"I can say the album will be a hard and violent mix of industrial-strength punk vaudeville with 30s Berlin cabaret decadence."

"It's very Marquis De Sade-inspired"

"The subject matter's more related to people's fetishes and how that motivates their behavior. People will probably find [the album] dirty. I think it will make [people] want to have sex--or maybe not, if you picture me in mind. So far, the material's very electronic-based and guitar-driven, and I think it's going to stay that way. It's gonna be a weird cross between Revolting Cocks and Ludacris. I'm not looking to tarnish my reputation by delving into rap-metal, but I am using very groove-oriented beats, which is something I haven't put in the forefront before. This time the rhythm is very important because I'm trying to get across my sexual nature. I'm putting down some dirty beats that'll probably be played in strip bars."

"This record is pushing the decadence to its limits, much like when I made the transformation from Mechanical Animals, it will be that sort of extreme but Mechanical Animals was sort of glamorous, I suppose like a wonderful birthday cake, but this is, you leave the beautiful birthday cake outside and the worms kinda get in it, and it starts to stink a little bit, so its quite beautiful and grotesque and its very inspired by the depression era, 30's Berlin, cabaret vaudeville, so my image is pushed completely to the extreme and will be entirely what people are not expecting. And, the music itself, I suppose what's hinted at vaguely with what I did on Tainted Love rhythmically but, it's far more hard, very very hard. The type of record you put on and you start banging your head to it and you don't stop at any point. And I think it either makes you want to have sex with someone, or beat up the person that you're having sex with. And it deals a lot with relationships past and present. One of the songs, I cant say it will be the first single, but it's a contender, It's called "Use Your Fist And Not Your Mouth."

I think people should just expect everything that they've seen and heard from me to seem tame in comparison to what is to come.

"The complete theme is still under wraps. But it definitely lends itself to some of the things that have inspired me over the past year, particularly the life of the Marquis De Sade. I relate to how he was a person who had a very vivid imagination that scared a lot of people and he was punished for the things that were going on in his head. He was using his mind and his art to exorcise his demons, and he was punished for it. And I feel a lot of times I get myself into similar circumstances."

"I suppose there's an element of me having a healthier sexual relationship in my life now. So the music has a very personal fetish quality to it in the sense that I talk about and try to express musically things that I normally wouldn't have done in the past. I've often put my feelings into personas and different characters on each record to help me talk about what's inside me. Sometimes it's easier if you put it into metaphors. I think this one deals with things on a realer and dirtier and rawer level. It's gonna be the kind you put on when you want to accomplish something, whether it's to take out all your aggressions or have sex to or be by yourself and consider how you're going to take out your aggressions sexually somewhere down the road."

"We're in an era of music right now where heavy rock and aggressive things are very acceptable and very near approaching cliche. So it's very important to keep pushing the boundary of how you make heavy music, and I want to continue to make really heavy music, but I want to do it in a way that isn't like everything else I hear when I turn on the radio."

(about the stage show for the new tour)
"It'll be a chance for people to get a taste of what I'm about," he says. "I'm gonna pick these venues that people can come to, and they're gonna see things that they're not supposed to see. They're gonna see art, they're gonna see naked women, they're gonna see music. It's going to be decadent and entertaining and I like that."

Your music has always been in a constant state of evolution. What are you doing now in terms of redefining your sound?

"We've started writing some new material, and the next record will probably be complete a lot sooner than the ones in the past, because those were much more of a personal journey. This one is very electronic. The two elements that have existed so far in what we've written are just very violent or very sexual. Other than that, I don't have a great description for it, other than that I've been referring to it as Marquis De Sade with a drum machine."

Is it totally out of left field from what you've done before?

"I don't think it's out of left field, but I've decided to write with rhythms intially this time instead of writing with acoustic guitar or with a melody, but start with rhythms and focus a lot on beats and things like that. And I suppose it's probably an influence of rap music being so popular, it seemed like a challenge for me to try to do something better than what's out there, or to do something that's more in the flavor of what we're known for. Not to say that I'm going to do a rap record."

My new album actually is more inspired by cabaret and vaudeville. Burlesque was for men looking to see beautiful ladies undress. Vaudeville was for the not-so-beautiful to entertain in other ways. I do like both. I have always looked to vaudeville and theatre in general, from the beginning. "Driven" even referred to my early performances as being "vaudville." My interest in 30s style started in ACSS when I got into corsetry. I began collecting things: my antique barber's chair, old medical equipment, and '30s pin-up bondage "porno." The strange thing is that this record looks, sounds and feels like me and my home. That is, my close friends feel that it shows more of my innerself than anything I have done before. I suppose, it is my complete dedication and focus that has kept this album close to my heart. Sometimes the pressure and expectations affect your art, but I have really let my guard down and have not been afraid to go all the way. I feel like I have nothing to lose, because people have attacked me and robbed and raped me so much this music is all I have to make me alive. I am really having the time of my life. My world has just begun.

Recent? Anyone who knows me, knows that I always have a red room. My apartment in New Orleans is pictured in ACSS. In fact, I have two in this house. It's funny people see this as new, but Marilyn Monroe and '30s Hollywood have always been fascinating to me. I went through my latex/b&d phase in "Sweet Dreams," and had the whole WWII pilot helmet. People seem to look too much into the color of my walls. My new image is the most "me" of all and it fits well. It has always been there waiting to be found and now it is alive. I really was drawn to Dita because of my love for the '30s and '40s. People assume she brainwashed me into liking this overnight. I do find her as a very positive muse in my life and this is the most creative time I've ever experienced.