Q&A: Guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein on new album, veganism

Legendary Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein will be stopping by the Forge in Joliet on Halloween as a part of his “As We Die World Abomination Tour” with his eponymous band, Doyle.

Doyle released its first album, “Abominator,” on Wolfgang Von Frankenstein’s own label, Monsterman Records. His press team describes its release as unleashing “an evil noise on an unsuspecting world” with a sound as “sharp as a butcher’s knife in the wrong hands.”

Wolfgang Von Frankenstein began his career with the Misfits before eventually starting his own band in 2013. He helped make the genre known as “horror punk” famous.

Wolfgang Von Frankenstein spoke with Herald-News reporter Alex Ortiz ahead of his Oct. 31 visit to Joliet about his band, new album and being a vegan.

Ortiz: How would you distinguish your band now from the horror punk genre?

Doyle: I think it’s its own thing. I don’t think it sounds like anybody. I think it sounds like me and (singer) Alex (Story of Cancerslug). We’re not trying to write in any style. I write a riff. I like it. I use it. I’m not like “Oh, I’m trying to write a metal song, a punk song or whatever the [expletive] song.” Whatever makes us smile, we do.

Ortiz: Could you tell me about your guitar, the Annihilator? You made it yourself?

Doyle: I made it from scratch. Every guitar I would buy just wasn’t what I wanted it to be, so you make the one you want it to be. I drew the shape of it on a book in high school. I thought it was so cool I saved it.

Ortiz: So you have your own label, Monsterman Records. What are your plans for it? Are you looking to expand it?

Doyle: We’re trying to grow it. We teamed up with EMP to do this last record so we can get some better distribution. Anything we can do to grow it, we’re going to do, whether it’s add bands or go to bigger labels and join up with them.

Ortiz: Did I read it right that you’re a vegan?

Doyle: That is very correct. I am a vegan.

Ortiz: Any particular dish you’d recommend for someone wanting to try vegan food?

Doyle: What you do is – and I tell this to everybody – you pick your own favorite food you like, you Google it. Find a vegan recipe and make it, or find a restaurant that makes it, and you’ll see that the food is a thousand [expletive] times better. Before when I was a vegan and I would go out to eat, 9.9 [out of 10] meals I would eat, I would hate it, and now it’s the other way around. It’s so much better for you.

Ortiz: What should people expect when they come to see you perform live?

Doyle: They should expect to get their [expletive] beat.