Pig Out will be in Wellington this weekend at Electroluxxe (Sat, Feb 9). Marie Celeste was kind enough to do this little email interview with us…
tks: What’s behind the name Pig Out?
po: Excess and goodtimes…
tks: Coming from Chch myself I realise that there aren’t too many places to gig. What was the music scene like in Chch when you guys last lived there?
po: As a band living and playing all the time in chch we had no shortage of good quality venues to play. Dux, Double Happy, Base, Media Club, Jet Set Lounge, Creation, Zebedees just to name a few.. then there’s always uni things and house parties.. plus the random gigs at random places.. for the size of the place it’s pretty healthy really. Historically the south has produced some of the countries most innovative artists. Now with the likes of Shocking Pinks, Tiger Tones, Get Set Play, Frase & Bri, it’s a pretty healthy scene really.
tks: Funnily enough I ended up with a mixtape that Kit made for someone in Chch (small world!). If you were to make one now what would it have
on it?
po: I’m making one for a friend at the moment..
This Mortal Coil – 16 Days
The Wake – Heartburn
Underworld – Dark & Long
Booka Shade – Darko (Booka Shade remix)
Dave Gahan – Kingdom (Trentemoller remix)
Supermayer -Two Of Us
Farah – Law Of Life
M.I.A. – Swoon
Cocteau Twins – Blind Dumb Deaf
tks: You guys seem to be a pretty malleable group. How have the line-up changes affected your sound?
po: Our sound seems to change more when we get a new piece of equipment. The core of Pig Out is me, Kit and Kris. Its been that way for nearly 2 years. We have different bass players depending on what city we’re in. It seems to work pretty well like that. Our live shows are always different cause we read the crowd more like a dj. We all like seeing where we can take certain tracks live. For our first 18 months of existence we never had a single rehearsal. Within that time we’d put out an album on Pinacolada, toured NZ 9 times, Australia and Europe. Our fans have heard our natural evolvement at every step. It’s crazy to listen back to old recorded shows.. they were good but we’ve grown up alot.
tks: What’s your favourite gear?
po: Korg, Roland and Yamaha for live.. Ableton Live to record with.
tks:What was the Midi Fest like? Did you get a good response and who did you see that was amazing?
po: The Midi Fest is pretty special. It runs over three nights with only four acts each night. They encourage all the artists to stay for the three days to hang out and get to know each other. They treated us like stars and totally loved the music. Radio Dept and Animal Collective we’re fucking amazing.
tks: How was it winning the Bnet award? What does that mean for you guys?
po: It’s awesome to be recognised by B and the fact that the final decision is down to public vote makes it even better. It’s great encouragement that helps you continue.
tks: Lots of the tropes of early 90s electronic music have started popping up again over the last few years. Is there a bit of nostalgia going on here or can good music just not be kept down?
po: It’s all cyclical. History naturally repeats itself but always evolves.
tks: There hasn’t historically been a lot of support in NZ for electronic music beyond the more obvious drum and bass and dancehall styles. Have you been surprised at your success here?
po: NZ has a cool history of rave and underground dance parties. We’ve opened this up once again to a new generation of kids and also got respect from the old skool guys who were in the know 20 years ago. The timing is right for what we are doing.. so no not really surprised.
tks: I’ve observed something of a backlash against more minimalist electronic music in recent years. Humour and humanity has been finding its way into so much dance music… What’s going on here?
po: There’s never really been a strong minimal (techno) scene in NZ at all. But it is currently growing here, peeps like Simon Flower, Matt Drake and Phil from Loop to name a few. Those guys do a night called Das Ist Minimal in Auckland. I went to one just after I got back from europe and after hanging about in european minimal clubs I was honestly stunned to come back and find such good stuff happening here. In recent years overseas, minimal has experienced a massive resurgence. I can only see it gettting bigger here. Not that Pig Out are at all minimal.. but we do love it!
tks: If Pig Out was a dancefloor, what kind of dancefloor would you be?
po: Acid
Pig Out at Electroluxxe this Sat, Feb 9. With support from Heat Like Me and DJs Samari and Techead. Visuals by Rex, Jem the Misfit and guests.
