Brendon Small of Dethklok
Interviewed by Patrick Rennick on 8/27/2008
Transcribed by Patrick Rennick
Imagine a world where metal reigns supreme. Popular culture is obsessed with everything br00tal. Billions worldwide are headbanging, screaming, and dying for the chance to witness the most extreme and popular band on the planet, Dethklok. Enter Nathan Explosion on vocals, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, the fastest guitarist in the world, Toki Wartooth, the second fastest, William Murderface on bass, and Pickles the drummer. Flip on your television and you’re likely to catch this super group thrashing through an epic metallic number or committing acts of utter stupidity. Welcome to the world of Metalocalypse.
Upon airing on Adult Swim in 2006, this animated series earned Cartoon Network the highest ratings of the year for an original series premiere despite being aired at midnight and running for approximately fifteen minutes. The show was envisioned by comedians Tommy Blancha and Brendon Small. Both also provide voices for a majority of the characters. Small in addition is responsible for composing Dethklok’s blood-soaked hits. Fast forward to the summer of 2008 and Dethklok is on tour supporting their first release, The Dethalbum?!
“What I wanted to do was have a TV show and write all the music for it and try to write one song per episode,” says Small. “And if I did all that stuff and I had a bunch of songs I wanted to put out a CD of songs and I wanted to make them long, full-length songs. And then if I did that I figured there would be a way to tour. So how do you tour with a cartoon band? I went and checked out the Gorillaz and their thing and I thought that was pretty cool but I thought it would be cooler if you actually got to see the musicians and see the guy drum and all that stuff. So, that was the idea.”
Standing outside the Worcester Palladium looking at a line wrapped both ways around the building it’s hard to believe that this long-standing metal venue will be selling out tonight for a cartoon band. The fact that Dethklok has put out the highest charting death metal album of all time is even less believable. And yet when it was released in 2007 the album debuted at #21 on the Billboard 200 alongside mainstream artists such as Maroon Five and Rihanna. Small, however is quite humble about the whole affair as he calmly corrects my initial inquiry regarding my misled belief that The Dethalbum was the top-selling death metal album of all time.
“It’s not the top-selling, it’s the highest charting. I think a lot of death metal albums have us beat because they’ve been around for like 20 years but I don’t know, I definitely thought that there was a little bit of a power of TV behind this that no other bands have so it’s an unfair advantage. We have a TV show, other bands don’t.”
Anyone who is familiar with Small’s first Adult Swim show, Home Movies knows that the Berklee grad’s guitar skill is formidable. However, with Metalocalypse he has embraced his heavy side to create melodic death metal that is chock full o’ shred.
“I grew up playing guitar in suburbia,” recalls Small. “And the first thing you learned was Black Sabbath and then you go from there I was into Metallica and King Diamond and all those bands and then I went to music school and started learning a whole bunch of different stuff but I was always into shred guitar and Paul Gilbert and super guitar geek stuff like Steve Vai and all those things. When I got out of music school I rediscovered metal and it was getting harder and heavier and better produced and lower and more kind of just, you know, cooler all around and it was good to see that it was just growing as much as it had and I figured I want to do a music show and it’s going to be metal and that’s it.”
Space is scarce inside the Palladium as the lights dim and a giant movie projector lights up above the stage. Cheers quickly turn to boos as a commercial begins to play. The angered mob is easily reinvigorated however as the familiar sight of “the tribunal,” a group of religious, political, and military leaders obsessed with meddling in Dethklok’s affairs, fills the screen. This time their dastardly plan involves transforming the audience into a pack of bloodthirsty mutants. A large roar erupts from the audience as the opening riff of “Deththeme” blares forth. The opening sequence of Metalocalypse plays on the giant screen as Small plays below with startling precision. Joining him on stage is perhaps metal’s finest/fastest drummer Gene Hoglan, guitarist Mike Keneally, and bassist Brian Beller. For those of you unfamiliar with those last two, Small sheds some light.
“Mike Keneally is a guy whose career I have been following for a long time. He’s a guitar hero of mine, he played with Frank Zappa and Steve Vai, on keyboards and guitar so he’s just an all-around virtuoso and a super cool guy and I was like if I wanted to put a band together I would be in safe hands and get all the cool stuff in I want to do and do all the double guitars and twin leads and all that stuff so I wanted him to do it. I’ve seen him with Steve Vai a few times. I’ve seen him do guitar clinics before and he was a fan of Home Movies so I met him through that and I was like wow that’s really cool that you dig that because I’ve been a huge fan of yours. He plays with Brian Beller a lot and Brian Beller coincidentally just got off the road with Steve Vai. He also graduated from Berklee College of Music and spent a lot of his time in Boston and all that stuff. So they’re guys that can just do anything. You don’t ask them twice they beat you to the punch and they’re just great players.”
The band is indeed in top form tonight as they relentlessly plow through Dethklok classics such as the “Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle,” “Bloodrocuted,” and “Awaken.” Clips from the show are cut-together overhead in what resembles multiple music videos. Small shows no fear, occasionally coming to the front to rip a solo for the eager fans. He seems completely comfortable on the stage with his band mates. Lately he has after all been spending lots of time with some of metal’s biggest names as they contribute voiceovers for Metalocalypse. To date Small has included members of Arch Enemy, Cannibal Corpse, Metallica, and even King Diamond himself to name a few.
“Friends of friends,” Small casually states. “Metallica was through somebody that was trying to get them to write music for a different show and they were like no, but we love to do cartoon voiceovers. So they were the first ones we got. They didn’t really know what our show was but we explained it to them when they got there and they just wanted to have fun, they just wanted to fuck around and they were cool to hang around with and very delectable.”
As the pummeling riffs of “Murmaider” blast from the speakers the crowd is treated to an exclusive animation that, let’s just say follows the lyrical content of the song quite precisely. For those of you still having trouble just think: mermaids, an extensive selection of weaponry, and brutality. “Go Forth and Die” also features some new animation, mainly an army of skeletons marching endlessly in their caps and gowns. Small growls the chorus several extra times to drive the point home. “Go into the Water” is the last song for the evening and a fitting one with its epic buildup and melodic majesty. Following the song Small delights the crowd by performing the voices of each of the band members and salutes Boston for being brutal before he exits the stage.
Responding to a question regarding the possible filming of Dethklok’s performances before the show Small reveals a serious ethic in creating and maintaining a seemingly ridiculous series.
“I don’t like live albums or live videos. I think it’s boring, I like the record. I like a produced record. I don’t want to be on it. You’ll see, we’re in shadows it’s not about us, it’s not about what we look like, it’s about what we sound like. The show is above us. And I don’t even know how we’d direct that or cut it together and I also kind of don’t give a fuck. I’m sure we’d sell it but I don’t like the idea and if I don’t like it then I don’t want to do it. That’s the whole thing. The worst critics of the show are us, the people that make it. We’ll let some stuff out that we’re like ok it’s just about time and budget. If we could fix it we would, if we had the budget to, but we’ve gotta fuckin’ deliver this yesterday. There are moments where I’m very happy and there are moments when I’m very disappointed and yeah it’s rare that I’m happy with the show, I just never am. When I finish an episode I turn my back on it, it’s gone. I’m working on the next one. I don’t even remember what that episode was about.”
The show is over and the lights are turned on. The dazzled crowd shifts towards the exits with looks that describe one of the most enjoyable bludgeonings they have ever received. Small is no doubt wasting little time on the tour bus working on new Metalocalypse episodes, one of which will be given 30-minutes of airtime. He is a busy man with a hectic schedule and yet beneath it all one can see another metal head, a music fan through and through living his dream.
“I think my two favorite records of last year were the new Enslaved and Gojira, the one with the whale on the cover, says Small. “That was a pretty badass record. I was blown away by both of those. I like it when people throw a bit of melody in here and there and if the song is just well written. I’m a dork when it comes to songwriting. I like you know, The Beatles. Queen is like my favorite band. I love The Who, I just love people who can make a song that is great and the majority of you want to hear again.”