Unite Webzine
The Bad Whoremoans
Paul of the Living Dead - Vocals / Guitar
Serial Bill - Drums Ginny Tonic - Guitar
Zombie Alex - Guitar Phil Maldehyde - Bass
James: Give me a little background on how the band started and how you’ve evolved musically.
Paul: Well, the band started for me I guess in 2004-2005. I would write these really simplistic horrorish punk songs and record them with a digital 4 track. It blossomed from there and became a full size entity in 2006. We picked up this guitarist / keyboard player who came from a progressive metal background and a drummer who played hardcore and it was this mishmash of keyboard and guitar driven gothic punk rock like TSOL. Eventually we got a bass player and dropped the keyboards, adopting a song 
with punk energy and metal solos. During this time I became friends with Bobby Steele, who used to play in the Misfits, and he (eternally) seems to be looking for a band, so he asked me to play bass in the Undead. My drummer at the time was very erratic and wouldn't have been able to handle it, so I met Billy, our current drummer through a mutual friend we have. He, Bobby Steele, and I played as the Undead on Halloween of 2007. It was a fun gig, and Billy's a great natured guy so we had him play with us for some dates. His drumming is very reminiscent of Steve Zing, so we became just a full on punk band. Our guitarist eventually saw his way out and I can't play solos for shit, so it became punk. That's what it is now.
James: What went into choosing the bands name? It doesn't exactly role off the tongue.
Paul: Choosing the bands name was something that I toiled with for a long long time. When I started the band, it was embarrassingly called 'The Pumpkin Patch', which is a god awful name for a band. It was hokey and really stupid so I decided to go in a different direction... I wanted the band to be dirty and vile, like the Dead Boys and FEAR. I wanted something that catches people. I was going to call it the Bad Blood or the Bad Bloodcells, but that sounded like the Bad Brains. I was drawing from my own issues with my immune system, and then I thought of 'Hormones', and then 'whore'... and 'moans'... and that was it. A light bulb went off, and my feminist girlfriend at the time told me that's a disgusting name, so that was definitely it.
James: Does the name at all hinder your progress or allow people to not take you seriously?
Paul: Take us seriously? Our old name was 'The Pumpkin Patch', so despite being as filthy and as offensive as it is intelligent, the 'Bad Whoremoans' is an upgrade. A lot of people think it's pretty cool. I don't really think it's a band that could break into the American mainstream, so I don't see it as hindering our progress. I think that the Bad Whoremoans are something that will last for a while and people will love it while it lasts... we'll die with a cult following. Eventually we'll grow tired and I'll do something else. I think our stage names are distracting at times... especially mine... but I registered the domain name and everything so I feel like it's necessary to hold onto it.
James: From what I understand you have a strong relationship with your drummer Billy.
Paul: Billy and I are like two peas in a pod. I think of us as sort of the Paul McCartney / John Lennon of the Bad Whoremoans. I write a majority of the songs, I bring them to him, he and I usually play through them without anyone else interfering and we just hammer em out. He's got a great mind for dynamics and vocal delivery. We recorded basic tracks for both albums, just he and I. Everybody else comes in to add their parts after. He's drumming brother from another mother.
James: How is the new record shaping up?
Paul: The new record is shaping up beautifully. We've got about 15 songs on it, 3 are re-recordings of songs from the first record. I'm producing it myself. It sounds good. I learned a lot about the process since I produced the first one as well. It's Phil, Alex, and Ginny Tonic's first full length with the Bad Whoremoans, so it's cool to see what they bring to the table.
James: Are you going to be touring to support it?
Paul: We're going to tour a little bit, just doing small weekend things here and there. I don't foresee leaving the country or the East Coast unless by some chance a larger act comes and asks us to go around with them.
James: You recently stated that you were divorcing the “Horror Punk” sound and look you had for so long. What brought about the change?
Paul: I never really had any intention of becoming a “Horror Punk” band in the first place. We just kind of got lumped into it. We used to wear the white makeup and the blood but I never really saw it as wanting to be like The Misfits or say The Blitz Kids.
I just did it because it was fun. There came a point where it just stopped being fun. Being in that scene if feels as if no one is happy for anybody else. If my band were to go and do something good the other bands would deem me as being an asshole rather than being happy for someone else's
success. It’s more like “Fuck Him. They just wanted to keep everyone down at the bottom. I just wanted to dissociate myself from that.
James: So you were in a way sick of being sick.
Paul: I just got tired with feeling as if I had to write songs that had limitations.
I have more to sing about than baby sitters getting murdered. The band is really receptive to it but some of the people we’ve been friends with for so long don’t really get it.
James: Has the change reflected in the music yet?
Paul: Yes, songs like “Better off Dead” and “Art School Bitch” are songs I’ve written that actually happen. They’re songs you can actually feel. I’m trying to keep it honest and write about things in my life. I still love the Misfits and all but I have more to say.
James: You mentioned earlier you had just written a new song. Even going as far to say it was “good”. Why didn’t you play it tonight?
Paul: I actually wrote two new songs. “New Direction” which basically speaks for itself. I recently taken the oath to be above the influence. I don’t want to consume drugs or alcohol anymore. The other song is “Smoke and Mirrors”. I went with our bass player to watch my friend Jennas band called The People’s Band at The Meatlocker. The headliner of that show was guy who had these flashing lights and a drum machine. His entire show was smoke and mirrors and I just have no respect for that. It doesn’t feel as if he’s trying. It doesn’t feel like art. It feels like bullshit. I actually wanted to fight the guy. I wanted to go home and write a song about it and that’s how “Smoke and Mirrors” came about.
Paul: I suffer from Psoriasis which is a bad skin condition. It’s something I’m okay with partly due to the fact that a friend of mine was doing a documentary titled “Living the American Nightmare” about Mike Hideous. In the documentary he interviewed
Peter Steele from Type O Negative. (recently passed away) During the interview Peter Steele said “Sometimes I wish I could just unzip my skin and step outside of it.” For those who don’t know, he was six foot eight. He never felt that he was comfortable in his own body. That’s something that resonated with me because that’s something I feel. Everyday I get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say “Nothing’s changed. Everything is still the same. It’s really fucked up with me because I was so broken up about it and decided to pay tribute to him on stage. It’s just that so many beautiful people end up dead while the assholes seem to live forever. Me getting upset had nothing to do with our performance. I was just overtaken with the moment and everything that was happening.
James: Tell me about “Glee”. One of the shows I’ve never seen but feel I missed out on.
Paul: Glee! Haha. I don't know if you watched the video or not, but I auditioned on MySpace for the show. I hope you voted. I REALLY wanna be on Glee. I don't know what the whole deal is, I know there's some singing in it. I auditioned as a joke. I hope it goes viral and people decide to check out the Bad Whoremoans because of it... I butchered the Rolling Stones classic 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'... it's amusing as fuck.
James; You brought Kat and Lenny Love up on stage tonight to perform with the band. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with them.
Paul: (laughing) Kat is our only fan. She’s our biggest fan. She comes to all of our shows, gets drunk and wrecks havoc. I know Lenny from When I Was Dead. A band I was tentatively supposed to be the singer for. He had a really shitty week. He told me he wanted to get a drummer and a bass player and make some fucking noise. So we brought him up and had him play ‘Skulls’ with us. I hope it made his night.
James: What’s next for the band?
Paul: After we do the album, we're going to play some shows to support it obviously... We've got the CD release June 5th at Clash Bar and then we're doing Rhode Island and Maine two weeks later. After that we'll probably chill for a while, I've kind of got a solo album that I've been working on and some other stuff that I want to do with Lenny Love and I'm also going to be producing the Undergrounds record... I'm so excited about that.
(Interview and images James Damion)
Links to the Band;
http://www.facebook.com/badhormones
Related Interviews:
Sunday, April 25, 2010
