Wes guested on Joe Letz’s (ex-Combichrist) LETZ TALK SHIT Podcast on February 28th live on YouTube! They talked for more than one and a half hours, where Wes revealed some info regarding Limp Bizkit as well as his side projects and of course his current main project, the Space Zebra podcast! Here is our transscript:

Limp Bizkit related:
– biggest question he gets asked when catching up with friends these days is: “when will shows come back – are you guys playing this year?” – he answers it with “We’re probably not playing this year. We would love to but probably not.”
– confirms he has no intentions to leave the band again (“now I’m back forever”)
– Woodstock was NOT the craziest show he ever played, mentions the Big Day Out 2001 Sydney show where Jessica Michalik died the craziest show he ever played and also tells about that tour became worse and worse
– calls the Big Day Out show something that will always be a scar in his soul for the rest of his life, recalls how he saw her getting pulled out of the crowd and how the show was a nightmare
– to this day he loses his mind every time he sees any kind of barricade trouble coming up at a show he plays
– about the beginning times: he never thought that anything good was gonna happen and rather thought it was just gonna be a short run getting signed and be around for a year
– about Results May Vary: “I think there were a couple of great songs on it but it just wasn’t the same magic that they had before”
– names the quick success reason for “arrested development” of the band members and it took much time for them to properly grow up and get along with each other
– at the end of 2008, when it became clear that Wes would rejoin Limp Bizkit, they decided to let the past events go and start their interactions from 0 and as adults
– that helped a lot in communicating better and understanding each other
– the climate is much better right now because everyone has grown up to be adults
– “when the pandemic is over, we are gonna be touring our asses off, probably until we die”
– when asked about bad guitar tech experiences, he mentions his late 90s guitar tech Richie (who passed away) because he did many drugs – with that Wes tells about how DJ Lethal used to call him “beetle juice” all the time to offend him; also tells about how Richie didn’t manage to get his 4 string guitar shipped to the Bahamas for the MTV Blow Up The Boat appearance in 1999 –
therefore another guitar had to be adjusted for him so he could play Nookie and on top of that he didn’t get his pedalboard right at that show either. Ultimately it led to Wes firing him and Richie begging him not to. Later Wes tells how Richie was working with Tool for a short period of time and how Maynard from Tool pranked Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails by suggesting him to get Richie as guitar tech when Trent asked for any guitar tech recommendations; Wes concludes that he loved him and that the band loved having him around as he brought life to them every day, he just wasn’t capable of his job due to drug abuse
– Wes also tells about a tourmanager from Seattle (without saying his name) who went absolutely crazy on them and explains how he was putting all of their passports and money in a bathtub and filled it up with water, causing the bathroom to drain and the water to run all over his hotel room; that guy also wrote Fred a death threat letter with tear drops and Wes explained further how out of control that night in the hotel was; Wes says this happened in Belarus, so it might be about the 2010 tour and adds that they left him there and that his parents had to get him and bring him back to Seattle
– calls “having all this shit on me”, referring to outfits, not pleasant
– when asked about his most favorite songs to play live, he mentions that when Nobody Loves Me made it back to the setlist in 2019 for a few shows he loved playing that song again and also mentioned 9 Teen 90 Nine as a fun song to play live
– when Joe remembers Wes and John going through a Metallica jam before a show (we think it’s about the first time Sad But True was covered before the bridge of Hot Dog at the Düsseldorf 2016.08.16 show) Wes mentions how sometimes he would talk things through with John before a show regarding spontaneous jams
– he loves how the band, especially after all these years, has such a tight connection, especially musically – elaborates with the the fact that they can just talk something through and pull it off on the spot and that one member can feel what the other member is about to play
– about the live shows: “we’re not always sure what’s gonna happen, like there’s some elements that are planned but we do changes during the set, we call audibles, we will throw songs in, we will take songs out, there’s been times where we just go completely off setlist, we’re never on tracks, that’s the one thing that makes it exciting because you never know what’s gonna happen and also the big part of the show is the crowd, it’s the people watching like we don’t know what they are gonna do – like they’re totally lame which almost never happens but if there is a weird vibe it will totally change the show.” he kept going with “we almost never do encores but if the crowd is great enough” before explaining how the band played an unplanned encore at the Berlin 2018.06.12 show (accidently? saying playing 2h 45 instead of planned 1h 30 but it was around 1h 40 minutes in the end)
– Wes confirmed that there were many live plans for Limp Bizkit in both 2020 and 2021 but not happening due to Covid and then explains how usually the band would play tours with headline dates between headlining festial performances and that they only do it if there will be financial profit in the end
– towards the end he confirms that he is going crazy over not being able to play live at the moment
– 26-28 songs in the pool for the album and Fred has been working on vocals during the pandemic; obviously no release during the pandemic because supporting it wouldn’ve be possible
– he wants to come in contact with people again and jump into crowds again and do the things he does during Limp Bizkit shows

 

his guitar tech Kadaver joins in at around minute 39 and then they talk for some minutes:
– the extra samplers and projectors that Wes had on his pedalboard in 2015 and 2016 were partially done to gap the missing Lethal interludes at the time
– Wes called that “annoying in a good way”
– Wes doesn’t see wearing women’s underwear on stage as a problem, says you have to wear them backwards
– Kadaver mentions the Boomtown 2018 incident, where the pedal board suffered partially irreperable damage due to a huge amount of water falling on it after there was rain the entire day and he further explains how he was busy all day off long in Frankfurt, Germany and that it took until soundcheck at the show day after to get most of it working again
– then they talk about the Malibu fires where the pedalboard burned down in Fred’s house when Wes was staying there for some time (more about that below)
– Wes recalls that the pedalboard must have been made of aluminium because it was completely gone when the fires were done
– Kadaver then talks about the first show in Kazakhstan (Almaty) back in 2015, where the pedalboard and Wes’ monitoring rig didn’t make it there due to overweight on the cargo plane
– recalls how Wes was convinced they had to cancel the show and how the local promoter helped them get the rig together from local musicians in the city
– later towards the end of the stream and long after Kadaver is gone, Wes mentions that they call him by his nickname “meat paws” because he is so tall and has giant hands
– also tells about a night in Poland where he and Kadaver got drunk with Polish vodka and did a slap contest for fun

regarding Ross Robinson:
– lived with Ross at his house during the recording of Three Dollar Bill, Y’all – felt inseperable from him at the time
– calls him a huge influence and explains how Ross taught him how to get the most rowdy sound, how it is important to be in the moment and how the performance you catch in that moment is more important than the sound you get on a record
– Ross worked on the Black Light Burns songs Mesopotamia and helped produce Carina Round’s backing vocals for Cruel Melody

 

regarding Goatslayer:
– 1 album is out, 21 more have been made
– most of them are for him and Ross to listen back, like a memory
– his mom hates the album cover of music’s greatest and final achievement; Wes elaborates how she was upset with him going with this cover and also how his father didn’t like it

 

his side projects:
– he has so many side projects because he doesn’t feel that he can combine everything he does in one project – compares it to not combining different kinds of meals into one meal
– he thinks he has to concentrate on one aspect per project and do that well
– development deal with Interscope for Eat The Day went for three years
– plans to do a livestream for Black Light Burns, Big Dumb Face and his solo stuff and with a 5 person band consisting of: Nick Annis on guitar, Fred Sablan on bass, Hayden Scott on drums and Alex Rosson for second drummer and electronic instrumentals
– for the livestream he plans to perform some of his solo songs in a “Black Light Burns heavier way” and he is adapting those songs into a Black Light Burns like style; calls the proces pretty easy to do

 

his solo project:
– recommends Crystal Machete on vinyl due to the bonus track ‘Ithaca’ and because the songs transmit into each other and there’s no hard cut like on the streaming platforms version
– those hard cuts led to him making “start and finish” songs on The Astral Hand so people would not complain anymore

 

Big Dumb Face:
– second album “Where is Duke Lion? He’s dead..” covers some of the story of his solo album Crystal Machete
– about the Jesus Retreats video: done in Detroit when he was all on his own and going crazy, recalls recording himself singing and projecting Haunted Mansion style

 

Black Light Burns:
– Joe and Wes got to know each other for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia at Andy LaPlegua’s big warehouse (which served as rehearsal space for Combichrist at the time) and because of Black Light Burns getting the support slot for the Combichrist tour in early 2009
– Wes recalls how great the tour was and remembers how Dennis Sanders was a wild man and got them into some trouble – names almost crashing the bus when the curtain dropped and a party night resulting in the bus driver leaving them while Wes was sleeping already and it resulted in Wes getting told to get Dennis under control
– Wes and Joe talk about how Joe almost became the drummer of Black Light Burns for the touring cycle for The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall but it didn’t happen because he ended up being the opening DJ for the Rammstein tour at the time
– about Dylan Taylor, who ended up drumming instead: Wes calls him a douche and says he played ok for a while

 

Los Angeles and Covid:
– calls the Los Angeles area “dumpster fire of Covid”
– he knows a bunch of people getting Covid and also tells about the desperation around where he lives (near Echo Park Lake) due to many homeless people setting up camps there
– also talks about the crime rate going up there and police helicopters flying over their area with the flashing lights on constantly – kind of compares it to what you see in GTA
– calls the current situation a compilation of multiple problems the US has and labels it as “so sad and way to bring your day down”

 

music/touring industry related:
– labels Sonny Moore (aka Skrillex) one of the most talented artists he knows, tells a bit about his time in From First To Last
– his favorite pop record of recent years is Beyonce’s Lemonade
– he didn’t like The Weeknd’s SuperBowl performance much, felt very one-dimensional and he thinks they should’ve brought Ariana Grande, Cardi B or Nicki Minaj
– “no” when asked about if Justin Bieber should’ve played the SuperBowl
– praises Flake from Rammstein much, especially for his dancing moves and mentions that he hates America
– called the socially distanced The Flaming Lips concerts ridiculous and clarifies that he would never want to play like this in the future because it sucks

 

about the California fires in 2018, where he lived with Fred to record material for the new album:
– he was able to rescue his 4 string and some other guitars
– he almost grabbed his pedalboard but he didn’t in the end
– recalls how Fred messaged him that morning that he thinks they have to evacuate; after that Wes explains that he started packing and Dallas (Fred’s son) left first followed by him (Wes) and then Fred didn’t think the fire was actually gonna jump the Pacific Coast Highway and hit the house so he really took his time and ended up having to escape on his motorcycle with his backpack on because he waited until 11 (Wes left at around 9 o’clock)
– Wes explains that Fred lost all the band’s hard drives where they had been recording the new album on, he lost three microphones, speakers, all of his kids’ photos
– despite losing all the hard drives where new material was recorded on, they ended up finding all the stuff on other hard drives and they are able to put that together in the future

 

about the Space Zebra Podcast and live streams with Bobby:
– praises Bobby for his open and talkative attitude
– explains how Stomp Producer Jake came together because he grew up in a way different generation than Bobby and Wes, proven by the fact that he does not know older celebrities or bands such as Angus Young or Pearl Jam
– puts most of his efforts on Space Zebra right now
– he always wanted to do a shirt with a skull on it and the caption “skull shirt” to make fun of all the bands who put a skull and their band name on their shirts”
– the Hot Dogs shirt design was funny to him
– he loves the Daddy’s boy shirt – originally the caption was going to be “god is my daddy” but the rest of the his environment liked “daddy’s boy” more so he went with that
– he is currently preparing a tiki cup for the collection
– more upcoming designs including a shirt with a hula girl with the caption “I’ve never been to Hawaii” (he shared a draft of that design which you can check out below)
– a whole series called “Demons in paradise” is coming up as well, combining the Pacific Rim and Satan

Personal:
– he plans to build a studio in the bottom unit of the duplex apartment he moved in a few months ago with his fiancé Alie since their neighbors are moving out and it’s a huge benefit for them due to more space available soon; at the very end he elaborates a bit and reveals that he wants to put a greenscreen to shoot videos and basically have a painting, music and filming studio there
– since there are currently close to plants due to all of Wes’ working equipment in the apartment, he adds that Alie wants plants in the apartment and that he loves them, too
– his favorite cooking show is “Just A Dash” by Matty Matheson who also appeared on the Space Zebra podcast
– he also loves the Master Chef and Master Chef Junior cooking shows – labels them the shows he watches the most on streaming services along with WandaVision
– he feels like there is endless amount of stuff to watch, though
– loves the current/recent talks in the US to raise minimum wage to 15$/ hour
– the other questions he gets asked frequently is if he can see through his black eye contacts
– to the question how he made his hair look so awesome in the 90s he replied that he looked like a moron in those times
– he just sold his house in Detroit
– he is obsessed with tiki stuff – loves the culture as well as the exotica and Hawaaian music despite never being to Hawaii
– he loves sober Joe (Letz) but there are a couple gems from the old times that he would love to see again