DR. CHUD, former drummer of Misfits during their nineties reunion line-up, is best known for his work on ’97’s American Psycho and ’99’s Famous Monsters albums.
In 2003 DR. CHUD formed Dr. Chud’s X-Ward, and in 2016 released his Garbage Pail Kids hymn “We’re The Garbage Pail Kids.” A few weeks ago he dropped a long overdo music video for the song. I had the luck to get the doctor himself for a little interview to ask him what this is all about. The following interview is lightly edited.
Hello Doc, nice to have you. First of all a killer video you did there. I laughed so hard when I saw it. Espacially the introscene. Well done! But tell me, how did you came up with the idea?
The idea for the video comes from the lyrics, the intro just came to me on the spot, I had added a charecter last minute (punk ROCKY) and needed a way to work him into the video, it was perfect, very John Waters.
What is your relation to the Garbage Pail Kids?
The only relation is I scored the soundtrack to 30 YEARS OF GARBAGE, a film that tells the FULL story of the GPKs and the artists involved. It’s a great documentary! I might add 17 years ago i discovered a young artist and used him on my solo record Diagnosis for Death – that artist is Joe Simko, now the leading GPK artist for TOPPS CO. Joe has done all my art up ’til this point!
The song is a bit older, why do a music video now?
When I commit to a project i just dont do my job and leave, it’s a five-year cycle you must put into it, meaning I help promote the project for at least five years, I’ve been promoting the film actively for four now, I have one more year before I say I did everything possible to help the project do well. I’ll still do things here and there later but not as active because I would have moved on to another project. This year TOPPS is celebrating its 35th year releasing the GPKs!
It’s a cool late-eighties / early-nineties set design you created. Tell us about the making of it.
I love making and building things, there is so much involved with that set, i build it right in my backyard, made all the props, lots of details only GPK fans would understand. If your not into GPK you might not understand the video, like if you watch LUKE puke you might think well he doesn’t look like he wants to be there…well he doesn’t, he tried calling off rehearsal because he is too sick to even hold up the drumsticks, that’s his gimmick… but either way you’ll be entertained for 4:30 minutes!
I edited it and did all the special effects myself! This is my 5th video under ABOMINABLE FILMS, my own film company!! We all had a blast making it, there is another track that is at the end of the film called “1980s Was So Great” we filmed that song too, I’ll probably release it next year.
We see you as the GPK ‘New Wave Dave’ furthermore we have ‘Nasty Nick’, ‘Teevee Stevie’ and couple more. What are your favourite characters? What’s to say about the choice and the costumes?
The characters you see in the video are the charecters in the song, I added four more to the video and MADE UP two (nasty GRACE and rocka BILLY-JEAN)!!! As far as the costumes we just tried to come as close to the GPK cards as we can, and we love the cheese! I must say our makeup artist Stacy Lynn did an outstanding job under all the presser of such a task, she had to make up about nine characters!
Can we hope for new DR. CHUD music soon?
I’m working on that right now, that is my priority!
Anything else?
Next up is probly the last TROMA movie Lloyd Kaufman will have his hands in, i’ts called Shakespeare’s Shitstorm – I wrote a song for the film called “Gimme Some Of That Drug,” I also made a cameo in the movie! I believe it will be released August 29th 2020 at the Fantasia Festival! That’s about it!
Thank you for the insight. Take care.
