Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy was a Canadian electro-industrial band formed in Vancouver in 1982. The group was among the founders of the industrial rock and electro-industrial genres. Initially envisioned as an experimental side-project by cEvin Key while he was in the new wave band Images in Vogue, Skinny Puppy evolved into a full-time project with the addition of vocalist Nivek Ogre. Over the course of 13 studio albums and many live tours, Key and Ogre were the only constant members. Other members have included Dwayne Goettel, Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, Bill Leeb, Mark Walk, and a number of guests, including Al Jourgensen, Danny Carey, and many others.
After the self-release of their first cassette demo in 1984, Skinny Puppy soon signed to Vancouver label Nettwerk, anchoring its early roster. From their Nettwerk debut EP Remission in 1984 to their 1992 album Last Rights, Skinny Puppy developed into an influential band with a dedicated cult following, fusing elements of industrial, funk,
noise, new wave, electro, and rock music and making innovative use of sampling. Over the course of several tours of North America and Europe in this period, they became known for theatrical, horror-themed live performances and videos, drawing attention to issues such as chemical warfare and animal testing. In 1993, Skinny Puppy left Nettwerk and long-time producer Rave, signing with American Recordings and relocating to Malibu, California, where drug problems and tension between band members plagued the recording of their next album, The Process.
Ogre quit Skinny Puppy in June 1995, and Goettel died of a heroin overdose two months later. Key and Ogre, already active in a number of other projects, went their separate ways, reuniting for a one-off Skinny Puppy concert at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden, Germany, in 2000. Reforming Skinny Puppy in 2003 with producer Mark Walk, they released their ninth album, The Greater Wrong of the Right, which was followed by the release of the albums Mythmaker and HanDover. In 2013, they released the album Weapon, which was inspired by allegations that their music had been used for torture in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
History
Formation and first releases (1982–1985)
Skinny Puppy formed in 1982 as a side project for Kevin Crompton in Vancouver, British Columbia. Crompton was dissatisfied with the pop direction of the band he was in, Images in Vogue, and began Skinny Puppy with the intention of doing something more compelling and experimental. Images in Vogue had become a popular act in Vancouver, achieving several radio hits and opening for groups such as Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and Roxy Music. Crompton had planned Skinny Puppy to be a side project while he continued his work in Images in Vogue; however, when Images in Vogue relocated to Toronto, Crompton made Skinny Puppy his full-time project. Crompton had already created the name for the project and recorded several songs when he asked Kevin Graham Ogilvie to join. Ogilvie had been a roommate of Images in Vogue member Gary Blair Smith and had met Crompton at a party in late 1982. To avoid the confusion of having two people named Kevin in one band, the pair created stage names, with Crompton becoming cEvin Key and Ogilvie becoming Nivek Ogre.Using Key's apartment as a studio, the duo began recording songs and in 1983 with the help of Images in Vogue recording engineer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, Skinny Puppy released the EP Back & Forth. This was the beginning of a long partnership between Skinny Puppy and Rave, who would serve as their producer until 1993, and again in 1995, and was occasionally listed as a member of the band in album liner notes. Though only 35 copies were ever printed, the self-released Back & Forth drew the attention of Vancouver startup label Nettwerk, who signed the band later that year. The first live Skinny Puppy show was held at the Unovis art gallery in Vancouver in February 1984; the British group Alien Sex Fiend were among the 300 people in attendance.
Ogre has said that Skinny Puppy acted as an escape for Key, who wished to distance himself from Images in Vogue: "He was looking for something to break out of , and maybe I was it". Key would continue to drum for Images in Vogue until the group relocated to Toronto in 1985. Key's concept behind Skinny Puppy came from the group's first song ever recorded, "K-9". The idea, according to Key, was to create music which explored "life as seen through a dog's eyes". Skinny Puppy also incorporated the use of "B-grade horror movie visuals", including fake blood and props, into their live performances. Key justified these "shock gore" antics with the following:
What we're presenting isn't much different from what is subjected to in everyday life. For example, a commercial is a very plastic view of existence and reality. When you watch a TV show and see a world with picture-perfect endings, all you have to do is switch the station and watch the news.
Having scored a record deal with Nettwerk and with interest surrounding the Back & Forth EP growing, Skinny Puppy was invited to Vancouver's Mushroom Studios to work on new material. It was here that the group recruited Bill Leeb to perform bass synth and backing vocals. Like Ogre and Key before him, Leeb created a stage name, Wilhelm Schroeder; "my real name is Wilhelm" said Leeb, "Schroeder we picked out from the guy playing the piano in the Charlie Brown cartoon". Skinny Puppy released their second EP, Remission in December 1984, almost a year following Back & Forth.
Remission marked the first time Skinny Puppy would collaborate with artist Steven Gilmore, who created the album artwork. The EP was initially only released in vinyl, but was later given a cassette release in 1985. According to Nettwerk VP of A&R and Marketing George Maniatis, Remission "grabbed everybody by the you-know-whats" and, for Nettwerk Records, brought with it an association with industrial dance music. The EP was supported by music videos for the songs "Far Too Frail" and "Smothered Hope", the latter of which being the closest thing to a hit song any North American industrial act had achieved at the time.
Skinny Puppy released its first full-length album Bites in 1985. It was produced by Key and Dave Ogilvie. Tom Ellard of the Australian electronic act Severed Heads lent a hand to the production of Bites, acting as a producer and performing various sampling and mixing duties. Described by Billboard magazine as "techno dance... a la Kraftwerk", Bites yielded the underground hit "Assimilate". Key and Ogre opened for Chris & Cosey on their 1985 Canadian tour as Hell 'O' Death Day; some of the material the duo had performed would appear on Bites as bonus tracks. One of these bonus tracks, a song called "The Centre Bullet", featured lyrics by Legendary Pink Dots founder Edward Ka-Spel.
While Skinny Puppy had become well received by underground audiences in most major urban areas, due in part to their anti-consumerist themes and Cure-like aesthetics, not everyone was friendly to the group. Key described Skinny Puppy as the antithesis of "the Bruce Springsteen mentality of music", rejecting "Top 40 conformity". Toronto-based music journalist and DJ Greg Clow recalled Michael Williams, who was a VJ for Muchmusic, introducing him to Skinny Puppy, describing them as "Canada's answer to Depeche Mode.
Dwayne Goettel and stylistic transition (1986–1987)
In 1986, Nettwerk made a distribution deal with Capitol Records, allowing Skinny Puppy and others in Nettwerk's roster to expand their respective audiences. Capitol manager Stephen Powers stated that signing groups such as Skinny Puppy gave the company "a real credibility" with the alternative and college music scenes. Skinny Puppy also signed to Play It Again Sam, allowing the group's music to expand into Europe. It was this expansion into the European market that would help to make Skinny Puppy a "cash cow" for Nettwerk in the early years. In a 2007 interview with CraveOnline, Ogre commented on Skinny Puppy's time with Capitol, saying:We're so lucky to have gotten here, and if we look back on the fact that we were on Capitol Records at a certain point, being distributed and making these albums under budget… there was one year when we were the only band on the label to profit, when MC Hammer lost a shitload of money. I can still appreciate how odd it was that we had the chance to do that because it doesn't really happen in a lot of cases.
Bill Leeb left Skinny Puppy in 1986 to pursue his own musical project, Front Line Assembly. Leeb gave his reasons for leaving the group stating that his bandmates expressed different ideas from his own and that he had been interested in singing. Leeb's replacement would be quiet Alberta native Dwayne Goettel. A classically trained musician, Goettel had been in a duo named Water with vocalist Sandy Weir and had worked with the synthpop band Psyche, among others.
Skinny Puppy's production values improved with the addition of Goettel, with Key remarking that "Dwayne brought us a whole new sense and aesthetic that we didn't have. Up to that point, we were really punk rock in our approach". Key continued on that "he had an incredible knowledge of equipment and at a very early stage was really the master of sampling, which had really just begun". Goettel's contributions to Skinny Puppy's second full-length effort, 1986's Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse, helped to propel the band towards the style of their "chaotic future masterworks". To promote the album, the band made an appearance on CBC Radio's Brave New Waves program in September 1986, and released their first single, "Dig It". A music video for "Dig It" was produced and received extensive airplay on MTV.
Further promotion for the album came from a world tour with the band Severed Heads. The tour proved to be a vital learning experience for the group, having encounters with, according to Key, "tour managers and agents that didn't pay us". In 1987, the song "Stairs and Flowers" was released as a single, as was a new song titled "Chainsaw". The group attracted the attention of the Parent Music Resource Center, which named Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse one of several albums believed to be "violent, sexually explicit, or condoning substance abuse". The album was named by Melody Maker magazine as one of the best releases of the year.
Later in 1987 came Skinny Puppy's third full-length album, Cleanse Fold and Manipulate. Described as "a turning point, where experimentation is just beginning to gel with innovation", the album marks the point where the group began to explore more political themes, delving into topics such as the AIDS epidemic and the Vietnam War. A song from the album, "Addiction" was released as a single. The group later went on tour, with a performance at Toronto's Concert Hall being released on VHS in 1989 and CD in 1991 as Ain't It Dead Yet?. Also released in 1987 was Bites and Remission and Remission & Bites, both compilations of Skinny Puppy's first two Nettwerk releases.