vs. music these days?

Rob: It's pretty evenly split. It probably takes more brainpower for directing, in the sense that when I'm on tour, unless I'm writing music, the music doesn't take a lot of thought. You just have to physically be there and play the shows and tour. But while I'm doing that, I'm always working on setting up the next film or project or working on a script on a day off in a hotel room. So the films are always sort of lingering in my mind. The music, not so much. I don't really think about music when I'm not working on it. But it gets harder and harder to compartmentalize them. I've thrown myself deeper into the music in the past couple of years, so they clash a little more than they used to.

QMI Agency: Why did you return to music in such a big way? Clearly you have a good thing going in film.

Rob: Well, I like doing both. And I felt that for the past bunch of years, I was letting the music slide in some sense. I just didn't want to do that anymore. I love my band. We've all been reinspired. So I've made it clear to management and agents that we're going to approach this as if it's the only thing we do. And I have. We've been touring around the world nonstop, playing places I haven't been to in a long time because the movies would get in the way of that. The biggest challenge is that there's only so much time.

QMI Agency: In hindsight, do you wish you hadn't swung the pendulum so far toward film work?

Rob: I don't think it was possible to do it any other way, truthfully. I slacked off on music because the band I had at the time had become kind of a miserable situation. There was just too much infighting and too much of that nonsense that always takes place. And that was when I had just started doing films. And I just couldn't take the high-school mentality you always get into with bands. So that just naturally took me out of it. But when I refired the band up with new people and had a better attitude, I just naturally found my way into doing it more.

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