This is pretty neat — GWAR’s vocalist Michael Bishop gave an interesting TED Talk that went up last week, where he talks about the band and how the city of Richmond, VA shaped its identity.
Bishop was a bassist for GWAR in high school, and created the character Beefkake the Mighty. He’s also a super smart dude who got a Ph.D. in music from the University of Virginia, specializing in popular music ethnography and performance studies. When GWAR’s singer Dave Brockie died in 2014, he took over as the band’s new vocalist, the Berserker Blöthar.
Definitely an interesting talk on how the band formed and what it stands for.
Below I’ve also included an interview I did with Brockie, aka Oderus Urungus, back in 2007 at the Wiltern in LA.