Dr. Gustave Hurtz was born in Essen, Germany. “My father was a mortician and constantly stank of formaldehyde. Mother was a waitress and often smelled of pancakes with syrup.”

Gustave became fascinated with death at an early age and apprenticed his father: “He had the delicate skin of a geisha, thanks to all the embalming fluid he was exposed to.” Later Gustave went off to prep school and on to medical school. “The best part for me was the dissections.

One night I had gone to a dance at school and a band was playing. They were terrible. I yelled up at the guitar player: “Why don’t you stop torturing us and go kill yourself!” He stopped playing, took his guitar and smashed me across the face with it. That was Piss.”

Piss and Gustave met later that night and became friends. “I was working as a Burt Bacharach impersonator and he had a job scrubbing chimneys at a medical waste facility. He was into music and I was into death, so it was perfect.” Piss soon convinced Gustave to join his band as a lyricist/singer. Together, they changed the name to LESION and fired the other members. Gustave quit medical school. Piss quit his job. They bought a drum machine, and toured Australia.

Send Doctor Gustave Hurtz an email

Venison | Mr. Pod | Piss Promise