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After recently reviewing SCHOOL HOUSE GLOCK: EXTRA CREDIT (read the review here), I felt compelled to interview the man behind the menacing mask - Mars himself. In the following interview Mars gets up-close and personal discussing the controversy that's surrounded him for years, and some of the inspiration he finds within the darkest of genres... horror.

Matt Molgaard (FANGORIA): First off, how would you describe School House Glock?

Mars: Well, it’s a horror album with straight up funk behind it. Bay area, west coast funk with some horror. What I did with this album is I took hip hop beats with a well known producer, and did horror on top of that. I made it so everybody can be a horrorcore fan. The beats and the hooks, and it’s catchy, but it still has macabre messages and stalking and murder and crazy stuff - it’s just more well rounded for everyone to listen to. They can listen to it, and not even realize they’re a fan of horror music when they bump my album until they catch a murder in there.

Fang: You’re one of the fastest rising horrorcore artists I’ve seen in ages. Why do you think people have been gravitating toward your music?

Mars: I’ve always done my own thing. I grew up studying this kind of music as far as like horrorcore and the wicked sh*t, whatever you want to call it. I grew up a fan of this music. I saw what the Insane Clown Posse was doing, and what Brotha Lynch was doing, and I liked what they were doing, and I liked what they were doing - but I wanted to just kind of do me. So I think most of the people who listen to my music appreciate the fact that I have my own swagger, I have my own style, I have my own voice. I don’t do what everybody else is doing. I just do west coast horrorcore. And I think because there’s a lack of that people kind of gravitate towards me.   

Fango: Tell me about some of the promotion you’ve done to stir interest in School House Glock!.

Mars: A lot of the promotion I get is because of the controversy that I get. Promotion for this album, I been going out on this tour and I’m meeting with the writer of some books who targets violent media. And I met with this author who put me in his book talking like I was the cause of these kids to go crazy and shoot themselves and stuff. I started battling him back and forth on media outlets. When I dropped my album I was getting all of this attention because I was on TV, the radio and magazines. Because of that, the controversy - I was able to promote my album without even really trying to promote my album.

When it comes to being on the news or TV or in the magazines or newspapers, I’m always in there because something happens. Not because oh ‘he’s a bad ass rapper‘, but because ‘somebody killed themselves after listening to his songs - so let’s talk sh*t about him’. They’ll try to come ban my music, but (my music) is meant to be controversial, it’s meant to be crazy. So, they’re just helping me get that broader fan base with people who are into sh*t like that. They see it in the news and then go buy my CD’s.   

Fang: Do you think the success School House Glock is receiving will influence others to revisit the horror genre, which many people feel has been dying off over the last few years?

Mars: You know, people say that about everything. Not just horrorcore music, but the whole industry is dying off because of the internet. Because of the internet, it allowed more people who were fans of the music to become artists, and it’s not the fact that it’s dying off, it’s the fact that it’s getting hard to sift through the bullsh*t.

Fang: Tell me about some of the people involved behind the scenes. The albums got some great beats, and some excellent mixing - aside from yourself who else had a hand in making this record?

Mars: Like I said, I’ve always been a fan of west coast funk style hip hop. There’s a rapper out in Pomona, California named Suga Free that I worked with. He did my whole album, and when it comes to singing on the songs I went out and got all these singers. I was listening to how they were doing, and I ended up not even using any of the girls, and sung all the parts myself. So I straight up put together a solid album with just me and him. Then I went out and got artists from my town. I got Dubb 20, I got a girl who was on American Idol doing a horror duet. I never went for big features, I wanted to keep it close to home.

Fang: Tell me about some of your past releases.

Mars: There was MARS ATTACKS, what’s a trip - I recorded that in a week. I pressed it, it came out - it sold out in 24 hours. A kid listens to the CD, shoots up his school and I’m all over the news. And now I’m getting these large big old checks because of it. I’m all over TV, selling loads of merchandise. MARS ATTACKS basically launched my career. But because of the controversy surrounding that, they pulled me off the shelves.

Fang: Anyone in the industry that you haven’t worked with that you’d like to?

Mars: There’s a lot of people out there. I read somewhere that Marilyn Manson was asked if he listened to rap, and he said he wished that horrorcore would come back, but the sh*t never left. So I want to go f*ck with him

Fang: Let’s talk about horror films. What are some movies that helped mold the twisted mind of Mars?

Mars: I’m an eighties baby so, I remember movies like TRICK OR TREAT, FRIDAY THE 13th, all that stuff,  A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET…I grew up watching all that stuff. Watching all those movies when everybody was asleep, my mom would be like ‘don’t watch those movies, you’re gonna have nightmares!’ but I loved them. I think later on in life I got into stuff like FACES OF DEATH and HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER...

Fang: Lets say you got cast in a horror picture - what villain could you see yourself portraying?

Mars: Oh man I’ve always wanted to play in a horror movie as that as*hole in the school that was f*cking with you as a kid. I wanted to be like that guy. But I wanted to be that dude that dies and comes back and still f*cks with you, you know what I’m sayin? 

Fang: One last thing: in your opinion, what’s the best horror album, and horror film to come out this year?

Mars: Best horror album…I got a lot of people are going to be pissed off when I say this, but actually: Eminem’s album, that sh*t was hard. And movies, I want to say LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

School House Glock! Extra Credit is available for purchase @ www.redrummedia.com, or visit Mars @ www.myspace.com/mars for news, pics and details on previous Mars releases. Listeners in the Midwest can check out MARS in August at the 2009 GATHERING OF THE JUGGALOS in Illinois.

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