Ex Misfits Michale Graves Exxxclusive Interview
Love him or hate him, there's no denying you know who he is. Michale Graves is the young man who fronted the Misfits from 1995-2001 and brought the band back to the forefront of the horror-punk scene. His vocal prowess grew tremendously over the course of two albums, American Psycho and Famous Monsters, establishing himself as a bona-fide talent. Unfortunately, his days with the Misfits and devilocks are up, but he continues to crank out new songs, "Gravy" style. Working with former Misfits drummer, Dr. Chud and two other New Jersey musicians, an upcoming tour and album planned, Graves' new band is set carve up anything in it's path.
-Moe Wyoming
Moe Wyoming: Let's start off with your first solo gig. You have that coming up in South Carolina, what is it, the Ghouls Night Out Fest?
Michale Graves: Uh-huh.
MW: Why did you pick that instead of anywhere near your home in New Jersey or New York?
MG: Well, actually, that gig we're not going to have the whole band there. It's kind of up in the air as far as what we're going to do musically. Everybody's been talking like that's going to be the first gig but it's not going to be.
MW: How did you land that exactly?
MG: Over the Internet. I knew Chud was doing it and a guy that was doing it, I guess, through Chud got in touch with me and just asked.
MW: Is Chud going to be playing live with you?
MG: Yea, Chud's drumming on the new project
MW: Okay, so he's an official member so far.
MG: Yea, definitely.
MW: So who else are we going to see up on stage with you?
MG: Well our bass player, his name is Graham from Fast Times. But that's the thing, he's out on tour with Fast Times right now. He gets back on the 11th, so it's kinda messing everything up as far as rehearsing and getting things together.
MW: And how about on guitar?
MG: Guitar? Thomas Trokey is playing guitar. He's from a band in New Jersey, punk band called the Bolsheviks. He's an old, old friend of mine. We used to play together years ago in a band that I was playing with before I got into the Misfits. We've known each other for years, so he's playing guitar.
MW: What was it about Chud that made you want to work with him on the new project?
MG: I think Chud is brilliant as a musician. His heart and soul is music. We just work so well together. I know how to talk to him when it comes to writing and doing things that we want to do artistically together. We're usually right on track with each other. If not, we know how to get back on track instead of punching each other in the face.
MW: Is he the drummer on all the demo songs that are out there?
MG: No, the drums on those tracks are triggered from a keyboard that I was banging on.
MW: So you're multi-talented with instruments there.
MG: Uh-huh!
MW: What else do you play?
MG: I play guitar, bass, piano…pretty good harmonic player.
MW: very good!
MG: I blow a mean kazoo.
MW: Nice! So are we going to hear any new songs from you anytime soon? How many do you have done aside from the five that are out there on the Net right now?
MG: We're working on a new album right now. We have between 8 and 12 new tunes. But everyone's going to be hearing tons of new music very soon.
MW: Have you got any interest from a label?
MG: Well what we're gonna do. We're gonna tour in September, come the end of September. We'll probably start on the East Coast somewhere and work our way to Los Angeles. Then out in LA we're gonna showcase at the Whiskey, like mid-October. Then we have a recording session out there, photo shoots and stuff like that. Then we're gonna work our way back and probably end in New Jersey.
MW: So you're going coast-to-coast.
MG: Yeah, and hopefully while we're out on the road, the business people, management part of it can find a record company that wants to give us money to do things we wanna do.
MW: As far as all the finances in the band, is that just coming from everyone working?
MG: Yea, right now everybody's working full time jobs.
MW: You must be pretty busy, then.
MG: Yeah!
MW: The new stuff that you're doing now, what would you say is the biggest difference between that and the old stuff you did with the Misfits?
MG: I think it has less of a thrashy-metal edge, it's more dynamic. It's going to be more produced, rather than straight-ahead punk. It's going to have a wider array of, like I said, dynamics. There's gonna be a lot of mid-tempo tunes, there will be some fast stuff. Just more, I don't wanna say…I dare say commercial, but…
MW: I get what you're saying.
MG: I'll get burned at the stake!
MW: I know that in some other interviews I've read with you, I remember you saying you were a Nirvana fan?
MG: YES!
MW: I can pick up a lot of Nirvana-type stuff going on, especially with Wasting.
MG: Yup, yup.
MW: Definitely some of that going on, even with your vocals. That raspy sound.
MG: I was a huge Nirvana fan, I loved the way that they sounded. I loved the way that they wrote tunes. I remember someone handed me a cassette tape of Bleach, actually it was probably Trokey, that gave me the cassette. He was like "listen to this," and it was like oh my God! Bleach was like, when that started coming around, the sounds that were on that album were incredible man, it was like eating dirt! Yea, but I was always a fan, I'm a big fan of big producement, like Pink Floyd, the concept albums, and the Doors, stuff like that. So with the new stuff it's kind of reverting back to that type of roots. With the Misfits it was great because it was always punk rock. We were always playing with the punk rock bands. I was a punk fan, but if you tried to step out of that. It was kind of like, not frowned upon, but the guys in the band were like "well…y'know," because you have to stick to a certain formula. So this, it's just like we're gonna write and we're gonna record it and what it's gonna sound like, that's what it's gonna sound like.
MW: That's cool. Now when you go out on tour are you going to be able to do any Misfits stuff from Psycho or Famous Monsters?
MG: Yeah, we're gonna do the stuff that I wrote and stuff that Chud wrote, which is a bulk of the material.
MW: How come it was never accredited to who exactly wrote what songs in the booklets? It was all just "written by the Misfits."
MG: I don't know. I've asked that question too. Just being young and starting out in this business you need that credit on your albums and that was always an argument of mine. I wanted credit for the stuff that I did.
MW: The only ones that I really know were all you were Dig Up Her Bones and Saturday Night.
MG: Yup.
MW: Other than that I don't know what else you did.
MG: I wrote American Psycho, Walk Among Us, Chud and I wrote The Hunger, I wrote This Island Earth, Blacklight, Shining, On Famous Monsters I did Saturday Night, Witch Hunt, Fiend Club, Scream, I wrote Fiend Without A Face in it's entirety.
MW: Yeah, that's something else I was going to ask you about. Whatever happened with that and Bruiser? How come they never got released?
MG: I heard that Bruiser was released in Europe. I know it's at a whole bunch of festivals. Lion's Gate Films owns the rights to the distribution, which is the same company that distributed American Psycho when it came out. I don't know if it was scheduled for any American release. I think it kind of just had a limited release and they're looking to go straight to video. It's so hard to make money on big screens so they just fucking put it on video.
MW: How about No More Moments, did you write that?
MG: Uhm, yeah! I wrote the lyrics to that. I came in, they had all the music down, all recorded. I had just gotten back from being in Hawaii and I walked into the studio, and I wrote lyrics in a day. We recorded in like two days. I know Doyle and the director of that movie with Chud wrote all that music. It's a tremendous song, it's such a good tune.
MW: I have a 30 second audio clip of it on my computer and I'd really like to hear the whole thing.
MG: It's great, but it's such a shame because all the really good tunes that we have done like Saturday Night and Fiend Without a Face and No More Moments, nobody puts that out! They just sit on it or it goes on some obscure fucking vehicle that no one's gonna…it's terrible, man.
MW: I remember you guys did I Wanna Be a New York Ranger and it was like track 99 on some compilation and it wasn't even listed.
MG: Yeah, it's pure underground.
MW: Now I had heard awhile ago that you were planning on redoing Saturday Night, kind of like a different version. Is there any truth behind that?
MG: Yea, there's a couple of tunes that I wanna redo. Definitely Fiend Club. That came out all wrong in the studio.
MW: Well you have to make sure to redo No More Moments, too.
MG: You know what, I think Roadrunner Records was planning on putting out some demo, outtake songs within the next couple of months. I'm not completely sure if that's true. But I've heard that and when it comes to my music I don't know what the hell's going on with it. But supposedly, what I heard from some people, Roadrunners gonna put out some Misfit music in the next couple months.
MW: Why did they never get behind Saturday Night?
MG: I think the record company truly felt that there were stronger tunes, obviously. They really wanted to push Scream! They made the video for it and everything. I strongly disagreed with that, but the record company is not gonna listen to me, I'm just the singer of the band.
MW: So now when you go on tour are you going to keep it the Michale Graves band or are you coming up with a catchy name?
MG: Yea, we're coming up with a name. We were calling the project Graves for awhile. But I didn't want the band to be called my name. No way. It's fine with the guys in the band but just the way that would come across, y'know, with the whole Danzig thing. Everybody in New Jersey names the band after the lead singer, like Bon Jovi…
MW: I'm sure you had enough problems with the Danzig thing when you first started with the Misfits.
MG: Yeah!
MW: Now are you gonna keep the skull makeup going on for your new stuff or is that just a Misfits type deal?
MG: I'm gonna bust it out now and then. I don't think that image is going to be so upfront but I think I'm gonna change it up a bit.
MW: Going from your work with the Misfits from American Psycho to the present, I can definitely tell a really big improvement in your vocal style.
MG: Thank you.
MW: Have you had any training over the years?
MG: Yeah, I've studied with Don Lawrence, who's a teacher, he teaches outta New York City. I started taking lessons from him when I was 21. He taught me his theory and his basics behind his vocal theories. He's one of the best, he's worked with everybody pretty much. I heard Christina Aguilera doing his warm-ups on an MTV show. He's just awesome. So I owe it all to Don Lawrence.
MW: Now you also have an official fan site, run by the WebKitten.
MG: Uh-huh.
MW: How did you find that?
MG: I just kind of stumbled upon it.
MW: Do you think that has helped push your new material and helped your fanbase grow a lot?
MG: Oh, absolutely, it's like a main line into the fanbase, because people who go to that and look at that, those are the hardcore fans. I was amazed, you know I couldn't believe it when I started selling the demo, I thought I was gonna sell 5 or 10 of them, but…
MW: You got a lot of requests for them?
MG: Yea, definitely much more than I expected. I mean I'm not paying my rent with it, but it's so cool, I love going to the P.O. Box and opening it up and there's one or two orders in there, I'm like "yeah!"
MW: So how involved are you with what goes on at the site, weren't you supposed to do a newsletter for it?
MG: Between me working and doing everything that I'm doing here and with what she does, she goes to school, and me being lazy and pulling everything together, things just take a long time. But we're gonna get it together in the next couple of months. I have micahlegraves.com that I have to get up and running and we'll have like a main band website where you can go on and then branch off into everybody else's website. It takes time and I don't want to do it half-assed.
MW: So you said you have michalegraves.com, do you yourself own that or are you working with someone else on that?
MG: I own the name, I own michalegraves.com. So I'm probably gonna have somebody set up the website.
I don't know how to do that shit.
MW: Are you pretty confident that that your fans from the Misfits days are gonna really catch on to what you're doing now?
MG: I think so, I definitely think so. I remember, I don't wanna say arguing about putting Crying on Saturday Night on Famous Monsters, but there were some people who were kinda like," oh, y'know, it's a ballad, it's very different," and people loved it. So I'm confident that people will get it. It's good music. I mean if I came out and did a polka band people would be pissed…
MW: In a little plaid suit…
MG: "You suck!"
MW: Awhile ago you were in a project called the Lost Boys.
MG: Yeah.
MW: Can you tell us a little about that?
MG: Chud and I just wanted to play real bad. We had just gotten home from the road and we just wanted to play. So we just threw a project together and played locally.
MW: So any of the songs you guys did, was that your new material or it's own thing?
MG: We did a couple of new tunes. We did the stuff that's out on Napster, the stuff that's on the demo that I put out, Spiderman Song, we did Wasting, couple a new tunes and then we did a bunch of Misfits tunes.
MW: So what has the reaction been from people you talk to, your friends, people that have heard the new material, what are they telling you about it?
MG: They love it. You know like I said, with the Misfits, I loved writing with the Misfits but it got to a certain point where I couldn't articulate myself as an artist because of the constraints of being in a band that has certain guidelines when they wanted me to write. So there's kinda like a sound that we were going for.
MW: So are you in total control of all the songs now?
MG: Everybody in the band is. Everybody is pretty much going in the same direction and that's what good about working with 3 other people, when everybody has a common goal in the common direction. If they feel that maybe something that I'm doing is maybe stepping off the path a little bit you have those 3 people to pull you back in to the focus, so everybody's pretty much on the same page.
MW: On the Misfits 25th anniversary tour you appeared at a few shows, how come you weren't at the Chicago one?
MG: I had to go to court in Town's River. My landlord took me to court because he's a douchebag.
MW: So are you still in contact with anyone from the band? I know, obviously, Chud, and from what I've heard with Doyle.
MG: Yeah, Doyle and I still speak, we continue to work musically together. I know he's writing stuff. But yeah, we remain in contact and we remain working together musically.
MW: That's cool. So is he going to be involved with some of the new stuff?
MG: Yea, probably. If not this stuff, Doyle and I will definitely play again with Chud. We definitely plan to record. With Doyle it's another one, it's like your girlfriend, there's just certain people that, y'know with Doyle we're always on the same page when it comes to writing. We can sit down and he knows where I'm coming from and I know where's he's coming from. You know how to relate to somebody, again, when you think that they're stepping off their path artistically or musically. I mean writing with Doyle is just awesome.
MW: How are things with you and Jerry these days?
MG: Jerry?
MW: Yeah.
MG: I don't speak to Jerry. Jerry doesn't call me. I don't call him.
MW: Did you guys have a bit of a falling out there towards the end?
MG: Jerry and I just never understood each other. I think him more not understanding me, or not wanting to understand me. When I joined the band I was 20 years old and he's twice my age. So it's hard coming from my mindset…I was a fucking 20-year-old! I was doing the things that a 20-year-old does. He had been in the business for awhile, and like I said, relating to each other from where we came from and from things that I wanted to do, we were like two ships in the night man, just constantly passing each other by. It's unfortunate.
MW: With your new stuff, what are you looking forward to the most, going on the road?
MG: I'm looking forward to going on the road, standing up on stage and seeing all the people in all the different cities and playing these tunes and just playing with everybody again. There's nothing like standing up on stage and playing a tune and everybody's playing with you. Everybody's singing and everybody's dancing, it's awesome. I miss that so much.
MW: When you're on the road and you're going from city to city, what do you do to pass time?
MG: I like to read, I write a lot.
MW: Songs or fiction?
MG: I write poems, mostly. I'll write short stories now and then but mostly poems. A lot of verse. I've filled notebooks with shit, and I smoke a lot of pot!
MW: On the subject, what do you think of pot and LSD? Nothing hardcore, though.
MG: Uhm, I'm not a big fan of LSD just because I'm afraid of things that I'm gonna see. But I'm a big natural fan. I'll eat mushrooms. But I'm all for it, you know you gotta expand your mind. As long as you don't first thing in the morning wake up, smoke a joint, eat some mushrooms and go to work and you're falling down at work. But definitely, it's all good. As long as you get your shit done, it's all good.
MW: When you write your poems on the road, what influences you that makes that come out of your head and onto paper?
MG: Whatever's going on around me. Life in general.
MW: For American Psycho, were you influenced by the book? I'm assuming so because of the lyrics of that song.
MG: At that time I was reading American Psycho. More of the underlying theme of what was going on with that character, I guess his obsessive compulsive psychology part of it was what inspired me. Because I related to that character, so a lot of that I wanted to write for American Psycho revolved around that, the psychology of that character.
MW: Have you seen the movie?
MG: Yea, I didn't really like it. I didn't get the ending. I watched American Psycho in a hotel room in Las Vegas. I remember it perfectly, but I didn't like the casting of it and I didn't like the way it was edited. The ending blew.
MW: Now you were also in some movies, You were in Animal Room, ICP's Big Money Hustlas and Bruiser. What was it like working with ICP, because I really thought that was one of the funniest films I've seen.
MG: I didn't spend that much time with them. It was more kind of like, "hi, bye." But that movie was directed by John Cafiero, who's a good friend of mine who now manages the Misfits and directed Dig Up Her Bones and American Psycho.
MW: So you got the hookup through him?
MG: Yea, he was directing the movie and I love working with John Cafiero. As a film director he's just awesome. He's just one of those people that's able to take what's in his head or somebody else's head and put it down on a tangible form and make it like you wanted to see it in your head. He's a really talented guy and it was great working with him.
MW: So if you ever had any opportunities to be in movies again world you go for it?
MG: Yea, I plan on starting to act again. I always wanted to act.
MW: Now before the Misfits you were in a band called Bambi Slam and also, Mulch
MG Yeah!
MW: Is there one more I'm forgetting?
MG: Valmont.
MW: Are there any recordings that exist with you on them from any of those bands?
MG: Yea, there's stuff that I did. Bambi Slam became Social Outcast because we heard that there was another band called Bambi Slam. So we changed the name. A good friend of mine that I grew up with, one of my best friends in the world, Frankie Vitello, played in that. It was me him and two other guys, Scott Donahue and Mike Rhodes. Mike Rhodes now plays in a bluegrass band, he's on Sub Pop records. But Frankie burned me a whole CD of all these tunes that we used to do. There's like studio versions of it. So I know stuff from Bambi Slam exists. There's probably stuff from Valmont that exists but I haven't spoken to any of those guys in awhile. Troekey still has contacts with some people so I dunno. And as far as Mulch, I don't talk to any of those guys anymore. I mean, we were in the studio so there's gotta be stuff somewhere in this world down on tape.
MW: About today's music scene, what do you think of anything from Britney Spears and her pop stuff to Limp Bizkit and their rap-metal.
MG: I think it's too merchandise-based. Everybody's worried about their charts and their graphs and it's gotta look like this. A lot of big corporations like McDonald's, Pepsi and big money fucking huge world organizations are pumping money into record companies.
MW: So we'll never see Michale Graves collector figures at McDonald's?
MG: That'd be cool as hell! But my point is a lot of these bands that come out now I think, there's just not that much focus on good music. Not saying that Britney Spears and all those bands don't have talent, but there's just something that's missing in all that music. Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe I'm just such an introvert that I just, I'm a pretty strange guy, maybe I just don't get it.
MW: As you were saying, all these companies putting promotion into different bands, the Misfits had a little bit of that, too, because you guys had that deal with 21st Century Toys. How come we never saw a Mike or Chud doll?
MG: Because it was a Misfits deal.
MW: On the side of the package it had a picture of you and of Chud and it said "coming soon."
MG: Oh, of course, but nobody ever approached me about any merchandise type stuff. It was always Jerry first and, or Doyle next. I don't know. Nobody ever talked to me about merchandise. I would love to have a doll.
MW: These days, what kind of music have you been listening to?
MG: I've been listening to a lot of the Police. That's the CD that's in my car right now. I've been listening to the local radio station around here a lot. They play a lot of, in the morning they'll play Pink Floyd, shit like that. The new Stone Temple Pilots album is cool. It starts out real fast and then it kinda mellows out, they get real tranquil.
MW: How about movies or books?
MG: I've been watching a lot of surf videos. I saw Final Fantasy. It was really good. I would like to go see it again because the first time I was sitting there I was like "I can't believe this is animation, I can't believe people drew this." But it's tremendous, it's really cool. I'm looking forward to Planet of the Apes. I gotta go see Jurassic Park 3.
MW: Well, as far as questions, I think that's about it.
MG: Cool. Good talking to you.
For info on how to order Mike's demo check out his official Website, "The Ultimate Michale Graves Fan Site," at: www.angelfire.com/punk/michalegraves/main.html
Posted by Alex Zander at November 1, 2003 12:00 AM