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Ginger Fish
Armed for Armageddon by Ken Micallef
Holy Wood (In the Valley of the Shadow of Death) is Marilyn Manson’s majestic metal soap opera of sorts, a sprawling hate anthem with its genesis in the grandiose glam of his 1998 album, Mechanical Animals. But compared to that Hell-fire sonic blitzkrieg, Manson’s music on Holy Wood has slowed, while his melodies have grown broader, bolder, and blacker.
To match the chameleon nature of Manson’s music, drummer Ginger Fish has learned to adapt and, more importantly, multi-task. On the Mechanical Animals songs, "Beautiful People," "Rock Is Dead" and "Dope Show," Fish played bruising triplet and shuffle feels, simultaneously controlling sampled loops and sounds from an Akai MPC sampler. And as always, Fish dodged whatever Manson hurled at him in the course of a performance, from mike stands to bottles to bricks. Fish was recently hospitalized for a broken collarbone, after he broke his collarbone grappling what Manson in a bout of post-set destruction.
The drumming on Holy Wood is a welcome role reversal for Fish. Where Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals featured complicated, arduous arrangements that kept Fish edgy and exhausted, Holy Wood is all pared-down, elegant grooves and ambient space rock dynamics. Excepting "Disposable Teens" and "The Fight Song," much of the album, including "Nobodies," "The Death Song" and "Lamb Of God," is straight four and eighth-note rock drumming, without the overwhelming sticking patterns of earlier Fish efforts.
Holy Wood is not as rhythmically complex as Mechanical Animals. The grooves are bigger and broader.
Yeah, it’s pretty drudged out. We are pushing a heavy beat behind deep guitar riffs. There is nothing overly technical this time, it’s a good break, compared to other songs that are so fast and crazy. This gives me a breather live. Everyone says this new album is so heavy, but drum-wise, I can eat a meal between hits because they are so sparse.
What are the songs from Mechanical Animals that sound like you are running a marathon -- where you are playing and triggering simultaneously?
"1996," " Hate Anthem," "Astonishing Panorama," "Little Horn" -- numerous songs where it never stops. On "Get Your Gun" it’s sixteenth notes all the way through on the toms. There are so many songs where my hands never stop. There is no space in the music. With this album it is all about space and not playing anything. I can run back to the dressing room and get a Coke and make it back in time to hit the two beat.
Or you could play it all with the right hand and read a book with the other.
And it is a good thing too, cause I beat the hell out of one side of my body. I beat myself up so bad. There is a constant balance happening where I overuse my right arm in certain sets, so then I compensate by overusing my left arm elsewhere. Abuse them both, abuse one more then the other. There is a balance when playing drums, you can use one side too much. This album is all heavy hitting.
How do you set up?
Well, I am a lefty. I set up right-handed so I never cross my hands. My left side plays from the center to the left side of the kit and my right hand plays from the center to the right side of the kit. My high hats are on the left side, my toms go 10, 12, 13, 16 from the left to right. My set is backwards for me. So my left hand is on the right-handed kit. I swapped so I don’t have to cross my hands. That just comes from when we were setting up to play the songs, what is easiest to sit behind the set and what is functional and where I am going to get the most balance. I wanted to get my whole riser built on a slant to obtain zero gravity. I am not around when they are building the stage, so that seemed too much. So I just cut the legs off my drum throne down by an inch and a half. So my seat leans back and I have a back rest.
So you have the drums aimed at you?
No, my drums are normal. I am leaning back away from the kit a little bit. That lowers my center of gravity and takes the tension off my chest.
Which songs feature the Akai?
Not many at this point, I almost wanted to get rid of the MPC for this tour. It is only a click track in "Sweet Dreams" because the tempo changes so much in that song, and the keyboard player plays such long loops, that they have to be in time with me. And I use it for a one bar loop in the intro to "Tourniquet" so Manson can change [costumes]. Then one other song I use it to change programs. It is a shame, a 4K machine on stage getting damaged for just that little amount of use. I thought about using a cheaper machine, but the screen is so pretty and it is so easy to read. And you can write anything you want on the screen. But, on the next tour, I probably won’t use it.
On "Burning Flag," are the drums a loop?
"Burning Flag" is actually sounds I produced and played and made into loops. The bass drum in the verses is actually a five-gallon tub that I am just hitting on the side. The snare drum is actually a bunch of metal rods that they put on the ground. I just hit the rods with another rod. They made a rattling sound. I played that with a click with the tub and the rods. Then the engineer arranged the loops for that song.
Are there other songs with such creative drum sounds?
Not really. There were a couple songs where I played the chandelier from the Houdini mansion. A third of the house had burned down but there was still this huge metal chandelier in the foyer. It was eight feet across. I stood on a chair and they miked it and I played it on certain songs. I jammed out on that. My main concern for the album was live drums. They brought in a bunch of old classic sets -- old Radio Kings. The drum tech owns a company called Drum Fetish so he owned a lot of the drums. All the cymbals were ancient. We have always rented drums. I have a full Premier kit. But every producer has certain things he wants to hear. This producer liked a soft hit on the drum and he would mike it loud and we got a big sound. Too hard and it would choke the drum. I prefer to play lightly. That can be harder than just banging. |
