Skinny Puppy

Skinny Puppy is an influential industrial band, which formed in Vancouver, BC, Canada during the early 1980s.

History

Membership

Skinny Puppy formed in 1982 out of the partnership of cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton; instruments) and Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie; voices). Key was frustrated by the direction of his then-current band Images in Vogue, and began Skinny Puppy with the intention of doing something "raw" and "real". The band's name was derived from the concept of a "dog's eye view"; Ogre penned fragmented, observant and philosophical lyrics "seeing through the keyhole" and voiced them in a rough growl that resembled that of a small talking beast. With engineer/producer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie (with no relation to the vocalist), Skinny Puppy began recording with Nettwerk Records in 1984, and their productiveness would eventually assist in Nettwerk growing from a fledging imprint to arguably the most prominent and successful independent Canadian record company of its time. Key and Ogre brought Wilhelm Schroeder (aka Bill Leeb; keyboards and bass) into the band in 1985 to assist with live performances, but by 1986 Schroeder had left the band to form Front Line Assembly. His departure has been attributed to his lack of involvement and loss of interest in the band as well as a desire for his own project. Ironically, Schroeder's departure was probably the most fortunate event to befall the band because it allowed the entry of Dwayne Goettel (keyboards and synthesizers), who was reputedly a classically trained and highly skilled keyboardist. Goettel's membership proved pivotal in the band's musical direction.

Related Topics:
1982 - CEvin Key - Nivek Ogre - Images in Vogue - Dave "Rave" Ogilvie - Nettwerk - Wilhelm Schroeder - Bill Leeb - Front Line Assembly - Dwayne Goettel

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Formation - Back and Forth

Skinny Puppy in its most embryonic form was an unnamed and undirected musical project by cEvin Key. Key was inspired in part by what he perceived as unoriginal pop music and also a desire to experiment. In 1982 Key created a track he called 'Meat Flavor' and he considers this to be the genesis of Skinny Puppy. At a party Key was introduced to Ogre and the two simply fell into working together, with Key creating instrumental music and Ogre applying vocals over it. Key knew a record engineer/producer, Dave "Rave" Ogilvie who allowed the duo free time at his studio, Mushroom Studios. From these early recording sessions the tape Back and Forth was released.

Related Topics:
Pop music - Dave "Rave" Ogilvie - Back and Forth

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Remission - Cleanse Fold...

The Kraftwerk-esque electro-pop EP Remission (1984) and the pristine, ambient, keyboard-based minimalist recording Bites (1985) earned the band a fanbase. Tha band's audience continued to expand, and the band's skills continued to improve, with ' (1986), which consisted largely of experiments in spooky music made using analog tapes. With the addition of Goettel, they performed Cleanse Fold and Manipulate (1987) mostly with keyboards, synthesizers and, for their first time, MIDI sequences.

Related Topics:
Remission - 1984 - Bites - 1985 - 1986 - Cleanse Fold and Manipulate - 1987

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VIVIsectVI - Rabies

They eventually became outspoken advocates for animal rights, and used the "Head Trauma" Tour (1987) and VIVIsectVI tour (1988) to expose concert attendees to videos of experimentation of animals. The title of the LP VIVIsectVI (1988) was a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism. The lyrics on the LP were explicit, outspoken critisism of pollution (Hostpital Waste), chemical warfare (VX Gas Attack), promotion of sexual abstinence to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV (State Aid), cocaine addiction (Harsh Stone White), deforestation (Human Disease (S.K.U.M.M.)) and rape (Who's Laughing Now?). The centerpiece of VIVIsectVI, Testure --- which lyrically insinuated that vivisection was a Holocaust of animals and was motivated by a common greed of medical scientists --- appeared on Billboards Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1989.

Related Topics:
Animal rights - 1988 - VIVIsectVI - Vivisection - Satanism - Pollution - Chemical warfare - Sexual abstinence - AIDS/HIV - Cocaine addiction - Deforestation - Rape - Holocaust - Billboard

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During the late 1980s, the band members began working on various side projects, including Doubting Thomas, platEAU and aDuck. For Rabies (1989), Ogre brought Ministry's Al Jourgensen to produce with Rave. Prominently featuring Jourgensen and Rave playing electric guitar, Rabies was Skinny Puppy's first venture into heavy metal. This made it their most controversial and poorly reviewed album up to that time, owing to disagreement among listeners over whether the expansion of their sound into rock music made for effective artistic statements and whether they were deliberately making their sound more accessible and more mainstream. Jourgensen's presence did more to help divide the band than it did to keep it together, as they didn't tour to support Rabies while Ogre toured as an additional guitarist for Ministry. Key and Goettel were alienated from Ogre, who they felt was more interested in other projects than on keeping the band together. Creative differences also caused them difficulty working together.

Related Topics:
1980s - Rabies - 1989 - Ministry - Al Jourgensen - Heavy metal

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Too Dark Park - Last Rights

Too Dark Park (1990) was considered by many to be a defining album of the then-emerging "industrial dance" sub-genre. It combined the danceable, yet still harsh industrial of previous albums with waves of samples, layers upon layers of electronic instrumentation, and the most menacing ambience yet heard from the band, producing a dense, claustrophobic, suffocating album. The record Last Rights (1992) was their instrumental, compositional and arguably artistic masterpiece, especially with production, the song Inquisition being the pinnacle. Due to confusion and conflicts over the copyright to a talk by Dr. Timothy Leary used in the song, "Left Handshake" was excluded from Last Rights, an exclusion which badly affected the album's thematic concept. However, the title would prove appropriate not only because of its apocalyptic theme, but also because it preceded Skinny Puppy's demise.

Related Topics:
Too Dark Park - 1990 - Last Rights - 1992 - Timothy Leary

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The Process and Dissolution

Ogre, Key, and Goettel decided to continue the band without Rave or Nettwerk, and signed a contract with American Recordings. They traveled to Malibu, CA, in 1993 to begin recording The Process, a concept album about a psychotherapy cult active in the 1960s, with Roli Mossiman producing. Deciding that Mossiman's style was too inactive, they eventually fired him in favor of Martin Atkins. Atkins's presence only heightened their frustrations, but for different reasons: Key and Goettel felt that Atkins was trying to pry Ogre away from Skinny Puppy so that Ogre could devote himself fully to Atkins' projects. They switched from Atkins to Mark Walk by 1995. The band's bickering and excessive drug use made the recording process take so long, and thus cost so much money, that American Records reduced Skinny Puppy's contract from three albums to one. Key would later tell the press that their creativity at the time was also badly affected by the company's pressure on them to create music that was similar to and as commercially acceptable as that of contemporaries like Nine Inch Nails. In 1995, Ogre quit Skinny Puppy to pursue other musical projects, which effectively ended Skinny Puppy. Goettel then fled back to Vancouver with the master tapes of the recordings. Days later, he was found dead of a heroin overdose in his parents' home. Ogre, Key and Rave completed The Process in his memory; it was finally released in 1996.

Related Topics:
American Recordings - Malibu, CA - The Process - Roli Mossiman - Martin Atkins - Mark Walk - Nine Inch Nails - 1996

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Dresden Reunion - Greater Wrong...

In 2000, Ogre and Key performed as Skinny Puppy at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden, and then toured together in 2001 to support Ogre's solo project, Ohgr. In 2003 they started working with collaborators such as Danny Carey of Tool to produce the new full-length Skinny Puppy album, entitled The Greater Wrong of the Right, which was released on May 25, 2004. Skinny Puppy toured in support of "The Greater Wrong of the Right" twice in 2004, during which several shows were filmed for a forthcoming DVD release called Greater Wrong of the Right LIVE, to be released in September 2005. Key has recently revealed that a new album is in the works as well as another European tour for the Summer of 2005.

Related Topics:
2000 - Doomsday Festival - Dresden - 2001 - Ohgr - 2003 - Danny Carey - Tool - The Greater Wrong of the Right - May 25 - 2004 - Greater Wrong of the Right LIVE

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Key continued his musical efforts in the bands Download and Tear Garden, as well as performing solo. Ogre collaborated with major industrial acts KMFDM and Pigface, and since 1996 has been mainly involved with ohGr, his collaboration with Mark Walk.

Related Topics:
Download - Tear Garden - KMFDM - Pigface - OhGr

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