Chaos meets the inventor of head-smashing animated series ‘Metalocalypse’, Brendon Small!

After being somewhat of a ‘Metalocalypse’ geek over the past two seasons,  it was escaping my imagination that I was about to meet the man behind not only the most metal show in television history, be it animated or not but also the musical genius behind the ‘Biggest  and most brutal band on the planet’…DETHKLOK!.  One thing is for sure, it was one of the hardest interviews to conduct do to the serious comedic skills of Mr.Small, we probably laughed as much as we conversed.  Come nerd out with me in this most BROOTAL sit-down with Brendon Small, aka ‘Nathan Explosion’, ‘Skwisgaar Skwigelf’, and ‘Pickles the drummer’.

Chaos: Congratulations on your sophomore release ‘Deth Album II’,  that landed six spots higher than it’s predecessor at #15 on billboard’s top 200, sold 45,000 copies in it’s first week and was at par with Megadeth’s ‘Endgame’.  Tell us what it’s like to go from zero to sixty at record speed and virtually become a full fledged ‘Rockstar’ over night.

Brendon: When I hear words like that, I think my god I’ve done it, I’m amazing…I’m better than Orson Welles.  Here’s what I think.  Orson Welles could not play the guitar, he did not know anything about animation, and therefore I am better than him.  I do believe that I have written better songs than the Beatles…and if Paul McCartney wants to fight me, I’m very easily found.  I want to make the distinction that I don’t think what I am doing is very great, in case you didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.[laughs]
To answer your question honestly, I’m very happy that people are digging this whole project which is ridiculously worked on by only me and a few other people.  I pretty much keep my head down and work on the show all day…the music is basically for me.  The whole show exists as an excuse for me to play guitar, you know?  I’ve got a dog at home, and if this record sells a lot then I can buy dog food for the dog.

Chaos: The dog in question is the one from your production videos?

Brendon: Yeah, that’s Ernie, you’ll see him eat thumb tacks and all kinds of other stuff.  He’s brought much misery and brutality to my life, but ultimately he’s a good dog.

Chaos: Season Three of ‘Metalocalypse’ includes heavy weight guest appearances such as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Slash, etc.  Is it surreal to now be ‘in-league’ with some of the biggest guitar icons of our time, and do you think there is anything that can happen in the future that will not pale in comparison?

Brendon: Season three does include voices from Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Slash, Scott Ian, Enslaved, Mastodon and more to come, but yeah I still haven’t played with anybody, it’s still me messing around in my home studio.  Bryan Beller who is the live bass player in Dethklok,  is an amazing bass player he played one song on the record.  I usually do all the bass stuff myself but he was in town.

Chaos: Does Gene [Hoglan] do all the drums on the album?

Brendon:  Yup Gene does all the drums, he can do many things.  It’s an amazing honor to play with someone who is not only well versed musically and plays for the song, but is also a VERY cool guy who’s a legend…yeah absolutely.

Chaos: I’ve heard from numerous people that Gene is quite the joker himself…

Brendon: All the guys I hang out with have to have a good sense of humor…

Chaos: It’s more or less a mandatory part of the job…

Brendon: Absolutely!  I think if you start taking stuff too seriously…well you don’t want to be around that guy, you know?  And yeah Gene’s got a fantastic sense of humor.

Chaos: Bringing up Joe Satriani again,  I heard that he gave you a very special gift.  Can you fill us in?

Brendon: The whole idea for the second record was to make it sound better, and doing tiny things just to make everything work better.  It went from me to changing my guitar string gauges, to even changing picks and messing around with different Marshall amps.  I only budgeted a certain amount of time in this big studio we use in LA, to record all the drums, rhythm guitars and bass.  Then I take all those sessions home to my pro-tools HD system that I’ve been slowly upgrading over the years.  We were recording Joe Satriani to do some voices, and he asked me what I was using for my direct line, I said I was using this particular thing, then he said I think I’ve got something that’s even cooler, do you mind if I send it to you?  I was like, no don’t send me any free guitar gear Joe Satriani.  So he sent me this Palmer cabinet simulator, which is like a single rack filtration system.  Basically it’s like if you don’t want it to be too loud and have your neighbors call the cops on you, you can crank your amp and put it through this filtration system and still get nice harmonic overtones.  He also gave me his satchurator pedal which is a really cool pedal that sounded GREAT.  He sat on the phone with me an gave me tech support on how to get great sound.  He’s a natural teacher who’s taught for many years, and you can tell he actually likes teaching.  He was very methodical and clear and was so helpful, it was really cool.

Chaos: Metalocalypse undoubtedly a scathing and unapologetic satire of ‘celebrity-itis’ if you will.  Do you find the majority of metal heads ‘get it’ now, or do you still deal with most purists taking it as a flat out mockery of the music and lifestyle that means as much as life itself to them?

Brendon: [We have a hearty laugh, then Brendon continues] Well that’s a very charged question you ask [still trying not to laugh].  You know what? My philosophy is this:  I did a show before this…

Chaos: Home movies…

Brendon: Yeah Home movies, it was polar opposite, very dry,  Home movies was the kind of show made for the kind of person who would like a show like home movies.  That’s what it was for, we weren’t trying to sell it to anyone else,  and Metalocalypse is made just for the sheer topic [metal], whether or not it goes to the metal world first and is like ‘here’s what this show is about’…people can yay or nay it. My whole thing is, as long as one can understand what we’re doing here, you can hate it and I’ll have respect for you.  I get it when people don’t like a joke or don’t think it’s funny and I have a lot of respect for people who say ‘Not funny…Fuck You!’ but the people who misinterpret or don’t understand the humor I have no sympathy for them and don’t feel like wasting the time explaining to them what the joke is, and if they don’t get it they don’t deserve to.  I don’t want to talk people into this thing.  If you like it you like it, and if you don’t…change the channel, flip it!  Don’t watch it, it’s really OK with me, I will not be offended…it’s part of the whole deal, you know?

Stay tuned for part 2!