MTV: Let's start out with the label situation. What have the last two years been like for you... getting extricated from Hollywood Records, and then finding the folks at E-Magine music?Danzig: First off, getting involved with E-Magine has been fantastic, and I've known Christoph [Ruecker, E-Magine Entertainment Co-President] for so long. It's great, and he's a great guy; very artist-oriented, as opposed to current major labels who aren't really artist-oriented and don't really care about the artist that much.  Getting off Hollywood was my main priority at the time, and it was pretty difficult, but it had to be done. And while I was doing that, I was still getting out of my deal with Rick Rubin and American [Recordings] too, so it was dealing with so many things at the same time, and Danzig really couldn't start a new record until we were fully extricated from the Hollywood deal. But once we got out of it last summer, got the papers signed and everything, that's when we started "Danzig 6."MTV: Fortunately you have a lot of other outlets, but how frustrating is that time as an artist? Essentially, your hands are tied.Danzig: Well, for me, you know, I can deal with it. The guys in the band are more frustrated by it, because they want to be on the road, and financially, it's the worst. But that being said, the situation we're in now is just so much better, and this is more like a partnership between my label, Evilive, and Christoph's E-Magine label. And we're fully Internet [distributed] and [we also use] traditional distribution, and things have just become so crazy and so much freer right now that it's a great opportunity. Not just for Danzig, but for so many other acts to get out of that traditional slavery kind of contract to the major label. It's great.MTV: And of course, it helps that the sort of traditional methods of distribution are also covered in this deal too.Danzig: Well you know, it's still not at that level where you can just totally ignore putting them in record stores. But obviously, even the traditional record outlets know that this is what's gonna be happening, because Tower online is gonna be carrying our record, CDNow, Best Buy, whoever, you know. They're all online, so they know. MTV: I read that you're going to be hitting the road this fall, both with Danzig and with the reunited Samhain, and that run will include a stop at the November to Dismember in San Antonio?Danzig: Yeah, yeah, that was a great thing. We were routing the tour and they called up and said, "We want Danzig and Samhain to headline this thing," and I was talking to my agent about it, Tim, and he was just like, "Yeah, they want you to do this thing. It's the same idea as the Milwaukee Metalfest. Do you have a problem with that?" I was like, "No, that's great." I like the name too. "November to Dismember." That's great.MTV: Yeah, if they're pitching a show with that name, you gotta go.Danzig: You gotta do it. That's like when they asked me about the "8mm" thing. It was this movie, "8mm," that Nic Cage was in, and they said, "We just got this request from these guys in this movie, and they want this guy who kills women and stuff in the movie." I don't know if it was just women, he might have killed men too, but anyway, "When they finally find him, he's got this big Danzig shrine in his room. Do you have a problem with that?" I went, "F*** no. It's cool with me." Signed the paper right there. Didn't get any money for it, but it was great.MTV: It sounds like the decision to do some live stuff with Samhain again was sort of an easy one.Danzig: Yeah, it was, actually. Samhain really just became Danzig. Originally, I was going to call Samhain "Danzig," but at the time I felt it was too much like Billy Idol or something because of the whole punk thing, and I was just like, "No!" And so we called it "Samhain," and then eventually by the time we hooked up with Rick [Rubin], because at that time we were recording with major labels, it was getting too big to do on my own.Rick just said, "Two guys are leaving the band, two other guys are coming in. Did you ever think about calling it Danzig?" And I said, "Well, yeah, I did originally." Now it makes more sense, because he suggested that I do it. And I said, "Well, yeah, it makes more sense now, because now it means a little something." Like, everyone knew what to expect from the songwriting, the live show. If it had my name on it, they knew they were getting this. And so I said, "Yeah, I'll do it now. That's cool."So that's how that happened, and so that's why the whole Samhain thing is just... I still keep in touch with the guys, and so... I mean, I said "yes" immediately, and it was great. We just had to work out the different logistics of it and when we would do it, because all the other guys have lives too, and bands. MTV: Moving on to the album, it seems like the high-tech elements that are there are kind of reined in a bit, and it seems like a very riff-driven record. Was that sort of the plan this time around?Danzig: When we set out to do this record, I said, "I'm going to take all the best elements from Danzig 1 through 5, including the "Thrall" EP, and add a bunch of the new elements I want to do, and whatever happens, happens." And this is what happened. "Danzig 6:66," which is cool.MTV: How long have these songs been around? I mean, were you writing during this two-year legal red tape mess that you were in?Danzig: The oldest song, I would say, on the record is "Five Finger Crawl," and that I think I wrote in, like, '97. So they're not extremely old.MTV: I'm sure you get this question a lot while making the rounds with this record, but I wanted ask about the involvement of Jay [Gordon] and Amir [Derakh] from Orgy. Before they were "Jay and Amir from Orgy," they were "Jay and Amir, studio guys," and they'd been doing this kind of stuff for years. How did they come to be involved in the project?Danzig: I've known Jay for a long time, 'cause he's friends with Joey [C.], my drummer, and Jay would always be hanging out with Joey way before Orgy. And then I remember when he got Orgy together, and we also took Coal Chamber out on the "Danzig 5" tour, and [Jay and Amir] had done that record. When it came time to talk about mixers, we immediately brought up Jay and Amir, and I love the Orgy record, so it was a natural. It was great. So after talking, we decided, "Yeah, let's let these guys mix some tracks."
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