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Mike Duda is one of those people without whom W.A.S.P. surely
wouldn’t be what it is today. He’s the bass-player that have stayed the longest
with the boys. He’s the one that have seen the reunion of Blackie and Chris,
played on the legendary Kill Fuck Die album, and the terrorizing tour
that followed. And he’s now on rehearsals with the rest of the band for the new
Best-Of album, which should hit the shelves early next year. Still, there’s so
little we know about him… Well, now is the time to ask him a little bit more, as
W.A.S.P.
WARRIORS had the chance to
conduct an exclusive interview with the man himself !
W.A.S.P. WARRIORS (Thomas
“ulti” Inglebert) : Hey, Mike, how are you
today ?
Mike Duda : Well…, it’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon
here, and I just woke up ten minutes ago ! (laughs)
OK, well sorry for waking you up just for the interview
before breakfast ! (laughs) So, first of all, congratulations to you, because
you’re the bass-player who stayed the longest with W.A.S.P. so far !
Thanx, it’s been great !
By the way, do you have any news of Johnny Rod, the former
bass-player ?
No, we don’t know each other, we’ve never been acquainted… I don’t honestly know
what he’s doing know… Maybe Stet would know more about him, cos he stayed in
touch a little bit more. I thought Johnny was great though ! I remember seeing
him on the “Circus” tour, and he was a hell of a showman !
I think what we would like to know here in Europe, is a
little bit more about your first years, how you were raised and everything…
Well, I was born in Connecticut, in a town called East Heven. I come from a
pretty much European family, my Mom is from Germany, my Dad’s Polish, and I was
the only child, you know, just me ! I had a really good childhood, I never came
home and said “I’m gonna burn the whole fucking house” or anything…
And how did you discover music, and found out that you wanted
to be a musician ?
I was in a store back home called “Bradley”, I was in the 2nd grade,
and I saw the KISS Alive II album, and I looked at it, and went “look at
these fucking guys !” (laughs) So I went to my Dad, and I pointed the album at
him, and he bought it for me. And ever since that day, I knew that was what I
wanted to do, so I started to get into music as a young kid, and I was very
intrigued by the whole thing.
I know that Blackie and Chris were raised very religiously,
was it the same for you ?
Yeah, I was raised a Catholic, but you know… I had to make my Communion, and I
had to do all that, but it was never forced on me. Where I’m from, everyone went
to religious instruction on Saturdays and everything. But now… I mean, I believe
in God, but I’m not overbearing with it.
Well, I think we’ll come back to that a little bit later
on, about the KFD tour…
Yeah, the nun and everything ! (laughs)
Right
! But for now, could you tell us in which bands you were in before joining
W.A.S.P. ?
I was in a band right before W.A.S.P. called “V.D.”, with Steven Pearcy from
Ratt, for two years or so. And before that, it was just a bunch of local bands
in L.A., playing on the Strip, drinking whisky at the Roxy and everything.
So how did you join W.A.S.P. ,
did you know someone from the band ?
I knew Chris. Me and Chris knew each other for
a while, through a mutual friend of ours, which I’ve known for about 10 or 11
years myself. I met Chris at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, …and I’ll be there in 5
minutes by the way (laughs)… So I ran into Chris at the Rainbow, and I didn’t
know he was back in W.A.S.P. yet. I saw a patch on his jacket, a W.A.S.P. patch,
and I started asking him about it. So he said “yeah, me and Blackie are back
together, and it’s fucking great”, and I went “well, I’ll go join W.A.S.P. right
now then”, but I was just joking. But he went “yeah, we’re looking for a
bass-player, you wanna come down ?”. And I was drunk like a monkey, so I said
“yeah, I’ll fucking join the band right now !”. So I got this call, two days
later, and that’s about when I came home, two days later (laughs) , and it was
a call from Chris, and he said (imitating Chris’ very particular voice) “hey,
this is Chris, you wanna meet Blackie ?” And I said “yeah, just let me clean
myself up !” (laughs) . So we went out for lunch, and we really got along. It
was really cool. It seems like something I really wanted to do, specially when I
met everybody, and they were talking about the KFD album and everything. And
Blackie told me about the pig, the nun, and his plans about what he wanted to do
that year.
So the nun and the pig were already planned at that time ?
Yeah, it was the beginning of all that. And I thought to myself “this is fucking
sick, this is something I really wanna do !” (laughs) And I knew it was
something I could fit in, because it is not your average rock band, and I didn’t
wanna be in an average rock band anymore. At this point in my career, I didn’t
wanna just go up there and do songs, I wanted to do a real show and everything.
Well, that surely was a show ! (laughs)
Yeah, you know, when you look out at the crowd, and you look at a kid, and he’s
really fucking confused, cos there’s shit flying out everywhere ! Anyway, this
is pretty much how it went, we hanged out for some time, and one night we played
“The Real Me”…
The bass line at the beginning of this song is just
awesome !
Yeah, I love playing that song ! It’s one of my favorite songs to play… So we
played “The Real Me”, I think we played it 3 times, and that’s it ! Next thing I
know, I woke up the next morning and I was in W.A.S.P. ! (laughs)
So, how is it to work with Blackie and Chris ? Are there any
good and bad points ?
It’s good ! Blackie’s a perfectionist. He accepts nothing but the best. So
you’ve got to give 100%. As long as he knows that you’re trying, and you’re
giving 100%, everything works fine. And playing with Chris… well… (laughs) it’s
like riding a roller coaster without a seat belt ! You never know what’s coming
around the fucking corner ! (laughs) I like playing live with Chris on stage,
because he can rock ! If I’m getting tired, I just got to turn around and look
at him… Playing on stage with those guys is incredible.
Yeah, if you look at Chris during “Sleeping In The Fire”…
He’s banging his head ‘til there’s sweat everywhere ! (laughs) So… I really
didn’t have any bad experience with W.A.S.P. so far… The only bad experience
that happened a few times is when I got objects throwing at me when we’re
playing live, like bottles flying at my head. But I don’t recall any fighting or
anything like that. I gotta admit that I’m pretty smooth. I actually get along
with Chris, on the Helldorado tour, really good. I hung out with him a
lot, and we got to get even better friends than we were on the KFD tour.
Did you know that Blackie
called bass a “tool for ignorant”, that’s why he got back on guitar ? (laughs)
Mmmh… no comment ! (laughs)
OK, let’s change subject ! Are you surprised how strong the
fan dedication is towards W.A.S.P. ?
Well… The kind of band W.A.S.P. is, usually get very loyal fans, because it is
as much underground and a cult band as it is commercial. When you look at bigger
bands, like Metallica, they used to be this underground band, and they used to
have this very loyal fan base at the beginning. I’m not saying that W.A.S.P.
isn’t a big important band, but we still have this underground status. And a
band like W.A.S.P. is not afraid to take so many chances, and go out there and
push the limits, and to question what’s socially… questionable ! (laughs)
About that, when you joined W.A.S.P. for the KFD album and
tour, what did you first think about the nun, the pig, and everything ? Did you
like it, or did you think it was a little too much ?
I think it was perfect for what we were doing. I thought it fit. It fit the
album, and it was perfect. It’s all theatrics anyway, and if you’re gonna do
that stuff, you gotta push the limits. What you did to shock people ten years
ago is not gonna shock them now. What bands like W.A.S.P. and Alice Cooper did
years ago is not shocking anyone now, but back then it was “holy shit, look at
what these fucking guys are doing”. So I really loved the thing with the nun,
except that in some places like Milan, where people are very religious, we had
to have a heavy security. But there’s a cool feeling of danger while you’re
doing it, because you know that what you’re doing is pissing off some people on
the outside so bad, and there’s a good chance they’re gonna do something drastic
about it. So that adds to the show, that sense of danger, and that kinda makes
it fun. But I know that there was a lot of girl fans that didn’t like that…
The rape ?
Yeah, but it was more the fetus thing… So now we just pull it out of Marilyn
Manson ! (laughs)
About this tour, actually, it has been sort of cancelled
because of Blackie’s arm… Is he feeling better ?
Yeah, we’re looking at January / February… I think it will be better anyway. I
mean, I’m ready to go on tour any minute, I’m ready to go right now, but he’s
got to rest his arm, and it gives us more time to prepare for it.
Do you know why you didn’t come to France this time ? Is it
because there’s no so many fans here ?
No, I don’t like to believe that, because we played in France last time, when we
did our seven-shows warm up, remember ? And we played in France and it was
packed. And it was fucking one of the best shows! It was a real blast ! So… you
know, I was so fucking jetlagged by the time we came to Norway, that I didn’t
even realized that we didn’t play in France until I was on the plane going home
! (laughs) You know, we played in Sweden, and it doesn’t get dark there ! It’s
always fucking sunlight. It was so bizarre, I couldn’t sleep.
Well, this time I came to London to see you guys…
Oh, you came to the Astoria ?
Yeah, it was sold out, lucky for me I bought my ticket in
advance !
So what did you think of it ? Did you enjoy it ?
Sure, it was so fucking great, with the cocaine at the very
end…
(laughs) The cocaine was a great idea ! That came about cos we were to do
“Cocaine Cowboys”, and we thought we could throw a bag of cocaine during that
song. It came out that we didn’t do the song, for whatever reason I don’t
remember, but it was such a cool idea that we kept it ! So, between the coke,
and the feathers, …
And the blood !
And the blood, yeah, it gets pretty fucking slippery out there ! You know, I got
a couple of basses that I use, but I haven’t used my main one for some time, my
Spector, and I put it out of the case about a week ago, and the fucking thing
had feathers, blood, coke, all over it ! It’s the first time I pulled it out
since London cos I’ve been using my B.C. Rich, and I sat there and laugh my
fucking ass off ! Imagine if I had to go do something with it, and I had took it
with me without checking it out first, and I pulled it out, someone would think
I’m completely insane ! Anyway, that Astoria show, I had a really good time that
night. Maybe because it was the last show, but that was one of these nights when
I definitively didn’t want to go off stage.
And do you know why the W.A.S.P. show are always so short ?
I don’t think they’re that short to be honest… What are they, about 1h15 ?
Yeah, 1h15 usually…The thing is, once you’ve played all the
classics, you don’t have that much time left for the new songs…
Well, you realize that the average human attention is about 1 hour. You start
losing people after 1h30. You know, personally, I’d rather go out there and hit
it real hard for an hour and twenty minutes, instead of getting tired after a
while. You know, it’s still a full show. I’ve been to some other shows, and some
bands which are playing for about 2 hours, even if they’re your favorite band,
after 2 hours, you’re like “Jesus Christ, I’m fucking tired…” Like Bruce
Springsteen, he plays 4 hours, that gotta be fucking painful ! Believe me, I can
play longer than 1h15, but I’d rather give everything during this time.
OK… Are you already working on the new album ?
Yeah, we’re putting together a Best-Of album…
Really ? Cool ! Are they gonna be some new material on this
album ?
Yeah, there’s gonna be 3 new songs, and except that it’s gonna be all the
heavier stuff we’ve done.
And will you re-do the songs, I mean will you play bass on
the old songs instead of the previous bass-players ?
No, we’re gonna take the songs as they were, and just remaster them.
And the 3 new tracks, can you tell us a bit about them ?
Well, we’re just beginning to rehearse them, so I don’t really know what Blackie
has in his wings for that…
About that actually, do you have sometime your saying on
songs ,be it music or lyrics ?
No, it’s pretty much Blackie with the lyrics, and Blackie and Chris with the
music. You know, those two are the driving force…
Some kind of a tricky question now : ever heard of a guy
called Rik Fox, who’s saying he was the first W.A.S.P. bass player, and he was
the one who came up with the “W.A.S.P.” name ?
You know, I’ve been asked that before… I don’t know him, but I saw him the other
night, I was in a club and I turned around and he was there… I was told that he
said he was in W.A.S.P., but I don’t know… As far as the name, I think Blackie
came out with the name.
You know, last time I talked with Blackie about that, he said
that Rik was just a wannabe !
(laughs) Well, like I said, I don’t know Rik, I see him around town sometimes,
and I know he does these accusations and everything, but I don’t know how much
legitimacy there is to it. In L.A., everyone likes to… mmm… what’s the best
word… bullshit ! (laughs) Everyone goes out, and has a couple of drinks, and
thinks he’s better than he is. That’s the most beautiful thing about this town,
you could just be whoever you want…. until you get caught ! (laughs) But I
guess, at 1 in the morning, in some club, if you’re trying to impress some
fucking chick, it could work ! So, if Rik came up with the name “W.A.S.P.”,
well, I came up with the name “Led Zeppelin”, motherfucker, what about that ?
(laughs)
Yeah, I see your point ! (laughs) Do you still have time
for some more questions ?
Sure, go ahead !
So, what kind of music do you
listen to when you’re not playing with W.A.S.P. ?
I listen to about everything. It’s pretty
divers… I like Lynird Skynird a lot. The old Aerosmith too… It’s mostly classic
rock. But I like Pearl Jam and Korn a lot also. I just started listening to Korn
this week ! They’re actually pretty cool. You know, I grew up listening to stuff
like Iron Maiden, and I still love them…
Did you see their reunion tour with Bruce Dickinson ?
Yeah ! I thought they were fucking great ! Bruce was absolutely incredible. He’s
a great singer, he’s in great physical shape, he is a true veteran of the
business. He’s a great frontman, and I had a good time with that show. But I
missed Monster Magnet, cos I didn’t know they were playing… I like those guys
too.
And when you don’t play music, what do you do with your
time ?
Oh, shit ! (laughs) I play golf !
Really ?
Yeah ! I play a lot of hockey too, a lot of basket-ball, I work on my car, but
W.A.S.P. keeps you pretty busy … With the touring, the rehearsals, the fan-clubs
stuff and everything, it keeps me pretty busy a couple of days a week !
And do you know what you would have become if you wouldn’t be
a bass-player ?
A criminal ! (laughs) Cos I don’t wanna have a 9 to 5 job ! I just can’t get up
in the morning ! (laughs) But seriously, I don’t know… Music for me was never
a back-up plan. This is all I wanted to do from the beginning. So, I never
really thought about it…
Have you ever thought of doing a solo album or something ?
Well, right now, pretty much all my energy is going to W.A.S.P., cos we’ve got a
lot of stuff coming out this year. It’s gonna be a very busy year, and I’m
looking forward to everything we’re gonna do. It’s a fucking blast ! As far as a
solo album, I never gave it much thought. Maybe somewhere down the road, if I
can get some cool friends to play on it, like a buddy of mine, Gilby Clarke…
The guitar-player form Guns ‘N Roses ?
Yeah. And with Eric Singer too, we sometimes seat somewhere and jam a bit… And
with Stet too, cos he has a drum studio, you know, we get together with some
friends, drink some beer and jam !
Maybe an album will come out of this !
Yeah, hopefully ! But you know, it really is a full-time job being in a band
like W.A.S.P. !
OK, well thank you very much for taking so much time with
this interview, and I hope to see you once again next time you come to Europe !
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it, bye Thomas !
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