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CHAPTER II: |
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Legend has it that Kevin Crompton woke up the morning after his first sporadic
recording session with Ogilvie, to find the words 'Skinny Puppy' mysteriously
scrawled on the tape of the night before. However, Crompton has later disspelled
this rumor, claiming that he had thought of the name and concept for Skinny Puppy
months before him and Ogilvie began to work together. Whatever the case may be, Crompton
and Ogilvie met frequently in the following months to work on their music. By the
end of 1983 they had assembled a tape with seven songs, which they titled Back And
Forth. They handdubbed a series of 35 copies of this initial tape (originally 50 were
planned, but the tedious dubbing process made them quit after number 35), and released it
into the underground network of tape-exchangers that flourished at the time. As Crompton and Ogilvie became increasingly involved in the work on Skinny Puppy, they both assumed stage names. Two Kevins in one band would be confusing they thought, and -- at least initially -- Crompton also felt the need to hide his identity, since he was still drumming for Images In Vogue (Stern '96). Taking his name from the keyboard, and changing the spelling of his first name, Kevin Crompton became cEvin Key, while Ogilvie decided to reverse the spelling of his first name, and adopting a last name that reflected upon the voice he used for Skinny Puppy, thus becoming Nivek Ogre. |
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Back And Forth came to the attention of the small Vancouber-based indie label Nettwerk, which was just starting up in 1983. Skinny Puppy was contacted by the Nettwerk affiliated producer David (Rave) Ogilvie, who liked their material a lot, and invited them to record their first album for free. The result of this offer was to be the first Skinny Puppy EP -- Remission, which ended up being made for the very reasonable sum of $ 600, and helped launch Nettwerk. |
| At the same time, Key and Ogre felt the need to expand their line-up, especially for the purpose of freeing up Key's hands a little during live performances. The choice for the third position in the band fell on Wilhelm Schroeder (Bill Leeb), who has been described by Key, as Skinny Puppy's greatest fan prior to his entrance into the band (Convulsion '91). Schroeder had known Key |
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since 1979, and had been loosely connected with the crowd of people surrounding Images In Vogue. He had no musical experience at all, but Key liked his energy and rhythm, and taught him to play the bass synth enough to participate in the band (Convulsion '91). Skinny Puppy's music at this early stage was raw, and Perry Stern has commented on the band's limited ability to create music that was "just for the noises with no song structures," the way Key would have it, as largely attributable to the limitations of their equipment ("Canine Caterwauling"). Key has described the band's musical aspirations as "...[taking] these crazy ideas of making sounds out of things we all take for granted and putting them together and actually reflecting all those sounds back onto a record just screwed up a bit. At first, we only got parts of it here and there (Hendrix)." Ogre has explained that the "...early recordings [were] heavily indebted to the 'drone and moan' style that sprang up in the wake of Genesis P. Orridge and Throbbing Gristle (DiPalma)." Key, too, has admitted the band's debt to Throbbing Gristle, although in a 1993 interview with Skin Trade Magazine he emphasized that Skinny Puppy never was influenced by 'one' thing, and stated that the band is "...a barometer or thermometer of the world...influenced by all movement and activity, sounds, lights, everything (DeBonis)." Remission was released in 1984, and according to Perry Stern, Skinny Puppy made their live debut the same year, by breaking into an art gallery ("Canine Caterwauling"). Regardless of whether this is actually true, Skinny Puppy's local live performances attracted attention early on, and the band soon attained a notorious reputation for their unconventional stage shows and reliance on various shock tactics. One of the original concepts for Skinny Puppy according to Ogre, was to "...do strange things onstage in order to alter people's perceptions about what was going on (Tywoniak)." They would often do things with breakaway bottles and stage assassinations of audience members during perforances, in order to "...put a taste of reality in all the fantasy (Tywoniak)." Skinny Puppy's music and performances were above all an attempt to "open up blocked channels" in the minds of the audience, Ogre commented on a different occasion (Mandava). |
Skinny Puppy followed Remission with Bites, their first full-length album, in 1985. The album featured the songs "The Choke" and "Assimilate" (produced by Tom Ellard of Severed Heads), both of which helped establish the band's name in the on the international underground scene. To support the release of Bites, Skinny Puppy toured the American continent. It was a tour marred by technical difficulties, and by Schroeder falling ill in the midst of it all, making it impossible for him to perform at several of the |
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| shows. However, recalling the problems in a 1996 interview, Ogre disclosed that "Bill was never really there anyway. When we played live, he had to be turned off, because he'd just go off and play his own thing (Greene)." The difficulties notwithstanding, the Bites tour was a success with fans and critics, and by the end of the year Skinny Puppy was working on their next album and tour. |
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Wilhelm schroeder had for some time been unhappy with the limited extent of his influence on the band's music, and when the prospect of another Skinny Puppy tour became an issue, he decided to leave the band. cEvin Key stated it very diplomatically in an interview with Convulsion in 1991: "Wilhelm went through 'Hell Tour." When time came for the second tour, he was given the option to back out, which he did." Changing his name to Bill Leeb, Schroeder went on to fame with his own band Front Line Assembly, and its numerous off-shoots -- Noise |
| Unit, Delerium
and Intermix (to name only the more porminent). Years later, Leeb
and Key would again colaborate on a project entitled Cyberaktif. |
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