Pig (musical project)
| PIG | |
|---|---|
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | Industrial rock |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Metropolis, Wax Trax!, TVT, Nothing, Blue Noise, Grand, Cleopatra, Alfa, Concrete, Contempo, Invitation, Victor Entertainment, Rock, I, Absentee |
| Associated acts | Einstürzende Neubauten, Foetus, KMFDM, Mona Mur, Schaft, Schwein, Sow, Primitive Race |
| Website | The Swining |
Raymond Watts (also known as Nainz, Nainz Watts, and Ray Scaballero) is the founding and sole member of the post-industrial music project PIG, sometimes written as <PIG>.
Watts was an early member and periodic collaborator of KMFDM, and has been a visible part of the industrial music scene since the early 1980s. He has toured with KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Schaft, Schwein, and Einstürzende Neubauten.
According to the official website, PIG is currently in the studio recording a new album with Marc Heal. Watts, Dr. Shinto and John Gosling released a four-song EP Titled Mellan Rummen on November 15, 2010 on Amazon.com
On June 8, 2012 Marc Heal revealed a demo version of "the first new PIG track in eight years" entitled "Drugzilla (Rough As A Hog's Arse Mix)" via Cubanate's Official Facebook page and providing their followers a link to his personal SoundCloud page. The link was reposted by Watts a few hours later.[1][2][3][4][5][6] A second demo entitled Shake was released on July 15, 2012; again via Heal's Soundcloud page, this time also noting Dan Abela as engineer.[7] In November 2014 Watts approved mixes for an upcoming joint-release EP.[8]
In March 2015 another collaborative EP was announced with Primitive Race entitled "Long in the Tooth" with a worldwide release date of June 5th 2015 through Metropolis Records.[9] Later that month in an interview, Watts revealed a new PIG album has been written and recorded. Former KMFDM bandmate En Esch will be providing final touches to the album.[10]
Style
PIG tends to sound more orchestral than KMFDM, with darker, more complex, more ambient beats. His album and song titles tend to be witty, rife with alliteration ("Prayer Praise & Profit") or are plays on the titles of popular works or phrases (The Swining / "Symphony for the Devil"). He also manages to work food, heroin or pork related terms into his albums. Like KMFDM, humor features prominently in PIG's lyrics, although they tend towards a darker/grittier tone than KMFDM's.
Collaboration with KMFDM
Because Raymond Watts is a central figure in both PIG and KMFDM, the two projects have seen much crossover. Watts has contributed his skills as a songwriter and vocalist to several KMFDM albums, including their first album Opium in 1984, and has a heavy presence on their 1995 album Nihil, which spawned the hit "Juke Joint Jezebel". A collaborative EP titled Sin Sex & Salvation was released in 1994 under the moniker "PIG vs. KMFDM". KMFDM has in turn assisted Watts with his PIG projects in production and personnel. Current KMFDM guitarists Steve White and Jules Hodgson (as well as former KMFDM guitarist Günter Schulz) and drummer Andy Selway have been involved with PIG. Watts has performed with KMFDM as part of the touring lineup, with the concerts billed as "KMFDM featuring PIG". The setlists for those shows feature KMFDM songs alongside Pig songs. A live CD from the 2002 "Sturm & Drang" tour was released on Metropolis Records that same year.
Watts was given a tongue-in-cheek description in the lyrics to the KMFDM song "Intro" from the 2003 album WWIII:
- The Lord of Lard, the Mighty Swine
- He loves Manchego and a bottle of wine
- Also known as Raymond Watts,
- He screams out his lungs while his brain slowly rots!
Other collaborations
Watts has worked with several industrial and avant-garde artists, receiving credits as PIG and Raymond Watts interchangeably. He has also been credited as "Nainz Watts" or "Nains Watts" on several early releases.
- From 1984 to 1986 Watts was sound engineer for Mona Mur.
- From 1985 to 1989 Watts was a sound engineer for Einstürzende Neubauten.
- Watts has occasionally collaborated with J. G. Thirlwell, briefly playing bass in Foetus Corruptus and co-writing songs for Steroid Maximus on the album Gondwanaland. Thirlwell, in turn, has cowritten and remixed songs for PIG.
- Watts recorded music for ex-girlfriend spoken-word artist Sow (born Anna Wildsmith)'s 1994 album Je M'Aime and again for her 1998 album Sick and 2010 album Dog. "Je M'aime" was reissued under the name "Pig/Sow" in 1999.
- PIG's 1995 album Sinsation was released in the US on Trent Reznor's label Nothing Records. PIG also toured with Reznor's band Nine Inch Nails in the UK.
- Japanese-based band Schaft employed Watts as a lyricist/vocalist for the 1994 album Switchblade and companion remix collection Switch.
- In 2001, Watts and KMFDM frontman Sascha Konietzko teamed up with Japanese musicians Sakurai Atsushi and Imai Hisashi (also of Schaft and Buck-Tick) to form the project super group Schwein. Schwein released two albums Schweinstein and Son of Schweinstein ; the latter being remixes from the first.
- Watts has also provided production, mixing, remixing, and/or vocals for Psychic TV, Chemlab, Haloblack, 2-Kut, Hoodlum Priest, Steroid Maximus, H3llb3nt, The Hit Parade, Brain Drive, Buck-Tick, D.I.E., Sakurai Atsushi, Sprung Aus Den Wolken, The Megaton Men, Mortiis, Judda], Tweaker, Prong, West End and Zos Kia.
- Watts contributed an original composition to the soundtrack of the computer game MDK2. It plays on the title screen and one of Max's levels.
- Watts has composed music for several Alexander McQueen fashion shows.
- Watts has contributed vocals to the track "Second Coming" by Team Cybergeist[11]
Discography (partial)
Several of his albums were originally released in Japan, where he enjoyed considerably more success than in the United States and United Kingdom, but some of those albums were eventually released in the US.
In 2004 he signed to Grand Recordings for distribution in the UK, under the name "Watts". The All Hamerican Pig Show was released in 2011 as a DVD via the Pig website, featuring performances from Pig's 2006 U.S. tour and a complete live performance from Osaka, Japan, 1999. The DVD also included the music videos for Painiac and Everything.
Studio albums
- A Poke in the Eye... With a Sharp Stick (1988)
- Praise the Lard (1991)
- A Stroll in the Pork (1992)
- The Swining (1993) – Japan only release; reissued in 1999 in America on The Swining/Red Raw & Sore (1999)
- Sinsation (1995) – US release in 1996
- Wrecked (1996) – US release; Japanese release in 1997 has somewhat different track listing
- Genuine American Monster (1999) – US release in 2002
- Pigmartyr (2004) – UK only release, using the "Watts" name.
- Pigmata (2005) – remastered version of Pigmartyr, using the "PIG" name, with three additional tracks.
EPs
- Hello Hooray
- Red Raw & Sore (1994) – Japan only release; reissued in 1999 in America on The Swining/Red Raw & Sore (1999)
- Sin Sex & Salvation (as PIG vs KMFDM) (1994) – collaborative EP with KMFDM
- Painiac (1995) – Japan only release
- Prime Evil (1997) – Japan only release
- No One Gets Out of Her Alive (1998) – Japan only release
- Disrupt Degrade & Devastate (1999) – Japan only release
- Compound Eye Sessions (2015) – With Marc Heal
- Long in the Tooth (2015) – With Primitive Race
Singles
- "Never For Fun" (1988)
- "Sick City" / "Shit for Brains" (1989)
- "Shit for Brains" – Germany only release
- "The Fountain of Miracles" (1993)
Video Releases
- The All Hamerican Pig Show (2011)
Music videos
Several music videos have been filmed, but most remain unreleased outside of Japan. Most videos have surfaced online on YouTube in questionable quality. The video for Arbor Vitate is actually a re-cut version of the Schaft video of the same song.
- Shit for Brains (1988)
- The Fountain of Miracles (1993)
- The Seven Veils (1993)
- Painiac (1995)
- Everything (1996)
- Arbor Vitate (2004)
- Long in the Tooth (2015)
External links
- Official PIG Website The official Raymond Watts/PIG website
- PIG "Official Facebook for all Raymond Watts music, including PIG." [12]
- @RaymondWatts "Official Twitter for all Raymond Watts music, including PIG." [12]
- PIG on Reverbnation [12]
- Pigspace Raymond Watts on MySpace [12]
- Raymond Watts Fan Site Includes bios, discographies of PIG/KMFDM/side projects, interviews, lyrics, photos, wallpapers, news, forums, and an online radio station.
- Metropolis Records website
References
- ↑ NiNa (8 June 2012). "06/08/2012 Pig - "Drugzilla" unofficial mix available online". Fabryka Industrial Rock Magazine. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
- ↑ Yücel, Ilker (Ilker81x) (8 June 2012). "PIG unveils a rough mix of first new track in eight years". ReGen Magazine. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
- ↑ COMA Music Magazine (8 June 2012). ":Music News: New rough mix of a new PIG track.". COMA Music Magazine. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
- ↑ Heal, Marc (8 June 2012). "And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present you…". Official Cubanate on Facebook. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
- ↑ Watts, Raymond (8 June 2012). "Rough mix of new PIG track "Drugzilla".". Official PIG on Facebook. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
- ↑ Heal, Marc (8 June 2012). "Pig - Drugzilla (Rough As A Hog's Arse Mix)". Official Marc Heal on SoundCloud. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
- ↑ Heal, Marc (15 June 2012). "Pig - Shake (Rough Mix)". Official Marc Heal on SoundCloud. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
- ↑ "Cubanate (Facebook) - Spoke to Watts on the phone...". 4 November 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
- ↑ Metropolis Records (9 March 2015). "Long in the Tooth". Retrieved 11 March 2015.
- ↑ theswining.com - Official PIG Website (23 March 2015). "Eye to Eye with the Compound Eye - Marc Heal and Raymond Watts Interview". Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Team-Cybergeist-How-To-Destroy-Something-Beautiful/release/2349917
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 "Official Sites". The Swining - Official Raymond Watts/PIG Website. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
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