Darker Shades: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Talk New Album 'Land Of Sleeper'
Thursday, 16 February 2023
Written by Laura Johnson
What do you do to make an impact when the majority of your output is already renowned for melting faces? That’s the question Newcastle noise-smiths Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs were forced to ponder while writing their fourth album, ‘Land Of Sleeper’. The answer they summoned from the void delivers the usual strain of unabashed Sabbath-esque heaviness, but here it’s juxtaposed against more atmospheric, experimental and contemplative moments.
“We think of the live set and each album in similar ways, in that we like to take people on a bit of a journey with it,” vocalist Matt Baty says. “80% of our stuff is cranked up to 11 really loud anyway, but I think it’s important to have those lulls and those dips, and give people more space, and ourselves more space as well. It makes other parts more impactful.”
The pause on live music during the Covid-19 pandemic meant the band—completed by guitarist Adam Ian Sykes, bassist John-Michael Hedley and returning drummer Ewan Mackenzie—were able to stockpile ideas, so when it came to recording the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Viserals’ they surprised themselves with the wealth of material they’d accumulated. After sitting tight during lockdown, they put all their new stuff in one communal folder and in January 2022 took a road trip to Giant Wafer studios in Llandrindod Wells, Wales.
The residential set-up of the studio allowed them to focus completely on continuing to demo the record, with their manager even tagging along to cook them three square meals a day so the music was their only priority. It put them in good stead for recording that spring at their guitarist Sam Grant’s Blank Studios in Newcastle, where they created its predecessor.
So, with so much new music to wade through, were there any contentious conversations on what made the cut? “No, not really,” Baty admits. “We’re fortunate in that we’ve been doing it for so long now, I suppose it’s part of the learning process of writing music together. In the past you’d get debates on what direction a certain song should go in, or if we should work on one song over another, but now we’re at the point where we just really trust each other.
“As individuals we’re open to working on stuff and seeing what direction it takes us in. We’re quite democratic, really, if it hits a point where even just one person in the band is like, ‘this really isn’t working for me’, we’ll just move on. We’re essentially a live band. We live and breathe on the stage. That’s where we flourish. Every member of the band has to be 100% in on every single song, otherwise it won’t work.”
Anyone who has ever seen Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs live has experienced first hand why it’s always important to wear earplugs at gigs. You also learn that it’s a visceral experience, so to hear that they’re exploring some “darker shades” brings to mind one question: how?
“We’ve always been heavy, but I think we’ve leaned more into a darker atmosphere, across the whole album, which has been nice,” Baty continued. “I suppose the plan for each album now is to give it its own character, take a look back over the last album, think ‘what was that album’s character and how can we shape the new one?’
“We’re not in a place, really, where we can reinvent the wheel too much. Because we’d be in danger of losing people and going up our own arses a little bit. But I think it’s important for us to reflect on what the last album was moving into writing and recording a new album, to just give it its own character so it can stand up on its own, it’s got its own identity. I think ‘Land Of Sleeper’ has got that, which I’m proud of.”
Thanks to the intense demo sessions at Giant Wafer, the final recording process was smooth sailing, to Baty’s surprise, with him later reassuring us things were done quickly but not sloppily. “I was blown away by how brilliant they were, it was odd,” he recalls. “At one point in the recording process I started to get anxious, because I started to worry that there wasn’t enough going wrong. I thought, ‘Christ, what hope is there for me if everything’s going right and I feel like this.’”
Once he silenced the nagging voices asking if he was being too “complacent” or “nonchalant”, he was “totally inspired by what everyone else was doing.” As is his process, Baty watched the whole band record their parts before writing and laying down his vocals last: “I follow the music and whatever that’s doing. I just let the riffs guide me.”
Although the ritual is always a cathartic one, he admits doing it after lockdown being lifted was the cherry on top. “‘I’m back!’,” he remembers exclaiming to himself. “‘I’m back where I belong.’ It was a nice feeling.”
The new dimensions explored on ‘Land Of Sleeper’ also brought more collaborations with those outside the band. Baty duets with Cath Tyler, of room-silencing folk duo Cath and Phil Tyler, on closing cut Ball Lightning, a song that would not be out of place on a horror soundtrack.
The Weatherman, meanwhile, features Bonnacons Of Doom vocalist Kate Smith and a choir including longtime friend Richard Dawson and Sally Pilikington for an eerie and explosive seven-minute wild ride. “It was another instance of being in the studio, and being totally floored by what someone else was recording,” Baty observes of Smith. “She’s brilliant. She totally elevates the entire song.”
Guitarist Grant nutshelled the record and its predecessor to Baty as: “‘Viscerals’ very much felt like a hi-fi, blast it out of your speakers kind of album, whereas with ‘Land Of Sleeper’, it feels a lot more introspective and a bit more of a headphones listen, which I think is quite a nice way of summarising it.”
With the record pressed, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs switched their attention to touring, and this spring have shows and festival appearances lined up in the UK, Europe and North America. The last time we spoke to the band was back in 2019 at ArcTanGent, and they had an early daytime set. This year will see them on the bill just below the headliners.
“It’s pretty nuts. I try not to think about it too much, really. Honest, I don’t,” insists the singer. “And it’s weird, because I’m the kind of person where I do get a little bubble of excitement when we announce things, but until I’m actually there, and doing it, and experiencing it in the moment, I find it very hard to anticipate or process these things. It all feels like a strange dream. It is weird, it’s an odd one.
“We played 2000trees last summer, we headlined one of the stages there, and that was one of the best festivals we did last year, the audience were so brilliant. ArcTanGent has got a special place in our hearts as well, we’ve played that a couple of times. Again, the audience and the people at the festival make it.”
With tracks that regularly clock in close to six minutes or sometimes longer, how does a band such as Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs make an impact in such a short space of time? Baty reassured us it’s definitely not an issue. “If we’ve only got half an hour or 35 minutes to blast people’s faces off, then that’s what we’re going to do,” he says. “We go full throttle for the time we’ve got. There’s not a lot of respite.”
Still, with another LP to their discography, it must be getting more difficult to whittle down the setlist for the upcoming shows? “No, if anything it’s getting easier, because we’ve got a bigger palette to paint a picture. It’s getting easier to take people on that 70-minute-long ride, or however long we’re playing for. We’ve got more building blocks, it’s good.”
‘Land Of Sleeper’ is out on February 17 through Rocket Recordings.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun February 19 2023 - BRIGHTON Chalk
Thu February 23 2023 - GATESHEAD Sage
Fri February 24 2023 - EDINBURGH Liquid Rooms
Sat February 25 2023 - KENDAL Brewery Arts
Sun February 26 2023 - LINCOLN Drill Hall
Thu March 02 2023 - CAMBRIDGE Junction 1
Fri March 03 2023 - IPSWICH Baths
Sat March 04 2023 - HASTINGS Crypt
Sun March 05 2023 - LEICESTER O2 Academy Leicester
Thu April 13 2023 - MILTON KEYNES Craufurd Arms
Fri April 14 2023 - STOKE Sugarmill
Sat April 15 2023 - HEBDEN BRIDGE Trades Club
Sun April 16 2023 - STOCKTON Georgian Theatre
Thu April 20 2023 - YORK Crescent
Fri April 21 2023 - NEWPORT Le Pub
Sat April 22 2023 - PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
Sun April 23 2023 - HATFIELD Hertford Corn Exchange
Sat September 23 2023 - GLASGOW Queen Margaret Union
Fri September 29 2023 - BRISTOL SWX
Sat September 30 2023 - MANCHESTER O2 Ritz
Thu October 05 2023 - SHEFFIELD Foundry-Sheff Uni
Fri October 06 2023 - LONDON O2 Forum Kentish Town
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