BRIAN POSEHN: The Comedian Who's "More Metal Then You" Talks To MetalSucks
[Press Release]
MetalSucks' Axl Rosenberg recently spoke with Brian Posehn, whose sophomore Relapse comedy album, FART AND WIENER JOKES, was released earlier this week, about making jokes at Slayer's expense, his thoughts on the current metal scene, being friends and a songwriting partner with Anthrax's Scott Ian, his own take on the Joey Belladonna/Dan Nelson/John Bush controversy, and more. An excerpt follows:
When you’re doing these metal songs like “Metal by Numbers” or, in the case of Fart and Wiener Jokes, “More Metal Than You,” what is the actual songwriting process like? Does Scott Ian just come in and write something and you’re like, “Cool, let me put silly lyrics to it?”
Well, with both cases, with both of the originals that we’ve written together, it came from me having the idea for the target of the song first. In both, also, I had the titles before we had any of the other lyrics in both cases. ”Metal by Numbers” came from me being upset watching Headbanger’s Ball one night and going to Scott… he hates new metal more than I do. He’s so old school. When I went to him with this idea, “Hey, I want to make fun of all this new stuff,” he was totally into it. I was like, “Let’s write a thrash-style song.” It was the same thing with “More Metal Than You” – once I came up with the title and what the target was, he started writing and sending me riffs. I was like, “Those are great, those are great.” We sat down together, and he’s obviously been writing songs for most of his life, I’m a little less experienced because it’s not my thing. I had written songs over the years for Mr. Show and other shows I’ve been involved with, so I do get the songwriting thing… well, more of the lyric writing thing. He really helped me form my dumb ideas into three verses and a chorus and make a great song.
Do you feel comfortable giving him notes when he brings in a song, or are you just like, “You’re Scott Ian, you tell me what to do?”
I haven’t [given him notes] so far. He hasn’t presented me with any riffs that I’ve gone, “Oh really? I think you can do better than that.” You know? [laughs] Everything he’s ever shown me in the two songs we’ve done together, it just sounds like Scott Ian. He’s one of my favorite guitar players ever. It’s surreal to be his friend, and it’s even more surreal to be actually creating something with him.
I was just going to ask, are you just fanboying out when you pick up the phone and call these people to come work on your album and they’re all like, “Sure?”
Yeah, less with Scott because we were actually really good friends. We’ve been friends for a long time now. There were a couple of years where it was still weird. It was like, “I can’t believe I’m going over to Scott Ian’s house!” [laughs] Now I think a little less about it. It is strange. This week we’re going to do Golden Gods and do a live performance of “More Metal Than You.” On the record I had Mark Oseguenda from Death Angel do this part, and he’s on tour. So it was like trying to figure out who to go with [in Oseguenda's place], and at one point, Scott said, “What about Halford? Halford is going to be there.” In my head I’m like, “No fucking way! If this happens, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to perform." It didn’t [work out with Halford], but just the idea of that guy is listening to my song and seeing if he can do it is just insane.
Read the full interview by clicking here
MetalSucks' Axl Rosenberg recently spoke with Brian Posehn, whose sophomore Relapse comedy album, FART AND WIENER JOKES, was released earlier this week, about making jokes at Slayer's expense, his thoughts on the current metal scene, being friends and a songwriting partner with Anthrax's Scott Ian, his own take on the Joey Belladonna/Dan Nelson/John Bush controversy, and more. An excerpt follows:When you’re doing these metal songs like “Metal by Numbers” or, in the case of Fart and Wiener Jokes, “More Metal Than You,” what is the actual songwriting process like? Does Scott Ian just come in and write something and you’re like, “Cool, let me put silly lyrics to it?”
Well, with both cases, with both of the originals that we’ve written together, it came from me having the idea for the target of the song first. In both, also, I had the titles before we had any of the other lyrics in both cases. ”Metal by Numbers” came from me being upset watching Headbanger’s Ball one night and going to Scott… he hates new metal more than I do. He’s so old school. When I went to him with this idea, “Hey, I want to make fun of all this new stuff,” he was totally into it. I was like, “Let’s write a thrash-style song.” It was the same thing with “More Metal Than You” – once I came up with the title and what the target was, he started writing and sending me riffs. I was like, “Those are great, those are great.” We sat down together, and he’s obviously been writing songs for most of his life, I’m a little less experienced because it’s not my thing. I had written songs over the years for Mr. Show and other shows I’ve been involved with, so I do get the songwriting thing… well, more of the lyric writing thing. He really helped me form my dumb ideas into three verses and a chorus and make a great song.
Do you feel comfortable giving him notes when he brings in a song, or are you just like, “You’re Scott Ian, you tell me what to do?”
I haven’t [given him notes] so far. He hasn’t presented me with any riffs that I’ve gone, “Oh really? I think you can do better than that.” You know? [laughs] Everything he’s ever shown me in the two songs we’ve done together, it just sounds like Scott Ian. He’s one of my favorite guitar players ever. It’s surreal to be his friend, and it’s even more surreal to be actually creating something with him.
I was just going to ask, are you just fanboying out when you pick up the phone and call these people to come work on your album and they’re all like, “Sure?”
Yeah, less with Scott because we were actually really good friends. We’ve been friends for a long time now. There were a couple of years where it was still weird. It was like, “I can’t believe I’m going over to Scott Ian’s house!” [laughs] Now I think a little less about it. It is strange. This week we’re going to do Golden Gods and do a live performance of “More Metal Than You.” On the record I had Mark Oseguenda from Death Angel do this part, and he’s on tour. So it was like trying to figure out who to go with [in Oseguenda's place], and at one point, Scott said, “What about Halford? Halford is going to be there.” In my head I’m like, “No fucking way! If this happens, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to perform." It didn’t [work out with Halford], but just the idea of that guy is listening to my song and seeing if he can do it is just insane.
Read the full interview by clicking here
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