Martin Atkins Interview by Vittorio Carli

Isn't Jared Louche the spoke word guy on the last Pigface?

Jared has done spoken word in England and he had his own radio show. He's always morphing and that's great.

 

What are your favorite bands what do you listen to?  

Well I'm kind of in my own little world, and I listen to different things at different times. I've discovered a band called Eea, which has the guy from Lydia Lunch. Six months later it came out on Invisible. Right now I'm listening to Railer. My kids love them. Every time it came on it sounded like a greatest hits. It has an 80s tinge of early punk and influences from Buzzcocks, Only Ones, Undertones and just a tinge of electronic and Nirvana. I was just about to sign them but they got a lawyer in New York and we're still putting together a deal. There's so much music coming through here. When I leave the office the last thing I want to do ids listen to music recreationally. Somehow, Shania Twain has infected my boys in England, so my recreational listening could well be something the kids like.

Do you have any great John Lydon stories?  

Well John Lydon worked with Harvey Keitel on “Cop Killer” and Keitel came to the PiL show. And John fucking made him pay to see us. Sometimes John was just so… I don't know what to call it. He's going to do a voice-over on the new Pigface. Virgin Records Australia took us out to eat and they told us we can have whatever we want, and John ordered five lobsters. They asked “Are they for the whole band?” He replied “No, they're for me.” They were five pounds each. He ate half of one and left the rest there.

I have some Psychic TV can you tell me about Genesis P. Orridge?  

I have many stories about him. But they all can be distilled by saying he disappointed me and had a complete lack of moral fiber. I've given him $25,000 and when I think of what he did with it. He completely misused my trust. He has a fairly unique set of problems to do with releasing 400 CDs. He is the single reason why Psychic TV has become completely devalued.

 

Didn't he put out 24 live CDs in a year all on the 24rth day of the month?  

Well that was a cool experiment. He was a lightning rod. I was a bit intoxicated by him at one point. He walked on stage during a Pigface show with four tape machines in San Francisco, and he had no idea how the songs went and he didn't care which was fine. He radically changed many of the songs. He also understood and articulated some of the aspects of Pigface that weren't clear to me. But since then his creativity and ingenuity has declined and his moral fiber has been flushed down the toilet. But it was a good lesson for any record label owner.

 

I recently interviewed Cynthia Plastercaster and she said she cast you. What was that like?

It's something I talk about in my spoken word piece. It was funny to think of my penis being on a shelf alongside 100 other guys. It's even more insane than comparing chart positions. It made me nervous but it was just something I wanted to do.

 

To see more of Vittorio Carli's interviews visit www.artinterviews.com

 

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