Three Ring Radio Interview - Aired March 15th - March 22nd, 2004
Three Ring Radio is a radio program hosted by Shane Bugbee, who also runs EvilNow.com. Named the 'evilest show on earth' Ringmaster Shane Bugbee presents an hour of talk, music, porn, sex, crime, and satan! It airs on RadioFreeSatan.com. You can contact Shane here:
E-mail: evilfinevil@yahoo.com
Evil Now Website: http://www.evilnow.com/
Three Ring Radio Website: http://www.threeringradio.com/
The
following is a transcript from the original airing of this interview:
Shane - This week, Three Ring Radio Welcomes Owen Leitsch, Necrosculpture artist. He made me a cool bone lamp, with knives and blood and flesh hangin' off of it, it's really Ed Gein-ish.
Shane - Owen.
Owen - Yes.
Shane - Can you hear me?
Owen - Yes.
Shane - All right. How do you pronounce your name, Owen?
Owen - It's Owen LeItsch (long I).
Shane - What do you do?
Owen - I create Necrosculptures, which are sculptures made from animal bones and various plant material.
Shane - And you made me a really kick ass bone lamp.
Owen - Yes I did, I'm glad you enjoy it.
Shane - Yeah! It's so cool! It's got knives sticking out. What is that made of?
Owen - The bones that I use are Whitetail Deer backbones, or vertebrae. Then I found some old butcher knives and took the handles off and incorporated those into the backbones. I put all that together and made a really cool lamp.
Shane - Yeah, I just love it! Those knives, they are real knives?
Owen - Yes they are.
Shane - And where do folks find out about you?
Owen - Well, I have a web site, Necrosculptures.web1000.com. There's a gallery, an email link where people can get hold of me, pictures, and every once in a while there is some news up there.
Shane - That web site is wicked cool.
Owen - Thank you, I can't take all of the credit for that, the design was done by my girlfriend, Miss Abby Brimstone. She has a web site, it's BewitchingBrimstone.deepestfetish.com. She has a ton of photographs. She designed her own site and there are some writings. She does a column for The Trident Magazine which is from St. Louis. It's an ongoing column. It's a really cool web site, people should check it out.
Shane - And you have some links to it on your site?
Owen - Yes, there's links and that sort of thing to my site on hers, but unfortunately there isn't any vice versa, we will have to work on that.
Shane - Enough with all of that, this is turning out to be one big ad for you Owen.
Owen - Heh, well self-promotion, it's a good thing.
Shane - That bone sculpture really freaks people out! I love it! That lamp shade is the coolest. It looks like something that Ed Gein would make. I really dig that.
Owen - Cool, I'm glad you do like it. The lamp shade turned out extremely nice. I used three different types of leather on it. I used Deer hide, regular cattle hide, and the really cool thing I used is Ostrich hide. That's really hard to find, but I got hold of some and I used it on the shade, and it turned out really good.
Shane - I don't know what the hell it's made out of, it's cool though.
Owen - *chuckles*
Shane - Is Ostrich hide something you always wanted to work with.
Owen - Not necessarily, but it seems to come with the territory when your dealing with dead animals and bones and flesh and fur. The hide seems to come along with it.
Shane - So do you kill your own?
Owen - No, I get donations. I have a friend that lives on a farm in southern Kentucky, he is always finding dead animals on the side of the road or on the farm and he keeps them and holds them for me. Every once in a while, I'll go down there and pick them up.
Shane - So Owen, I'm a little strange seeing as I bought a bone lamp. I'm a collector of your art work, but some folks that come over think it's really fucked up and they wonder how you got into this. How did you get into it? Did you ever dip into your psyche and just wonder where it coming from?
Owen - I'm not really sure if it's something subconscious. I started doing these in '97. I was looking around for interesting artwork that I liked that dealt with bones and death and creepy things. I wasn't finding anything that I liked, and certainly bone art wasn't available. So I decided that I should do my own. What you see on the web site and certainly your lamp is part of that progression as I develop the art.
Shane - Are you obsessed with death?
Owen - No, I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with death. I think it's interesting. I find it extremely interesting how so many people just sort of dwell on it all of the time, especially the Goth Culture and people who think about death all of the time.
Shane - I certainly do, I found out recently that I'm obsessed with death. Every February, I swear that I have cancer in my neck or I'm dying of some dreaded disease…
Owen - Well we are all dying of something.
Shane - We were born to die right.
Owen - Life is a terminal disease.
Shane - But do you, every February do you end up in a hospital telling doctors that you have cancer?
Owen - No, I don't.
Shane - O.K. so I'm a little bit beyond you?
Owen - Yeah.
Shane - Every February, it ends up costing me a couple hundred bucks at the hospital because I think I'm dying.
Owen - Good grief. What do they do? Do they test you?
Shane - They ask me why I'm so crazy, "So what makes you think this?", and I say "I just think I'm dying". So this last time they said I should think about seeing a psychotherapist, and I say "Fuck that's crazy."
Owen - And that's a lot of money too.
Shane - I just think it's the winter blues, its cold in Chicago. We don't get to leave for three months.
Owen - That's true, Chicago is cold. I was able to visit Chicago a couple of years ago in the springtime and it was so cold, I couldn't believe it.
Shane - What were you doing up in Chicago?
Owen - Radio Free Satan had their 2nd anniversary party I was invited to attend with a few other colleagues. So we attended, it was fun, we met a lot of cool people…
Shane - Who, Why were you up here? What event?
Owen - Radio Free Satan.
Shane - Who?
Owen - What?
Shane - Who is that?
Owen - Who is that?
Shane - Yeah, who's party?
Owen - Radio Free Satan, the station that you are on.
Shane - Oh right, ok.
Owen - Having me to remind you, Shane?
Shane - Well, you have to once in a while.
Owen - I don't know, it could come from you hanging out in mortuaries when you were younger.
Shane - Wow, you're bringing that up, that's good. You remember that.
Owen - Well, I just heard it. I was able to tune in earlier and heard your Gidget Gein interview.
Shane - What did you think?
Owen - I thought it was really cool. I didn't know much about Mr. Gein but he's a very interesting fellow and definitely check out his artwork, he has some cool stuff.
Shane - It shows you that Marilyn Manson, at one point, wasn't just Marilyn Manson. Looks like it was a group of guys that were artists that got together. The original band, all of them, are still doing and creating a lot of interesting stuff.
Owen - I think the guitar player, Daisy, I don't remember his real name, but I think he has his own band as well.
Shane - With the guy in Tool. A Perfect Circle, I think it is. Their all out producing and making stuff. That's really unusual; you think of someone like Marilyn Manson has gotten rid of these guys so much over the years, it's funny.
Owen - It is odd, but people of like character seem to come together and become friends.
Shane - Yeah.
Owen - That's the case with me, I've met a whole lot of people who have the same interests and really like my work. Some are artists, some are musicians, some are writers and I like their work.
Shane - Well, I'll tell you, I'm really impressed with what's going on in Louisville. You guys have a hell of a scene there; it reminds me of old school Austin or something.
Owen - Well, I don't know about Austin, but we do have an up and coming scene here. There is a growing Goth subculture, several different clubs that host Goth evenings…
Shane - Fuck all that, I'm from Chicago. I have that shit, you have artists and people creating stuff that we don't have up here, like yourself. Isn't Bill M. from there?
Owen - No, he's from up north, I think he's in Massachusetts.
Shane - Oh well fuck him forget it. Who else is down there…Jeff Gaither!
Owen - Yes, Jeff Gaither. He lives here in town.
Shane - Great artist! One of my favorites, old school. A long time ago he was doing artwork for me, like 15 years ago for zines I was putting out.
Owen - That's cool. I think it was two years ago I had an art show and Jeff Gaither had a few pieces in there.
Shane - Did he show up?
Owen - No, I don't remember meeting the gentlemen, but I do like his artwork. He was nominated as the scariest artist in Louisville at that time.
Shane - Well, he is.
Owen - I hate to say it, but I took that title from him last year.
Shane - There's got to be some stiff competition with you in town.
Owen - In my opinion, I think I am the most unique artist in the area. I'm the only one that I know of that uses bones.
Shane - Well I use my bone, I create some wonderful art with it.
Owen - You could do some Rev. Steven Johnson Leyba stuff.
Shane - No.
Owen - Get you some canvas and shoot the white stain on it.
Shane - No. So Owen, is there anyone famous who collects your stuff? I hear Rob Zombie owns a piece.
Owen - No, I've never met…
Shane - So you admit it, you don't sell to Jews.
Owen - Oh, come on now. I'll sell to anyone who gives me some money. I'm not Jewish per se, but I do have some Jewish views.
Shane - I'm just teasing, you know that.
Owen - I know. If Rob Zombie ever wanted a piece, I'd be more than happy to make one for him.
Shane - I don't want to hear your romantic gestures to him, you're going to give Rob Zombie a piece, woah.
Owen - Hey, I'll give him a sculpture too.
Shane - Anyone famous, anyone that people would know, that you could mention?
Owen - Hmmm, several people. One of them is a host for one of the Radio Free Satan shows, I don't know if I should mention names or not, but you could guess from there.
Shane - O.K. I can't.
Owen - Another fellow, not necessarily famous, but well known around the Satanic Community is Kevin Slaughter, he has a sculpture of mine.
Shane - Oh man! I'm sending mine back to you if that guy owns one.
Owen - He has a creation I call the Upir Skull, which is on the web site, you can see pictures there.
Shane - Right on.
Owen - It's not a real human skull, but it has real embellishments on it, sparrow wings, canine teeth and gory stuff on it.
Shane - I broadcast to more than Satanic Communities, so I don't know if Kevin Slaughter is too famous for them, to understand who he is, you should check out the Church of Satan.com.
Owen - That's correct, you can find a link for one of his sites, SinSetBooks.com on The Church of Satan site.
Shane - I think he is doing buttons right now, one inch pins. Just go there, he is a member of The Church of Satan, as are you, am I right?
Owen - That's correct, my site is linked on the Church of Satan web site. Just go there and look under links.
Shane - So you are as cool as King Diamond at this point?
Owen - I don't know if I would say as cool, King Diamond is pretty kick ass.
Shane - Well so are you.
Owen - Well, I'll leave it to the viewers to decide if I'm kick ass or not.
Shane - I just said so.
Owen - O.K.
Shane - Are you going to argue with me or are you going to agree?
Owen - I'll agree with you there.
Shane - All right, Jesus Christ, giving me a hard time. No, Owen so we were talking about your influences… I tell you, my Dad walked in and saw that lamp and shook his head and walked out of the room.
Owen - Actually a few people have told me the exact same thing. They have had people come over and see my creation and they say, "Oh, I've got to go" and leave. And later on they will talk about it and say, "That's a weird piece, and I was freaked out about it."
Shane - So what do you tell them? You were talking before its a creepy interest. Why do you think you have those type of interests?
Owen - I really don't know, I've always been interested in things of a macabre nature, horror movies when your younger then weird artists like Jeff Gaither, you find out later different artists. I don't know really, I don't know where it comes from or if it is genetically imposed into me. I've always had an interest in things dark and scary.
Shane - I hear you. It's hard to pinpoint that stuff for sure.
Owen - Definitely. I've tried to do some "soul searching" and try to figure out where these things come from and I don't know.
Shane - I do that whenever I get a new piece of artwork or whenever I'm lucky enough to get something like that I really look at it and I swear, I stare at it and wonder why I bought it or why I like it. I remember when I bought my first Gacy painting; I started selling Gacy paintings for Gacy, I remember when I got the first one, I put it on the wall. The first night, I thought of it and I guess my interest wasn't that it was painted by a serial killer, I didn't care less; my interest really was that it was let out of a state prison. I thought it was crazy that they let this serial killer paint paintings to sell and basically rub the victims' families noses in it. So I thought the ultimate sadist was the government, beyond Gacy it was sadistic that he could do that stuff. But I can't figure out, I look at the bone lamp. I can't figure out my own morbid interests sometimes. I like watching monster movies and fucked up stuff, I can't figure it out myself. But I do know I like it, I feel like Ed Gein made it.
Owen - I don't want to say that Ed Gein was an influence on me, but I have been reading about serial killers since I was 12 years old. Probably Ed Gein was the one that fascinated me the most because it was like, here is this guy who is messed up in the head, living with his mother until he was really old, and he would go out at night after his mother died and dig her body up and have her there, dig up other bodies and make things out of them. I thought that story was so wild. Even before I saw the movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Psycho, I just thought this character was really interesting and I don't know if it was an influence or not, but it was certainly interesting to me.
Shane - So do you relate to serial killers at all?
Owen - No. During the readings, you find out that they had some sort of abuse in their childhood or something happened to them along the way that…
Shane - Right, a trauma.
Owen - Right. I've never experienced that. I think it's not necessarily a "healthy fascination" but wanting to figure out what makes these people tick.
Shane - It's a study in human nature.
Owen - Yeah.
Shane - I got into it for that reason, trying to understand why people do the things they do. I found myself having a bond with some of the serial killers, you know, psychologically and stuff, it's sorta spooky for me. It's like my psychotherapy, my study into true crime.
Owen, I'm going to cut you off man, you got anything else to say?
Owen - Check out my web site, give me some feedback, let me know what people think.
Shane - Give out that web site again, man.
Owen - O.K. web sites Necrosculptures.web1000.com and if you didn't catch that, you can always go to the Church of Satan.com, click on links and find my name.
Shane - O.K. You're also a member of the Nazi party?
Owen - No.
Shane - O.K.
Owen - We can talk about Nazism but that's probably another hours worth of interview.
Shane - Oh yeah, exactly. No, I want to keep it to bones.
Owen - There you go.
Shane - Thanks a lot for that lamp and I can't wait cause I want to have you on again, we are going to do a chandelier together, am I right?
Owen - That's correct. I'm waiting on a few emails right now to get started, but we'll be working on a chandelier.
Shane - Yeah, with skulls and razor wire. How much does that chandelier weigh right now without anything on it?
Owen - It weighs about 30 pounds.
Shane - And it's rout iron?
Owen - It's made out of rout iron, welded together. Its killer the way it is right now, but we are going to bone it up and make it look even better.
Shane - Yeah, bone it up, I love it man. You have to check out Owens web site he has really cool art work on it. There's one piece, I believe he made for his girlfriend on it.
Owen - That's a piece called Mon Cherie, in French "My Love", and it was given to her as a gift on our four year anniversary which was last year.
Shane - That is my favorite piece on the web site, I really like it.
Owen - It was very special for me to create that.
Shane - You can see it, you can feel it through the web. That's hard to do.
Owen - I imagine it is, but for me it was pretty easy to put together.
Shane - That's how you do it, that's what makes art sometimes special, I guess, you make it look so easy.
Owen - I'll admit I'll look back at some of my older pieces that I sold and its like, "wow that was pretty easy to put together." And then you think about it and at the time it's the hardest thing in the world to do, but when you look back on it you realize it was a good learning experience. I could probably whip it out quicker now.
Shane - Owen, I will talk to you soon.
Owen - O.K. Sounds good.
Shane - Have a good night, brother.
Owen - You too.
Shane - Bye.
Owen - Bye.
Shane - That was Owen. I still can't pronounce his last name, Leitsch. He's a cool guy. He's a cool dude in a loose mood. I really like his art work, his bone sculptures. It's as creepy; it's as cool as something done by Ed Gein. I think Clive Barker when I look at it. It's like Owen should be building props for some of these horror movies. This stuff is unreal, he splattered real blood and it's really detailed. Wait until you see the photo on my web site Evilnow.com and there's a link for Owen on ThreeRingRadio.com. So you can find a link for Owen in the links section. It's so detailed; you can't really see it on the internet. I'm just floored by his stuff; I could stare at it all day long. If you want something as close as you can get to an Ed Gein piece of work or something so psychotic and creepy, right out of a monster movie, I suggest anyone within the sound of my voice, contact that guy and get him to make you something while you can. Because the word's going to spread and he'll be like Giger, or Clive Barker, you'll never be able to get a hold of his stuff for under thousands of dollars. For what I'm saying is, Owen's working cheap, make sure you search him on the web, find a link for him through ThreeRingRadio.com and buy something from Owen.
All Images and Text is Copyrighted by Shane Bugbee © 2004