PIG (band)
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 Raymond Watts
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| Background information | ||
| Origin | London, United Kingdom | |
| Genre(s) | Industrial | |
| Years active | 1988–present | |
| Label(s) | Metropolis Records Wax Trax! Records TVT Records Nothing Records Blue Noise Records Grand Recordings Cleopatra Records Alfa Records Concrete Records Contempo Records Invitation Records Victor Entertainment Rock Records |
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| Website | Official site | |
- For other meanings of Pig, see Pig (disambiguation).
Raymond Watts (also known as Nainz, Nainz Watts, and Ray Scaballero) is the founding and sole member of the industrial music project PIG.
Raymond 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.
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[edit] Style
PIG's sound tends to run to the orchestral, with darker, more complex, more ambient beats than those of KMFDM. 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 or pork related terms into his albums.
[edit] 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 their hit "Juke Joint Jezebel", a song that exemplifies Watts's lyrical style. 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. Sometimes when Watts joins KMFDM as part of the touring lineup, the concerts are billed as "KMFDM featuring PIG" and perform a few PIG songs.
Watts (along with White, Hodgson, and Selway) was immortalized in the lyrics to the KMFDM song "Intro" from the 2003 album WWIII. The song offers tongue-in-cheek depictions of KMFDM members as well as solidifying their places in the band's ever-rotating lineup:
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- 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!
[edit] Other collaborations
Watts has worked with several industrial and avant-garde artists, receiving credits as PIG and Raymond Watts interchageably. He is also credited as "Nainz Watts" or "Nains Watts" on several early releases.
- From 1985 to 1989 Watts was a sound engineer for Einstürzende Neubauten.
- from 1984 to 1986 Watts was sound engineer for Mona Mur.
- 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 (b. Anna Wildsmith)'s 1994 album Je M'Aime and again for her 1998 album Sick. The former 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) to form the group Schwein. Due in part to PIG's popularity in Japan the group was well-received, although they disbanded shortly after as each member had commitments to other projects.
- 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, and Zos Kia.
[edit] Discography
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".
Partial PIG discography:
- A Poke in the Eye... With a Sharp Stick (1988)
- Sick City (1989)
- Praise the Lard (1991)
- A Stroll in the Pork (1992)
- The Swining (1993) - Japan only release
- Red Raw & Sore (1994) - Japan only release
- Sin Sex & Salvation (as PIG vs KMFDM) (1994)
- Painiac (1995) - Japan only release
- Sinsation (1995) - US release in 1996
- Wrecked (1996) - US release in 1997
- Prime Evil (1997) - Japan only release
- No One Gets Out of Her Alive (1998) - Japan only release
- Disrupt Degrade & Devastate (1999) - Japan only release
- The Swining/Red Raw & Sore (1999) - American rerelease of The Swining and Red Raw & Sore
- Genuine American Monster (1999) - US release in 2002.
- Pigmartyr (UK, 2004), first album using the "Watts" name.
- Pigmata (2005) remastered version of Pigmartyr, using the "PIG" name, with three additional tracks.
[edit] External links
- Official PIG Website The official Raymond Watts/PIG website
- Raymond Watts Fan Site Includes bios, discographies of PIG/KMFDM/side projects, interviews, lyrics, photos, wallpapers, news, forums, and an online radio station.
- The Complete Pig Discography The most complete online list of Raymond Watts's releases.
- The Sick City A PIG Website
- Pigspace Raymond Watts on MySpace
- Metropolis Records website
