小简介
Rob Zombie1966年1月12日出生,他出生的地方叫Haverhill,是个制鞋业发达的小城市。“那里没有什么电影院或唱片店,”Rob说:“我记得小时侯,孩子们惟一的游戏场所只有一座公墓,我们在那踢足球或打棒球。比我大的孩子就在墙上乱刻些“Black Sabbath”之类的东西,。记得有次我们得到了一张Madonna的海报,简直高兴极了,甚至为它搞了一次展览。”同时,看电视也成了Rob打发时间的好办法。他回忆说:“我什么都看,从早上的新闻一直看到晚上结束。”Rob能记住一周的电视节目单,而且他吃饭睡觉上厕所等等也是根据节目单安排的。正是这种病态的习惯让少年时的Rob Zombie精神非常混乱。“那段经历肯定对我产生了巨大影响。我记得小时候看《Willy Wonka and the Chocalate Factory》,我真的信以为真。直到长大后才意识到那些都是假的,于是我对自己说为何不弄假成真呢。”Rob和他的兄弟Mike把电视看的非常重要,他们经常把自己想像的怪物或场景画出来,他们的想像力在当地艺术老师的鼓励下得到了充分的发挥。而Rob Zombie的父亲同样不想扼制儿子身上的反传统倾向。“父亲总是对我们说:‘努力表现自己,你们是最好的!’”
少年的这段经历最终使Rob Zombie发展成一个极端理想主义者。“如果有人非要告诉我什么东西是好的,我会发疯,对我来说没有非常好的东西,”Rob回忆说:“我记得有时候经常与别人意见不和,当时我就对自己说:‘这事太糟糕了,我要毁了它!’我的妈妈经常说:‘小心我把你送到精神病院里去。’而老师则经常问我:‘究竟是什么原因使你痛恨一切事物?’这是我终生铭记的一句话。
1981年, Rob和兄弟Mike看了一支Hardcore乐队的演出,他立刻对这种表现自我的方式产生了浓厚的兴趣。回到家后他们互相给对方剪了一个奇怪的发型。四年以后,在纽约市的一所艺术学校,Rob Zombie认识了弹贝司的女孩Sean Yselnt,音乐上的志同道合更使他们之间的关系显得非同一般。“我们一直都想组一支乐队,因为我们之间有非常相近的音乐爱好,” Sean后来说:“Rob喜欢Kiss、 Van Halen和The Misfits,而我喜欢The Cramps,我们也都喜欢Black Sabbath。”这种想法为以后White Zombie的成立奠定了基础。之后两人开始一起探索音乐上的突破,并偶尔在洒吧演出。但他们在一起的时间并不全部是做音乐和睡觉,为了满足经济上的需要,他们不得不从事一些其他工作,有段时间他们甚至在一家色情杂志做投递员,这段经历对Rob以后在视觉效果方面的设计产生了很大影响。与此同时,Rob在音乐实验上的突破——噪音采样与硬核节奏的融合加上其扭曲怪异的嗓音,逐渐吸引了许多乐迷,随着影响的不断扩大,Rob又先后找到了吉他手Jay Yuenger和鼓手Ivan dePrume,并最终为自己的乐队命名为White Zombie——一本1932年出版的畅销恐怖小说的书名。
从此,Rob Zombie开始致力于在乐队身上寻找自己小时侯的梦想:从专辑封套、T恤、舞台表现到音乐录影带,这简直让他沉醉了。“我从来不认为那是件苦差事,我热爱自己所做的一切,”Rob强调说:“面对一幅完美的画面你会有什么感觉呢?当你的爱好变成你的职业时,就意味着再也没有休息的时间了。”在以后的日子里,乐队独立发行了一系列唱片:1986年的《Psycho—Head Blowout EP》、1987年的《Soul Crusher》、1989年的《Make Thom Die Slonly》和《God Of Thunder》,然而这一切都不过是乐队迈向成功的垫脚石。
随着乐队在纽约演出的巨大成功,著名的Geffen公司对White Zombie产生了浓厚兴趣并最终把它签了下来。1992年,乐队发表了一张引起轰动的唱片:《La Sexorcisto:Devil Music Volume I》,它得到了各种各样的评论:批评家们认为它是本年度最邪恶但又最引人注目的唱片;MTV家喻户晓的动画人物《Beavies and Buthead》认为它“Hah hah……Cool”。《La Sexorcisto》最终卖出了200万张,并使乐队获得了两项葛莱美奖提名。而在另一方面,宗教界把他们列入禁止范围,井关照父母不要让自己的孩子参加这类有“潜在危害”的演唱会。乐队成员对此持冷淡态度,Sean笑着说:“他们难道就没听说过Marilyn Manson或GWAR?”为了配合这张唱片的发行,White Zombie开始巡演。在首场演唱会期间,鼓手dePume被短命的Phil Buerstatte所取代。但时隔不久,在演出即将结束时,乐队又换上了新鼓手John Tempesta。随后在Geffen公司的大力支持下,乐队获得了充分的时间和创作空间,他们用了7个月的时间去创作和录音。所有沉闷的工作和艰苦的劳动都得到了回报:新专辑《Astro Creep 2000》以全新的面目出现在世人面前。它明显不同于乐队以前的任何一张唱片——在 Techno风格的摇摆和疯狂的节奏感上的完美结合,使这张唱片被视为极具创造力的音乐。这张唱片把White Zombie推向了辉煌的极至:在Billboard Top l0排行榜上停留了两个月,在Top 200的停留时间则长达89周;其中的单曲《More Human Than Human》获得了MTV的最佳硬摇滚录影带奖,并获得一项葛莱美提名。而《Rolling Stone》杂志则把White Zombie推上了最佳金属乐队的位置。后来Rob的老邻居Gerard Cosloy回忆说:“Rob通常总把他想做的事设计得尽善尽美。而White Zombie的确是一支非常有才华的乐队,他们的思想内涵甚至已经超出了自己的生命,这与那些偏狭、怪异的朋克乐有天壤之别。早就有人预言Rob注定将成为美国青少年心目中的偶像。”
常言道:物极必反。最绚烂的光华背后往往隐藏着永恒的黯淡,White Zombie也不能例外。虽然乐队获得了非常巨大的商业成功,但与Rob的理想却相去甚远。“我觉得在我的面前竖起了一座高墙,我可不想仅仅因为别人不喜欢就把自己的得意之作束之高阁,我可不想只为了钱而出唱片,那简直就是自甘堕落!”于是White Zombie最终以解散而告终。或许在Rob的精神世界里,原本就不能让别人驻足,他重新带着童年的黑梦踏上了漫漫征途。在紧张工作了十个月之后,Rob Zombie于1998年8月推出了首张个 人专辑《Hellbilly Deluxe》,一张尽情展示Rob Zombie疯狂内心世界的唱片。“这是一张放纵自我的专辑,里面倾注了我极深的情感,它是一个愤怒的邪恶猛兽——彻头彻尾的Zombie式的作品。”在这张专辑中,鼓手仍是原White Zombie的鼓手John Tempesta、贝司手是Blasko”Nicholson,吉他手则找来了NIN的Danny Lohner。同时随专辑赠送一本由Rob Zombie亲自创作的24页的精美小册子。“这是对购买者的一种回馈,”Rob说:“我在一个注重包装的全盛时代长大,那时的唱片通常能使我看上一个小时。现在呢?你打开一个唱片的包装却什么也看不到。每逢此时我总有种被欺骗的感觉。”
现在的Rob Zombie已经不仅仅只涉足于摇滚乐领域。在White Zombie解散后,Rob就被授权为恐怖影片《The Crow》的第三部撰写剧本并担任导演,这得以使他很快从乐队解散的沮丧中摆脱出来。要不是后来由于一时的心血来潮而便Rob重新投入到新专辑及巡演的话,这部电影只怕早已搬上屏幕了。现在的Rob Zombie又开始打算在银幕上实践自己的构想了,他说:“没有人知道自己到底想要取得怎样的成功,甚至也没有人知道成功到底是什么,它其实就是一部谁也拍不出的完美影片。”今年的《House of 1000 Corpses》也是Rob Zombie执导的,虽然故事很老旧,但美术设计和人物造型,却有一看的价值,设计方面明显地下过心思。无法否认,Rob Zombie的唱片和电影,即使再卖座,肯定难登大雅之堂,而且一定会受到卫道士们的唾弃。
For metalheads who thought bands like W.A.S.P. and Mötley Crüe just werent menacing or heavy enough, White Zombie was the perfect antidote for a period of time during the mid- to late 90s, as they fused B-horror movie visuals and subject matter with heavy music and growled vocals. And while White Zombie was originally thought to be a full-fledged band, it would later become known that the group was almost entirely the vision of their larger-than-life singer, Rob Zombie. Hence, the White Zombie story begins with good ol Rob (who was then known as Rob Cummings), shortly after he relocated from his hometown of Haverhill MA, to New York City during the early 80s. Although he had long admired such theatrical metallists as Kiss and Alice Cooper (as well as such punk outfits as the Ramones), Rob wasnt quick to form a group in the Big Apple; instead he worked as a production assistant on the TV show Pee Wees Playhouse and did art design for magazines. By 1985 however, Rob opted to pursue a career in music and united with then-girlfriend/bassist Sean Yseult and formed White Zombie (titled after the 1932 Bela Lugosi flick). First considered a New York Underground band rather than a heavy metal band (as proven by such early admirers as Thurston Moore and Kurt Cobain), the group issued several indie releases — 1985s Gods of Voodoo Moon, 1986s Pig Heaven and Psycho-Head Blowout, 1987s Soul Crusher, plus 1989s Make Them Die Slowly — even though guitarists and drummers came and went on a steady basis (a few skinsmen who occupied the slot over the years have included Ivan DePrume and John Tempesta, among others). White Zombie finally found a permanent guitarist in ex-Rights of the Accused member J. (real name — Jay Noel Yuenger), whose metallic riffs helped toughen up the bands sound even further — inching them closer to a heavy metal band more than ever before (as evidenced by the first release with J., an EP that featured a cover of Kiss God of Thunder). It was also around this time that White Zombie began incorporating industrial rock elements into their sound, which made them one of the few hard rock bands of the era that you could also dance to. Sensing that the group was about to rocket straight out of the underground scene, Geffen Records signed White Zombie and issued their major label debut, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1, in early 1992. Although the world was going gaga over the sound of Seattle rock at the time, hard touring and support of their trashy video for Thunder Kiss 65 from MTV (via the animated comedy show Beavis and Butthead) made the album a late-blooming success, as it hit the Top 30 a year after its release. It took the group an extended period to work up a worthy follow-up to La Sexorcisto, which eventually arrived in 1995: Astro-Creep: 2000 — Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head. Spawning another big rock radio/MTV favorite with More Human Than Human, Astro-Creep: 2000 became White Zombies all-time highest charting album, peaking at number six on the U.S. Billboard charts. But the albums success couldnt hide the fact that Rob Zombie was getting fed up with the group and longed to launch a solo career of his own. So after the albums supporting tour wrapped up and a remix album was issued, 1996s Supersexy Swingin Sounds, White Zombie split up. Subsequently, Rob Zombie has gone on to issue such hit solo albums as 1998s Hellbilly Deluxe, 1999s American Made Music to Strip By, and 2001s The Sinister Urge (and even wrote and directed his own horror movie, House of 1000 Corpses), while Yseult formed the campy surf rock trio Famous Monsters, which released 1998s In the Night!!! and 1999s Around the World in 80 Bikinis.