VIRTUAL
On your CD, "Malignant", you have a song "E/E/G",
what does that stand for?
PETE
"EEG" is an Electroencephalogram, it's like when doctors take
a scan of your brain. Kinda of what the song was about. The lyrics are about
everything that was in my head at the time. It's a very disturbed song,
lyricly at least.
BRIAN
Everyone always asks us what "R6" is?
VIRTUAL
What is it?
BRIAN
"R6", the vocal samples are taken from a news broadcast a
couple years ago when this guy Collin Furgeson shot and killed six people
on the Long Island Train and he had all these notes about everyone depressing
him. A randam event that killed six people but it's really not random to
them, the guys were dead because of some crazy dude. It's almost a comment
on violence, kinda at the end it keeps repeating, "You can't break
me, you can't break me, do you try?" I'm not gonna hide in my house
if there's a bunch of guns going off and stuff-you can't be a prisoner in
your own home or live in a cage, that's pretty much what that's about.
BRIAN
We tend to be cryptic with song titles.
VIRTUAL
You guys use tons of cool clips and tons of them strike my curriousity,
as to where they came from?
In the song "E/E/G" there is a clip, "I was afraid the anestetic
would weaken the brain waves". Where did you get that from?
BRIAN
That was from the television series Friday the 13th, where they had
an antique shop and all these magicical things in there.
PETE
That was from this episode where this doctor, for his daughter, killed
people to extract fluids from their brain.
BRIAN
He would go around capture new subjects and take substances out of their
brain and inject them in his daughter to try to save her.
PETE
Because he had found the part of the brain that contains the human soul.
VIRTUAL
And a clip off of Deconstruct, from the song, Recoil, with a clip, "Violence
Is the only means of dealing with reality", where is that from? I'm
sure TKK used this one.
BRIAN
It's all chopped up and taken from multiple things he was saying I put
together and it's actually from Faces Of Death.
PETE
The video Recoil should be out pretty soon.
VIRTUAL
How often do you perform live?
PETE
It's been awhile. We were planning to play at Asylem but it closed for
a few months. There are a few clubs in Baltimore, and a DJ we can hook up
with in D.C. and do something on an Industrial night.
BRIAN
We are currently working on the live aspect. We will be bringing in
other live personnel to add to the performance-as opposed to past shows
where it was just Pete and I.
VIRTUAL
What is your most momentous live performance except for Pete's suffering
with the sheetmetal?
For more details on the show Pete uses and abuses sheetmetal-contact Terra
Industria, or Digital Underground for the magazine.
PETE
We played this one benefit show with a funk band and a heavy metal band.
There were a lot of people there, it was kinda fun. Playing live the first
thirty seconds is always terrifying because it's scary. Then it becomes
totally fun after you get over the fear and say hell, I don't care what
they say, I'm just doing this. I'm gonna enjoy myself.
BRIAN
That was a weird show, people were just staring at us like what the
hell is this?
PETE
For our live performance it's almost not going to have a break.
Let's say a song like "Recoil" with a big beginning will be cut
and reprogrammed. We want to keep the flow going and the beat constant,
but still it will be recognizeable. We want to make it as live as possible.
BRIAN
We cut and totally reprogrammed songs for a live show, so it's not like,
"Oh, well, I could have just stayed home and listened to the Pygmy
Children CD." We want to give people a different aspect and feeling
to it.
VIRTUAL
How many videos do you have done?
PETE
Just "Recoil", and we want to do the "Intensify"
remix on "The Industrial Revolution Vol. III" by George from UTN.
His wife Cheryl did the "Recoil" video and we have some good ideas
for "Intensify", we're ready.
VIRTUAL
You have a remix CD coming out, and I've heard about Matt Green mixing
for you (which I reminded him of last night at GROTUS), and a remix by Brandon
from Digital Underground, which he wanted me to remind you, he needs a tape
to do it, so please send him one.
PETE
We're still waiting for a few to come back.
VIRTUAL
Have you done the remix for Spahn Ranch yet, (IF YES) what did they
think?
PETE
They are done, "Locusts" and "Heritec's Fork", Matt
liked them a lot because we just didn't take and rework the song the same
way it was, when you hear "Locusts", the Teflon Burning Mix we
did, they just have guitar and vocals, we first tried programming the bass
lines how it sounded and we didn't like it. We tore it apart, re-did everything,
now it's more Pygmy Children sounding.
VIRTUAL
What concerts/bands have you seen this year that you really enjoyed?
BRIAN
Not very many actually. The Sextacy Ball with My Life With The Thrill
Kult and Lords of Acid was good awhile back.
PETE
When we saw TKK with the Lords Of Acid, that was great.
VIRTUAL
What specific bands influence your creative style and sound?
BRIAN
All the music we listen to we take it in, it's not like we say we gotta
do something like that.
PETE
Five or six years ago when I was just playing drums in a speed/thrash
band, Brian turned me on to industrial. I'd have to say, "Land Of Rape
& Honey" by Ministry, I love that. I like Ministry a lot, I like what
I've heard of the new album. I have a hard time getting knocked out by stuff
now. Before it was like hearing FLA or Skinny Puppy and saying, "How
the hell did they do that?" But it's kinda like now we know how to
do that, we're doing it, in our own way. I guess it's understanding how
they make the sounds and manupulating samples was the big mystery years
ago.
BRIAN AND PETE
Now that we're doing it, it takes the magic and mystery away of listening.
VIRTUAL
What authors inspire you?
PETE
William Gibson rules the earth and Pat Cadigan if you've ever heard
of her. I'm a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, not that it has anything to
do with our music, I like Jimmy Buffet's book.
BRIAN
"Facedown" and "Malignant" are based on some ideas
in a Pat Cadigan book, Fools. It's about people who are memory junkies,
go out and buy someone else's memory but then these people can't figure
out who they are really.
PETE
Kinda like "Strange Days".
VIRTUAL
Are there any obstacles that do not allow you to do certain things you
would like to with your music?
BRIAN
It would be nice to have 64 MB of RAM in the sampler, but we only have
12.
PETE
Just get more RAM, but ah, you work with what you have. If you're thinking
a way, oh, all I need is another part and I'll be able to do it, that's
not gonna work because you have to work with what you have. You'll find
ways around it, you could make the sample smaller. There's certain things
you can do to a sample. Out of one sample in "Collapser", we got
7 or 8 sounds out of it because you can modulate them in a way that you
can play with the pitch wheel and then by programming the pitch wheel changes
on the sequencer it can make all these different sounds. That saves space
in your computer, in your sampler.
BRIAN
If you make obstacles for yourself saying, well if I had this I could
get this done, ya know, I can't do it now-then your not gonna get it done.
You have to be determined and creative with what you have.
VIRTUAL
Brian, how long do you think it will be before you create music using
Virtual Reality?
BRIAN
I remember reading awhile ago in Keyboard Magazine, there's this guy
who was using a Nintendo or Mattel Power glove and he was using it to control
midi equiptment. The stuff is there if you want to dig into it, we haven't
thought about doing things in the virtual sense of the word, but it's always
a possibility.
VIRTUAL
What's your opinion on Cybernetic Replacements and enhancements?
PETE
It's like in Neuromancer, it's cool, reading that book. Technology moves
at such a fast rate, it will be neat to see what's going on in 10 years.
We'll be walking through the WWW by then and dancing with people.
BRIAN
If I could have a little microsoft thing to plug in my ear that would
be cool.
Contact Pete and Brian Roper directly PYGMYBOY@aol.com
PYGMY CHILDREN
P.O. Box 25327
Washigton, DC 20007-8327