ROB ZOMBIE Talks 'The Lords Of Salem' Movie, Upcoming Studio Album

ARTISTdirect.com editor-in-chief Rick Forino recently conducted an interview with rocker-turned-filmmaker Rob Zombie. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect.com: Where are you at with "The Lords Of Salem"?

Rob: I'm in the final stages of finishing the film. By the end of August, we'll be done. The sound designers are still creating some of the sound effects for the movie. Once they're done, I'll go into the mix stage in August and mix the final sound for the movie. Then, I'll be done.

ARTISTdirect.com: In "Halloween II", you traversed darker, dreamier territory. Are you going down that psychological road further with "The Lords Of Salem"? "The Devil's Rejects" and "House Of 1000 Corpses" are more visceral.

Rob: This movie is definitely a slow psychological burn. Not a lot of people have seen the movie, but I have had some screenings for people. It's a weird movie, and it affects me the same way. When you watch it, it seems like there's not a lot happening for a while. However, what's happening is you're starting to get sucked into the pace of the movie though. I've noticed movies that fuck with you dictate the pace you watch them at. A lot of modern movies are cut exactly how the audience wants to watch them, but if you watch a movie like "The Shining", it moves at a very strange pace. It starts controlling you as you're watching. There will be a simple scene in "The Shining" that'll take forever to complete itself, but that weird rhythm starts fucking with you as you're watching the movie. That's kind of how this movie functions. It wasn't one particular thing like, "Oh my God, that's so scary". It's a long slow mindfuck. When it ended, several people sat there stunned, didn't say anything, and left. I thought, "Fuck, they hate the movie". Then, they called me the next day and said, "Sorry I left. I didn't know what to say. I had to go home and digest that. That thing fucking freaked me out". Then, they would call me the next day and talk for a while. It's a very strange movie. I wanted to go against a lot of the conventions that I've seen in what are considered horror movies. There are certain things that always happen. I wanted to break away from them. It's a more psychological movie.

ARTISTdirect.com: Those old black-and-white movies like "Horror Hotel" and "The Old Dark House" built slowly too. At the end, the payoff is always greater.

Rob: Yeah, in this one especially, it's the cumulative effect of the things that have happened. Lots of little crazy things happen all the way through it. There's not one particular thing where you're flying out of your seat. The way it unfolds is like Chinese water torture dripping on you.

ARTISTdirect.com: How's the new record coming along? It seems like the tightest band you've ever had. Does that translate into the studio?

Rob: It's been special. I'm really excited. I know everybody says, "Our new record is our best record ever". That's a total cliché, but what I do feel about this record is there have been a couple of times in our career where I feel what we're doing is special. Whether it's our best record or not is for someone else to decide. With WHITE ZOMBIE, I felt when we made "Astro-Creep: 2000" was a special moment for that band. It was like, "This is the key moment for us". With my first solo record, "Hellbilly Deluxe", I felt, "This is a key moment for me." I haven't had that feeling since then. I thought the other albums I made were good records and had great songs. People liked them, but every record can't have that feeling. It wasn't until this album, I felt that revelation like you've just turned the page on the next chapter. This is a significant record for me. That's very exciting. A lot of it is in part due to the people I'm working with right now.

Read the entire interview from ARTISTdirect.com.