Majestic Loincloth: Richard Christy on His New ‘Homoerotic’ Heavy Metal Cartoon Series (EXCLUSIVE)

If its title doesn't already hook you in, then just check out this description of the new animated web series, Majestic Loincloth: "For lovers of heavy metal Viking rock opera homoerotic Medieval animated musical cinema, there is finally a cartoon for you."

Over 10 years in the making, Majestic Loincloth is the passion project of Charred Walls of the Damned mastermind Richard Christy. The drummer (and Howard Stern Show comedy writer) started filming a live version of the story back in 2002, and now with the help of animator Chris Prynoski, the animated series will begin to air on the popular Rugburn YouTube channel.

Musically, Majestic Loincloth is also in great hands with Christy and metal producer extraordinaire Jason Suecof (Trivium, The Black Dahlia Murder) handling all of the original tunage. Suecof is also a member of Charred Walls of the Damned and knows Christy from his days in Florida in the '90s.

Noisecreep chatted with Christy to get some more background on Majestic Loincloth and his plans for the rest of 2013.

First off, please give us a quick synopsis on what Majestic Loincloth is about.

It's about stupidity basically. I have a really dumb and childish sense of humor and I've always loved cartoons and heavy metal and monsters so I found a way to combine all of that into Majestic Loincloth. The plot is about a Viking named Gunnar Steedhorn fighting for the survival of Studland. He's also avenging the death of his son and the kidnapping of his wife by Orloff The Gravedigger. The plot is played out through song in 10 different episodes, each being a different manly, heavy metal, Broadway type, animated musical piece. We mixed animation with silly looking green screen footage so it looks really funny and ridiculous.

I'm imagining that it seemed like a huge project to take on since it's a multimedia type of thing.

This has been over 10 years in the making. It originally started as a live action movie that I started filming when I lived in Florida back in 2002, you can also see it on YouTube. It's really low budget and cheesy and I never got to finish filming the movie because I moved to New York City in 2004. I put the footage that I did have of the live action version of Majestic Loincloth on YouTube several years ago. My buddy Chris Prynoski from Titmouse Studios saw the live action film and loved it and thought it would make a great cartoon. I worked with Chris on the cartoon Motorcity for Disney XD Channel, I voiced a character named Junior and I also know Chris from his work on Metalocalypse, which I got to voice a character on as well, I was a drunk redneck in the Dethgov episode who gets shot in the head and then drives into a school!

Chris and I started filming some green screen stuff for Majestic Loincloth about four years ago and something you'll notice is I was about 50 pounds heavier back then so I actually lose weight episode to episode! I can say I lost weight for my role like Christian Bale in The Machinist [laughs]! Chris and director/animator Dicko Mather, Peedee Shindell, and many other amazing people from Titmouse all worked very hard to bring this cartoon to life and I couldn't be more happy and thankful that I got to work with such amazingly talented people to bring this cartoon to life!

Please tell us about the music we'll hear in the video. I know you did it with Jason from Charred Walls of the Damned. Did you record your parts remotely and then send the tracks over to Jason in Florida?



The music was actually recorded back in 2002 for the live action film. I was living in Florida at the time so I would go over to Jason's house with a case of beer on the weekends and we'd write songs together. Two of the songs had vocals on them and the other eight were sang by me in the past year. I love writing music with Jason Suecof, he's so talented and such a great songwriter and he's also hilarious so he was the perfect person to work with on these songs. Two of the songs have Jason's vocals on them and you get to hear what an amazing vocalist Jason is, and you also get to hear what a bad vocalist I am on the other eight songs, but it adds to the comedy aspect of it for sure. Although the lyrics to all of the Majestic Loincloth songs are really goofy, the music is kick ass heavy metal and I think people are going to love it when they hear it.

What's next for you in terms of music? Can we expect any new CWOTD or some other projects in 2013?

Yes, I have eight new songs written for the next Charred Walls of the Damned album and it is sounding so crushing! I'm hoping that we'll get into the studio later this year, probably in the winter because I love going to Audiohammer Studios in Florida when the weather is cold and miserable up north here. I recorded the drums for [Charred Walls of the Damned's second album] Cold Winds on Timeless Days in Miami, Fla. in December 2010 during a massive blizzard in NYC and it felt so good to not only be playing metal but also to get the hell away from the cold!

I'm also writing music for a really cool Halloween event called 'The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze' in Hudson Valley New York that takes place every October. It is a massive walk through display of thousands of lit Jack O'Lanterns and I write all of the music that goes along with each display. I'm a massive fan of the Halloween holiday and I love writing music for this event because I get to celebrate Halloween for many months before October while writing the music for the event. I'm also a huge John Carpenter fan, he's my favorite composer and he's a big influence on me as a musician, so it's fun to write music for something that's very inspired by my favorite horror films and horror film soundtracks. The soundtrack I did for last year's event is available here.

We're also considering releasing the soundtrack for Majestic Loincloth if there's a demand for it after all of the cartoon episodes are released. Make sure to check out the Rugburn channel on YouTube every Thursday for a new Majestic Loincloth episode! Keep it metal and take care!