ZODIAC MINDWARP HAS A FASCINATION FOR NAZIS AND SPENDING OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY. INBETWEEN PURSUING SUCH ACTIVITIES, HE'S MANAGED TO MAKE AN ALBUM CALLED "HOODLUM THUNDER". GARRY SHARPE-YOUNG INVESTIGATES
ZODIAC MlNDWARP What a rad dude, eh? Casting an eye over this slightly-built, somewhat gawky bloke bedecked in an old sea salt yellow rubber sou'wester (it's raining. y'see), you really wouldn't think so. ZODE the physical entity suffers from being far too short for his photos, but more than makes up for this by having quaint traits, such as action men hanging from the ceiling of his flat.
Following perfunctory 'Hellos'. We are motioned out and led at a quick pace to the local pub. Surprisingly, ZODIAC gets the round in.
Until this point I admit to being disappointed. However, when the tape recorder began to roll and the man started to philosophise, suddenly all the wacky photo sessions, the dodgy boilers and trippy videos began to associate themselves with this chap supping beer In front of me. Whatever one thinks of his musical merit this guy can sure talk!
Right now, of course, he's here to promote his new album, "Hoodlum Thunder" his first since leaving/getting the boot from Phonogram where he succeeded in laying waste to their bank accounts and generally making an obnoxious git of himself.
Before delving into matters musical I couldn't help but notice ZODE cramming a battered copy of William H. Shirer's "Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich" into his fisherman (Kriegsmarine?) jacket. With a Profusion of psychedelic stalhelms, Iron crosses and all things military in this book, I casually enquired as to whether Hitler and his cronies are a Lemmy-like obsession with the man.
"Oh, it's a classic!' he enthuses.' I read it when I was about 17, but it just seemed like time to read it again. I actually find it all pretty relevant to whats happening today, y'know. I mean, the Croats started the last war, didn't they?"
Well, that's an arguable point, but I do concede that the Croats did end up on the wrong side and enough of the buggers enrolled en masse into the SS to warrant the formation of a Muslim division ('Handschar'). But what, pray, has this to do with the new ZODIAC LP?
"Absolutely bugger all!" he reckons quite rightly. So what have you been up to between albums, besides genning up on Nazis?
"Got married. Got divorced. Er...Sired another sprog, been in and out of shit studios. I tell you, I've got enough material for a f**king quadruple album! Instead of releasing that or a double album I thought that I'd just sheer it down to one album of the best stuff. Just because my ugly face hasn't been splattered all over the magazines every week people think I've either ended up dead or got a job roadsweeping. Cobalt (Stargazer guitar) has been bored shitless."
Will any of that excess material be released? B sides, maybe?
"I'm sure that it will. You can't release a double album unless you are talented in the extreme or seriously deluded. It's biting off more than you can chew a bit like Hitler attacking Russia. So you can see that I haven't been festering in the dosshouse. I have been working very, very hard.
Maybe it's more noticeable with yourself doing a Howard Hughes on us, because when you were in the press it was in such an OTT way...
"Right, yeah too right! It really bummed me out because it took me a while to realize that I could actually avoid all that press. It didn't really occur to me that it was happening, but then I thought. 'Hang on, you're going to all these silly parties where all these guys have telephoto lenses and are scribbling notes'. So I just stopped going to those places one day."
So how much of the grimy gossip was propagated as record company propaganda, and how much was just you being genuinely weird?
"I think most of it was the record company, I really don't know. Believe me, it's not very pleasant waking up with a hangover, then seeing a magazine with a photo of yourself, pants around the ankles asleep in a Soho gutter!"
OK, let's get onto more tenable matters, and your new record company. Why choose to sign to Musidisc?
"To be honest, they were the only ones who would have the album! They're like the South America of the record industry. They've got 2 LIVE CREW as well! We got turned down by literally every record label in the world bad reputation, man!"
Surely with all those videos and all that exposure, you must have sold a lot of records?
"Yeah, we did. We spent a lot of Phonogram money as well! We left owing close to a million quid. Honestly, we would have to have outsold MADONNA and MICHAEL JACKSON to start recouping. So it wasn't in their interests to do another album with us, because they would have to sell too many to make it worthwhile.
Doesn't that ever prey on your mind?
"Nah!. That's what managers are for. So you can pretend all that extremely tedious stuff doesn't exist. Yeah when we got signed, there were eight major labels chasing us, and of course none of them cared about the band they just wanted to sign ZODIAC MINDWARP because someone else also did. It was a bidding war and we ended up on a label who didn't want us in the first place, they just wanted to stop someone else getting us."
Are people to expect more of the same on this new album, or has your self-imposed hermitage brought about radical musical changes?
"It's a natural progression," he mimicks, patiently taking the piss. "It's the same band with the same weird lyrics. I'd say the musicianship a little bit better. It's still in extremely poor taste and still loud as hell.
Are we to see more extravagant videos to back all this up?
"The last video for the single "Elvis Died For You" cost us £4,000, which is f**k all! I'm really pleased with it, as well, it got shown on The James Whale Show between dream girls and Adonis men of Hollywood, which was great timing. It's a performance video with Priscilla Presley dancing seminaked in the foreground in a karate suit. It's quite poetic, because in real life Priscilla left Elvis for her karate instuctor. It's pretty tasteless really, just like the book you mentioned earlier!"
Back to Nazis again? C'mon ZODIAC, why the interest?
"Just an unhealthy interest. I suppose for the same reason people read real life murder books, or are fascinated by devil worship. It's just so extreme. I find it fascinating that a bunch of loonies who were so obviously completely off their trolley ruled a whole country for so long! It was the end of history as we know it. Hitler was the last great adventurer, conqueror and absolute
bastard really. He was like Alexander The Great or Napoleon. We won't see their like again."
Some people would find your lyrics pretty extreme too. Are they born out of any of your morbid fascinations?
"Yeah, I suppose so. I'm totally into extremes in all forms, and reading about such things brings on an even more extreme amplification of extreme thoughts within yourself. There's no admiration - just fascination. I'm not about to conquer Poland!"
Maybe not, but you are set to go out and conquer Great Britain again, by way of a UK tour. Do you expect to see the same old faces again, or new ones?
"The same old, disgusting, crusty urchins scurried out of their burrows on the last show. I think they've been waiting for all this Dance crap to disappear."
The ZODIAC MlNDWARP tour (with ZODE joined by Cobalt Stargazer, drummer
Slam Thunderhide and new bassist Suzy X.) should be quite a revelation. He may not have cash to burn anymore, but somehow I think ZODIAC's music could well be better off for it!
