MattBrady
08-14-2007, 02:39 PM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/ATHF/MCpirate.jpg" border="0" align="right"><i>by Zack Smith</i>
<i>We’re smokin’ that Danger Girl!
We’re smokin’ that Gen 13!
-- from “Wiid”</i>
<b>mc chris</b> (aka Chris Ward) is living large. The “nerdcore” rapper responsible for such cult hits as “Fette’s Vette” and “dq blizzard” recently finished his latest U.S. tour, reprised his role as the oft-reincarnated MC Pee Pants in <i>Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters</i> (now on DVD) and is set to make his triumphant return to Adult Swim with an all-new project.
You might be familiar with the mc’s work on <i>ATHF</I> or on <i>Sealab 2021</i>, or from his <a href=”http://www.mcchris.com”> web site</a> or <a href=”http://www.myspace.com/mcchris”>MySpace page</a>. But nothing can compare to seeing him live on stage rapping at warp speed to packed houses full of fans who know every lyric, contribute remixes of his songs, and even get to hang out with him after the show for food, bowling and the occasional movie screening. Newsarama recently caught up with Chris to talk comics, his latest projects, and the future. Ladies and gentlemen, fanboys and fangirls…give it up for mc chris.
<b>Newsarama</b>: So, Chris, your last tour was a few months back. How’d it go?
<b>mc chris</b>: It’s was n a great tour – been touring with Piebald and two bands, Streets of Nowhere and House of Fools. And all the bands are awesome. It’s a lot like camp, where you have these experiences and becomes festivals and everybody. It’s a bummer to stop hanging out with these guys, because they rule so much.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You did some great fumetti-comics about the tour on your web site. What’s life on the road been like?
<B>MC</B>: It’s busy, you know, you’re in a lot of motels. It kind of becomes like white noise after a while…it can be shocking when things are really, really nice sometimes, and really, really horrible at other times. When you’re on tour, you’re just trying to become laid-back and patient about everything. Touring is like – it’s not as adventurous or as fun as you’d think. It might have been a little crazier at the beginning when I drank, but now I don’t drink, so I’m pretty boring. I go right back to the hotel and either get online and try to do a little work, or read a book and go to sleep.
And then we drive all day, try not to eat fast food, try to find good food, which is pretty much the eternal search on the road. I like Cracker Barrel, I like getting pork chops at Cracker Barrel. Occasionally someone will bring us home-cooked food, and that is like the Holy Grail. It happens like once a year, you do like a hundred shows, and once someone will bring you something that’s home-cooked and really good and it’ll just help everything.
What else can I tell you about being on tour…there’s not a lot of shenanigans and everything. Piebald has taught me to be a little more laid back, but I’m pretty much all business. I try not to blow my voice out or do anything excessive that might endanger my career, so I’m pretty safe. But, you know, I look for comics every Wednesday, and I try to find comics on comics day, and I try to watch <i>Lost</I>, make some time to watch that on Thursdays. Other than that, not a lot goes on; you just try and do the show, and try and do a good job, and try and keep everything running.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You get pretty up-close with your fans at these concerts. What’s that experience like?
<B>MC</B>: It’s great, because I get to show them that I’m not much different than them, that I’m into a lot of the same stuff. You know, that I’m just a normal guy, and they shouldn’t put me too high up on a pedestal. I enjoy hanging out with them, and they’re like a great resource for what I should be listening to and watching. I always like talking to them, finding out what they’re doing, and then I like to translate it into my music and spin it back some, because it’s kind of like a give-and-take between the fans and I. And with my blogs, it’s letting them know what I’m thinking and what I’m going through, so hopefully they can sympathize a little bit, and feel happy for me on good days and cheer me up on bad days, and know that I have good and bad days like everyone else.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You’ve got a bunch of things coming up – tell us about that.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/ATHF/athfcmfft.jpg" border="0" align="left"><B>MC</B>: I recorded my part in the <i>Aqua Teen Hunger Force</i> video game, and I was in the movie. I’m also in a new Adult Swim show called <i>Fat Guy Stuck in Internet</I>, which aired as a special May 13. It’s been previously known as “Gemberling” on Channel 102 and Fuse. It’s pretty awesome for me because it’s my friends Curtis Gwinn and John Gemberling, who has done all the skits and everything on my records. I’m really excited for them, and happy to be involved in the show. (Chris has announced on his message board that he’ll be doing a show called “Battle Hi” on Adult Swim as well.)
<B>NRAMA</B>: Nice!
<B>MC</B>: Yeah! What else can I tell you? I’m going to be working for Cartoon Network for a week and a half, cutting some commercials for two of their anime programs, <i>Blood +</i> and <i>Bleach</i>. It’s like touching base, going home for a second, reenergizing. Making TV is how I relax, that’s how I’d put it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s your relationship with Cartoon Network/Adult Swim like? You’ve been doing things separately from them for the last couple of years.
<B>MC</B>: You know, they have a truly independent spirit, so when they see someone go off and become independent and take the business into their own hands and do things on their own – they like it, I think! They’re always really encouraging toward me – when SPIN nominated me as band of the year, they made a spot about it on TV. Whenever I have any problems, I just call them up. They’ve just always been there. And when I was done with this tour, I called them up and said, “Hey, can I just come home for a second?” and they’re like, “Yeah, come on back.” Whenever I want to come home, my job has always been there.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’d you think of the reaction to the <i>ATHF</i> movie?
<B>MC</B>: I loved it! I got to see it at the premiere in Tampa, Florida, and it was a packed audience. They were all clapping and happy. It was one of the best moments of my life. And it was really cool to hear my voice coming out of movie speakers. My mom called me and was like, “I read a review in USA TODAY, and it was a bad review.” And I was like, “Yeah, Mom, but isn’t it so cool that I’m in a movie that’s being reviewed in your newspaper?”
That’s the way I look at it. I don’t look at it as far as how it did money-wise; I think it made all its money back in the wink of an eye. I think all the kids who love the show were psyched to go to the theater and see all their favorite characters, and they’re used to it being meandering and strange and oddly-paced. That’s all old-hat to these kids. So I think critics might have been confused, but screw ‘em.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Ha! Now, this might be a touchy subject, but what did you make of the controversy over the Boston incident?
<B>MC</B>: It was a really sad thing, both because of the money that Turner had to pay and because Jim Samples lost his job. He was the head of Cartoon Network, and he did a really good job, and he had a family and a house and he wasn’t like some big faceless dude, he was a good guy and was trying to run a network and was doing a great job. And this weird stuff happened, and the promotions had been up in some other cities, and, you know, I just think Boston accidentally overreacted. They were just going through the motions of “in case something happens,” trying to protect their city and do the right thing, and they made a mistake. I wish there hadn’t been all these fines and all these things that happened afterwards, I wish they could have let it go.
It’s a weird situation, but honestly, watching the news that day and seeing bomb squads Ignignot, that was a really funny image to me. It was sort of an extension of the show, an extension of art, and it’s funny to see characters like that take on a life of their own…to have people be so scared of them, to think that they’re bombs! It’s kind of funny if you think of the Mooninites and who they really are, they’re kind of these supposed half-assed terrorists, and they’re not really good at what they do. They’re just bored, and don’t really know what to do with themselves.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Yeah, it was so weird to hear “Mooninite” on CNN…
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/ATHF/mc_chris.jpg" border="0" align="right"><B>MC</B>: You know, I look into things, and read metaphors into things and all that stuff, I kind of enjoy it. I wish there hadn’t been so much negativity about it, that there hadn’t been a firing over it – that things had just gone smoother. It blew some of the fun out of the movie, you know?
<B>NRAMA</B>: On a lighter note – let’s talk comics. You’ve mentioned going to different comic stores at different stops on your tour – what are some of your favorite stores?
<B>MC</B>: I like a store when it’s really neat and organized and it’s easy to find stuff. A lot of stores are sort of like black holes, with the comics stuffed back in the corner, and there’s just piles and piles of books there in the back room. There’s no specific place I can think of – when I’m in New York, I get all my comics at Forbidden Planet, and they hold all my comics while I’m on tour, which is really cool because I know my shelf, my tray will get really packed, and I’m excited to get home and see what’s waiting for me. When I was on tour, I missed <b>Fallen Son: Avengers</b>, which I really wanted to read, because I was hating it all at that turn of events, but it was like it was it all the more intriguing to find out what happens next.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds like you didn’t like <b>Civil War</b>…
<B>MC</B>: No, I thought <b>Civil War</b> was kind of lame…the whole universe is turned upside-down, which I guess is what they wanted, and that does make things more interesting in this new year with the Initiative, and it’s kind of fun to see teams get restarted…but I thought that it ended on a really sour, pessimistic note, which Big Brother is watching now. It’s basically like the Emperor, you know, the way he won the Senate, with Tony Stark controlling S.H.I.E.L.D, and now he controls superhero law enforcement, and now we have the Hulk coming home and kicking his ass, really!
<B>NRAMA</B>: (laughs) What are some of the other comics you read on a regular basis?
<B>MC</B>: I read <b>Runaways</b>, I read <b>Young Avengers</b>, I read all the Avengers titles – <b>New Avengers, Mighty Avengers</b>, and I read the new <b>X-Men</b>. That’s pretty much it. I’m trying to get into <b>Fables</b> a little bit, I’m trying out <b>Ultimate X-Men</b>. I really like <b>League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</b>, because that’s right up my alley – stuff that follows from history, and it’s fantastic a bit, and it combines different stories from the past. I love it when history crosses, when different stories combine, and that’s really cool.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Besides the fumetti and the comic-art pieces you’ve sold at concerts and on your web site, have you thought of doing any comics yourself?
<B>MC</B>: Yeah, we’ve tried to get it going this year…I’ve been talking to Tony Moore and Robert Kirkman, who are friends of mine, and we were trying to get something going, but they can’t do it this year, because they’re too busy. Maybe next year. I definitely want to make something.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Very cool. How long have you been a comic fan?
<B>MC</B>: Um, I’d say probably since I was like 10 or so. I read G.I. Joe comics. I was really into G.I. Joe toys, and I found out they were in Marvel Comics, and I just flipped out and had to get all the comics. They had already been around for a while – I found out about them around issue #20 or #21 or so. So I had to get all of those, and I started getting the other comics…my brothers and I would collect the Marvel comics. We would never double up, we would never get the same thing. If one brother got X-Men, then the other brother couldn’t get X-Men. I had all the Spider-Man titles, and my brother had X-Men, and my other brother had Batman, and I wasn’t allowed to buy any Batman.
But I got the stuff I wanted, like <b>West Coast Avengers</b> and <b>Hulk</b> and <b>Fantastic Four</b>. So I did get like a good primer on the Marvel Universe. And then I kind of fell out of it, and I tried to sell all my stuff – I think I sold all the comics I had for like $35 or something really depressing. I had the first printings of the Todd McFarlane’s <b>Amazing Spider-Man</b> book…I think I sold them for a couple of pennies or something.
<B>NRAMA</B>: It’s amazing how much of that stuff from the early 1990s just didn’t go anywhere.
<B>MC</B>: Yeah, now when I read comics, I like to get ‘em all screwed up. I’ll read ‘em in the bathroom and let ‘em get ruined by moisture, and I’m like, “I don’t care.”
<B>NRAMA</B>: Any plans for your next album?
<B>MC</B>: It’s going to be called “Six Feet Under and Rising.” It has a zombie theme, where mc chris is dead, he died on the last album, and in this album, he climbs out of the ground and has his revenge on the people who did him wrong.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Zombie rap. Nice.
<B>MC</B>: I think this record is going to be, you know, vindictive. (laughs) But it’s just so I can vent and get it out of my system and move on to the next record, which will take place in Hell. I’m just one of those artists who is constantly evolving, but I like to stick to what worked in the first place. So I just like to keep it fun, keep it funny, and make sure it kicks ass, and this year I’ll be working with some fans and maybe some celebrity producers, but we’ll just have to see how it all goes, you know?
<i>For a list of mc chris' upcoming tour dates, check out his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/mcchris.</i>
<i>We’re smokin’ that Danger Girl!
We’re smokin’ that Gen 13!
-- from “Wiid”</i>
<b>mc chris</b> (aka Chris Ward) is living large. The “nerdcore” rapper responsible for such cult hits as “Fette’s Vette” and “dq blizzard” recently finished his latest U.S. tour, reprised his role as the oft-reincarnated MC Pee Pants in <i>Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters</i> (now on DVD) and is set to make his triumphant return to Adult Swim with an all-new project.
You might be familiar with the mc’s work on <i>ATHF</I> or on <i>Sealab 2021</i>, or from his <a href=”http://www.mcchris.com”> web site</a> or <a href=”http://www.myspace.com/mcchris”>MySpace page</a>. But nothing can compare to seeing him live on stage rapping at warp speed to packed houses full of fans who know every lyric, contribute remixes of his songs, and even get to hang out with him after the show for food, bowling and the occasional movie screening. Newsarama recently caught up with Chris to talk comics, his latest projects, and the future. Ladies and gentlemen, fanboys and fangirls…give it up for mc chris.
<b>Newsarama</b>: So, Chris, your last tour was a few months back. How’d it go?
<b>mc chris</b>: It’s was n a great tour – been touring with Piebald and two bands, Streets of Nowhere and House of Fools. And all the bands are awesome. It’s a lot like camp, where you have these experiences and becomes festivals and everybody. It’s a bummer to stop hanging out with these guys, because they rule so much.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You did some great fumetti-comics about the tour on your web site. What’s life on the road been like?
<B>MC</B>: It’s busy, you know, you’re in a lot of motels. It kind of becomes like white noise after a while…it can be shocking when things are really, really nice sometimes, and really, really horrible at other times. When you’re on tour, you’re just trying to become laid-back and patient about everything. Touring is like – it’s not as adventurous or as fun as you’d think. It might have been a little crazier at the beginning when I drank, but now I don’t drink, so I’m pretty boring. I go right back to the hotel and either get online and try to do a little work, or read a book and go to sleep.
And then we drive all day, try not to eat fast food, try to find good food, which is pretty much the eternal search on the road. I like Cracker Barrel, I like getting pork chops at Cracker Barrel. Occasionally someone will bring us home-cooked food, and that is like the Holy Grail. It happens like once a year, you do like a hundred shows, and once someone will bring you something that’s home-cooked and really good and it’ll just help everything.
What else can I tell you about being on tour…there’s not a lot of shenanigans and everything. Piebald has taught me to be a little more laid back, but I’m pretty much all business. I try not to blow my voice out or do anything excessive that might endanger my career, so I’m pretty safe. But, you know, I look for comics every Wednesday, and I try to find comics on comics day, and I try to watch <i>Lost</I>, make some time to watch that on Thursdays. Other than that, not a lot goes on; you just try and do the show, and try and do a good job, and try and keep everything running.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You get pretty up-close with your fans at these concerts. What’s that experience like?
<B>MC</B>: It’s great, because I get to show them that I’m not much different than them, that I’m into a lot of the same stuff. You know, that I’m just a normal guy, and they shouldn’t put me too high up on a pedestal. I enjoy hanging out with them, and they’re like a great resource for what I should be listening to and watching. I always like talking to them, finding out what they’re doing, and then I like to translate it into my music and spin it back some, because it’s kind of like a give-and-take between the fans and I. And with my blogs, it’s letting them know what I’m thinking and what I’m going through, so hopefully they can sympathize a little bit, and feel happy for me on good days and cheer me up on bad days, and know that I have good and bad days like everyone else.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You’ve got a bunch of things coming up – tell us about that.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/ATHF/athfcmfft.jpg" border="0" align="left"><B>MC</B>: I recorded my part in the <i>Aqua Teen Hunger Force</i> video game, and I was in the movie. I’m also in a new Adult Swim show called <i>Fat Guy Stuck in Internet</I>, which aired as a special May 13. It’s been previously known as “Gemberling” on Channel 102 and Fuse. It’s pretty awesome for me because it’s my friends Curtis Gwinn and John Gemberling, who has done all the skits and everything on my records. I’m really excited for them, and happy to be involved in the show. (Chris has announced on his message board that he’ll be doing a show called “Battle Hi” on Adult Swim as well.)
<B>NRAMA</B>: Nice!
<B>MC</B>: Yeah! What else can I tell you? I’m going to be working for Cartoon Network for a week and a half, cutting some commercials for two of their anime programs, <i>Blood +</i> and <i>Bleach</i>. It’s like touching base, going home for a second, reenergizing. Making TV is how I relax, that’s how I’d put it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s your relationship with Cartoon Network/Adult Swim like? You’ve been doing things separately from them for the last couple of years.
<B>MC</B>: You know, they have a truly independent spirit, so when they see someone go off and become independent and take the business into their own hands and do things on their own – they like it, I think! They’re always really encouraging toward me – when SPIN nominated me as band of the year, they made a spot about it on TV. Whenever I have any problems, I just call them up. They’ve just always been there. And when I was done with this tour, I called them up and said, “Hey, can I just come home for a second?” and they’re like, “Yeah, come on back.” Whenever I want to come home, my job has always been there.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’d you think of the reaction to the <i>ATHF</i> movie?
<B>MC</B>: I loved it! I got to see it at the premiere in Tampa, Florida, and it was a packed audience. They were all clapping and happy. It was one of the best moments of my life. And it was really cool to hear my voice coming out of movie speakers. My mom called me and was like, “I read a review in USA TODAY, and it was a bad review.” And I was like, “Yeah, Mom, but isn’t it so cool that I’m in a movie that’s being reviewed in your newspaper?”
That’s the way I look at it. I don’t look at it as far as how it did money-wise; I think it made all its money back in the wink of an eye. I think all the kids who love the show were psyched to go to the theater and see all their favorite characters, and they’re used to it being meandering and strange and oddly-paced. That’s all old-hat to these kids. So I think critics might have been confused, but screw ‘em.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Ha! Now, this might be a touchy subject, but what did you make of the controversy over the Boston incident?
<B>MC</B>: It was a really sad thing, both because of the money that Turner had to pay and because Jim Samples lost his job. He was the head of Cartoon Network, and he did a really good job, and he had a family and a house and he wasn’t like some big faceless dude, he was a good guy and was trying to run a network and was doing a great job. And this weird stuff happened, and the promotions had been up in some other cities, and, you know, I just think Boston accidentally overreacted. They were just going through the motions of “in case something happens,” trying to protect their city and do the right thing, and they made a mistake. I wish there hadn’t been all these fines and all these things that happened afterwards, I wish they could have let it go.
It’s a weird situation, but honestly, watching the news that day and seeing bomb squads Ignignot, that was a really funny image to me. It was sort of an extension of the show, an extension of art, and it’s funny to see characters like that take on a life of their own…to have people be so scared of them, to think that they’re bombs! It’s kind of funny if you think of the Mooninites and who they really are, they’re kind of these supposed half-assed terrorists, and they’re not really good at what they do. They’re just bored, and don’t really know what to do with themselves.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Yeah, it was so weird to hear “Mooninite” on CNN…
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/movies/ATHF/mc_chris.jpg" border="0" align="right"><B>MC</B>: You know, I look into things, and read metaphors into things and all that stuff, I kind of enjoy it. I wish there hadn’t been so much negativity about it, that there hadn’t been a firing over it – that things had just gone smoother. It blew some of the fun out of the movie, you know?
<B>NRAMA</B>: On a lighter note – let’s talk comics. You’ve mentioned going to different comic stores at different stops on your tour – what are some of your favorite stores?
<B>MC</B>: I like a store when it’s really neat and organized and it’s easy to find stuff. A lot of stores are sort of like black holes, with the comics stuffed back in the corner, and there’s just piles and piles of books there in the back room. There’s no specific place I can think of – when I’m in New York, I get all my comics at Forbidden Planet, and they hold all my comics while I’m on tour, which is really cool because I know my shelf, my tray will get really packed, and I’m excited to get home and see what’s waiting for me. When I was on tour, I missed <b>Fallen Son: Avengers</b>, which I really wanted to read, because I was hating it all at that turn of events, but it was like it was it all the more intriguing to find out what happens next.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds like you didn’t like <b>Civil War</b>…
<B>MC</B>: No, I thought <b>Civil War</b> was kind of lame…the whole universe is turned upside-down, which I guess is what they wanted, and that does make things more interesting in this new year with the Initiative, and it’s kind of fun to see teams get restarted…but I thought that it ended on a really sour, pessimistic note, which Big Brother is watching now. It’s basically like the Emperor, you know, the way he won the Senate, with Tony Stark controlling S.H.I.E.L.D, and now he controls superhero law enforcement, and now we have the Hulk coming home and kicking his ass, really!
<B>NRAMA</B>: (laughs) What are some of the other comics you read on a regular basis?
<B>MC</B>: I read <b>Runaways</b>, I read <b>Young Avengers</b>, I read all the Avengers titles – <b>New Avengers, Mighty Avengers</b>, and I read the new <b>X-Men</b>. That’s pretty much it. I’m trying to get into <b>Fables</b> a little bit, I’m trying out <b>Ultimate X-Men</b>. I really like <b>League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</b>, because that’s right up my alley – stuff that follows from history, and it’s fantastic a bit, and it combines different stories from the past. I love it when history crosses, when different stories combine, and that’s really cool.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Besides the fumetti and the comic-art pieces you’ve sold at concerts and on your web site, have you thought of doing any comics yourself?
<B>MC</B>: Yeah, we’ve tried to get it going this year…I’ve been talking to Tony Moore and Robert Kirkman, who are friends of mine, and we were trying to get something going, but they can’t do it this year, because they’re too busy. Maybe next year. I definitely want to make something.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Very cool. How long have you been a comic fan?
<B>MC</B>: Um, I’d say probably since I was like 10 or so. I read G.I. Joe comics. I was really into G.I. Joe toys, and I found out they were in Marvel Comics, and I just flipped out and had to get all the comics. They had already been around for a while – I found out about them around issue #20 or #21 or so. So I had to get all of those, and I started getting the other comics…my brothers and I would collect the Marvel comics. We would never double up, we would never get the same thing. If one brother got X-Men, then the other brother couldn’t get X-Men. I had all the Spider-Man titles, and my brother had X-Men, and my other brother had Batman, and I wasn’t allowed to buy any Batman.
But I got the stuff I wanted, like <b>West Coast Avengers</b> and <b>Hulk</b> and <b>Fantastic Four</b>. So I did get like a good primer on the Marvel Universe. And then I kind of fell out of it, and I tried to sell all my stuff – I think I sold all the comics I had for like $35 or something really depressing. I had the first printings of the Todd McFarlane’s <b>Amazing Spider-Man</b> book…I think I sold them for a couple of pennies or something.
<B>NRAMA</B>: It’s amazing how much of that stuff from the early 1990s just didn’t go anywhere.
<B>MC</B>: Yeah, now when I read comics, I like to get ‘em all screwed up. I’ll read ‘em in the bathroom and let ‘em get ruined by moisture, and I’m like, “I don’t care.”
<B>NRAMA</B>: Any plans for your next album?
<B>MC</B>: It’s going to be called “Six Feet Under and Rising.” It has a zombie theme, where mc chris is dead, he died on the last album, and in this album, he climbs out of the ground and has his revenge on the people who did him wrong.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Zombie rap. Nice.
<B>MC</B>: I think this record is going to be, you know, vindictive. (laughs) But it’s just so I can vent and get it out of my system and move on to the next record, which will take place in Hell. I’m just one of those artists who is constantly evolving, but I like to stick to what worked in the first place. So I just like to keep it fun, keep it funny, and make sure it kicks ass, and this year I’ll be working with some fans and maybe some celebrity producers, but we’ll just have to see how it all goes, you know?
<i>For a list of mc chris' upcoming tour dates, check out his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/mcchris.</i>