Ok, I think we are all familiar with the story by now so here is the short version.  Around 1986 Jerry and Doyle realize they are getting screwed by Glenn Danzig and Caroline so they begin reaching out to Glenn in order to make a deal over royalties.  This back and forth goes on until 1992 when Jerry (along with Doyle, Franché and Robo) file a lawsuit against Glenn over royalties and the performing rights to The Misfits (this coincidentally coincides with Jerry realizing that Kryst the Conqueror is not going to set the metal world on fire).  The lawsuit comes to an end in 1994 when an out of court settlement is reached with Glenn, then Jerry buys out some other ex-members interest in the band after Caroline buys the Misfits master tapes from Glenn, Jerry, Doyle, Franché and Robo in 1995.

Wow this really isn't so short afterall.....Dr. Chud (pal of Jerry and Doyle's and ex-Krsyt drummer) along with Michale Graves are recruited into The Misfits™, they make their first stage appearance together during a Type O Negative encore on October 30th, 1995 at the Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY.  They also perform on solo show at Coney Island High during the early morning on November 1st after another appearance during a Type O Negative encore at Roseland Ballroom in New York, NY on Halloween night.

Jerry's next move is practice, practice, practice before The Misfits™ go on a European tour in March of 1996.  Directly after the European tour the band does a small run for the East Coast Comeback Tour (April 29th, 1996-May 12th, 1996)...so finally we are getting to something relative to The Misfits™ new album!  At the end of the East Coast Comeback Tour The Misfits™ enter Trax East for a three day recording session beginning on May 16th, 1996.  They recorded seven songs during the sessions; Dead Kings Rise, Blacklight, The Haunting, The Hunger, Mars Attacks, Dr. Phibes Rises Again and Talons of Steel; some of these songs would of course go on to make it to The Misfits™ freshman release.  But before that happens they embark on the Resurrection Tour until finally entering the studio once again in December 1996 to begin recording a full length album.  They recorded 22 songs (out of the 35 they had written) during these sessions but only 19 of them would make the cut; Angel Baby, Death Of The Fallen Angel and a cover of Monster Mash were the other tracks recorded.

Up to July 1996 Michale Graves stated they had only around 5 or 6 new songs and that they planned to take of around 2 months (actually their time off ended up being most of September, October and November 1996) to really concentrate on writing new material.  When asked where The Misfits™ new music was going (during the same Indianapolis interview) Jerry responded with, "Forward.  Yeah, I think that we're going to write some of the best songs in the next five years, y'know, classic songs.  I think that they're going to be a lot better than the stuff like 'Martian'.  I think that they're not gonna be as thrashy as the 'Earth AD' stuff, but I think we're gonna find a happy medium between the 'Walk Among Us' kind of sound and the 'Earth AD' kind of sound, and I think you'll find maybe one or two 'Theme for a Jackal' type songs on an album, and then you'll also find maybe two songs like 'Queen Wasp' or 'Green Hell' or 'Death Comes Ripping' or something like that.  Y'know, we're gonna stick to the image of what we got and just pump it.".

When asked about who was writing the new material (Stymie's Chaos interview in August 1996) Jerry said, "Everyone has a part in it whether it be a drum cut, a guitar riff, or whatever, we write together as a band. Thats the way it should be.", (interview from 3.7 Magazine 10, November 1996"....I'm doing a lot of writing now, Michale writes really well, Doc writes really well, I mean Doyle is throwing some stuff in.  What you got going  is everybody  working together.  And four guys pushing one way is always better than one guy pushing, and I think that is what your going to find here is that we got a team this time.", he also mentioned that they would like to record material after a European Tour; they actually recorded prior to heading to Europe in April 1997.  Also during the 3.7 Magazine interview Jerry had this to say when asked about the direction of The Misfits music, "We're trying to have aggressive music, music with bite.  We're gonna try to be basically science fiction oriented, to come up with really
strange ideas, different scenarios, different kinds of monsters and shit like that.", "I think that we're actually a step above what we we're working on before (The Misfits songs Glenn wrote from 1977-1983).  Because before we were very basic with a four-four beat, Doc does a lot of stuff on the drums  that I don't think it's metal but I think it is in other words bringing a forth dimension.  If the old Misfits stuff was three dimensional then this is bring it into that forth dimension in which anything goes.  And Michale's young, he's twenty-one,  and his voice is gonna do things that hopefully no one else will ever even be able to pick up on.  He writes pretty well, and we've got this whole thing going that is new and fresh and exciting."

During another interview for Jersey Beat (no. 59, March 1997) Jerry spoke about the process of getting the material for the album just right, "Lyrically, we don't have any swear words on the album, which I think is big, And we don't have any guitar leads.  It's just flat-out balls to the walls rock and roll.  And the lyrics are fantastic.  And the production is the best we've ever had.  We had six months to put it together, and that's about six months more than I ever had to do an album before.  We did this panel with a six person panel.  The four of us, and a guy from Geffen, and Daniel Rey, who produced it, and every week we would update our lyrics, if someone didn't like a line that person would go home and work on ft.  We wrote 35 songs and tracked 20.  There has to be a thousand hours of songwriting time invested in this project.  In twenty years, we never put this much time and energy and attention into writing songs.  Daniel Rey was a good choice for producer.  He's got a real Fifties feel for the material like I do.  I think that creatively you have a much better chance of getting where you want to go if everybody has a say, rather than having one guy be a dictator and tell everybody else what to do.".

American Psycho was finally released on May 13th, 1997, the album featured an incredible painting of The Crimson Ghost by monster artist extraordinaire, Basil Gogos and 18 new Misfits™ tracks; the cd version features the hidden track, Hell Night while the vinyl edition features the song Dead Kings Rise.  The material ranged the gamut of The Misfits 1977-1983 different sounds, Jerry would admit in later years that this was a purposeful attempt to bring fiends something familiar, all infused with a bit of heavy metal and a healthy dose of music lifted from Jerry and Doyle's previous band, Kryst the Conqueror.  The album would gain favorable (if not overly enthusiastic reviews) across the board but most would point out the corniness of it all and the poppier-yet metal sound of The Misfits post Danzig.  Michale Graves would recieve both praise and admonishment for his vocals and comparisons/differences to Glenn Danzig were made over and over in every one.

The 18 songs on the album run the gamut of familiar horror/sci-fi topics:

Abominable Dr. Phibes~A short piece of instrumental music lifted from the Kryst the Conqueror song, Dr. Phibes Rises Again; based on the Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) starring Vincent Price.

American Psycho~Based on the Brett Easton Ellis novel of the same name; the novel recieved a big screen adaptation in 2000 starring Christian Bale as demented-murderous yuppy, Patrick Bateman.

Speak of the Devil~A song about Glenn?!

Walk Among Us~The 3rd sequel in the Creature From the Black Lagoon franchise was titled The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) although this song is not a reference to that film; The Misfits first album was titled Walk Among Us (1982).

The Hunger~Based on vampires.

From Hell They Came~There is a 1957 film entitled From Hell It Came

Dig Up Her Bones~Although not directly related to the film The Misfits™ would use clips from The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) for the music video to this song.

Blacklight~Based on vampires.

Resurrection~

This Island Earth~Based on the film of the same name from 1955.

Crimson Ghost~Based on The Crimson Ghost serial (1946), who of course became more infamous as The Misfits iconic grinning skull.

Day of the Dead~The 3rd film (released in 1985) in George Romero's "Dead" trilogy bares the same name as this song, although the song is more about zombies in general.

The Haunting~There is a 1963 film with the same name although the song doesn't appear to be about it.

Mars Attacks~This song was written by Jerry in hopes for inclusion in Tim Burton's big budget movie (released in 1996) based on the controversial Mars Attacks trading card series from 1962.

Hate the Living, Love the Dead~This song's name references a line of dialog from The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) uttered by Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster, "I love dead... hate living." and it's lyrics reference the creation of the Bride and the monsters desire to procreate with her.

Shining~Based on Poltergeist (1982)

Don't Open 'Til Doomsday~This song bares the title of a 1964 episode of the Outer Limits (Don't Open Till Doomsday, aired January 20th) although the two have little in common.

Hell Night~There is a 1981 film with the same name although the song is not about it.

Dead Kings Rise~

ETCH vol. 2 no. 5, December 1996
Etch:  Why re-form the misfits?
Jerry:  Well, the misfits is something we couldn't escape.  Doyle and I have worked on a couple of other projects together trying to evolve musically a little bit..and we did.  But you know, if you're the misfits what do you do after that?  I haven't quite figured it out (laughs).









Indianapolis Interview
----------------------
 by Christopher Lee Schneberger

Interviews 7/27/96


C - You guys have some new material coming out soon?
M - Yeah, we've been working on some stuff.   We have about five or six
songs right now.  We're thinking about putting out a single, maybe in a
couple of weeks it's gonna come out.  There's one song actually we had
mastered, but we haven't made the final decision on whether or not we're
gonna actually press it or not.  But we're hoping, the latest is this
summer that we're gonna put ont a new album, the earliest is maybe this
spring, maybe March or April.  We were shooting for Halloween, but
there's just not enough time.  We're gonna come off this tour, it ends
August 29th I think.   We're doing a show at Action Park in New Jersey,
which is within walking distance from where we practice so that's like a
homecoming show.  We're gonna take like two months off, and maybe write
the album and go to Japan for Halloween.

C - Do you think you're appealing to a different audience now as opposed
to in the the early eighties, touring with bands like Anthrax instead of
punk acts?
M - Yeah . . . I still don't know why we're playing metal-fests.  
Whoever's pulling the strings, whoever's setting us up with . . . y'know
there's something wrong.  I hate metal, to tell you the truth.  I mean,
I don't enjoy it.  Y'know, Cannibal Corpse, y'know they're a good band
and I'm not gonna slight anybody but . . . I don't know.


Fan - Is there a new album coming out soon?
J - Well there's a 45, and we also wrote a song called Mars Attacks for
the new Tim Burton movie, so I'm kinda hoping that they pick it, and
we'll be rockin'.

Fan -  Is that from the old comic books?
J - No, well it's actually a card set from 1964, but yeah, which is
really cool.  So I'm hoping the movie lives up to the cards.

Fan - What's your favorite horror movie?
J - Crawling Eye.
Fan - Cooool!!!

C - And where do you see the music going from here?
J - Forward.  Yeah, I think that we're going to write some of the best
songs in the next five years, y'know, classic songs.  I think that
they're going to be a lot better than the stuff like 'Martian'.  I think
that they're not gonna be as thrashy as the 'Earth AD' stuff, but I think
we're gonna find a happy medium between the 'Walk Among Us' kind of sound
and the 'Earth AD' kind of sound, and I think you'll find maybe one or
two 'Theme for a Jackal' type songs on an album, and then you'll also
find maybe two songs like 'Queen Wasp' or 'Green Hell' or 'Death Comes
Ripping' or something like that.  Y'know, we're gonna stick to the image
of what we got and just pump it.



STYMIE'S CHAOS, 8/96
Q. Will there be any new material that's recorded that the fans can get at
shows?
A. Hopefully our new seven inch will be out in time for the tour of the
States. We have alot of great new songs to bring across so just hang on.

Q. Hows the new lp coming along
A. It's coming along great. We'd like to get into the studio after the
European tour and start recording it.

Q. Who's doing the majority of the writting for the lp?
A. Everyone has a part in it rather it be a drum cut, a guitar riff, or
whatever, we write together as a band. Thats the way it should be.

3.7 MAGAZINE #10, 11/96
............I'm doing a lot of writing now, Michale writes
really well, Doc writes really well, I mean Doyle is throwing some
stuff in.  What you got going  is everybody  working together.
And four guys pushing one way is always better than one guy
pushing, and I think that is what your going to find here is that we
got a team this time.

3.7-  Okay, enough about the business, let's talk about the music.
What kind of impressions do you guys try to make on your
listeners because you guys aren't very artsy and you're not political,
so what does that leave you?

Jerry-  Everything else (laughs).  There are other things.  We're
trying to have aggressive music, music with bite.  We're gonna try
to be basically science fiction oriented, to come up with really
strange ideas, different scenarios, different kinds of monsters and
shit like that.

3.7-  So what kind of new stuff are you going to be doing?  It
seems like you might have almost exhausted the old punk rock
thing.  You guys did a lot of stuff before.  Are you guys going to
expand the darker more metal side like Glenn turned out doing or
...

Jerry-  Well, we got some new songs tonight that we are gonna
play for you , we got three of them in our set.  And we got a few
more that we're working on, because we're going into the studio as
soon as we're off the road here.  We're going back in to the studio
and record a forty-five.  But I wanted to record everything we had
so that when one day we do make another box set we have some
old tracks and earlier versions of stuff.  Because it wounded up
working in our favor that way, if you look at the box set, what
makes interesting is that there are versions of like Vampira and
Where Eagles Dare.  But no one had heard them, and when I heard
them I actually started laughing because they're like so preceding
what actually ended up coming out .  I think that we're actually a
step above what we we're working on before.  Because before we
were very basic with a four-four beat, Doc does a lot of stuff on the
drums  that I don't think it's metal but I think it is in other words
bringing a forth dimension.  If the old Misfits stuff was three
dimensional then this is bring it into that forth dimension in which
anything goes.  And Michale's young, he's twenty-one,  and his
voice is gonna do things that hopefully no one else will ever even
be able to pick up on.  He writes pretty well, and we've got this
whole thing going that is new and fresh and exciting.

3.7-  That is one of the most important things to have that new and
fresh feeling.

Jerry-  Exactly, that's what we lost when we had Glenn.  When
Glenn put down the Earth A.D. stuff we were in the position where
Glenn was trying to fit into a groove, he knew what he wanted
before he wrote it.  Now the way we write material is we stumble
into a riff or a melody or a harmony or something that we like and
then we pick it up and say oh we like that and then we try to work
with it.  We're finding stuff that catches our fancy, we're not trying
to be something that we can go on a blackboard and say okay look
we want to look like this, we want to sound like this.  We just pick
it up if we think it is exciting, we try to throw tangents off it and
write material around it.  Now the Earth A.D. stuff, there is a lot of
good stuff on there don't get me wrong, but it was designed to fit
into a thrash movement.  I thought that us trying to...

3.7-  Concentrate.

Jerry-  Yeah, trying to concentrate on a certain style was missing
the point of what we were about to begin with.

3.7-  Okay I will close it out with this, do any of you have anything
interesting you're doing on the side or is all your focus recently
been on the band?

Jerry-  We're trying to make our focus like the head of a pin, you
know what I mean?  That much (squeezes finger together).  Bring
it right down to where it will be as sharp as it can be.  We got a
long way to go, right now it is the size of a quarter (laughs).  So we
gotta tighten it up and I am hoping that this tour will do that for us,
I'm hoping that going into the studio and putting together this
forty-five brings us a step closer.  Because what I am hoping to do
is get enough money from merchandising on this tour to put out
our single, get enough money from our single to put out our album.
And just keep rolling it into bigger and better product.   What I
hope to do is get the first album done, get the second one ready to
be done, and then get a distribution deal from somebody after we
have taken it to the people ourselves, because I do want to do
different pressings.  The first pressing of the album will in some
way be different then the pressing that we sell to Sony but we're
not gonna sell it, we're just gonna licenses it.  And we're not gonna
let them produce, we're gonna shift product to them.  Like Walk
Among Us, it used to have a lyric sheet.  When people call me up
and ask me what are the words to Vampira, I get pissed off.  Now
Glenn sat there and drew all the letters in.  Glenn penned that lyric
sheet, he did all the work so I don't have as much right to be pissed
off as he does.  The fact of the matter is we brought to them with
the lyrics in it and all the photos on the inside of the sleeve.  Why
did they have to change it to the plain white sleeve?  I know they
sold a quarter of a million records, how much does it cost per unit
to have that thing printed so everybody can enjoy what we put
together.  So I think that if we can keep a distribution entity away
from producing the product  we should be able to keep the level of
the product where we want it , and if it sucks then it is on us and
not them.  That is something we would have to work on.


ETCH VOL2#5, 12/96
------------------

the misfits
interview by d. wood

etch:  i was really impressed w/ how tight the set was at st. andrews; i
heard four or five new songs that night.
jerry:  yeah, there's gonna be a new single.  there's also gonna be a new
album.  i didn't come back to play old songs.  i mean, i will play old
songs because i like playing 'em.  right now we got about two hours worth
of music.

etch:  why re-form the misfits?
jerry:  well, the misfits is something we couldn't escape.  doyle and i
have worked on a couple of other projects together trying to evolve
musically a little bit..and we did.  but you know, if you're the misfits
what do you do after that?  i haven't quite figured it out(laughs).  i
started the band when i was 17 and doyle joined when he was 14, and we've
been together ever since.  so the misfits never broke up, we just took a
long time to recover over the fact of cutting glenn loose.  and cutting
glenn loose, as you may realize, is not an easy job.  there's a lot of red
tape, a lot of money to be paid out to get rid of glenn and ah...it took
many years to get through that.  but i think thatduring that time we grew
because we now know what it's like not being able to play.  now for us,
every gig is like going to heaven.  it's as good for us as it is for the
people who come out.

etch:  a lot of people percieve it as though glenn broke up the band--that
he walked away from it.
jerry:  well, no, we just told glenn to take a hike and glenn without us
is not the misfits.  we're proving today and every other day for the rest
of our lives, that the misfits was not glenn. we're the misfits and we're
out there to prove it.  see, we had a big issue over publishing and half
of getting the name back meant that we had to let go of all the
publishing.  publishing is money and nothing else, and we immediately cut
that loose to be who we are.  so the thing is, if you look back on it and
say, glenn owns the rights to all the songs, and we can't re-record songs
or 'put 'em on video or nothin' without dealing w/ him, which is what
we're trying to avoid.  that forces me to make new stuff and that's a fire
under my ass, instead of me worrying about recording and making videos of
old shit...fuck it.  who owns the songs?  the guy who comes down and can
rock 'em in your face every night or the guy who's getting a paycheck in a
fuckin' PO box?!?

etch:  yeah.
jerry:  see that's my point.  we don't own the songs on paper, but in the
three dimensional world they belong to us.

etch:  are you planning any tours for the fall or winter?
jerry:  we're supposed to go back to europe and i wanna go to australia.
i also want to do a tour of college cities in the fall.  but we want to
put out a new record because if we keep playing w/o something new out, i
fall into my own trap and i'm not gonna do that.  i probably won't play in
the states after the action park show; then we have a wsou benefit in
asbury park, 4000 seat venue.  after that i don't think we'll play live
in the states until we've got someting new to show here.  that's why we're
here.  we're not gonna come out here and talk a bunch of shit and then not
back it up.

etch:  the new songs sound great by the way:
jerry:  thanks, we just gotta go get 'em down and get 'em out.  but
playing was issue number one and that's what we figured.  "fuck it!  let's
go play what we got and worry about new albums later."  we're a lot better
now than we ever were.

etch:  do you appreciate the band now that you're older?
jerry:  yes.  being out of it for 13 years, and the fear of not being able
to come back and show you guys what we have, that was the scariest thing.
when i was 18, 19, 20 and i was out drinking w/ glenn hanging out, i
didn't know what we had.  if i would have thought on the last day, when we
kicked glenn out, if i wouldn't have know i wasn't gonna play music for 13
years, i would have thought about it twice.  i would have still did it,
but i would have thought twice.  that was my cross to beat, to make this
happen, and today i'm sitting here with you.  sometimes you really gotta
stand up for what you believe in.  that's what we did.


PIT MAGAZINE #18, 1996
  Only six songs comprise their new arsenal of conquest.  He listed
"Black Light", "The Haunting", "The Hunger", "Talons of Steel", as well
as "Mars Attacks"--a song he submitted for a major motion picture of the
same title this year.  Mathematically speacking, I don't see how this
domineering leap will be expedited.  With Glenn Danzig, the MISFITS
recorded 53 songs and released numerous albums.   Without Danzig, the
MISFITS have recorded one song with no new album or record deal in their
13 years of lapsing time.  When questioned, these points made the bassist
visibly uncomfortable.  Jerry responded, "touring distracted us a little
bit.  We have to substantiate out worth in the industry and take back
what's ours.  We're in a very unique situation.  We have 47 MISFITS songs
that take 90 minutes to play, so we have more material than we need.  So,
we added a few new ones."  He added later, "The only thing that's
aggravating me is that we're not geting together (writing songs) because
we're not putting in enough time as a unit."

JERSEY BEAT #59, March 1997
Q: I guess the first thing we need to discuss is how you got to use the
  name Misfits again and what exactly happened between you guys and
  Glen Danzig.

  Jerry: When the band split up, I wasn't too concerned with what was
  happening with the band, and it slipped away on me.  And Caroline
  Records started putting out a whole bunch of stuff with Glen.  And
  when we started looking into it, those records were shitty re-mixes
  and, for instance, on the Legacy Of Brutality reissue that came it,
  wasn't even me playing bass.  So I went through the roof.  This is
  absurd.  And at the time, we were working for our father in a machine
  shop, working on guitar designs and so on.  And it just took so long
  to take legal action.  We tried to talk it out first, and that didn't work.
  And it just got worse and worse and escalated.  Caroline just kept
  putting out more and more releases, and we had nothing to say
  about it, about the songs or the artistic design.  If you look at the
  packaging of the early Caroline releases, it's real cheesy and if you
  open it up, it's a picture of Glen.  So we finally threatened to take it
  to court, and it never actually got to court but we came to an agreement.
  The box set that came out was a result of us getting in there and
  having our say.  And what happened was we let go of all the old
  publishing, even though we had helped write it.  You'll never read that
  anywhere, but we don't care.  We weren't in it for songwriting
  credits, we were in it to write great songs.  So we gave up the
  publishing to get the name free and clear and be able to go ahead.
     The idea behind it was that Doyle and I had great ideas and we
  didn't want to limit ourselves to a Static Age, Waik Among Us, and
  an Earth A.D. album.  We didn't consider that the extent of our
  career.  Our career was to keep moving forward and continue getting
  better as we went.  So we wrote this new album and Geffen came
  along and the opportunity came at just the right time for us to put out
  what I consider to be the best Misfit album of all.  And that's where
  we stand now.
  Q: So the new stuff is like that too?

  Jerry: Even more so!  Lyrically, we don't have any swear words on
  the album, which I think is big, And we don't have any guitar leads.
  It's just flat-out balls to the walls rock and roll.  And the lyrics are
  fantastic.  And the production is the best we've ever had.  We had
  six months to put it together, and that's about six months more than
  I ever had to do an album before.
     We did this panel with a six person panel.  The four of us, and a
  guy from Geffen, and Daniel Rey, who produced it, and every week
  we would update our lyrics, if someone didn't like a line that person
  would go home and work on ft.  We wrote 35 songs and tracked 20.
  There has to be a thousand hours of songwrfting time invested in
  this project.  In twenty years, we never put this much time and energy
  and attention into writing songs.
     Daniel was a good choice for producer.  He's got a real Fifties feel
  for the material like I do.  Like he's working light now wfth Ronnie
  Spector and Joey Ramone on a new Ronnie Spector album.  And the
  other good thing is that he's a calm individual, where we're a bunch
  of maniacs.  He's like the buffer zone between everybody.  We
  weren't used to doing things with so much going on.  We did Walk
  Among Us for $3,000 in three days.  It's a totaity different atmo-
  sphere.  So it was good having him as producer.  And I really liked
  it.  I think that creatively you have a much better chance of getting
  where you want to go if everybody has a say, rather than having one
  guy be a dictator and tell everybody else what to do.
     My one fear with signing to a label like Geffen is that I didn't want
  to get involved with some big money-making
  corporation that was going to drain all the gusto
  out of my band.  But they've been terrific.  The deal
  with Geffen is that we do everything and they just
  put it out.  So we designed the artwork and we
  recorded everything prefty much the way we
  wanted to.  We did an 8 hour photo shoot
  yesterday and we just kept playing the tape of the
  album over and over, I just kept wanting to hear it again.
     For me, it's like when the box set came out.
  When that came out, I cried.  I really did.  I tell
  everybody that for the last ten, twelve years, we
  had really great stuff on tape, but Caroline wasn't
  getting great stuff to put out, they were getting
  garbage.  Like Earth A.D. I know if I could go into
  a studio and take my time and re-mix Earth A.D.,
  it could be a great album, because we had great
  stuff on tape that nobody ever heard.  I mean,
  now, I give it a B, but when Earth A.D. first came
  out, I gave it an F. It was a fucking failure as an
  album.  The idea at the time was that Earth A.D.
  was gonna be the Misfits meet Motorhead.  Because
  the Misfits during the Walk Among Us era
  were doing more doo wop material.  But then we
  heard Motorhead and they were doing all this
  radical, fast shit, and we wanted to take their
  speedmetal sound and put it to our Fifties-type
  progressions.  But we broke up before that came
  out and Glen really put that out.  And he slept
  while we did.  He was sleeping when we recorded
  most of it and he didn't know what was on those
  tapes.  We could've done ten times better with
  Earth A.D. than what came out.


CLOSE-UP, May/June 1997
B-MOVIE LYRICS
The fresh baked "American Psycho" is MISFITS fifth full lenght album, if you
dont count the sea of compilations, bootlegs and live records that are on the
market.

"We started to work on it in September and wrote the music up to the beginning
of December. After that we went into the studio and recorded over 20 songs,
and 18 ended up on "American Psycho". "

Not suprisingly the title is from Bret Easton Ellis hyped book. As usual with
MISFITS much of the influence is gathered from the 50's horror movies.
"We have three different subjects we are bouncing on "A.P". Mostly its the
classical horror movies like "Frankenstein" and so on, then theres invasion from
outer space and other B-movie related topics. Exactly like its always been",
states Jerry.  

"When it comes to the lyrics, there is one major thing that is unusual today
- they are very strong, but contains no cussing whatsoever. The title "American
Psycho" dont just point to the book, it points to us too. We are a bunch of
crazy Americans that travels around the world and makes hella much noise. We
have a song on the record called "Mars Attacks" which was originaly written
for Tim Burton's movie.  It was finished before we had recorded the song, so
unfortunatly we couldnt provide it. We could easily follow that angle with
the lyrics, the "Teenagers From Mars" style, if you know what I mean, but we
felt it was better to get more of a 90's feeling in the lyrics. "

MODERN TOUCH
When it comes to the music it has not changed that much during the years. Jerry
says that they have only picked it up where MISFITS once left it:
"We really just let the wheel spin some more. The MISFITS sound is still
there, and the energy remains. The difference is that we are a bit older and
we have become more skilled musicians. I actually like some of the new material
better then the old stuff."

Its pretty suprising that the band managed to spit out that many songs in that
amount of time. Last time MISFITS were a band, little Glenn Danzig was the
majority source of melodies. But not being able to write wasn't a problem, if
we trust Jerry.

"The reason we didn't compose new material until September was the fact that
we did not know who would preform it. When you write a song its important to
really make the song for the persons that are gonna perform it, so its played
in the best way. You have to know what the people you are playing with are
good at and what their weak spots are, cos the material is to be presented in
the best way. When Michael joined we first wrote six songs that turned out
really good, they are actually the back-bone of the record. After that we
wrote 35 songs in a neck breaking speed, so any problems with new material
really didnt surface."

According to Jerry there was no consideration of changing the MISFITS
musical path when "A.P" was written.

"No, that was never an issue. But we have, naturally, a new sound since
there is two new persons in the band. 50 % of is changed, so its perfectly
natural that it doesn't sound exactly like before. Another thing that makes
us stronger today is that Michael is only 21 years old. He has at least 20
years of energy left, but at the same time needs to grow into the part. I'm
convinced that he will, it's only a matter of time."

"When it comes to the music, we really just took "Earth A.D" one step
further. All of our previous records has different themes; for example we
have "Static Age" which was very influenced by the eastcoast new wave
movement, "Walk Among Us" has touches of 50's music and then there's "Earth
A.D" that leans towards thrash and death metal. The new record is a mix
between "Walk Among Us" and "Earth A.D", with a modern touch. Its cool."

In a way you can view the MISFITS as a meeting between two generations. Both
Jerry and Doyle is near their 40's, meanwhile the new singer Michael Graves
just passed his 20s.

"It was very inspiring to get Michael in the band. He is very talented when
it comes to writing songs. He wrote "American Psycho", where the inspiration
came from the book he was currently reading. Those lyrics are really
agressive, but at the same time he isn't using any hard words that will make
controversy. It's only the thoughts he had when he read the book."

Jerry continues to praise his new singer:

"Michael wrote the most part of the material on the record, and as said
before, he is only 21 years old. Who knows how good he will be in two or
three years? On top of that, it works good for me to write songs with him,
Chud writes with him and Doyle too. Everyone are writing and its going good.
Our new line up will beat the old one for sure. "A.P" don't show that
perhaps, but I can assure you that the next one will. Some may see it as a
one-off if we succeed in making a great record, but we will prove with the
second one that wasn't the case. A lot of people will be suspicious, but I'm
convinced that we will get a gold or platinum record for "A.P". It's that
good."

But to be totally honest, it wasn't the abscence of Glenn as frontman that I
was most worried about. With the fact that he wrote the large part of the
songs in mind, I was mostly worried that that part would be the hardest. But
look at how it turned out, we wrote new 35 songs in two months....  We do fine
without Glenn, and I'm sure people will realize that when they hear "A.P"."

CIRCUS, July 1997

    "The artwork has a lot to do with the title of the record," Jerry
explains. "We're trying to portray the horror image that we had, with
the old, black and white B-films. When you really think about it,
'Psycho' is probaly the most famous the most famous black and white
horror film out there. You have the connection, but you also have the
connection that 'American Psycho' says it all. This is just outta
control American music."

    The title-track comes equipped with gang vocals and sturdy punk
pounding sure to please those intent on mayhem at a Misfits show. Most
of the record plays that way, quick and furious, with no song three
minutes long, and most under two.

    "I had a problem when we signed the contract with Geffen," laughs Only,
"because they said they would only be counting songs that were over
three minutes in length or over. And I said, 'well in that case, you
guys won't have to pay me for any records because every song we got is
under three minutes!" So, they actually had to make a clause in our
contract saying any song over one minute would be counted as a song. We
even have things that are less than a minute, so I told them, 'you gotta
really bear with us on this. This is not your normal animal that comes
into a corral, if you know what I mean.'"

    There are 17 "tracks" on American Psycho, many  of which carry the
horror movie theme, such as "Mars Attacks" and "Shining."

    "I actually wrote 'Mars Attacks' when I heard that Tim Burton was
putting out the movie. The only problem was, we got it to him way too
late for him to use. He wrote us a really nice letter, saying how he was
a big fan, and that it was just too short a notice to try to get it in.
'Shining' is actually about the movie 'Poltergeist.' Michale wrote that
one, and it's my favorite one on the record," he admits"

    "Shining" makes no bones about it's origins, with a relentless chorus
that repeats "Carol-Ann, the beast is coming from inside your T.V." The
final cut on American Psycho just may be the best representation of the
Misfits' mentality: "Don't Open 'Till Doomsday" is a rousing sing-along
that hangs mystery in the air and demonstrates the band's flair for what
newcomers like Offspring are continually trying to emulate.

    Misfits may hit the road immediately upon the May 13 release of
"American Psycho" and Only would love to see the record return his band
to the arenas.


DAVE'S INTERVIEW, August 9, 1997
Dave: How do you compare the Misfits to your past bands?
Chud: (laughs) Taht's a good question.  I don't really think any of my past
      bands were like the Misfits.  Except for Sacred Trash.  Yeah, when I
      joined the Misfits I wrote a bunch of songs for the band, but due to
      the lawsuit (Misfits vs. Glenn Danzig) we weren't able to use any of
      them.  I wanted to get something out so I put together Sacred Trash
      which I played drums, guitar, and did a little singing.  It was
      something to pass the time during the lawsuit.  When we got our
      Misfits name back, I started writing new songs.  So I would say  Sacred
      Trash was like the Misfist but not any of the other bands.  As a matter
      of fact, guess what one guy said about Sacred Trash.  He said it
      sounded like a good Samhain.

Dave: The old Misfits were more of a punk band.  The new lineup seems to lean
      more towards a metal sound.  What is your feeling on that?
Chud: I don't see it like that.  The Misfits were never a total punk band.
      Static Age was more of a slow album.  Walk Among Us was more punk and
      had that 50's sound to it.  Earth A.D. was straight out a thrash album.
      The American Psycho album has all three and then some.  Yeah, there are
      some metal sounding songs.  That's because Jerry (bass) and Doyle
      (guitar) are metal gods.  So the stuff they write are going to have
      the metal sound.  Like the Kryst The Conqueror (Jerry Only and Doyle's
      old band).  That was a heavy metal album.  Here we have four different
      guys putting what they got into the band, which gives you a variety of
      different sounds instead of one guy doing all the writing.  That's why
      this new album sounds better than the old ones.  At least I think it
      does.  If it was going to be just a heavy metal band I wouldn't be in
      it.  I don't even like heavy metal.

Dave: When will you have a new album out?
Chud: We wrote 8 new songs fo far.  After the tour in October, we will be
      heading back into the studio for a new album.


SCENE Volume 28, # 32  - August 7-13, 1997
 "The music came full circle to catch us," Only says, his jovial, urgent
tone a ringer for Jerry Lewis.  "Our timing was impeccable.  All of a sudden,
the whole punk scene came back.  We became a very accessible item because we
were a forerunner of the music which was becoming the popular form of music
on the planet.

     "Who better to come out with a great new album than us?" he asks clearly
expecting no response.