Live Concert Shots By The Reverend Ivan Stang
Note: Gwar's music is often dissed for being sloppy, meaningless, heavy-metal, when in truth they are extremely tight and their latest album, Rag Na Ršk, displays surprising dynamics and technique.
This might sound silly at first (it is filled with self-parody). Gwar actually have serious political messages they hope will enlighten their mostly young, punk and heavy-metal audience. As their fire-juggling Dominatrix Slymenstra Hymen (she doesn't actually play an instrument but she's a vital part of the stage show) explains about their latest album and stage show, Rag Na Ršk:
"It's about the plague, the end of the world, how everything's deteriorated, how Rag Na Ršk is going to come and destroy the world, and he ends up being our archenemy Cardinal Sin. I find it a whole morality play. If you want to talk about it metaphorically it's the same old "we're all gonna die doom and gloom" prophecy. (Laughter). It's like the Celestial Prophesy in a lot of ways because of the doom and gloom theme, but in the end there's a rocket ship that comes with Cardinal Sin who's there to question everyone's morality, even though he isn't moral."
Goblin Magazine: But you gave birth to a baby on stage, then he took the baby, but it didn't seem like you got it back.
SH: I did get him back. It was their whole plot and scheme. First of all, Cardinal Sin banishes me to this insignificant mud ball planet so that me and Oderus would create a power child; but I never gave in to Oderus Urungus because he's not enough of a man for me, (laughter) nothing will satisfy me. So Cardinal Sin sends his aliens down to steal Oderus's semen, they inseminate me, (much like the immaculate conception) then I have the baby. Then the Cardinal's Sinabite warriors come and steal the baby from me. That's what they power Cardinal Sin with because he needs the most ultimate pure soul. In the end when we kill Cardinal Sin I pull the baby out of the Cardinal and try to save him, but I end up killing my baby. But that's the only way we could stop the war so it had to be done. My poor baby.
GM: Does Gwar tackle specific political issues or are you broadly antiestablishment?
SH: Gwar does tackle issues but I don't know if we actually offer any solutions. Every year we have a song that deals with AIDS. One year the show opened with Prestige, they were a club act that opened their show with a song called HIV+. It was a song that we wrote.
GM: Ween sing a song just like that.
SH: But we wrote it first. It's not that they copied us. It's on everyone's mind and a lot of times artists have the same ideas because we've all been raised from the same kind of media imagery. Their version uses circus music while ours had a techno dance beat sound and whispered (sexy voice) H.I.V. I think AIDS is a big issue with us because someone very close to the band who helps writes a lot of the lyrics died of AIDS. The AIDS issue or any issue that we talk about is in our psyche and that's how it comes out. As with any artists what we're thinking about is what our art becomes to be about.
GM: It seems Gwar and a lot of bands could use subtitles to make your message comes across more clearly. Older critics seem to be confused about what you're talking about.
SH: Remember those songs that had the bouncing ball over the words? We had that one year during a song because we had a rear screen projection, but we haven't done that since. We're still trying to master the round of theatrics, our message comes across better in the comics. We thought we made ourselves more clear this year but maybe not.
I wish our albums were out longer before we went on tour, because Rag Na Ršk was only out for four weeks before we started touring, and that doesn't really give the fans enough time to absorb the album. I think if people listened to the records before they came to the shows they'd understand it more. The album's liner notes explain the whole Rag Na Ršk story. It's in the form of a tabloid newspaper, and it says the calendar earthlings have been living on is wrong, we're already at 1999 and its the end of the world. The newspaper explains all the plot's nuances. It explains the idea of the comet, so while watching the show if you don't know about the comet how are you going to understand what's happening when we only refer to it in one line of dialogue? We don't have much time for dialogue because we have to keep the rock aspect going, going, going. We can't have huge pauses in between or it will slow the show down.
We're creating this incredible art and we're trying to perfect it so people do understand. Every year we have a plot but we don't know whether the audience is really getting it or not.
GM: When you get too old to rock n' roll do you think you'll become avant garde film makers, perhaps work with sci-fi movies?
SH: Yeah, but not just on the B side. I think a lot of us will step into the mainstream in a lot of ways. We'll work on animation, big-budget movies, children's television ...
GM: Children's television?
SH: Oh yeah, I want to do a lot of educational TV and CD-ROMS. A whole generation of kids are going to be brought up on the computer and there's going to be a huge need for intelligent media for them, and I'm interested in doing a lot of that. A lot of people think I'm this shake and grind crazy woman but deep down I'm not. It's a role I play, it's a role I created - it does stem from my personality but it's real exaggerated.
SH: Oh yeah, Slymenstra is someone I created when I was younger; not that I'm super old or anything, but I was a lot more there when I created her than I am now. Now I feel I'm portraying an older side of myself when I do her. It's definitely more of an act then it used to be. Back then I had this youthful anger, angst thing, where I was all, "ROAAAARR! I'm gonna kill all men!" Now I've leveled off a bit, I've learned different things about life. I'm trying to emulate the character and I try to think about it a lot more. It still lives through me though. I still feel as if there's some kind of beauty coming and taking over and I'm transcending when I'm doing it. It's like stepping into another reality.
GM: What kinds of mythical women characters is Slymenstra Hymen based on?
SH: Almost every female icon there is. In fact I've claimed them as if they were her, because she's been alive forever. That's how I try to portray her in my comic books. In my comics I try to bring out the fact that while men were out hunting women were in the communities creating the medicinal arts, crafts, etc.
In the olden days men didn't understand why women were menstruating and didn't know it was associated with procreation, so they were in great fear of it. They didn't understand how women could bleed and not die. So I always play up on that.
GM: You seem to be preoccupied with menstruation. Why is that?
SH: Probably because I have female problems. (In Slymenstra voice). But I don't see it as a problem, I see it as a blessing. A blood blessing ... a blood sacrifice. (Laughter). She's based a lot on Medusa who metaphorically stands for: The menstruating women's glance will turn a man to stone. It was the icon that represented men's fear of menstruation. What I've done throughout art history is taken women that I felt artists portrayed poorly and re-portray them to show how men do fear women; and how easy it is to win a man over with her beauty, scare the pants off him, etc.
GM: Will Slymenstra Hymen become a porn star?
SH: Hell, no. I'm not into porno. But it's such a weird line and it's something I argue with myself a lot. I am a dancer, I do turn men on, I'm sure there are men out there who beat off to me and that makes me feel very weird. I don't really feel like the world needs to see my body naked, like the nudes I did were fun, and ...
GM: I thought Slymenstra would be more of an exaggerated parody.
SH: Totally. I want to wear my rubber pussy and get it in porn magazines, but I want to be stretching my pussy lips four feet out and make it really absurd.
That whole genre of women out there who are trying to change pornography, and make it more controlled by women and less violent; though I find it very intriguing I don't think it's something I want to be a part of. There's a picture where I'm a snake and my tits are showing; and people say to me, 'God, you're selling your tits to people.' But to me that's a piece of my artwork, I've got to be able to use my body in my artwork, yet I don't want people to beat off to my artwork.
I have been offered chances to do porno CD-ROMS but I'm not interested in exploiting myself that way; I just don't think my head can deal with it. But I do want to do movies and TV; action adventure films with love scenes. And love scenes are like porno, they just don't show penetration. It's a much more positive environment that way. And I'm around more of the right people. I don't want to be around sleazy gross men that make me sick.
GM: What kind of obscenity offends you?
SH: I wouldn't say I'm very offended by anything. I don't like those people that make those porn/slash movies where they kill people. Child pornography isn't cool, it's not cool to steal innocence from children like that. But for adults there is a market for it and I don't think pornography is totally offensive for all people. I think some people need it. It might very well be a social goodness that men who don't have female company have some sort of outlet, so that they don't go out and rape women. While some people feel pornography does increase rape. I don't know where I stand on the issue. I don't watch it at home. Occasionally I like a sexy movie but not with penetration. That's more of a male thing. Men get off on the sight of something. While dancers like me are just up there teasing guys and making it a hot commodity you can make money off of; it's insane but that's the way it is. So men like it, people buy it, and you end up falling into it whether you like it or not. I like to be someone people desire, I like to think people think I'm good looking and people like what I do, but sometimes it bothers me.
GM: Do you think Heavy Metal dudes are reactionary in a sense, that they'll always be in the same world as they were when they were fifteen, and just stay there as the rest of the world changes? It's almost like the Republicans wanting to keep America in the 50's.
SH: Totally, they're stuck there. They get older but they still look the same. Most of our audience are total meatheads. The more famous you get the more meatheads are in your audience. The whole society is this way. I always felt that Gwar could be conceived on so many intellectual levels but the person who's going to go to the shows, and throw their bodies around, and beat themselves up, theyŐre just going to enjoy themselves on that level. We once played at New Haven Connecticut and I had an interesting conversation after the show with people who go to Yale. They were making all these metaphors and drawing comparisons to Greek literature. So it depends on who you are for what you get out of Gwar.
Of course I would prefer it if we had an intelligent audience, then it would make me feel like what I was doing made a difference. Half the time I feel all I'm doing is shaking my ass because that's all the audience is getting out of it; rather than them understanding the feminine image of me hitting a guy over the head with a tampon.
GM: So you think the audience sees you more as a sex symbol than a feminist icon?
SH: I think they see me as a sex symbol and they don't know I'm a female icon, but I am, so I am invading their psyche whether they like it or not. What's dominating the comic book world, and some movies, are these strong feminine images; whether society realizes thatŐs what they're falling in love with or not. That's how we affect them, rather then bluntly saying: "We're strong women, we're not frivolous sex objects." Sexuality is a wonderful thing and we do need to talk about and show it. We don't want to have to hide it. It frees me up a lot to run around stage half-naked and beat guys up. I want to be feminine and sexy. I don't want to feel I have to cover up my body.
GM: Do you like Beavis & Butt-head or are you insulted that they're your only mainstream source of publicity?
SH: It's kind of insulting MTV doesn't put us on anything besides Beavis & Butt-head. To me MTV, who cares? That is the most boring station ever now. Who wants to watch all these dumb dating games? It's not even music anymore, it's just dumb. That's probably why we're only on Beavis & Butt-head because everything else is too dumb. They're funny. (Laughter). They're great satire, I love the way they perceive everything and make jokes about it.
When Gwar first started out we dreamed of having our own MTV Gwar show, with movies, music, and animation. But when you think of selling your soul and your merchandising rights and everything . . . An artist creates something great, they sign it over to them and they own everything. I'd rather not.
GM: What kind of lover is Oderus Urungus? Are his farts smelly?
SH: Huh-Huh. Are his farts smelly? He has really loud farts, the only reason I know that is because I live on a tour bus with him. But I don't know what kind of lover he is because I would never let that skanky piece of frail man near me. His cock isn't nearly large enough for my gaping huge toothy tootsie-clam. I haven't found a real man yet. All men break in my clutches. We need to put out a nation wide search for a boyfriend, my phone number if anyone wants to ask me out for a date is ...