Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein on New Album, Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz Inspiring a Vegan Lifestyle + More

2018-10-31

Story by Anne Erickson, photo by Kanon Madness

Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein speaks with Anne Erickson about Doyle’s new album, how his girlfriend, Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz, changed his eating habits and more

Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein is traveling the states on his As We Die World Abomination Tour with his band, Doyle, and the group is armed with a haunting new album, “Doyle II: As We Die.” The set features some killer guests, notably Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, who is also Doyle’s girlfriend, and guitarist Michael Amott on “Kiss Me As We Die.”

Doyle, who is also known for his time in Misfits, spoke with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio about the new album, Halloween and how his girlfriend inspired him to pick up the vegan lifestyle. Read the full interview below.

Congratulations on the new album, “As We Die.” When you listen back to the album, what makes you most proud of when it comes to this release?

I think having the guests on there. We’ve got Alissa (White-Gluz) and Michael (Amott) from Arch Enemy on “Kiss Me As We Die” (For that song), we wrote it and listened to it, and at the end, we didn’t have a solo. It was just two choruses. It was done, and I was like, “This song needs to go somewhere else.” I started writing a solo for it based on the way Michael from Arch Enemy plays, because we’ve seen so many shows and have gone on tour with them, and I just love the way he plays. So, I was trying to write a solo based on how he plays in the same style and that was inspired by him. Then, he texted me while I was trying to do it and said, “Save me a spot on me on your album for a solo,” and I’m like, “Done! It’s going to sound just like you now!” I sent it to him and said, “Make it slow and epic. I’m going to have to play it live. Don’t go past the 12th fret.” (Laughs) He knocked it out of the park.

The music industry has changed so much in the past few decades. What are your thoughts on today’s musical climate and how people get their music?

Everybody thinks, “I’m just one person, so I’ll download music,” and they don’t understand how badly that actually hurts us. If you had a motorcycle shop, and you were building motorcycles in a factory, and I came in and took one, would that be a crime? It would be a crime. Why would you take our product, which is our songs, and that’s not a crime? I think it should be a $10,000 fine per song. It’s making us have to do meet-and-greets. It’s making us have to tour insanely just to make anything so we can eat…fans don’t understand. They like a band, but they want to illegally download a song. Now, how are we going to make more if you aren’t paying us for those ones?

Switching gears to your lifestyle, what made you want to be vegan?

My girlfriend is vegan, and she came out to visit me when we were first dating in New York, and I had to get her back on the plane, and we were running around the city starving, trying to find something to eat before we got her to the airport. She said, “Well, if we don’t find me something, we’ll find you something to eat,” and I was like, “No. I’m not going to eat anything in front of you that weirds you out,” so I never did. Every time we went out to eat, I didn’t know what anything was, so she would order, and whatever was put in front of me, every bite I took…that’s what sold me first– the food. Then, she explained to me how farming all these animals is destroying the planet and all the emissions from the trucks driving them around and all the stuff they’re pumping into the animals that we’re all eating and dying from and getting cancer from and the cruelty that is put on the animals.

Do you have a favorite vegan sweet or treat?

My girlfriend! (Laughs) Well, before I was vegan, if I went out to eat 10 times, 9.5 of those meals would suck and one half of them was okay. Now out of 10 meals, 9.5 of them are great and a half of them is good.

It’s Halloween season. Do you have a favorite costume you’ve ever dressed up in?

Well, last year or the year before, my girlfriend was Maleficent and I went as me, and a lot of people were like, “Really authentic costume!” (Laughs) I’m always working on Halloween, so I never get to take the kids trick-or-treating or anything.

Do you have any favorite horror films to watch this time of year?

I just like ones with monsters in them. Last night, we watched “Pumpkinhead,” and that was pretty cool– the first one. I like monsters. I don’t like these thrasher films, like Freddie and Jason and all of that. To me, that’s not scary. I’d rather be scared from some kind of monster– I want more of an imagination.

Have you started to write any music yet?

Every day, we’re writing riffs, and I have at least 10 musical compositions that I have to demo and send to Alex (“Wolfman” Story). We’re always writing.

Anne Erickson
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Posted by Anne Erickson | Features, Interviews, Metal, Music, Rock