Skinny Puppy has survived many pitfalls, and so is the band after many years of absence on stage again. The message hasn’t changed because the world hasn’t changed. For many years the bandmembers hated each other. Earlier contact didn’t have any result, but now singer Nivek Ogre tells KindaMuzik his side of the chaotic story.
There is he, cycling on his rented crossbike. He rediscovered Amsterdam’s canals. But this time sober. He looks fit and happy and he’s wearing an army hat. He makes a short chat with his stoned and phone calling tourmanager. He spins another round and cycles away. He is Nivek Ogre. Known at the registration service as Kevin Ogilvie. Singer and with keyplayer/programmer/drummer cEvin Key the only remaining original member of Skinny Puppy.
A hour and a half later Ogre is waiting for KindaMuzik at a small table in the foyer of the Melkweg. Forty-year-old looks extremely healthy from close. He crawled quite undamaged out of the heroinhell, although the revalidation took years. At the start of the nineties he was a wreck that barely came out of his home, and putted the needle 50 times in 24 hours in his arms. The American Magazine Rolling Stone was under the delusion that he was dead. He wasn’t, but Skinny Puppy-bandmember, and most of all friend Dwayne Goettel was. The remaining duo then liquidated Skinny Puppy. And now he’s here again, promoting the recently release Skinny Puppy-cd and –DVD Greater Wrong of the Right. Coincidence or not, on the day of the 60th Hiroshima memorial day KindaMuzik talks with Ogre about how Skinny Puppy overcame the pitfalls.
We begin at the tarnished recording process of their farewell album "the Process" from 1995
"we lived in a state of denial" tell ogre tells openly "We all had drug problems but didn't know it from each other"
"I was in Los Angeles getting clean while the others were doing drugs in Vancouver and later came to LA where we were supposed to record our new album Dwayne (keys) was having troubles with his girlfriend so all and all it wasn't a good start
And living together in LA wasn't working either We did make beautiful things with Pigface foreman Mark Atkins as producer but halfway during the sessions we replaced him for Mark Walk to eventually mix the recordings down in Vancouver
It was a real disaster , cEvin and i were in each others hair constantly, I quit the band while we were mixdowning and left cEvin and Dwayne behind
I couldn’t care a damn , i just had had it and walked right out of the studio
We had fifty or sixty thousand dollars in cash but i just didn't care about the money , i just wanted to get away
And i did not find it necessary to get the band involved in legal matters and took off like greased lightning to LA
The album was yet to be released when the news came of Dwayne’s overdose
I thought this was the definitive end of the band . cEvin and i weren't speaking anymore , at least not in a pleasant way
Dwayne was the glue that held us together and when he died cEvin and i knew that skinny puppy was over for good"
The process became the eulogy for a band that could have been bigger. Ogre started his welt project but it failed to lift off the ground
CEvin's download was much more successful but couldn't make the jump between the chaotic industrial to the revolutionary warp age ( i.e. Aphex twin , Autotechre) when it came to popularity
Still there was a reunion , be it by means of a sideway
Ogre tells "cEvin visited me from time to time when he was in LA and we'd talk about a reinvention and then came the proposition to do doomsday in Germany
We were going to headline .. I held off for while , i was going through a divorce and was all torn up and he kept pulling my hairs
But i did eventually became interested , there was a lot of money on the table , I’ll be honest about that .So we did do it eventually
After the show we looked at each other and we both felt an enormous connection , just like the old days and I realized that you there are only a few people in this world with whom you can have such a long an intense connection and that sometimes these people die .
A lot of people I knew around me died . Dwayne died of an overdose at the age of 31 .Others because they committed suicide . All people I loved
My positive feelings about the reunion gained in strength because I had left my divorce behind me
All the bullshit from the past fell into place because we’d reached a certain point in our lives
When you ignore everything and everyone around you, you become isolated .
The musical and personal connection I have with cEvin I’ve never felt that with anyone else
I’ve felt it with Dwayne but he’s dead
Justin Bennet who’s now a part of the band he looks a lot like Dwayne when it comes to personality and Mark walk who plays guitar on The greater wrong of the right with him I also feel connected but its different from someone who I’ve known for twenty years
I’ve been through hell to get where I am now so I don’t want to throw Skinny Puppy away
All the problems from the past have been wiped off the table but the horror stories the press wrote about me and cEvin are all true , let there be no doubt about that
We’ve called each other all kinds of nasty names and in those days they were actually true
But life is too short to be angry about everything , I’m not here to hate people …There are far too many other things for me to hate
Black list
Skinny Puppy is notorious for their provocative stage act . With lyrics about right wing politicians , vivisection and Ogre’s self mutilation it did not only bring the band world fame . it also brought them one law suit after another
“I don’t agree with certain things that are happening in the world , those contrasts with how we present ourselves . That is the case in Canada and certainly in the US , where I live . Strange enough I get away with my stage act in America . I got a letter from someone in the national security service claiming to be a fan and asking or an autograph . So I’m fairly sure we are blacklisted . How can it not when I hold a gun against George Bush’s head every evening and then shooting him .
In the projections during the show you see collages of Bush and Cheney that suggest they are the real terrorists.” Ogre laughs sheepishly because he understands that the message is just a message and that not everyone understands that and that its meant to be entertaining “In America there is a group that is called PAABAH, a bunch of fuckheads that send petitions to collage radio stations to get us off the air because we apparently have no respect for president Bush and we show Cheney getting decapitated on stage . It appeared in all the newspapers . which was excellent media attention for us and it backfired in their faces . It was fucking brilliant man “
Fear is power
“Tonight during one of the first numbers I shall be wearing a sort of suicide vest with torn pieces of meat on it , smeared with blood , just like on our tour last year . We are now promoting our dvd The greater wrong of the right live but we want to show new things that aren’t on the dvd
Like tonight I will be beheaded by two Muslim fundamentalists and we are also playing some new songs
I’ve adopted the character of an American soldier , or at least an archetype of one and I will be showing what they really do . I mean one’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist
Look at Iran , The United States is aiding terrorist financially so that they can destabilize their government , so that the US has a reason to invade the country . There is a huge contrast between what they say and what they really do . They destabilize countries that they see as a threat so that they can invade them for oil and power
“The tactics of the American government has nothing to do with religion or freedom . They want to keep the people scared and fucked up so that they can control them completely
Prime minister Sharon says that Israel is the tip of the spear of democracy but what does that mean . democracy isn’t about freedom its about total control
Its how you create fear and terror and more need for politics and money for defense so you’ll limit the freedom of the people even more
In Europe the news is more accessible than it is in America . We have CNN , Fox and NBC . Fox literally serves as a shield for the government . Americans come home in their big cars, get their dinner out of the microwave, sit in front of their TV’s with their big bellies and believe everything presented to them
Here you have more local news stations and different countries who all show the news in a different light . In America its just propaganda and entertainment . You can watch different stations and form your own opinion , we can’t
America isn’t a republic anymore , its an empire . But they are never going to win in Irak .Never”
van Aart, Xander. "Skinny Puppy: Freedomfighter to One, Terrorist to Another." Kindamusik, September 2005.