Martin Atkins Interview by Vittorio Carli

How did you get involved in Ministry and Nine Inch Nails?

After a year with Killing Joke, I met Al Jourgensen and he asked me to be on the 1989 Ministry Tour. The day that tour ended, Pigface began. During that whole period I worked a lot with Nine-Inch Nails a lot. Trent Reznor came and worked on the first Pigface album too.

On your Pigface's “ Greatest Hits” CD, you say you have been sober for 10 years. How has sobriety affected your work?

It's actually been eight years. I found that inside of me is a very dangerous human being. But when I was very drunk it would come out in dangerous ways. When I drum now, I access that energy sober. Anyone who is involved with substance abuse to be creative always says, “I need blah blah blah to be creative.” But that stuff is inside you and you can still get to it a different way.

 

I noticed that there are lots of literary references on Pigface. The title of “Notes from Thee Underground” puns with a Doestovesky title and Meg Lee Chin quotes the opening line in Ginsberg's “Howl” in a Pigface song. Has literature been a big influence on you?

I don't think so. But you know what has been a big influence? George Harrison. Harrison just died while we were on tour. I just asked the sound engineer, Jamie to put on "Norwegian Wood” the other day with all the sitars. Notice every Pigface album has sitars on it. The Beatles were a big influence. I grew up listening to them.

Why did you move to America or Bridgeport in particular?

Well, England is horrifying. Entrepreneurial people feel a sense of entitlement, there. Whenever you ask them to do their job they respond: “How dare you ask me to do that1.” Every place I went in America has better PA systems than the ones in England. Also, in every club here you actually find people who care. I've had club owners's mothers who brought us dinner while we played. You'd never see that in England. They give you four cans of warm beer. When we played in the US in 1980 we would stay in a big suite, the class would be there. We'd have great shows. We would go to London and we would have to play using some appalling sound systems and they would give us a hundred dollars and two cold beers. I packed up and left. I was New York for a few years than I moved to LA with PIL. I moved to New Jersey than I moved to Chicago. I moved to Pilsen 10 years ago. And I bought space on 18th street. I was lucky enough to find this building a few years ago.

 

But radio here is very closed and few innovative bands get any airplay. Don't you agree?

Yes, it's very different there. My wife and I went back there for a few years when we were having our second baby. They were playing Fat Boy Slim every half-hour on Radio 1. He was never mainstream here. Very different understanding. The Gorillaz track with the dubbing was a big deal here. But in England, we hear a new single like that every week. There is a much broad appreciation of music there. But the rest of it's crap.

How do you get around the rigid playlists and system in the country?

There are all kinds of ways to get around it. You have to pay money to Tower Records to become pick of the week, but employees get their own picks. If you make good music and you're not an asshole someone will eventually pick you. You can reach out to radio shows. College radio can help. If you work at it, you can create your own box. In England, they will give the store 10 copies if they buy one. So it isn't all contingent on the profits from one CD.

 

What are the advantages of working in a band like Pigface with an unstable lineup? What are the disadvantages?

It's not unstable but morphing. It enables to say to say to Esel let's get together. It's a social experiment I can work with people I never met and rekindle my relationship with Keith from PiL. I can change as I wish to. The next Pigface may have only three members. Something inside of me has created something that nourished my enthusiasm for music. Maybe it was in part a protective measure. I had invested much of myself in PiL and I had to leave it for my own sanity. I didn't want to repeat that. Pigface has had an energy and longevity that is uncommon in the underground.

What was it like working with Keith Levene after all those years?

It was kind of interesting because there were points where he would go off. Instead of it and me getting pulled into that, I would say I think this is Keith of 1981 talking to Martin of 1981 in 2003.

 

What's the distinction between Invisible Records and Underground Inc.?

Underground Inc includes Invisible Records, Sleezebox, Tonezone. And Bilestyle The idea is friends don't let friends start labels. It's really tough even for me. I have 250 releases and my own studio. And I'm the major producer for the label. We don't have to hire someone outside and pay them 30 grand to produce Meg Lee Chin and Voodou. The three main acts are me. If it's hard for me, can you imagine how it is for someone with only 5,10 or 20 CDs? They would be fucked. So I'm helping people like My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult run their business. We have a tour now with My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult, Bile, Zeromancer and DJ Scary Sara. It's feeling like a very empowered community. It feels like it's 1976 again.

 

Who is in the Pigface lineup on the current United II tour?

Curse Mackey from Evil Mothers, Guenter Schultz from KMFDM, Michelle Walters from Voodou, En Esch from Slick Idiot and KMFDM, FI Kilpatrick from Dragster, Kami from Apocalypse Theater, Seibold from Hate Depart, JS Clayden from Pitchshifter, Charles Levi from My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, and Jared Louche from Chemlab.

 

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Anyone who is involved with substance abuse to be creative always says, “I need blah blah blah to be creative.” But that stuff is inside you and you can still get to it a different way.