By now you should know who Ogre is… But in case you don't, check any search engine online for "Skinny Puppy" you might also search for "industrial and godlike" (actually, that would probably give you a certain German band's site, but I think you get the point). Besides altering the underground music scene as a founding member of Skinny Puppy, Ogre also collaborated with other industrial luminaries such as Ministry, Pigface, the Revolting Cocks, Ritalin, Diatribe and KMFDM just to mention a few. Skinny Puppy broke up over six years ago with the death of his friend and band mate Dwayne Goettle. Since then he's helped start rumors of a new found Skinny Puppy with the "reunion" show at a festival in Dresdin, Germany…this will most likely not happen. But for now, cEvin Key, the other remaining member of the band, has joined up with Ogre for the live portion of ohGr, the band which includes Mark Walk (of Ruby fame). The live show does not involve Walk, but Ogre now has cEvin Key back on sticks pounding out the vicious beats, Tim Skold (from KMFDM) on bass guitar, William Morrison on guitar and Loki on keyboards.
Kult ov Bela(K): Where are you living these days?
Ogre(O): Woodland Hills, just outside of LA.
K: Ok, so how’s LA treating you?
O: Yeah, actually, I’ve grown to like it in a weird way, in a weird sick twisted kinda way. But, I’m pretty isolated so I don’t really adhere to the rules of L.A., you know as far as like getting caught in traffic and pretty much stay away from all of that. So it’s kind of a pleasant living experience for the most part, but it gets too hot.
K: What are your thoughts on the California energy shortage?
O: Well, I mean, it’s a complete scam It works on so many different levels, doesn’t it? It’s a great republican kind of strategy to really nail California as being environmentally friendly, that really didn’t stand up to, you know, their building quota of new power supply plants and therefore they screwed themselves. Which is so ridiculous really. And then the idea that Texas is selling power to its own countrymen for 300-400 percent profit is just absolutely absurd again. But you know I guess it’s a free market, it’s just that it’s totally out of balance a bit. It doesn’t really effect me at all because it’s just PG&E, Edison and one other company and I’m with D.W.P., and D.W.P. is this old guy who’s been in California. and he didn’t opt for deregulation. So he’s doing fine. But I think prices are going to go up anyway, but again it’s just...prices are going up on everything right now, you know, whether it’s meant to be because we’re finally kind of coming up to the world standard for those prices or it’s just some ploy to start drilling on land, you know up in Alaska, to scare people into doing that. Which I think would be totally wrong. But, you know, hey, it’s not my country.
K: So what direction would you have taken as far as energy?
O: Obviously, alternative energy sources have been either vastly over looked or cast aside to kinda keep the fossil fuel thing going for a long time. You know, I mean they’re starting to get into the hybrid cars and things like that but they aren’t really that great and fuel cells are coming out. But what would I have done? I don’t really know, it’s a bit too complex even for my small brain, you know, as to what I would have done...I guess...you know I think a lot of people obviously mismanaged the whole thing. So maybe I would be, if I was in that position, I would’ve studied a bit more and been a bit more responsible with just how serious the, or the serious possibilities that could’ve rosen from that decision.
K: This brings me to my next question. Because the media has become so massive, what do you think about the mass media’s coverage of everything from the California energy shortage to the mother who killed her five children?
O: I think they fixate far too much on things like that, that put fear in people and they spend far too little time on world issues, things outside us. But I think that has more to do with this Brazil-like concept of , you know, outside of our containment of media there’s a real world out there, that is by far in the majority to us and it’s quite a different world than the world we live in. So maybe that is what has kind of happened now because I’ve seen so many, I mean you have so much bandwidth for news now but such little concentration on important things and again there’s the continual, you know I’ve watched so much television, television is like a part of my brain in a way, so I’ve seen things circulate and, you know, the cyclical stories and all these things that go through media in time slots where it could be used for more informative stories about real issues that could have an effect on us or educate us. So we understand things a little more, other than just a five second sound bite or a ten second sound bite, continually over and over and over and over until you don’t want to hear it anymore, you know, which is the point obviously.
K: With this being forced on the general public, what do you see as the parents role on their child’s education as far as mass media?
O: I think it’s entering really, kind of a twisted time. I mean I don’t want to have kids because you know, because it’s almost to the point now where they have real time image manipulation, video image manipulation...where they could you know, the example I read in this article was a skater, skating around a rink just doing loops and they totally removed the skater and replaced it with background so that it was absolutely seamless and the camera was just moving around in this circle. So when that starts to happen, and you’re a parent and you’re fed something that you believe, I mean ultimately it’s like krishnamurti, you shouldn’t believe in anything, because what you don’t experience you really haven’t seen. And so I don’t know...I guess if I had children I would try and create some false sense of hope in them to get past the first eighteen, twenty years until, it all kinda, is as it is, but I think in the future it will be even more convolute than it is because of these types of things, you know I think the bubble, you know the media in the west is just so good. Propaganda in the west is just so amazing.
K: Do you consider you music a form of propaganda?
O: Well maybe, I guess. I don’t know. It’s just what I feel so, you know it’s a point of view, so...I’m not trying to, well, I guess I am trying to band people together, but no, I mean I think if anything, what I do and what I’ve always written has been so ambiguous that it would just blatantly expose that, exposing words for like meaning multiple, or having multiple meanings. Trying to look at things a different way, you know, whether it’s right or wrong. You know that’s just my way, I guess it could be propaganda. I’d see it more as, like media jamming, if anything, or that’s what I’d like to see it as, it’s probably not quite there yet, but that’s kind of where we would like to go with it. You know, I mean now I’m working with people that I’ve worked with from the beginning who are involved, like Bill Morrison the guitar player, was in television when he was young, and he saw it for what it was right away and chose a different path. So you know we all have the same kind of, I think, goal, we just don’t, we don’t know what the information is right now, we don’t know, I mean there’s things happening right now that’s really cool, there’s...when we were in New York we saw Genesis P. Orridge and you know we’re thinking of doing another concept record. So, we involve all these people and Genesis and maybe...
K: I wanted to ask what current artist would you work with if you had the chance, anybody that you hadn’t worked with already, in any kind of art form not just music, be it visual art, literature, or...
O: I want to collaborate with Genesis on a record...as far as visual arts, I...I mean, I can’t think right now, I’m sorry, I mean I know there definitely is somebody that I would like to work with but I can’t think of who right now, I’m sorry.
K: Well, what kind of books have you been reading or have there been any movies that you have seen recently worthy attention?
O: I’m reading a few things, I’m reading this history of the twentieth century. Just, kind of, looking back at how barbaric we were in a way in the twentieth century, and, what else am I reading...I’m reading some 60s pulp fiction book I found in Portland, called “Burn Witch, Burn.” (At this point Ogre gives a little nervous laugh. I think we’ve stumbled upon a guilty pleasure). It’s got a cool cover. And, I read the paper, and I read, you know. I kinda go in and out of books, it’s funny, I read the first two novels of the Gormenghast Trilogy, but didn’t finish Titus Alone, you know...and I loved it too, I was just totally glued to it, but I dropped it, so I’ll probably have to go back and read both huge novels again.
K: I didn’t get to ask earlier, during the media questions, but what papers do you read? Or, where do you get your news from?
O: Well, I mean, I extract my own news from what I see, from what I’m given. There’s no real, I don’t know if there is a really valid source of news, ultimately, you know, but there’s tons of overlapping kinds of things. So, you know from that perspective, I read the New York Times sometimes, I read some of the L.A. Times, and of course I watch CNN because it’s such a shut off and I watch all the news stations because they are all so different, and they are also different within themselves. Like Fox as an entertainment network is very hip, you know, almost left, and their news station is totally right, you know. That’s weird. That’s my feeling, but I could be totally fucked.
K: Since Skinny Puppy’s breaking up, this is your first time working with cEvin...correct?
O: We did the show last year in Dresden.
K: Well, besides that. (i'm still in denial over that whole thing)
O: Besides that, yeah.
K: Do you plan on working on anything else in the future with him?
O: Yeah, like I was telling you we’re thinking of doing the thing with Genesis. Yeah, that will be the next thing and I think he’s interested in continuing on this, you know, he’s expressed that and we’re having a lot of fun doing this. You know, it’s not so painful for me...(said with a knowing smile).
K: Could you tell me a little about the name change, going from Welt to ohGr?
O: Oh the Welt thing, well Welt was finally used by a California pop punk band. So I couldn’t use that. And then my friend Forrest Ackerman, who did Famous Monsters of Filmland, was my favorite magazine when I was growing up, it was my playboy...he wrote in a coffee table book, “oh Grr.” And that was kind of the little fire that started that whole thing. And then I like to, to try and figure out what does it all mean, so I just took it as two syllables representing the two sides of myself in a way: the apathetic side and the really angry, rage driven side...you know because I suffer from both.
K: Where does the character on the album cover come into this?
O: The character from the album cover comes from a story I told Roman (Dirge, the cover artist). When I was really young I used to sit in my living room and...I used to make it happen too, it wasn’t like it would just happen, I used to make it happen ‘cause it was a really cool feeling. I used to think, why was I born, now, in this body? Why am I thinking this right now? You know, why do I have this voice? Why was I born to these parents? Why wasn’t I born an ape? Why wasn’t I born an insect? And I was really, this was pre-school, and I was really young and my head would just go bweaaaghhh (close as I could get, he made an explosion noise while showing the explosion from the top of his head as if he was lifting a very large and heavy hat from off his head), and this huge vortex, and I would get this really incredible feeling, like a rush, I guess. Probably one of my first drug experiences. So that cover is based on that, with Roman, just an idea of the progression of this insect creature from, I’m not sure if you’ve seen the pop-up (the “Welt” album’s extremely rare, limited edition issue has a pop-up of similar artwork as the regular album...but it pops up and has a bit more of a progression to it). It really tells the story better because it has all the different stages and the little mothering one too. Because, you know, I’ve got issues with my mother so...
K:(nervously avoiding what could be a bad road to travel)...um, I’ve heard you’ve finished the next album. Is that true?
O: Well, about seventy-five percent there. Yeah, well, we’ll probably go back and write new songs, you know ‘cause...
K: You and Mark (Walk)?
O: Yeah, and Mark, I mean now there’s a band, and we might start working with the band on the next record too. If they want to.
K: I also heard that this tour is completely live?
O: No, it’s not all live, there’s tape, but it’s mixed more live than, than, I mean, you know there’s tape, on certain things like arpegiators, and certain things that can’t be replicated. But, when you hear it live, it actually, if you talk to anybody, I’m sure they will have to say that it sounds pretty “live.” You know, there’s real guitar, real bass, real drums, and real key boards and then there’s tape on top of it but the way he’s mixing it, which I do like but it’s a little weird for me to listen to it, it’s way more of just the organic parts are coming through the P.A.
K: How do you and Mark work together on creating music?
O: Really well, but really slow, and he’s really like thorough (chuckles again) in everything and at the same time and at the same time, you know, it works out for the best, obviously, I mean, I’m totally down with the process, but we continually take things out and look at them again and listen to how parts are playing and listen to all the parts and make changes.
K: How is the Welt album that we have now different from what we would have heard had it come out 5 or 6 years ago?
O: Well, obviously we had to re-record it so, I couldn’t use any of the old tracks so the one direction that you still hear in some of this is that we used a lot of, like that (he begins to imitate the sound of the keyboard part for “Earthworm” being played in the sound check overheard in the background). It was like an old Roland, some old fuckin’ Roland keyboard that was just like, this fuckin’ awesome sound that freaked out on and now it’s a Korg obviously, so what the concept was, we just went out and bought a bunch of really old keyboards, shit keyboards, anything we could find and we took all those old keyboards that used to be played through midi and had that little time lag, you know, and try and edit them in pro-tools so that they were really tight and really pushing a little bit. And that was kind of the base concept of what we were doing and really kind of groove oriented. You know, dark, but groove oriented.
K: Well, thanks for taking some time out to chat with me and good luck with the rest of the tour.
Jacksonville - 23 June 2001
ohGr * Hate Dept. @ Club 5
The opening band was Hate Dept. which was a let down for me, mainly because i had read about who was originally in the opening slot, Hocico, (check them out!) from Mexico City. Due to troubles with their visas, the band was unable to come along for the tour, Hate Dept became the substitute...and a rather weak one at that. The only bit of entertainment came during a moment of true poetic justice. In the middle of a song the lead singers mic cut out after he had introduced the song by announcing in response to a heckler, "We suck and you suck, but the difference between you and I is I have a mic and you have to listen." Hate Dept. works at having a very guitar driven industrial sound along the lines of our dearly departed Chemlab...but it doesn't quite reach that level. Brief pieces of decent sounds periodically entertained just enough to keep some from throwing their drinks at the band for taking up so much time on stage prior to ohGr's appearance (but not all).
Once they finished there was a pretty good hard-electro-ebm-industrial-techno dj for intermission purposes. The minimal yet effective security and a couple fast and friendly bartenders kept my friends and I happy with the staff at Club 5. But the reason we were there was yet to come. I think no matter how long the break between bands had lasted it would've been "too long," and it was.
Finally ohGr takes the stage and all eyes are glued. The theatrics did not reach Skinny Puppy levels (I only mention this because I know a lot of
people were there to see "the remaining members of S.P. put on a show"), but Ogre did still use his usual intense form of expression to hold the crowds attention. Their set consisted of a pretty equal split of songs from WELT and songs from the yet to be released new album. The opening song was a new one called "Chicks are for Power," and from there a mix of new and old, including
"suhleap," "devil," "earthworm," "water" and "cracker" from WELT as well as three or four of the yet to be released songs. The concert was truly incredible, other than the small distraction of some Club 5 balcony dancing girls on a slot above stage-left. They were trying to either entertain the crowd (aka showoff their bad lesbian fetish act) or possibly gain enough attention from the band to maybe get laid later on (riiiight). The full live band brought white hot intense sounds with little to no pre-recording, which the club could barely contain. The show ended with an excellent song from the solo cEvin Key album, The Ghost of Each Room, called "Frozen Sky." The album is set to be released on Metropolis records in mid August. If you don't own WELT, go get it, if you can make it to see ohGr live, do it, and in the meantime wait patiently, as I will, for the new album to hit the stores.
For more info on the new album, "Sunnypsyop" due out July 1, go to the Spitfire Records ohGr website, which has some great new promo photos, or check out the Official ohGr website with an all new look and samples from the new album!
