Tommy: Hey Jason, give me two seconds to close the door.

The Gauntlet: As long as you aren’t shutting the bathroom door, I am fine with that.

Tommy: Thanks, but it is. It is the only privacy I can get. You don’t mind if I take a shit during this interview do you?

The Gauntlet: I actually had to do that during one phone interview a couple months ago.

Tommy: [laughs] You did or the person you were interviewing?

The Gauntlet: It was me. It was a really big interview and I was very sick. I tried to reschedule but couldn’t so I just did the interview while sitting on the toilet.

Tommy: [laughs] That is so awesome! What if I…I am going to steal that idea. Murderface is only going to conduct interviews while taking a shit next season. [laughs] I am writing this down, I am really going to use this. You know Lyndon Johnson would talk to be in his cabinet and administration while taking a shit. He was notorious for that. I was just at the Lyndon Johnson Library in Austin and I bought this really coy poster of him. It is a tongue and cheek pose of him sitting in the Whitehouse.

The Gauntlet: Was he sitting there with a newspaper?

Tommy: No, but the position with the elbows and his posture elude to this.

The Gauntlet: I understand Dethklok has a real tour coming up?

Tommy: Yeah, a real tour at real venues. It will be much better for the sound. The college venues were tricky. We played at a bunch of halls that no one played in and the electricity was tricky.

The Gauntlet: I assume you can do a lot more this time around with better production, better sound and stages. Will you be enhancing the show in any way?

Tommy: [laughs] ummm….no. I think it is smart to not really disappoint the fans. We aren’t going to wear wigs and be the guys in Dethklok. We will be playing the songs that go along with the videos being projected onto the screen.

The Gauntlet: So you guys are the old lady playing the piano in the silent film era?

Tommy: Yeah, a little bit. It is like watching the cartoons at the Hollywood Bowl with the live orchestra and seeing the visuals that go along.

The Gauntlet: There is no real easy way to sugar coat this one. Do you ever have fans come up to you disappointed you aren’t some hot 23 year old musician?

Tommy: Well I think…No not really. I think that is why we don’t have the physical band lit. We let the animation on screen do the work. We are very conscious of that point and not doing that. The lack of lighting the band does help with that.

The Gauntlet: Do you only play Dethklok’s songs from the show, or are there any cover songs?

Tommy: Yup, it’s all original. Everything is tracked and done to all these videos that are really funny. The song ‘Mermaider’ has the animation for the Mermaid. This show could not play in the daylight. It is half movie and half concert. Everyone is focused on the screen and that is what is funny.

The Gauntlet: Dethklok is headlining with Chimaira and Soilent Green.

Tommy: I only knew Soilent Green by name until recently. But I got turned onto them and a really dig them a lot. They are nasty.

The Gauntlet: Is a new season coming up or a continuation of Season 2?

Tommy: Here is the thing. We had the college tour pre-booked and it came at a bad time. So Season 2 was interrupted after 6 episodes. Now they are going to start airing the episodes again and finish Season 2. I think we are now at episode 7 this weekend.

The Gauntlet: Has everything been completed?

Tommy: We always have about 5 shows in various stages of production. Mark Hammill is hear today doing the voices for the finale. We will do some pickup today though. The sound is all boarded and animated, just doing finishing touches. We will be working till the tour comes.

The Gauntlet: Any plans for a movie?

Tommy: Yeah, if we can get the money? I think it would be a pretty good project. The last two years have been tough. Animation is hard to do. We have no breaks. We hear a lot of ‘where the fuck are the new episodes?’ Fuck, we aren’t a sitcom. We don’t just shoot and air it. They have been asking for the DVD extras, but they have us busy with the new episodes.

The Gauntlet: Has your comedy writing background helped you more than the love for metal in creating ‘Metalocalypse?’

Tommy: Definitely. The comedy is pretty much the show. The love of metal is what makes everything sincere. I would be so bold as to say that if 99 of a 100 metal artists made a cartoon it would be awful. And same goes for comedians making a metal song. First and foremost it is a cartoon.

The Gauntlet: Have you ever used Murderface’s voice to pick up girls or even had a girl in bed request you fuck her as Murderface?

Tommy: [laughs] No, not in the bedroom. That would be funny. It always happens at the bar. We went to NAMM and everyone yells ‘do the voice’ so I got to sheepishly do it into their cell phone. But never with a pretty girl in the bedroom. That would be hilarious. I would like that. The fun thing about doing the Murderface voice is I get to be really abusive.

The Gauntlet: Anything else?

Tommy: Watch the show and buy as much stuff as you can.

The Gauntlet: Do you own all the merchandising rights?

Tommy: No, they do.

The Gauntlet: You got fucked.