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Miscellaneous Martin
Extended
Interview with Martin Atkins by Jarrell Young
assman@bellsouth.net
How do you feel about
the new album Easy Listening? I’ve listened to it quite a few
times and felt that it had more of a focus and vibe like Fook
did than some of the more recent ones. Did you feel that way as well?
I thought it sort of
pisses all over Fook in terms of focus, and also I was
listening to it last night, I was at a club in St. Louis, and I was
very surprised. I felt that the new album was more focused and at the
same time more diversified than any other Pigface album. When I
finished it, I thought, ‘Wow, maybe there’s almost as many people on
here as there is on Notes from the Underground.’ And actually
there’s two or three times as many people involved, individuals. And
it feels really great to me. I didn’t know that I was going to make
another Pigface album; there was a time when I think I felt that
The Best of Pigface was the end of it. And um, so at the time when
VH1 is showing the 100 wildest moments in rock, and that includes me
on American Bandstand in 1981, it feels really good to me. But I’m not
sitting on the phone talking to you about something that happened 22
years ago.
Yeah I mean, you definitely kept it new, you
kept it updated. You definitely got more diversified stuff, and if
anything, some of the artists you have on here, well they have
appeared on Pigface stuff in the past. I mean they’re doing different
things. Compare for instance Chris Connelly ten years ago to what’s on
the new one, and even like En Esch. Even though it’s the same guys
you’ve all grown as artists, so you’ve all got a new feeling of input
and a new way to bring it together. And as opposed to ‘Fook’ this one
has, I think, more of one underlying tone to all the songs on this
album.
I mean, without patting myself on the back too much I think it also
has to do with my growth as a producer if you like. I don’t know if I
produced Pigface albums as simply allowed them to happen. Which you
could say that’s a production style. But I think I had much more
control over the elements of this album, because I have more control
over my vocabulary as a producer.
And this all coming about obviously I guess
from you running Invisible now, and having your own label and putting
these out and plus with the experience of working under your own
label. I take it that definitely contributes? Is that correct?
Well, I think possibly the experience of having Invisible makes it
very difficult to sit in a studio and work on a Pigface album. I mean
I’m responsible for 12 labels now that are under the Underground Inc.
umbrella, and that does not enable creative output. At least not for
me, I hope that it enables creative output for the labels involved.
But certainly there’s a lot of work to do. Simply to make sure the
distribution channels remain open when I do want to do things.
I’m glad you mentioned Underground; because that’s something I wanted
to ask you about. I know a lot of people really don’t know what
Underground is, can you talk about how that came about and what that
does for artists and labels? From what I understand it’s a
conglomerate that you all scratch each other’s back and get everyone’s
name out there?
Well, I don’t think that is the case. I think that the reality is that
we’ve released up to 250 CD’s. Invisible records is 16 years old. And
while there are people, my peers perhaps, who don’t want to sign to
Invisible records for whatever reasons. For reasons of presentation,
for reasons of vibe, for reasons of pigeonholing, there are many
reasons. While it’s those marketing reasons I fully understand, I
think that the reason Underground, Inc. is moving forward is that any
of those labels are happy to have me overseeing the distribution and
marketing of their labels. If that makes any sense.
Yeah, it does.
So that’s what we’re doing. So I’m fond of saying that the more sense
Underground, Inc. makes, the more sense it makes. We did 65 releases
last year. The releases are becoming higher and higher profile. And
the more we do the more we are able to do. So, we put 12 titles in a
full-page ad in Alternative Press for instance, and that makes so much
more sense for each of the bands involved than each of those bands
taking out a quarter page ad. You know, the simple mathematics
involved. There’s all of those Russian propaganda posters, any single
one of them would work. Ya know, Unity, Strength, fuck, I don’t know.
So it’s kind of mainly just a way to
contribute to larger name recognition than just one band doing it
their self, and scraping by. This way you have a whole bunch of guys
working together, and like you said I just saw that AP ad, was it last
month?
We put one out every
month pretty much. Plus it all goes through Underground, Inc. So,
whereas Thrill Kill Kult and Sleazebox, maybe they do a studio album
every 18 months, well that’s not enough of a nuisance to anybody, for
a bell to be rung. And certainly in the current climate, you know,
there needs to be a nuisance factor otherwise you’re ignored. So, by
Sleazebox releasing their title through Underground, Inc. that not
only gives them the leverage of me saying, hey, look we just did
Neubauten, we just did Pigface, and I’m pissed off with this
particular issue with this Sleazebox title. Not only can I give that
to them, they are giving me the weight of their sales to do that. So,
by giving that to me I can give it back to them times ten. Does that
make any sense?
Yes.
But, if they hold on to that. The power of the number of CD’s they
sell every month, it’s way more use to me to give it back to them ten
fold, then it would be to simply hold on to it. Does that make sense?
Yeah, it does make sense from what I’m
gathering. It’s that you have more of a means to increase whether it
be name recognition, exposure, finances, to the band working more as
an overseer and a conglomerate rather than a band working by
themselves scraping together and putting something out on .MP3 or
distributing locally, you have a way to get these bands out there to
everybody and pump it back in to them.
Well, the fact is, there was a period there where a few of our artists
were like, “Hey, we’ve got our own website. Fuck you! Our albums are
now available worldwide.” And they just kind of missed the point
completely that at least when things are being released on vinyl,
cassette, super 8 cassette, or CD, there’s some censorship, there’s
some hoops to jump through in that only bands that believe in
themselves to the tune of $1,000 will ever manufacture their own CD.
Now, the great thing about .MP3 is that it’s available to everybody,
but the problem is that it’s open to everybody who perhaps, halfway
through recording a CD would lose interest and give up. All of that
material that never would have made it to a CD is out there. It’s
great, because the consumer can click on an album by Scorn and realize
that it’s shit, poorly put together with no attention to detail, the
15th Scorn album to be made this year. When in the past we
probably could have sold 6000 of those CD’s before everybody realized
that it was shit. So it’s great for the consumer and all in all it’s
actually great for us because we take a lot of time and care to put
out good records and work with bands to produce really good music. So
it’s great for us because people can click on a Meg Lee Chin track or
a VooDou track or a Chris Connelly track and go, “Wow! This sounds
really good, I’m going to listen to another couple.” And then
hopefully those songs stick in their head and then they go see a show
and then they’ll buy a CD or download the whole album, or whatever. So
this stuff works for us, but the problems of the market place remain.
Which is, unless you are aligned with people who can gouge attention
for you, you are totally, totally fucked. And here’s something I do
know, it’s tough for Underground, Inc. Some label owners will say,
“Things are fantastic. Amazing. I’ve just been snowboarding. Things
are fantastic.” Right. Meanwhile their phone’s getting turned off, ya
know? But the reality is, I know, if It’s difficult for me with 250
titles, some of which have been selling consistently for ten years or
longer, with my own studio, producing bands like Gravity Kills, being
paid to produce other bands, being my own in house producer, not
charging myself $30,000 to produce a Meg Lee Chin album, or a Pigface
album. Having my own studio here, also being the main person in bands
like Pigface, being the largest single royalty earner in Underground,
Inc. and the fact that I don’t have a manager kicking on the door of
Underground, Inc. saying, “ We’ve got to take out more and bigger ads,
and Martin wants to take a revolving drum riser out on the next tour,
you’ve got to pay for it, Pigface is the biggest band on the label.”
Right. If it’s tough for Underground Inc. with all of these things in
our favor, it is totally totally, totally fucked, highlighted,
underlined, for someone who’s only released 10 CD’s, or 25 CD’s, or 50
CD’s.
Now, you mentioned VooDou just a few minutes ago and they were
actually here last Sunday.
Whereabouts are you?
Jacksonville.
Okay, I was at the
Tampa show.
Yeah, that’s what I heard. We were hoping you
would come up. We checked and found out you were there the night
before.
Yeah. I just flew in and did that and flew back.
They’re one of the
newer albums you just signed. I’ve talked with Chris [Connelly] a few
times in the past couple of months; he was very impressed with them.
Are there any new bands you have your eye on, perhaps signing to
Invisible any time soon?
Well, there’s loads of them. VooDou signed to us a year and a half
ago. They signed to something we call ‘Notes from the Real
Underground’ it’s a program that we have for bands. We have to protect
ourselves from signing a new band and then spending three months in a
studio with that band only to find that they are fucking assholes, or
they’re lazy, or we don’t like ‘em, or whatever. Lots of bands talk
the talk, but don’t walk the walk, and I have no interest in working
with them. So we created this ‘Notes from the Real Underground’ to
enable us to find the bands who mean it. And there’s 90 bands involved
in that program now. And so we plugged the first 26 of those bands
that they’re on a triple CD, ‘Notes: 1’. They opened for Pigface,
Gravity Kills, and Godhead, and I got to see them all. I saw VooDou
and I really liked them, and after the tour I took them into the
studio and produced their record with Julian Beeston after we did the
Gravity Kills album. And so then we put them on tour with Thrill Kill
Kult, and now there’s 90 bands involved in that program and they’ll
open for Pigface, Thrill Kill Kult, Bile, and Zeromancer in March and
April and I’ll get to see the new ones and I’ll get to take a couple
of new bands in the studio. But we just signed a band from Baltimore
called Imbue. We signed Die Krupps; Chris Hasket from the Rollins Band
has a solo album out in a couple of days. Nocturne have a remix CD
coming out. We just signed Sunshine Blind. We’re working with
Einstuerzende
Neubauten . I mean,
it’s fuckin’ ridiculous.
Now yeah, you just worked with the live
Brussels show from what, 2000? Have they spoken about any new studio
work?
No, they’re talking
about doing something. I’m not sure what they’re thinking of doing.
We’ll see.
You know, you mentioned a second ago about you working with bands,
definitely we could go through a checklist of every band you’ve worked
with, but as far as certain bands, like The Damage Manual. Is there
anything coming up with The Damage Manual?
Yeah, I think that the
two CD’s are being put together and maybe reissued, and we’ll maybe go
on tour. Um, we’ll see. There’s a track on the Pigface album called
‘Insect Suspect’ that Stephen Seibold of Hate Dept. actually wrote for
The Damage Manual. I didn’t know that and I was listening to the
finished album and I called up Chris Connelly and said, ‘You know,
Insect sounds like it could be a Damage Manual song, we should fuckin’
ask Stephen if he wants to do some tracks with us.” And Chris said,
“Well, he wrote that as a Damage Manual song to give to you.” So,
there’s some very interesting things going on. I feel that there’s
more going on with Underground Inc., there’s more energy and
excitement here than at any previous time in the history of Invisible.
And to be on the phone saying that, in the current economic, business,
war climate, is pretty wild.
Oh yeah, I mean like
your concert last week, granted I would have gotten a better deal at
Invisible.com, but I plunked down $60 for CD’s last week when you guys
were here. I mean, everyone is in that strapped thing, but you know,
I’m the first person that will go out there and pay money for good
music.
Well, see now, yeah you
would have done better at [invisible records] .com but you spend a
$100 and you get the free shoulder bag. It’s the only way you can get
the shoulder bag. There’s some kind of a deal up there, which is an
instant record collection, which is 16 pretty fucking good CD’s for
$47.50.
Yeah, I saw that and
that’s what prompted me thinking about it. That’s a pretty good deal,
but ya know, I don’t mind.
Yeah, but, that’s another thing, it’s like we’re 16 years old. There’s
an accumulation of posters, and screen-printed designs of t-shirts,
and not to mention knowledge. There’s a depth of knowledge here, I
think that’s the thing that makes the difference. There is no
tradition in independent music of learning; everybody just keeps
making the same mistakes over and over again. And there is certainly
no tradition of sharing that knowledge once you’ve acquired it because
I think that Independent labels think they are in competition with
other Independent labels, and we’re not. We’re in competition with the
majors, and we’re in competition with America. It’s fucking huge. The
problems of distributing physical pieces of product around America are
staggering. The problems of having bands that are on the road and
helping them and nurturing them are staggering. That’s the problem.
And the major labels realize it, the major labels all talk to each
other, they have a big sit down every few months, ya know, and discuss
which singers from which bands are shagging. But independent labels
don’t do that, and so it’s one of the reasons I contacted Frankie [Nardello,
aka Groovie Mann] and Marston [Daley, aka Buzz McCoy] from Thrill Kill
Kult. I said, “For God’s sake, don’t start your own label, or if
you’re going to please let me help you. ‘Cause I don’t want to be on
the sidelines watching you make mistakes I made fifteen years ago.
It’s not necessary, I already made those mistakes. You know? And
anything I can do to help you, I’m happy to do that to help you. Let
me help.”
Now as far as indie goes, you know, pretty
much Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, has pretty much wiped out all the
small indie music stores. Are you seeing a hit like that, or kind of
on that same note while that is happening and the internet has it’s
bad and it’s good are you able to get some distribution out through
InvisibleRecords.com? Are you seeing that as kind of supplementing it
as smaller music stores are being pushed out?
No. I
think things are changing. I don’t know why people are freaking out.
If you look at the amount of change that’s happened over the last
twenty years, I mean in terms of running a small business the change
over from vinyl, and cassette, to CD was fucking horrifying. Because
unfortunately for us, some of our bands were popular enough that we
really needed to do vinyl and cassette, and then oh! CD. Right? So
it’s suddenly that we’re doing three different formats, three sets of
artwork, mastering the vinyl. You have to do a separate master for the
CD, because the vinyl can’t take all the low-end. Separate artwork for
the cassettes. I mean, just a nightmare. So, we survived that. I think
that we had a huge physical mailing list of 32,000 kids. And somehow
we were managing to keep mailing out postcards to those kids, and then
the switch to email, there was a point like a year and a half to two
years ago that it certainly felt like we had one foot in the physical
postal world, and another foot in the world of email. We were pissing
people off who had been receiving stuff in the mail from us for a long
time. Yet while email was easier and quicker and much less expensive
there wasn’t the sufficient number of kids signed up on the site to
make that a viable alternative to our physical mailing list. And we
survived that. Now by the end of the tour there will be 25,000 kids on
our mailing list.
Now the change that is going on, at the physical distribution level, I
think is a good one. We’re seeing independent stores becoming venues.
You know? Some venues have added record stores to them. From Lacrosse
to Lafayette, Louisiana stores are changing and venues are changing.
We’re seeing Mom and Pop stores, those independent stores, I think the
fact that they sell CD’s is neither here nor there, I think what
they’re selling is vibe and knowledge. And that’s why I would go to
Atomic Records in Milwaukee, or Lou’s Records in San Diego, or
Stickweed’s Records in Arizona, or I forgot the name of the fucking
store down in Tampa, but that’s why I would go there, to talk to the
people and see what’s up. Not to go and get a better deal on a new CD.
So they’re not selling the CD’s I think they’re selling knowledge and
they’re applying their filter. You’re going to that store to have the
benefit of their filter applied to a million CD’s a day that are being
released. That’s what you’re buying from them. And people are either
responding to the changes or they’re going out of business. And that’s
just the nature of business isn’t it?
Yeah.
You know, people say to me, “Oh, people will always want to go into
record stores and browse.” No they fucking won’t! People listen to
music differently now then they did twenty years ago. I used to sit
with my head in the middle of my stereo for four hours just listening
to an album, now I’ll listen to an album while doing five other
things. I don’t know of a last time that I just sat and listened. So,
I think all of these things are good. I think that the internet is
built to deliver music. I mean there’s something to it that it’s
fantastic for doing. And if you think about it, the idea of me having
some CD’s manufactured at EMI, shipping them to the Caroline warehouse
facility in Memphis, a sales person in either New York or Los Angeles
calling a store in Miami, that store ordering five copies of a Pigface
album, the warehouse in Memphis ships the copies of the album to the
store in Miami, and at 1am on a Sunday morning two kids with money in
their pocket walk past that store but the store’s closed, or at 4
o’clock Friday night they walk into a store to get the new Pigface
album, but it’s not at that store, it’s at another store a mile away
so they buy another CD, I don’t sell them a Pigface CD even though
that’s what they wanted and they want to buy something, and the store
that has the five CD’s that those kids didn’t go into, maybe after six
months they don’t sell the Pigface CD so they send them back! That’s
ridiculous! What a ridiculous idea! There are too many variables and
too much bullshit that the internet can deliver the music that
somebody wants to them.
It definitely brings that instant
gratification, of you know, you want the candy bar you buy the candy
bar right then. You point and click, and it’s to you in a few days.
Right, I mean, I think that especially geographically if you look at
Canada, I mean Canada is much, much more spread out than America, and
there’s some fantastic independent record stores up there. Tantrum
Records up in St. Catherine just outside of Toronto is just a
fantastic record store! You know, same with Atomic Records in
Milwaukee, people will drive two or three hours to go and use their
filter. I mean that’s really what they’re doing. “Hey, what’s cool,
what’s going on? Whoa I didn’t realize about these other two releases
by this band. Wow, that’s the singer from…whoa!” You know? Now these
stores are creating their own stores online as well.
That’s how I really found out music. I used
to live an hour and a half from here so it was a weekly trek to the
indie record store here in town (the gone, but not forgotten now
hear this!). Every Wednesday I made my way here to spend lots of
money, then found out about new bands from the owner who was there all
of the time. Who to this day still DJ’s and does radio show playing
underground music.
Right. So what were you buying? Were you buying CD’s or were you
buying his filter?
I would ask him, “Well listen, I’ve got this,
is there anything else along these lines that you like?” I’ve done
that thing that I’ve bought CD’s just because the name sounds cool,
and they’re on this label, but you know, we’ve all found out that just
because they’re on a certain label doesn’t mean that they’re the
greatest. But by talking to him it was like, “Well you might like
these guys, and if you don’t, bring it back and we’ll sell it to
someone who does.”
Yup. Exactly. See that whole idea, it’s a different idea ya know?
So I think that’s one of the negative things
with the internet too is that because there is no filter there; you’re
going back to sorting through thousands of pages of shit.
Yeah. And so, the things that are true are still true, and in fact I
think they’re more true. You know? You better be aligned with somebody
who can give you the front page of their website for a day. We’re
starting something next week called ‘artist of the week’ just so we
can focus on one of our artists for a week, let people learn
something. You know, there’s always something going on here where
everybody here will go like, “Holy shit I had no idea!” The singer of
Girls Against Boys is singing on an album with Lydia Lunch called
‘Here’ with one of the guys from Cop Shoot Cop. It’s fucking great!
You know. I’ve got field reps that I’ll see them out like this guy in
Cleveland was wearing this Girls Against Boys t-shirt and I was like,
“Do you have the ‘Here’ album, cause it’s the singer from Girls
Against Boys?” And he was like, “What?” You know, so we’re trying to
use the web to put all of our filing cabinets basically, in our heads
and our physical filing cabinets full of Pigface press, and all kinds
of press on everybody, we’re placing that all on the web.
And what you’re doing by running Underground,
you’re the filter.
Yeah. Well, I’m the filter for twelve other filters if you like. I
mean, Frankie and Marston are doing their own filtering with their own
studio and their own connections and working with people that they
want to work with. I mean, without sounding like a fucking prick, to
me this feels like 1976 now when Independent labels took over, and all
I see the majors doing, and the major independents are floundering.
They’ve had a period of lack of investment in their infrastructure, of
their pipelines. And there have been some money people around who have
applied some cost cutting, cost efficient methods to the music
business and the entertainment business. And the fact is that it
doesn’t make any sense, it doesn’t make any fucking sense. But you
have to look for new talented people. You have to invest a ridiculous
amount of time in nurturing them. Otherwise… why would you not nurture
a band? You need to give them the benefit of the knowledge that you
have to arm them in the battle against America; the size of America is
what I’m talking about. And you give them that knowledge and you try
to build a band, and it’s a two or three or four yearlong process to
take a band from nowhere to somewhere. And you just have to keep doing
that. When you’re exhausted and there’s no more money you have to find
some from somewhere and find some more energy to keep fueling that
fire. And the great thing is that we have so many fires burning now
that the heat from one fire is starting to fuel another fire, and it
feels like it’s growing exponentially. And I believe that there over
300 kids across the country that are helping us with this tour. And
major labels? Fuck off. What are they selling? What is their filter?
You know? It’s floored.
Exactly. What their
putting out is just monotonous crap, and it’s just sugar coated, and
it’s the same thing they put out last week, and nothing different.
Just a different face, and a different name, and a different outfit.
Yeah. And the lifespan
of new bands, the curve, it’s like six months to a year and a half.
And I mean, to me the evolution of a band is interesting. It’s like
the evolution of a baseball team, the year that they win everything
it’s only sweet because of the five years when they were shit. I think
that fans are being robbed of a journey with a band. And I think major
labels are just being condescending. And I don’t see any visionaries
doing things that don’t make any sense. That everybody is talking to
the accountants and the accountants are going, “Phft, that doesn’t
make any sense.” When does it ever make any sense. You sign the
Beatles and you make $500,000,000 and that doesn’t make any sense
either. Where does any of it make any sense. When I’m on stage and my
hands are bleeding and I don’t fucking care and I don’t feel my hands
burning, how do you put that on a spreadsheet.
Because I mean, as far
as where you have the big music people who are just about money you
guys and these smaller bands who don’t have this huge commercial
appeal to the masses, you guys have a dedicated fan base, you have
people that even though they don’t like ‘So and So Album’ they’re
still going to go out and buy the next one because they want to see
that journey. For instance, Thrill Kill that you are now touring with,
they made some stuff that haven’t been my personal favorites you know?
But I’ve been there and I’m going to buy that next one, and I’m going
to buy that next one. Like with KMFDM, my two favorite guys in the
band aren’t there anymore but I still bought their new album ‘cause I
wanted to see where it went.
Yup. Well I think major
labels pursuit of money, I think that ultimately that pursuing money
is the best, most definite way of not having any. Because, if all
you’re doing is pursuing money, when you take everything away from all
of your actions, that’s all that’s left. And you know, there’s no
value in that. There’s no value in the pursuit of money. I’m pursuing
a vibe. You know, some people said to me… I don’t know if you’ve seen
Pigface recently but at the beginning of the show we play behind a
screen at the beginning of the show and it’s a series of 8’ by 4’
stretched fabric screens and they create shadows and tension and
whatever, and these kids said to me, “Yeah, the second song you did
after the explosion…” and it’s weird to talk about explosions on stage
today of all days after the tragedy in Rhode Island, but people said
to me, “After the explosion…” and I said, “Wait, hold on a minute.
What explosion?” And I realized that all of the information that came
to them from the stage, like eleven people all pounding on whatever
instruments they were playing, all of the scenery and all of the stuff
that was going on stage revealed to them for the first time, in their
brain that was an explosion of information and it registered as some
kind of pyrotechnic explosion. And so that’s the cool stuff. I mean, I
understand spreadsheets, I have to. You know the cash flow
manufacturing considerations of dealing with 12 labels are insane, but
it doesn’t drive me. I’ll only look deeper and deeper into a Pigface
budget for instance simply to enable me to bring out more people and
to create more magical moments.
Now with that in mind obviously there have
been over a hundred contributors?
I would say it’s probably close to three.
How many people do you see, is there any one
that’s still out there that you would just love to see in Pigface?
Um well, I mean keeping the Floridian slant, Gen from the
Genitorturers was at the Tampa show and I haven’t seen Gen in like
twelve years and I was like, “Hey, well why hasn’t she done something
with Pigface.” And I’m like, “Well oh! I haven’t asked her.” There are
people that I bump into; I see that Jello Biafra (formerly of the Dead
Kennedys) is doing some spoken word. There are people that I bump into
that I think, well shit, then there are people like Penn Jillette of
Penn and Teller who are not obvious. But how fucking cool, I mean he’s
so cool. He just read all the stuff on “On The Horse You Rode In On”,
70 photographs in the studio, never said, “Hey, I’m a huge artist on
network television with this huge deal in Las Vegas. Please call my
lawyers.” You know, he’s just really fucking cool.
How did that come about?
Somebody sent me his email and he’s a big fan of PiL. And uh, so I
sent him an email. So it’s just totally humbling to have all of these
people trust me.
Who is going to be on the Pigface line-up on this go around?
So far that I know about and it always changes and mutates and
whatever. So far Chris Connolly, Charles Levi, Lacy from Nocturne
though they might be doing some shows with Ministry so it’s going to
get complicated, Michelle from VooDou, Siebold from Hate Dept.,
Krztoff from Bile, Curse Mackey, I think Blake who works with Curse at
the Liars Club in Tampa, those guys are going to be manipulating turn
tables and drum loops and triggers from my drums, other than that
right now, other than Thrill Kill Kult, Zeromancer, Bile, and DJ Scary
Lady Sarah I don’t know who else is going to be coming out. I’m sure,
you know, loads of people, I just don’t know who yet.
I’m sure local too, you’re going to get guys locally and regionally.
Oh yeah!
I saw on your website a
few weeks ago, the auction has ended now, but you had on there the
“Get Married with Pigface Wedding” and what the details were. I saw
that someone bid and won that. Where were these guys from?
They were in Atlanta. I
mean that’s something that we did…there are two reasons that we did
that. I got talking to a couple two years ago and they met at a
Pigface show, and they asked me if they could get married and they got
married in Pittsburgh on the Preaching to the Perverted tour.
And it was wild. And I just thought well, I wouldn’t have minded doing
that, and we wanted to make it available to anyone who wanted to do
it. I think that the way it works out, I think that the guy paid
$1000 to get married and by the time they get about 20 or 25 people
into the show, and I give them a case of champagne and a couple of
cases of beer, and some laminates, and t-shirts. I mean, it’s a
break-even thing for us except in terms of vibe, and it will create a
different atmosphere that day.
Are you going to be the
one officiating?
No I think we have a couple of ordained ministers. I think Michelle
from VooDou is ordained, and Curse Mackey is ordained. And it just
creates a cool thing to do.
Yeah. It’s definitely
not something you’re going to see at every concert you go to.
Right. I mean to me it’s an extension of some of the questions I ask
of the openness of Pigface. The anti-super group stance of Pigface if
you like. The fact that on the new album anybody who wrote on the fuck
list which is usually out at the merchandise booth, well I probably
read from that fuck list last night in St. Louis, maybe Penn Gillette
read some of it and it’s on the Pigface album. You know, kids call up
the office answering machine, or they send cassettes. People find
themselves participating in a Pigface album and I think that it’s
really cool. People can wander on stage with us as long as they’re not
assholes and they understand that they are on stage with people, they
can’t flail their arms around and hit somebody in the head or knock
over a bass guitar. When you walk into somebody’s home you are
conscious of your surroundings and we ask that people do that as well.
But people can walk on stage with Pigface, and they can walk on stage
and get married with us. And I think that after twelve years, Pigface
is part of this underground, it’s just a part of the underground. It’s
a part of the concrete blocks that have built something. And in my
better days I’d like to think that Pigface has changed the
environment, that we have pioneered some things that are helpful to
other people today. Making it easier for people to understand the
entire concept. When Pigface began this entire interview would have
been, “Well what the fuck is it?” Now everybody understands what it
is, and there’s a trust. People trust that when Pigface is on a poster
and they come to see Pigface they will be surprised, and entertained.
They might have a few questions a few days later, and it can be any
kind of an experience. And it will be a very different experience than
five guys in a band from a major label falling asleep on stage
regurgitating the hits.
And that’s one thing for me though is that you’re not one of these
guys who just gets on the bus and leaves, you always manage to have
interaction with fans. Even back in ’97 I think, you did the
cross-country tour with just your spoken word, you had communication
with the fans as well as showing a video for your own stuff. Are you
ever going to do solo again?
Oh yeah, I mean I did
it last night. I mean Chris Connelly was playing acoustic and VooDou
were performing, but I did my spoken word. Yeah. I mean I love doing
that stuff. I’m more and more comfortable with it; I have more and
more pieces to read. I mean to me, if there was an extra four hours in
the day I’d add a spoken word appearance, question and answer session
into every tour day. Unfortunately when I’m on the road with Pigface
on this United tour I’m responsible for 35 people, and I might walk
ten miles a day just going around the venue and onto the busses and
making sure people have eaten, and everybody knows what’s going on,
and the promoter’s okay, and people who are on the guest list didn’t
get left out and that everything’s working. And so it’s difficult for
me to spend a lot of time on top of all of that, but I do try and
spend some time. I mean last night in St. Louis I was talking to
people for hours, and it was great, it was great!
Now you know, definitely with Pigface, over a
year ago you did ‘Best of Pigface: Vol. 1’. I looked at that as not
being just some majors who put out a greatest hits collection with
nothing new, you released unreleased stuff everything from interviews
to just studio working around stuff. Plus you were able to get out
stuff that you might not be able to get in stores any more like
‘Welcome to Mexico’. Is there a ‘Vol. 2’ planned for anything else
that might have been left out like ‘Divebomber’ that might be coming
around?
See the problem with Pigface is that I think really a ‘Best Of’ CD
should have been 12 songs so that anybody who is trying to understand
more about Pigface could listen to 12 songs and go ‘Wow’ because
there’s some great songs. But I couldn’t just do that. I found some
stuff that hadn’t been released. There’s a 17:30 minute version of ‘Divebomber’.
Flea walked into the studio, we began playing, and we played until a
two-inch tape ran out. It’s amazing. There just wasn’t room to put
that on there. So, maybe they’re will be more soon. I think there will
be a DVD first.
Like concert footage, interviews?
Yeah, there were nine cameras…..
Going to Ritalin. Is there any follow-up for
Ritalin? Are you and [Nivek] Ogre working together? Granted he’s busy
working on the Skinny Puppy thing, but that was a fantastic album.
Well, thank you. I’ve
read some pretty ugly things from Ogre in the press; I don’t know
where it came from. I don’t know. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in
the last twenty years, it’s not to close any doors. You know, what’s
the point? So yeah, “never say never” as James Bond would say.
Do you wish you had
done things differently, because a lot of people didn’t know what it
was. On the CD it just says, “Rx is for Ritalin“. It doesn’t really
say this is Martin Atkins, and Ogre. Do you wish that you had not so
much hyped it on your names, but just that there had been more
association there?
No. I mean, I was happy with that. It’s not always about grabbing as
much… do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I mean, you want to do stuff that’s for
you. I think anal fans go, “Why did you put this stuff out? You need
to go back and start doing this, because this is what I like.” But I
understand when you’re like, “Well this is what I wanted to do. I
understand that you’ve supported me by buying my music and going to my
concerts but this is something that I wanted to put out for me. I had
a passion for this, sorry if you don’t like it.”
Yeah. I’m very happy with the Ritalin album.
I’ve probably got that in my list of top
twenty CD’s. It goes everywhere from acoustic guitars, to just you
know the a capella version of ‘Downtown’.
Yeah, you know the thing, I saw Ogre and I thought the wildest thing
he could have done on his last tour would have been to come out and
play acoustic guitar. Because he walked in to my studio and just
picked up an acoustic guitar and did that ‘Scarecrow’ song. I don’t
think people even know he can play an acoustic guitar.
One last question for
you, what can we expect when Pigface comes here on March 28th?
Well, I get that question a lot, and expect to be entertained. Expect
to be pushed around a bit. Expect the unexpected, how’s that? |
