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Mechanical Animals
& Antichrist Superstar
--Abuse of Power
- Orkus Magazine - October 98
MM:"Antichrist Superstar was a study about the abuse of power. About
rock 'n roll, religion and politics. It's about describing emotions
and being powerful as possible. And Mechanical Animals
is about what everything looks like after Antichrist Superstar will
happen. That means what will happen when you get your emotions back. That's
like you're walking on a unknown planet or in an atmosphere
where you don't fit in. Hollywood is this place and the best location
to feel good in this new formed world. I live in a house on a hill.
I have a very good place to watch the city at night. I see all the
lights and this aloneness. It's something like space. This imagine
has fascinated me and so most of the new songs are about that place
and watching the city. In Mechanical Animals there is a person who
wants to fit in in this society, but that is not easy for him."
--Save/Destroy - Access Magazine Issue 38
MM:"I don't think that it's a very political record or that I'm
trying to change people's views so much as I did on Antichrist Superstar.
Mechanical Animals is more about finding something in all of the
ugliness, finding your feelings, finding something to make the world
worth saving. Almost from a Savior's point of view, and Antichrist
Superstar was more from a Destroyer's point of view."
--Antithesis - MTV News - December 3, 1997
MM:"If Antichrist Superstar was sort of my comparative fall from
grace, Lucifer being kicked from heaven, this next record is about
what happens on Earth now. It's about sort of trying to fit into
a society that thinks it's full of emotions and that you're a callous
person, when in fact you're the one that actually has all these
feelings and it's the world that's kind of numb to them. It's almost
the antithesis of what I just did."
--Evoking Feelings - CMJ Magazine - Issue 64
MM:"The songs on Mechanical Animals are supposed to evoke feeling
so they had to have more skin and nerves to them."
--Explaining Mechanical Animals - Alternative Press January 1998
MM:"I think Antichrist Superstar was one of the heaviest records
that has been created, and there's no sense in trying to out do
ourselves there. Now the challenge is to make the best songs that
we can, with influences ranging from The Beatles "White" Album to
"Diamond Dogs/Young Americans-era Bowie." It's a more emotional
side of us. More melodic. Antichrist Superstar was a transformational
album. We've become different people. And I don't think I'm ever
gonna change the way I think. I'm certainly not gonna start writing
happy love songs."
--Emotional Nightmare - CMJ Magazine - Issue 64
MM:"I think the in making Mechanical Animals I just opened up to
the idea that being everything that I set out to be on Antichrist
Superstar includes having human elements and emotions that I didn't
count on. This record was easier to make physically, but emotionally
it was a nightmare because I was experiencing empathy and wondering
how other people feel and what they're suffering. I never wanted
to feel empathy. It's a lot easier to feel alienated. It's easier
to be mechanical. It's a challenge for me to try to be human. I'm
at that point in my life where I've done everything. I've taken
it to the extreme. Now the simplest thing, the easiest thing, is
a real nightmare. I mean, Antichrist Superstar was driving toward
and praying for this bigger than life thing, and this record is
accepting and coming to terms with that thing."
--Mechanical Animals - Melody Maker September 20, 1997
MM:"Antichrist Superstar was like falling from heaven. Mechanical
Animals is about what happens when you hit the earth, where you
go from there, how much more there is to be discovered."
--A Rebirth - CMJ Magazine - Issue 64
MM:"Whatever I do musically is always kind of a reflection of my
personal life, Antichrist Superstar was a very cold, numb transformation
and the result was a rebirth in some ways. Mechanical Animals is
the documenting the feeling coming back. It's like a leg that was
asleep and now it's starting to tingle. This record is like me coming
to terms with the pain and fear of being human for the first time.
It's not a regretful record, but it's kind of living in a world
that you don't belong in for the first time."
--Exploring Ideas - CMJ Magazine - Issue 64
MM:"I explored as much as I could with religion on Antichrist Superstar
and I think that I wanted to continue to explore the idea of God
but with science on this record. I mean that's what this record
is expressing, the idea that in my transformation or my search for
something, if you want to call it God you can call it that, I found
the human soul does exist, and the only way that you can find that
is through your expression. That's all you can contribute to the
world."
--Splitting the Brain - Chart Magazine - October 1998
MM:"I think on Antichrist Superstar I really split the left and
right halves of my brain. This album is trying to put them back
together again. I’ve maybe found the reasons not to want to fulfill
the tragic thing I set in motion, the personal apocalypse. That’s
where the sadness on the record comes from: The idea that I may
be too late."
--Different Feelings - Chart Magazine - October 1998
MM:"When it comes to the things I dealt with on Antichrist Superstar,
I still feel the same way. But that’s a part of me that I’ve overcome. Now
I want to bring back dealing with feelings and try to be focused
with my expression as possible. Not to run away from or drown in
misery and songs and drugs, but rather to be inspired by them. I
think that being able to sing these songs helps me to deal with
the things that they’re about. Antichrist Superstar was more about
the numbness, so I needed to be numb, and this is about feeling.
The more I listen to the record now, the more I need to perform
it."
--Becoming Superhuman - JANE Magazine - November 1998
MM:"On Antichrist Superstar I was dealing with everything from my
past and using that to try and become something very superhuman.
So I shut off a lot of my emotions and numbed myself. Writing my
autobiography forced me to examine my life, and I began to start
feeling again. When I started to experience empathy, it felt to
me like being and infant or an alien. Mechanical Animals documents
that and dreams of a kind of dystopia."
--Fall from Grace - Radio 3 of Spanish National Radio Network -
September 21, 1998
MM:"It was me being able to overcome my fears on the last record,
challenging everyone's ideals and putting myself through a lot of
physical pain and now I find myself dealing with emotions and the
fear and pain of being human for once, so this is almost... the
last album was a fall from grace and this is kind of a search to
save myself."
Q: I've realized you're a very spiritual person, which is not at
all the impression I got from the previous records.
MM:"It was a matter of growing to that point, transforming to that
point. But now, it's not only set up to save myself but to save
other people as well. I can do with music what people do with religion."
--Omega - Radio 3 of Spanish National Radio Network - September
21, 1998
Q: People wanna know why the Omega thing. Why are you calling yourself
that now?
MM:"It represents the end and the final transformation that was
set forth in AntiChrist Superstar, and it's also ironic cause this
is a rebirth, so it's the alpha and the omega. It's very biblical
in a way. The last album made references to Lucipher's fall from
grace, and this album makes references to Christ walking on Earth."
Q: So you're gonna end making Christian Rock?
MM:"Like Striper, yeah. It's not to say that what I'm presenting
is Christian, but I'm finding comparisons between the alienation
that ocurred with Jesus as much as the alienation that occurs with
me."
--Pain - Guitar World 1998
MM:"Antichrist Superstar was a lot about stripping away emotions,
and it was a metamorphosis, really, for me trying to believe in
myself, and it took going through a lot of different pain to get
there. And I have to go somewhere to go from there, and it was almost
like starting over. And the feeling I get from this record is, in
some ways, the exact opposite of the last record, because this is
about getting back all of your feelings and being in a world that
really doesn't have any."
Q: What pain are you refering to?
MM:"Dealing with everyday element of my life, you know, all at once.
Dealing with drugs, dealing with belief in myself and presenting
ideas that the rest of the world, particularly America, really didn't
agree with. So I was put in a position where I had to fight to stand
up for what I was saying. I was taking a lot of heat from that,
and it's a real tiring struggle that can take a lot out of you."
--Image Evolution - Norwegian Radio Interview 1998
Q: You look a lot different now then what you did when Antichrist
Superstar was released.
MM:"Well, also when Antichrist was released I looked different from
the first record. For an artist to remain static I think is not
very creative so I'm always very involved in what I do. I was looking
to inspire and provoke people to think differently and Antichrist
Superstar was a transformational period for me. The record was about
shedding my skin and becoming something stronger and bigger and
I found my self being re-born on Mechanical Animals, being quite
a different perspective."
--Mechanical Animals - Norwegian Radio Interview 1998
Q: So how have you changed since Antichrist Superstar?
MM:"Well, the numbness wore off and I started to feel again. This
record is about experiencing the pain and fear of becoming human
for the first time. So, this record is about the more I began to
feel, the less the world seemed to feel to me. And I began to see
them as the Mechanical Animals that I speak about."
--The World - Access Magazine Issue 38
Q: So what do you see in the world worth saving?
MM:"I think that's how mankind is going to destroy himself. Antichrist
Superstar was talking about this Apocalypse as a personal one. And
now I think that’s how we've set it in motion, by making more things
that make ourselves irrelevant, not focusing on what actually makes
us people. What sets us apart from machines or sets us apart from
insects is that we have a soul, and that's what we're meant to express.
And the less that we express it, the more we've killed ourselves."
--Mechanical Animals - Juice Magazine October 1998
Q: Antichrist Superstar was the end of a phase for you. Can we talk
about that?
MM:"Antichrist Superstar was about stripping away emotions, about
me trying to believe in myself, and it took going through a lot
of different pain to get there. After that, I had to have somewhere
to go from there, and it was like starting all over. The feeling
I get from this record is the exact opposite of the last record,
because this is about getting back all of your feelings and being
in a world that really doesn't have any."
--Parallels - MTV (Manson TV) - Sept 14, 1998
MM:"Antichrist Superstar was a lot of parallels with my life with
someone like Lucifer. Mechanical Animals is a lot more parallels
between me and Jesus Christ."
--Mechanical Animals - Pulse Magazine October 1998
MM:"The problem with Antichrist Superstar was I was put in a position
where I was made very unsure of myself. I was questioning everything
I did because no one had any confidence in what I was doing and
I was taking so many drugs to ease that misery and frustration.
It's only when you're in that weak frame of mind that drugs can
really hurt you. If you're a competent drug user then there's nothing
to fear. No drugs were sought out of depression or confusion this
time because I was very sure about what I was doing. They were just
sought out of enjoyment or decadence. This record was written on
drugs about drugs, and it will likely be performed on drugs as well."
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