Hey is this Meg?
This is Meg.
Hey, this is Max.
Hey Max! Alright, hi!
Just got in, it's been a hectic couple of days.
Same here.
So you're about to start the tour?
Yep. Wednesday is our first show at the Knitting Factory in L.A. Yep.
What kind of club is that?
Well, it's like most clubs in L.A. They're all pretty kitted out as far
as the PA. Most clubs in L.A. are all pretty up-market compared to most
clubs everywhere else in America. They are a lot more sort of neat and
tidy, you're not allowed to smoke, you know, all that sort of thing.
Because it's L.A. of course! As far as L.A. goes it's kind of an arty
type club by L.A. standards.
I've only been to a couple of clubs out there, I'm trying to remember
the names of them. One was in
North Hollywood,
uh, Perversion. It was a while ago.
Well, I've only lived here for two months.
Right, where did you move from?
Well, that's hard to say. Nowhere really. ::laughs:: Who's to say I even
live here, ya know what I mean?
Well, for a temporary geographical location tracker you don't really
need that. What are you going to be doing for the live shows?
Well, yes, that's interesting, that's a very interesting question. As
usual, every tour that I do I don't have a permanent band, see? Because
I'm always borrowing people from other bands. You know for this tour
I've got Steven Seibold from Hate Dept., I've got Billy from VooDoo, a
new Invisible signing, I've got DJ Lumas…he's probably the most
permanent, this is probably his fourth tour he's done with me.
And um,
ha ha ha ha, we've got a drummer coming down tonight, fingers crossed
because the tour is on Wednesday! Lets hope he can play! ::laughs::
Wow, drummers are always the hardest things for bands. Why is that?
It's
so weird.
It's a tough one. Well I remember reading in the Evening Standard in
London, they did a bunch of psychological testing of various types of
artists and they said musicians in general are meant to be a bit, I
think the word they used were anti-social and negative, I think that's
the word they used. That in
general, musicians were like that. And that
of all musicians the most psychotic, unstable, and neurotic are drummers
and guitar players. That sounded perfect.
That's so true. That's so accurate. I wonder why that is? That's so
bizarre. What makes drummers psycho?
I dunno. And they said that actors and actresses were expressive and
dogmatic? And that singers were a cross between actors and musicians. So
that makes me expressive, dogmatic, anti-social, and negative, and that
just sums me up perfectly as it happens! :::laughs:::
Oh, you're not anti-social, you're one of the friendliest people I've
met.
What else was it? Opera singers are inconsiderate apparently, and
dancers are hypochondriacs.
Yeah, well. I can vouch for dancers, but not for opera singers.
Yeah, I don't know too many opera singers, but they seem like they would
be inconsiderate.
So, just out of curiosity, what are you going to be doing for your
stage show? Is it pretty straight set and you're just going to be
rocking it out?
Well, basically I've got five days, and in that five days I've got to,
fingers crossed, hope this new drummer works out. The bass player just
flew in from North Carolina last week. So he's been furiously working
hard. He has been working hard, 'cause he's been in VooDoo for quite
some time.
So VooDoo is signed to Invisible, is their album that is coming out
their first album with Invisible?
Uh, yes it is. Or Underground Inc. I can't keep up with the activities
over there. But I know the album is good, I've heard it myself and it's
definitely really good.
Right on. So he's working his ass off?
Yeah, he's working his ass off. He's sort of furiously learning it. And
I'm looking for a video projector, in the mean time I have two tracks to
finish, plus a Pigface vocal, a bunch of interviews to do, and I've got
to find a video projector and create a show somehow on the video
projector. :::laughs::: All by Wednesday. So I've kind of started
smoking cigarettes again.
Oh no! So have you done video before?
Yeah, I actually got my degree in video production but that doesn't mean
much. Because the technology has changed for a start, it always does.
And this won't be like a making a video. This is like, I've got to
figure out something to do. But don't tell anybody because I might end
up not having it then people will be like, the band was great, but where
was the video? We want our money back!
No, I think every body is going to come because they want to see you.
It's going to be good, I'm excited to see it. And Chris Connelly as
well. Is he going to kind of do what he did at the beginning of the
Pigface shows? Is he doing an acoustic set?
Yeah. Yeah.
It's going to be great.
Yeah, it should be cool.
Is he in L.A. too?
No, but he should be here in a few days. It should be interesting.
How was that Pigface tour for you?
Oh, yeah, that was fun.
Any major notable moments?
Me and Charles Levi roawing, but that's not notable. That's not too
notable. Charles is… well I would say he's like my brother but he's more
like my sister. ::laughs:: But, he almost came out on tour actually. But
Billy wanted to come so bad, he just really wanted to come. So I was
like Billy, Charles, Billy, Charles, well…. So yeah, we're going with
Billy this time. Then Billy will be touring with Thrill Kill Kult with
his band VooDoo, so that should be fun.
Thrill Kill is going out again?
Yeah. Well, two weeks after Billy gets back from my tour, he's got to go
back and rehearse with his own band and do a month long tour with Thrill
Kill. So he's going to be busy boy Billy!
What's a typical day in your life? What's life with Meg Lee Chin
like?
Oh, pretty dead boring. I certainly wouldn't make a documentary of it.
It wouldn't sell.
So there won't be the Meg Lee Chin show with the live video feed
strapped to your head?
This is it. I have about two hours of e-mail to answer every day. And I
try to maintain the web site.
You do that yourself?
Yeah, I do most of it myself…with my video background I designed the
interface, and that stuff. So I do a bit of Internet work, I spend a
ridiculous amount of hours. You know, there's always something to do
with touring somehow. The rest of the time is spent just trying to live,
just trying to survive. And then if I get lucky I get a little bit of
time to do music. Which the thing is after the tour I'm going to have
December to finish this album. Because I haven't had a lot of time to
work on it, which is kind of a shame, it's long overdue.
So there will be new material in the live show?
There will only be one new song. So yeah, everybody will be recording
that and there will be bootlegs out before I get a chance to release
what it's supposed to sound like.
Is that a problem for you? Have you had problems with that before and
does it bother you?
Well, I'm in two minds about it, you know? I'm in one mind that says
don't be such a control freak. But the real truth is I am, I'm an
unbearable perfectionist.
So in other words, you're never happy with anything you do?
No. Never. At some point I just have to say, 'Ok, Ok'. I see pictures of
myself on the Internet and I want to take them into Photoshop and fix
them. Yeah, this is the thing. But if you're going to be like a
performer you kind of have to sacrifice yourself. You're kind of like
the virgin to the volcano; you just have to say, 'Right, I don't own
myself anymore.' You know, this is it, it belongs to everybody else.
Yeah, you know, video cameras especially are particularly tough for me
because I'm the person behind the camera. And when somebody comes up to
me with a video camera, I've done this on Pigface tours, when somebody
comes up to me on stage with a video camera I run behind them.
Yeah, I know, I think you did that to me on "Suck".
Yeah, that's right! :::laughs:::
Because I find it really difficult to not be self conscious with a video
camera on me. Because the minute I see a camera my consciousness shifts
to behind the camera.
God, I'm really sorry. Because I know how you feel.
My consciousness shifts to behind the camera and straight off the bat I
go, ' I don't like the angle, I don't like the lighting.' ::laughs::
This is all wrong!
Well you'll have to go online and check out the pictures I took and
there's video somewhere too.
Cool. But it's best to kind of trick me and not let me know. Other than
that yeah, even on my own material, I like other people singing and I
like to chop that up.
Who are some of your favorite singers?
Well I have a couple of different categories. My favorite producer is
Kate Bush. I don't think her voice as far as tone is fantastic, but I
like her material. And I like her production. I look at it the same way
as myself, I don't like my tone, but I do interesting things with my
voice. As far as the pure raw tone, I like everybody else's tone better
than mine, everybody. And I use people on my music, you know on my track
'Sweet Thing' where there's talking on it, that was my drunk flatmate.
And you know, she had a nice voice, she had a nice warm voice. I've got
a really uh, I don't think my natural voice is very nice.
I wouldn't agree with that, but okay.
Yeah, well, I do what I can you know vocal line wise to make it sound
more interesting. But as far as natural voice I certainly wouldn't pick
me out of a line up. You know, I like people like… I like that girl out
of the Sneaker Pimps, and like Dolly Pardon, and Dionne Warwick and I
like Dianna Ross from the Supremes. As far as just tone, you know? But
as far as what you do with it, that would have to be Cake. That's as far
as female vocalist. As far as male vocalist there's really only two that
I like a lot. And that would be Mike Patton from Faith No More, or from
X, Fantomas, or whatever. And I still like good old Steven Tyler from
Aerosmith, call me old-fashioned. You know, I still like him.
But then there are different classifications of vocalists. You know, as
far as performers, that's different too. Years and years ago I saw Grace
Jones, and she was fantastic. The wonderful thing about her was that she
was just able to stand there…well first of all she came out on stage
like two hours late, and she was so wonderful that when she came out it
was actually okay, we didn't mind. You know? People were getting pretty
fucked off at her, because it's like, 'my God, the support band is
finished now, I think that the DJ is running out of material to play
where the hell is she? Is the show going to be canceled?' She came out
and everybody forgot everything, everybody forgave her. She was
wonderful, she didn't actually do anything. She just stood there, she
didn't do a damn thing. And you couldn't take your eyes off of her. What
can I say, she was wonderful. But then again her tone, her material,
it's not anything that I think is fantastic, it's stage presence. So
yeah if I can put people into different classifications, it's difficult
to say. Tone, stage presence, material.
Did you ever get into Laurie Anderson?
Yes I did as it happens. Very very much.
Yeah, see. I liked her, but I didn't like her voice very much but
everything combined. It was that incredible performance of video and her
words and everything else just meant so much together.
Well, what's wonderful about her is that she's tasteful she's got this
real sort of simple Japanese aesthetic which is really, really unique.
It's like a complex minimalism.
Yeah, it's beautiful. I saw her once live too. Fantastic. And then
recently in London I went to an art exhibition she did and that was
really wonderful. Yeah, she's fantastic.
Cool, any other bands in the genre that are making you happy? Or
maybe not in the genre, but in the world?
Well, you know, I'm so old fashioned I still like the boring old things
like Rage Against the Machine and Ministry. Just 'cause it's hard, I
don't really get sick of it. And I like pretty much everything by Paul
Barker and that Ministry lot. I like the Skatenigs, I like Pailhead.
Because it's heavy, but it's heavy and tasteful.
I miss that in the more accessible media. I hate that that's not in
the more mainstream stuff like there was in the 90's.
That's it. You know. That's it. I'm a big person on the classics. I like
Motown. You wouldn't think it, but…
Stranger things have happened. Well that's very cool. It's good to
have a broad range, I'm sure that helps you as a performer.
Yeah, I do like a little bit of everything. And um, oh God I probably
shouldn't say this one, I'll gave in trouble for this one. Should I say
it? Oh no I better not. I'll get in trouble.
Okay, you can tell me when you see me. You can just whisper it to me.
When did you go from video production to rock star?
Well, you know, I worked at video companies, and the video world is very
hierarchical as in film, that is very hierarchical also. And it has to
be that way because when you talk about huge budgets it has to be very
efficient. And so you start at the bottom and I started off as a
receptionist, and other people were starting of as receptionists. Well
usually other guys that started off as receptionists would bond with one
of the directors and get invited out to hold a light or something. And
they would kind of move their way up the ladder, and the thing is
because I was kind of like cute Meg the receptionist none of the
directors would invite me out, they would try to hit up on me but none
of them ever invited me out to shoots to do anything or sort of took me
on. It became pretty apparent that at the rate I was going the chance of
me ever being a director was pretty much impossible. So what I did was I
went out and I made a video piece myself, and I thought, 'Now, now
they'll take me seriously'. So I went off and I made the piece and it
actually ended up being pretty good. But the thing is it actually ended
up hurting me more because once they saw that... well if there was
resistance before there was even more resistance when they figured out
that I was actually pretty good. That was probably even more scary, so
after that I had less of a chance of being invited out.
I was sitting in a club. I had done music but more like a hobby. What I
really wanted to do was make films and videos. The music I had made
people always liked, and I was dabbling with engineering and recording.
I had a little four track Porta studio. And you know, I had a lot of
complements on my music, so I began dabbling in music and was in a
couple of bands. One time I was sitting in a club and
somebody walked up
to me and said, 'Hey, are you a singer?' And I was really insulted
'cause at the time I was going through my really feminist
phase, you
remember when before riot girl and all that there was a really sort of
feminist thing that everybody was going through, and I just found it
really insulting that somebody came up to me and asked me if I was a
singer based on the way I looked. So I was really rude to them and said,
'Yeah I am, but I'm
not interested. I've done it before, but I'm not
fucking interested in you. If you're trying to hit up on me you can just
fuck off. Blah blah blah.' But these guys they
kept kind of bugging me
and said, 'Well, why don't you come down and audition.' And I was like,
'Well I might come down and audition, but basically I'm
not going to
anything you say' and I was really difficult. It ended up being one of
my best bands, because they saw the worst, most uncooperative, side of
me to begin with. And I started off really defensive, I mean really
defensive. That band was called No Poetry. It started off with me being
the nastiest I could possibly
be. The first time I went to audition with
them, or jam with them, their soundman turned to me and said, 'You sound
flat on such and such a note here'. And I
said, 'You know what, and I'm
going to continue to sing flat right there. How's that?' He left. He
quit that day.
And then from there on it was sort of like everything had to be uphill
from there. And they kind of realized I wasn't actually that hard, it
was kind of more like a
front because I was just a bit defensive. Just
sort of hacked off in that old-fashioned feminist way that people used
to be before the Spice Girls. Before
the Spice Girls began celebrating
femininity, wildly and unabashedly. Lipstick and all that sort of thing.
Ewww. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with you using that sort of
language.
I'm sorry, what's the dirty word? The Spice Girls? Well I'll use an even
worse one, how about Boy George?
Oh come on. Well, Boy George was one of the first acts that I can
remember that was like, 'What the hell is this?'
Well, Boy George even though I hate that kind of commercial pop, and the
Spice Girls as well. I have to acknowledge the social impact Boy George
had, and I have to be thankful to him because you know, my mom was
always opposed to my music career. My Oriental mom, she's got a bunch of
sweet little Oriental friends…oh sorry! You're not supposed to say
Oriental in America, I take that back. Asian. That's very un-PC to say
that in America. Sorry about that. In England, Asian means you're Indian
or Pakistani. And it's not an uncool thing to say. Scrap that, change it
to Asian, Asian, so I don't get a bunch of Orientals knocking my door
down trying to shoot me. Anyway, I can say that, I'm half oriental
aren't I ? ::laughing::
So anyway, mom was always opposed to it, and her friends wanted to hear
my demo so I played it. And she goes, 'Oh yeah! That's very nice. It
sounds like Boy George.' And my mom goes, ' Who's Boy George?' And her
friend says, 'Oh, beautiful. Real nice guy on TV with nice makeup.' And
my mom got very excited
and said, ' Oh yeah, his makeup is so nice. His
eyes, and the lipstick.' And the lady said, 'Yeah yeah yeah, Boy
George'. My mom said, ' She sounds like him?'
And her friend said, 'Yeah
yeah'. Of coarse I didn't sound anything like Boy George, nothing, at
all. But Boy George sort of opened the way for me, because my mom
thought he was gorgeous.
How many bands have you been in?
Oh God, let me think. Faith, Crunch, Meg Lee Chin, No Poetry, Techno
Fear, and Felix Natural.
Are you happier as Meg Lee Chin, being out there in the front or do
you feel more comfortable in a band.
Nah. I quite like being in a band, but I don't think it's really
possible anymore. Because now I am Meg Lee Chin sort of thing. I became
Meg Lee Chin from Pigface, and I couldn't really go out as Pigface.
Yeah, Martin might get a bit ticked.
Yeah, this is it. Oh yeah you know, being Meg Lee Chin is a real pain in
ass. I was trying to con my niece who looks just like me but she's
younger and better looking, she's got long legs, she's gorgeous. I'm
thinking of having her be Meg Lee Chin. :::laughs:::
You're just running everything from the back room.
Well, she's Mormon. She doesn't drink, she doesn't smoke, she wasn't
having any of it. ::laughter:: She's gorgeous though, she's married
too.
What do they think of your career?
They're cool, but they have to be by now.
Nothin' you can do about it.
Sort of the old strength of will won over. Every body has done up their
arms and given up trying to discourage me.
Actually, maybe I should have
a public call for auditions for Meg Lee Chin. And I could sit back and
be a control freak and go, 'Oh, Jesus'.
You could build an army of clones.
Well I could build a better Meg Lee Chin than the one that exists. You
know. Because I'm not happy with Meg Lee Chin.
You know, but that's the artist in you and you'll never be happy no
matter what you build.
Oh yeah, I'd drive them insane. I'm sure I would. They would have a
tough job.
Never satisfied.
Never satisfied. No, everything going on in my head is much better. You
know, some people are just born with the dissatisfaction gene, and I
wish I was one of these people that was born happy. And I was just born
with the dissatisfied gene, and that's what keeps me going. I think
well, I'm not happy with that. Don't like this, don't like that, so I
better just do it myself!
But unfortunately there's not much that I can do about this Meg Lee Chin
thing until I can find a decent substitute. Somebody that can sing
half-way decently, that has good posture, longer legs, and a nicer
temperament, a more pleasant personality. Find somebody like that, send
her my way.
Hey, we'll be able to just build one soon. Cyborg. Little robot to do
your thing for you. Lets call Honda, have you seen the robot they built?
They built a fully functional home robot to like help you with whatever
you need to do.
What, like answering e-mail and working on the website?
No, more like going out and getting the paper, or a cup of coffee.
So it won't show up at night clubs drunk and shock everybody? Well, when
they come up with one that is capable of walking into a room full of
people and pissing everybody off within 30 seconds then you've got the
Meg Lee Chin robot.
The Meg Lee Chin bot! Cool.
MEG LEE CHIN
Performs live on Saturday September the 28th with special guest
CHRIS CONNELLY
For the closing party of EROS, the industrial dance night at
INFINITY (formerly the Fat Kat)
for more info click here
more Meg Lee Chin @
www.megleechin.com
