An Interview with Drummer Martin
Atkins by Vittorio Carli
Martin Atkins has made many significant contributions to industrial music and rock' roll in general. He has excelled in many diverse roles such as drummer, producer, bandleader, and record label owner. His resume reads like a who's who of seminal underground bands. He's served stints in Public Image Ltd., Killing Joke, Murder Inc., and Ministry. He's also the leader of Pigface, a group with a diverse morphing lineup, and the hard-edged dub band, Damage Manuel. He's worked with everyone from Trent Reznor to John Lydon (alias Johnny Rotten) to Genesis P. Oridge to Margot of the Go Gos.
His record label, Invisible Records , has put out releases by many bright, fresh talents such as Voodou, Nocturne, Chris Connelly, as well as an upcoming work by Railer. A new solo EP by the former Clash and PiL member, Keith Levene entitled “Killer in the Crowd” is scheduled to be released in February. Acquiring complimentary CDs or concert seats from Invisible was about as easy as extracting cavities with pliers, but the uniform high quality of the releases made the Herculean effort worthwhile.
I recently spoke with Martin at his studio in Bridgeport right before he was about to go on tour with My Life with the Thrill Kill. The current lineup of Martin's band, Pigface will come to the Metro on Saturday, Dec 13 along with Dope, Rachel Stamp and Professional Murder Music. The economical United 2 Tour Pak features CDs by five of the bands on the tour as well as a spot on the guest list for the show of your choice. It can be purchased for $39:00 at wwww. undergroundinc.com. Atkins was engaging and full of interesting anecdotes and observations on music.
Can you tell us about your childhood and early life?
I grew up in the North of England near Leeds, which became a musical hotbed. Later I was close to Newcastle which is where I started drinking Newcastle brand ale. That's why you'll see Newcastle bottle caps in all my artwork from that period.
Did you always want to be a drummer?
When I was 16 or 17 we moved to London. I started playing drums when I was nine and I played music for strippers when I was 12. I left school. I had a job as an electrical technician apprentice. Then I left that to become a professional musician. I played drums seven nights a week and Sunday afternoon. We had an original band that was playing psychedelic /Pink Floyd/Todd Rundren type stuff. We had a mellotron. The Mellotron was the first sampler. Every key was like a play button on a cassette machine and every key had its own tape. We also had a cover band that we called money, and we were in that for the money. We played four or five night a week with them and that allowed us to be in the original band for two nights. When the punk movement hit it was scary because I had spent years trying to hone my technical skills and the punks were all saying “None of that matters. ”It was frightening because I had spent all my time listening to drummers and deciding who was the best drummer, Billy Cobham or Buddy Rich. I went straight down to London to audition for any band because that's where it was all happening. I saw an ad. I was 15 or 16. It said drummer required for band with well-known singer and I knew that was Public Image limited. I had to leave and get a ride to the North of England. But I had no money in my pocket. As soon as I got there I thought I had made a huge mistake. I had no money. I moved to London and I spent a year and a half calling everyone in Virgin Records and Public Image Ltd. I told them listen I know there are lots of punks that say “Fuck technical ability, fuck it all.” but I'm someone who says, “fuck it all” who has technical ability. I don't know if you know about the early history of Public Image Ltd, but there were five drummers. Jim Walker was on the first album and maybe one or two tracks on Metal Box. Ritchie Dedanski played drums on one or two tracks but the band set fire to him while he was asleep. I have no idea why. Later Geordie from Killing Joke set fire to the keyboard player maybe, so there's a link. Every time I picked up Melody Maker or New Music Express, I would read PiL fires another drummer. I'd call and they'd say no we just found someone. One time I was up on speed and I read that PiL had just fired Karl Burns the drummer from The Fall. It was two months old. I called and they said they had just fired the drummer after that. Pil was rehearsing and they invited me over to the Townhouse. It was a big studio. Queen was there and Phil Collins had recorded a solo single there.
Did you get hired right away?
I played on and co-wrote “Bad Babies” for “Metal Box' with them and that was my audition.
How did the unusual film canister cover of ” Metal Box” come about?
It had nothing to do with me. I played on the last song and went back to my job working with the government. They called me up later and said come and audition for the band. The packaging for the first album was very smart. For Metal Box, they wanted to do three four-inch singles to capture Jah Wobble's low bass. The idea comes from Jamaican dub. It gives the grooves more room. Putting out three singles presented a packaging problem. The idea of putting out a triple gatefold sleeve was a bit too Deep Purple or old school. John came up with the idea of a metal box container and it caused a sensation in England. It was originally supposed to be sealed with white tape with a PiL logo on it. Virgin manufactured the tape but the company owner thought it was getting out of control, and he refused to pay for the machine to put the tape on the metal box. It was a great lesson in marketing. There was a whole page in “Melody Maker.“ about the situation with the caption: “What Can You Do With Your Metal Box?” A commune wrote in and said that they used one to make hash brownies. Creative packaging may cost a little more but it ‘s worth it. That album and the packaging are still talked about.
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