In 2002, MURDERDOLLS were spawned in the name of horror punk, but in 2010 the band’s backbone is fused from a different animal. With core duo Joey Jordison (guitars) and Wednesday 13 (vocals) taking control of all songwriting duties after the band’s eight-year hiatus, some of the campiness may have been left behind, but the aggression has been pushed to full throttle.

With Women and Children Last’s first offering in My Dark Place Alone already available for public consumption, it’s plain to see that what will be unleashed on August 31st will indeed mark a rebirth for the band. To find out what went into their shift in sound and the overall making of this album, we caught up with Joey and Wednesday in the studio in the Hollywood Hills. See what they had to say about getting back together, writing together for the first time, what’s behind the title and much more below.

It’s been eight years since we’ve heard from the Murderdolls, so what was it about right now that made it optimal time to reunite?
Joey: We’ve been talking actually the last three years when we’d see each other in passing on tour — when he was doing solo Wednesday stuff and when I was with Slipknot. We’d always wanted to make another record but the timing had never worked out. We’d been talking and exchanging songs… Wednesday had ideas that he sent me and I picked stuff out from the ideas that he had and knocked out what the song was, so we’d collaborate back and forth on it. The thing is we consider this to be the first Murderdolls record because this is the one we’re actually writing together. The first one we didn’t really write together, it was basically two bands coming together. So this one I think will blow people’s minds. We’re writing real songs this time and a lot of the campy stuff is gone. I think people will be surprised.

Tell me a little bit about your guys’ dynamic writing songs together. Since you’ve been in the studio a few days, how is it going so far?
Wednesday: It’s dynamic but much like dynamite, explosive. When we’re together it’s literally highly explosive. (laughs)

And you said its less campy, so what direction are you guys going in?
Wednesday: The thing is these aren’t songs that we’ve just wrote in the past three days hanging out with each other. This is 8 years worth of demos, so they’re all over the place. There are certain songs that we’re doing that you can tell I worked on right when Murderdolls had just got home, and then you can hear stuff that I wrote maybe a month or so ago that’s super heavy. So the record is going to have ideas from all over the place. It’s heavy, it’s glam rock, it’s hard rock, it’s metal, it’s…there’s not hip-hop though.

Joey: No, there’s no hip-hop.

Wednesday: No not at all, it’s quite possibly one of the most violent things I’ve been a part of so far. It’s really good, it’s going to freak people out. Kid’s are gonna love it. Parent’s are gonna REALLY love it.

Tell me a little bit about the title you guys are working with right now for your record.
Wednesday: Oh it’s not working, it’s official: Women and Children Last. It kinda sums up the way we feel, no offense towards you there young lady.

None taken.

Joey: It’s based on this Van Halen record Women and Children First and Wednesday came up with that title and a joke on that that’s perfect. Everyone that hears that who grew up with rock ‘n roll is like that’s genius. It’s so simple, like why didn’t we think of that?

Wednesday: It shows that we have a fun side. And it’s still a real sinister title at the same time.

So in keeping it sinister, yet less campy, is there any horror element to this record?
Wednesday: Yeah, I mean we still have a sense of humor and we’re having a good time and making jokes and things like that, but the horror element I think is pretty much gone. This is really just fun, it’s still got hints of old Murderdolls, but we’ve just expanded on it. It’s a new sound – it’s a lot heavier, it’s a lot more mean. I dunno it’s sleazy, it just sounds dirty.

Joey: You’ll have to take a shower after listening to it.

Wednesday: Yeah, like every time.

In writing this for about the last 8 years, what kind of influences have you been drawing from over the course of that time?
Wednesday: For me I don’t really listen to anything that new. I bought a bunch of old outlaw country records and 70’s rock is pretty much all I listen to. It’s the stuff I grew up on: Cooper and KISS and that’s about it. I really haven’t tried to get into anything new.

Joey: I’m the same way. I listen to metal, if you want to call it that. I really don’t consider certain acts to be total metal – they’re over the place with that stuff. It’s kind of like with the Murderdolls, even though we’re not even close to what like Slipknot would be, it has to enter the universe. That’s the thing I don’t listen to – Metal just seems to be so overpopulated I just lost interest, got bored. There’s nothing that I’m really hearing that I like. I listen to mostly 70s rock, classic rock, stuff I grew up with and then I a lot of really experimental stuff and then I listen to a lot of black metal. Which I always think is, depending on what type of band you’re talking about, has a real danger and a punk rock element to it too. So that’s pretty much what I listen to.

With a lengthy hiatus between the first Murderdolls record and this one, what has changed for you guys and how have your expectations changed?
Wednesday: Good question. What changed? Wow. I guess that the last five years of our lives have been fucking insane. They were hard work. We’re kind of starting from scratch again. For expectations from the rough tracks from the studio so far we’ve got a really, really, really cool record in front of us and we’re doing something different than anyone else is doing right now, so that’s even better.

I’ve been reading your studio updates, and it seems like you guys are having a blast doing it.
Joey: Yeah we’re having fun. It doesn’t seem like work at all. We hammer it out and we have fun and there’s no arguing or nothing like that. Me and Wednesday are just completely on the same page. None of the songs were completed when we came in here, they were about half done. And we’ll sit there, and we’ll look at each other and we know exactly what we’re going to do. It’s really comfortable.

Wednesday: For my solo stuff I just work by myself. So to actually have someone to write with is great. Cuz it’s not just me trying to figure everything out and it’s great.

Are you bringing in guest musicians to record with you as well?
Wednesday: We’re pretty much doing everything ourselves. We’ve got a couple people coming in to do a couple things like hanging from the ceiling and stuff like that, but we’re mostly playing all the instruments. We do have a couple special guests coming that are still in the James Bond file, we can’t talk about them yet. We’re not gonna make it some full on special guest kind of record but a few people are going to be on it and we really wanted it to happen. [ed. Note: Motley Crue’s Mick Mars plays on the album!]

Joey, with you on tour with Rob Zombie this summer, how will that affect the Murderdolls?
Joey: Well our record’s not going to come out until August, so I’ll be done with Zombie then, with Mayhem Festival, and it’s straight Murderdolls from then on, and we’ll probably tour through next summer at least.

Wednesday: Maybe even in outer space or something, another planet.

You can pre-order the album online now AT THIS LOCATION and don’t forget that the band will be on the bill for this years Ozzfest show, which takes place at London’s O2 arena on the 18th September.