Scroobius Pip went out one day, and made a record for people to play. Then all the beasts in the world came round, thanks to his killer wit and rhymes so sound. The Nyan cat, the dog and the kangaroo, with Thou Shalt Always Kill the YouTube massive he did woo. Then the wolf he howled, the horse he neighed, Im releasing a second solo record the Pip brayed. And when the Pip began to roar, there never was heard such a noise before. And every beast he stood on the tip, to peruse a video of the Scroobius Pip. At last they said to the Pip "By far, you're the wisest beast! You know you are! SG got close to Scroobius Pip to say, Tell us all about yourself we pray. For as yet we can't make out in the least, if you're punk or hip-hop, or poet or beast. The Scroobius Pip looked vaguely round, and hollered these words with a rumbling sound: Chippetty flip, Flippetty chip, my only name is the Scroobius Pip.
In truth, he may not have said Chippetty flip or Flippetty chip but heres what went down when SuicideGirls spoke to the Pip
Nicole Powers: So your new record, Distraction Pieces, just came out yesterday.
Scroobius Pip: Yes, yes. Its all very exciting at the moment. Exciting, but Ive barely left my flat. Kind of that weird excitement.
NP: Are you chained to your computer and your phone?
SP: Yeah. Pretty much. Because Im releasing it on my own label. Its the first time Ive been artist and label manager and everything. Ive had my laptop open pretty much 24/7. Its all good. Its all doing far better than expected, so I cant complain.
NP: Well, its a bloody good record. Ive spent the past couple of days listening to it and Ive had a mighty good time thank you very much.
SP: Thank you. Cheers.
NP: You grew up out of the UK spoken word scene.
SP: Yes, thats right.
NP: How did you get involved in that?
SP: It was out of necessity really. Id grown up in little punk bands and things like that, and it just gets so hard to get everyone to actually pull in the same direction...like relying on a drummer to make this gig and the bassist to turn up. So I decided to start doing spoken word because it was something I could do on my own and off my own back.
Id been working in a record shop for five years, but I saved up and quit my job and then spent a few months touring the country and living in a van just doing spoken word on street corners and right outside gigs. I found the best way to find your audience was go to a town and see if Buck 65, Mr Scruff, DJ Shadow, Atmosphere, or any of these, was playing. You go to their gig and they literally line your audience up against a wall and you can just do some stuff there on the street corner. Thats how I started, and then it was just open mics and things like that.
NP: When did you become Scroobius Pip? I love the story behind it why you chose that particular name.
SP: Its a weird one because a lot of people think its a stage name or whatever, but I was using that name when I was working in HMV. At the time, I was doing a lot of stenciling and street art. I was in a little punk band, I started to write spoken word and write hip-hop and I did photography. The name is from the Edward Lear poem, and in the story its a creature that wakes up and doesnt know what it is. He tries to go with the lions for a bit and be a lion, and that doesnt work. He tries to go with the fish, that doesnt work. At the end, it just doesnt have to be [anything else]. It can be its own creature. It can be a Scroobius Pip. So, yeah, I was using that when I was working in the record shop, so its been with me for a while.
NP: I know that youre a longtime member of SuicideGirls and I guess were a community of Scroobius Pips.
SP: Exactly. One of the first places I started to put it up online was up on my page on SuicideGirls. And there was forums there for street art and things like that. It was a community of these people from different areas and all walks of life.
NP: So the new album is there any overall theme?
SP: There kind of was because Ive done two albums with dan le sac, and were working on a third. The thing Ive enjoyed there is that its out of my comfort zone. Its hip-hop, but its more with a dance influence, and growing up none of the music I was into was dance. So Ive got to this point where Ive done two records with dan.
What I grew up loving was punk and hardcore and metal, and I thought Id love to do a record where I can get that influence into the hip-hop or spoken word style. So the aim was to do that. Then Danny Lohner from Nine Inch Nails got on board, and Travis Barker, and Sage Francis and P.O.S., and all these other people, and it seemed to just be a great opportunity to really make something that had that punk energy and feel to it that I loved as a teen, but then still had the kind of content and delivery and kind of story in there that Ive been putting into the music for the last few years.
NP: You mention Sage Francis, Travis Barker and Danny Lohner, how did all of these connections come about?
SP: Ive known Sage for a while now. When me and dan were doing our first record I MySpaced him and said, Look, Im a fan. Hed heard our Thou Shalt Always Kill song. I said, Look weve got a deal in the UK and Europe, but were looking for something in America. He liked it and Strange Famous [Records] rocked for putting it out, so weve kind of known each other since then.
And with Danny Lohner, he tweeted a few of my lyrics and someone alerted me to it. It was just as I was starting work on this record with a few other producers. So I hit him up, and then he hit up Travis Barker and Milla Jovovich, who are both on the track. For ages I didnt know if Travis Barker was into it at all because Id not had any actual contact with him, and Danny was struggling to get the clearance from him. But it turns out it was because all the new Blink 182 stuff was being worked on. Literally the day before the artwork was going to print I got home after a long day in the practice studio and Travis was tweeting about it and messaging me saying, Its amazing. Im a huge fan. Im into this. Its great. Lets do some more stuff together. It was a real kind of weight off the shoulders, because, at that point, we were looking at potentially releasing it but not mentioning whos on the drums. It was nice to have that nod of approval.
NP: He appears on Introdiction, in which you pretty much lay out who you are and what youre about.
SP: Exactly.
NP: One of the song titles that I found particularly intriguing, maybe because its close to home, is Domestic Silence.
SP: It was kind of looking at the fact thata lot of people can have really tough time, but its just emotional. There doesnt have to be this deep, dark story. Does that make sense? That some people can just struggle in life struggle in socializing and interactingI guess its in human nature, but you rarely get the attention or credit for that unless theres a big story thereThe human mind is a weird thing that we dont understand at all. You dont know how in pain someone could be, just kind of naturally almost.
NP: The other song with lyrics that are close to home to me is Death of the Journalist. Being a blogger, I get where youre coming from, but then I have to defend my fellow writers.
SP: Ive had some brilliant conversations about this. Its something I really enjoyed looking into, but I never came to a conclusion on it. I genuinely didntParticularly in the British press, theres very little actual journalism now that comes across. Theres a lot of opinion and a lot of celebrity news and things like that. Cause in the old days you would go to university and get your degree in journalism. It feels like, these days, it isnt much of an art anymore. Its more opinion and conversationIts not really the journalists fault, its the publics fault, because what sells newspapers are the trash stories and the celeb stories and things like that. When there is a really great piece of investigative journalism, it doesnt get on the front page, it doesnt sell papers.
But then I was thinking that maybe its a good thing, because with bloggers and with Twitter and with Facebook youre hearing about situations direct from the people involved in them. There isnt the middle man, some evil Rupert Murdoch type, passing on agendasBut even then its a human speaking about it. Its not just fact, its perspective, and not through any slyness or any evil motive, its just the life youve lived means that anything that happens, you perceive it one way but it might be different from the way another person perceives it
At the same time, with the internet, this could actually be the golden era of journalism because there is the access for journalists to write completely unedited. Theyre not blocked in. They dont have to make it fit to a specific magazines view or style, it can be unedited. But the problem there is, how do you find the ones that allow that? Its not an easy thing to find ones that are going to be well researched and well looked intoa lot of the blogs will be some kid just spouting opinion.
NP: I think thats why I spend such a lot of time on Twitter. I tend to get my news from Twitter. I follow the people I respect and Ill click on the writers and the stories that they post.
SP: Yeah, Twitter is perfect for that, for becoming a directory almost. If you could just find one good author or writer or journalist, then theyll normally be tweeting about or retweeting the stuff of others so that credibility by association can start to come into it.
NP: Its almost like instead of having a newspaper, my news is crowdsourced via Twitter.
SP: YeahI do a lot of that and I worry that Im being guided in a certain direction
NP: You always wonder if theres a really important part of the picture that youre missing.
SP: Yeah, because again, back in the day there were obviously rules and regulations [about] proven sources and going through and checking that all your sources and leads are correct and solid. Whereas now, were of the mentality if its well written it must be 100% all the facts. You dont know if something huge has been omitted from that, intentionally or otherwise.
NP: Its hard to know what you dont know.
SP: Yeah, exactly.
NP: Are there other tracks on the album that youd like to talk about?
SP: Its been interesting just getting the record out there. Over here, its gone far better than expected. Its number seven in the UK iTunes chart.
NP: Congratulations!
SP: Its just weird. I just put it out on my own record, so its just me sitting at home watching at all this. The most interesting thing has been seeing people react to certain songs. The two that seem to be getting the biggest reaction at the moment are The Struggle and Broken Promise.
Its impossible when youre writing to know what is going to clickI felt The Struggle would get attention because its a very odd one, but Broken Promises is the one a lot of people are saying is really summing up how they feel. Its about the fact that everyone is a liar. Not intentionally and it doesnt mean its a bad thing. But its that thing ofwhen youre splitting up, and you have to tell that person, [you say,] If you ever need to talk, you know, Ill be here for you. Things like that. But then time passes, and how many times has that person texted or rung you and you kind of ignored it because its not that way anymore. Its not because youre a bad person but its just the way it goes, time turns you into a liar in many ways.
NP: People mean things in the moment. It was a truth in that moment, in those set of circumstances, after maybe two glasses of wine.
SP: Exactly. The repeated line in the song is: A lie can't be a lie if you mean it at the time.
NP: Its something that I actually think about a lot. Im very weary of not making promises that I cant keep and not making commitments that, even if I want to fulfill them, I cant because I dont have the timeIm so aware of managing peoples expectations and not over-committing to stuff.
SP: ExactlyEven in a friendship way. If youve got a friend whos in a very bad way or has split up with someone or is just having a very dark time, the things in that moment you would have to say and with 100% belief, you know, that literally any time, day or night, give me a call and all that. But then again, in the cold light of day, in a working world and in a world where you have to exist and do stuff, its not always that straight forward and simple.
NP: So talk about The Struggle.
SP: Its written as kind of a blues song and its a story about a serial killer, but in reality its actually an exploration of the idea of celebrity. I was reading a book a while back called The Book Of Disquiet. There was a bit in it that really blew me away where it was just talking about how the King of France cant dream. It was saying hed rather be a pauper because he can dream of being the King of France, whereas the King of France is the King of France hes not dreaming of being the King of England, because hes the King of France. Hes already that person. He made me think a lot about the celebrity and how theres always these celebrity scandals, and we get on peoples cases. Particularly a lot of actors and musicians who are in that world from day one, how can we expect them to exist within the moral systems that we live in, or the emotional system that we live in, when theyve lived in a completely different world?
Theyve grown up either being adored or being incredibly wealthy or having everything they wanted. It just got me thinking it wouldnt be unrealistic if it turned out that one of our superstars obviously this sounds like a huge leap now, but its intended as a leap or a broad illustration of it did turn out to be a serial killer and was going from town to town murdering peopleIts all easy to cover up. Naturally our celebrities these days go from town to town all over the world, so itd be incredibly hard to trace if one was to become a serial killer. Because its not like the films, not every murder gets a huge investigation and a CSI crew down to solve itSo, in essence, its just this weird story about a celebrity being a serial killer, but its actually exploring the idea of celebrity.
NP: I love that idea that the King of France cant dream.
SP: Yeah. I think of it. Imagine of not being able to have the aspirations and targets. Because obviously its great that youve reached them, but taking away the ability to dream, youd have to replace it with dreams of something else which might not be altogether wholesome. Your mind could easily take you in any kind of dark direction.
NP: I think that with people like Charlie Sheen, where theyve got all the money and all the fame in the world, their dreams do go in very dark and bizarre directions.
SP: Again, its easy to look and judge, but what should Charlie Sheen be doing? Its a hard one to say. What should he be doing?
NP: What do you do for shits and giggles if youre Charlie Sheen and you can have anything you want?
SP: Exactly. Exactly. Is it really true that all of us wouldnt go a little bit crazy? Maybe not to the Charlie Sheen level, but again, its perfectly viable. Go a little bit nuts and just enjoy yourself.
NP: Going back to the idea of dreams, what are your dreams?
SP: Its all kind of a step at a time really. The goal is always to keep improving upon the previous year. I think if you have too specific targets, again, its that thing of once you achieve them, what do you do? If your target is always to improve, then its never over. You cant ever reach the end point and go, Well, there you go, Im just going to do a Charlie Sheen now and just go absolutely mental.
Distraction Pieces is out now. Scroobius Pip will be taking his shit on the road too. For more info visit: ScroobiusPip.co.uk.
In truth, he may not have said Chippetty flip or Flippetty chip but heres what went down when SuicideGirls spoke to the Pip
Nicole Powers: So your new record, Distraction Pieces, just came out yesterday.
Scroobius Pip: Yes, yes. Its all very exciting at the moment. Exciting, but Ive barely left my flat. Kind of that weird excitement.
NP: Are you chained to your computer and your phone?
SP: Yeah. Pretty much. Because Im releasing it on my own label. Its the first time Ive been artist and label manager and everything. Ive had my laptop open pretty much 24/7. Its all good. Its all doing far better than expected, so I cant complain.
NP: Well, its a bloody good record. Ive spent the past couple of days listening to it and Ive had a mighty good time thank you very much.
SP: Thank you. Cheers.
NP: You grew up out of the UK spoken word scene.
SP: Yes, thats right.
NP: How did you get involved in that?
SP: It was out of necessity really. Id grown up in little punk bands and things like that, and it just gets so hard to get everyone to actually pull in the same direction...like relying on a drummer to make this gig and the bassist to turn up. So I decided to start doing spoken word because it was something I could do on my own and off my own back.
Id been working in a record shop for five years, but I saved up and quit my job and then spent a few months touring the country and living in a van just doing spoken word on street corners and right outside gigs. I found the best way to find your audience was go to a town and see if Buck 65, Mr Scruff, DJ Shadow, Atmosphere, or any of these, was playing. You go to their gig and they literally line your audience up against a wall and you can just do some stuff there on the street corner. Thats how I started, and then it was just open mics and things like that.
NP: When did you become Scroobius Pip? I love the story behind it why you chose that particular name.
SP: Its a weird one because a lot of people think its a stage name or whatever, but I was using that name when I was working in HMV. At the time, I was doing a lot of stenciling and street art. I was in a little punk band, I started to write spoken word and write hip-hop and I did photography. The name is from the Edward Lear poem, and in the story its a creature that wakes up and doesnt know what it is. He tries to go with the lions for a bit and be a lion, and that doesnt work. He tries to go with the fish, that doesnt work. At the end, it just doesnt have to be [anything else]. It can be its own creature. It can be a Scroobius Pip. So, yeah, I was using that when I was working in the record shop, so its been with me for a while.
NP: I know that youre a longtime member of SuicideGirls and I guess were a community of Scroobius Pips.
SP: Exactly. One of the first places I started to put it up online was up on my page on SuicideGirls. And there was forums there for street art and things like that. It was a community of these people from different areas and all walks of life.
NP: So the new album is there any overall theme?
SP: There kind of was because Ive done two albums with dan le sac, and were working on a third. The thing Ive enjoyed there is that its out of my comfort zone. Its hip-hop, but its more with a dance influence, and growing up none of the music I was into was dance. So Ive got to this point where Ive done two records with dan.
What I grew up loving was punk and hardcore and metal, and I thought Id love to do a record where I can get that influence into the hip-hop or spoken word style. So the aim was to do that. Then Danny Lohner from Nine Inch Nails got on board, and Travis Barker, and Sage Francis and P.O.S., and all these other people, and it seemed to just be a great opportunity to really make something that had that punk energy and feel to it that I loved as a teen, but then still had the kind of content and delivery and kind of story in there that Ive been putting into the music for the last few years.
NP: You mention Sage Francis, Travis Barker and Danny Lohner, how did all of these connections come about?
SP: Ive known Sage for a while now. When me and dan were doing our first record I MySpaced him and said, Look, Im a fan. Hed heard our Thou Shalt Always Kill song. I said, Look weve got a deal in the UK and Europe, but were looking for something in America. He liked it and Strange Famous [Records] rocked for putting it out, so weve kind of known each other since then.
And with Danny Lohner, he tweeted a few of my lyrics and someone alerted me to it. It was just as I was starting work on this record with a few other producers. So I hit him up, and then he hit up Travis Barker and Milla Jovovich, who are both on the track. For ages I didnt know if Travis Barker was into it at all because Id not had any actual contact with him, and Danny was struggling to get the clearance from him. But it turns out it was because all the new Blink 182 stuff was being worked on. Literally the day before the artwork was going to print I got home after a long day in the practice studio and Travis was tweeting about it and messaging me saying, Its amazing. Im a huge fan. Im into this. Its great. Lets do some more stuff together. It was a real kind of weight off the shoulders, because, at that point, we were looking at potentially releasing it but not mentioning whos on the drums. It was nice to have that nod of approval.
NP: He appears on Introdiction, in which you pretty much lay out who you are and what youre about.
SP: Exactly.
NP: One of the song titles that I found particularly intriguing, maybe because its close to home, is Domestic Silence.
SP: It was kind of looking at the fact thata lot of people can have really tough time, but its just emotional. There doesnt have to be this deep, dark story. Does that make sense? That some people can just struggle in life struggle in socializing and interactingI guess its in human nature, but you rarely get the attention or credit for that unless theres a big story thereThe human mind is a weird thing that we dont understand at all. You dont know how in pain someone could be, just kind of naturally almost.
NP: The other song with lyrics that are close to home to me is Death of the Journalist. Being a blogger, I get where youre coming from, but then I have to defend my fellow writers.
SP: Ive had some brilliant conversations about this. Its something I really enjoyed looking into, but I never came to a conclusion on it. I genuinely didntParticularly in the British press, theres very little actual journalism now that comes across. Theres a lot of opinion and a lot of celebrity news and things like that. Cause in the old days you would go to university and get your degree in journalism. It feels like, these days, it isnt much of an art anymore. Its more opinion and conversationIts not really the journalists fault, its the publics fault, because what sells newspapers are the trash stories and the celeb stories and things like that. When there is a really great piece of investigative journalism, it doesnt get on the front page, it doesnt sell papers.
But then I was thinking that maybe its a good thing, because with bloggers and with Twitter and with Facebook youre hearing about situations direct from the people involved in them. There isnt the middle man, some evil Rupert Murdoch type, passing on agendasBut even then its a human speaking about it. Its not just fact, its perspective, and not through any slyness or any evil motive, its just the life youve lived means that anything that happens, you perceive it one way but it might be different from the way another person perceives it
At the same time, with the internet, this could actually be the golden era of journalism because there is the access for journalists to write completely unedited. Theyre not blocked in. They dont have to make it fit to a specific magazines view or style, it can be unedited. But the problem there is, how do you find the ones that allow that? Its not an easy thing to find ones that are going to be well researched and well looked intoa lot of the blogs will be some kid just spouting opinion.
NP: I think thats why I spend such a lot of time on Twitter. I tend to get my news from Twitter. I follow the people I respect and Ill click on the writers and the stories that they post.
SP: Yeah, Twitter is perfect for that, for becoming a directory almost. If you could just find one good author or writer or journalist, then theyll normally be tweeting about or retweeting the stuff of others so that credibility by association can start to come into it.
NP: Its almost like instead of having a newspaper, my news is crowdsourced via Twitter.
SP: YeahI do a lot of that and I worry that Im being guided in a certain direction
NP: You always wonder if theres a really important part of the picture that youre missing.
SP: Yeah, because again, back in the day there were obviously rules and regulations [about] proven sources and going through and checking that all your sources and leads are correct and solid. Whereas now, were of the mentality if its well written it must be 100% all the facts. You dont know if something huge has been omitted from that, intentionally or otherwise.
NP: Its hard to know what you dont know.
SP: Yeah, exactly.
NP: Are there other tracks on the album that youd like to talk about?
SP: Its been interesting just getting the record out there. Over here, its gone far better than expected. Its number seven in the UK iTunes chart.
NP: Congratulations!
SP: Its just weird. I just put it out on my own record, so its just me sitting at home watching at all this. The most interesting thing has been seeing people react to certain songs. The two that seem to be getting the biggest reaction at the moment are The Struggle and Broken Promise.
Its impossible when youre writing to know what is going to clickI felt The Struggle would get attention because its a very odd one, but Broken Promises is the one a lot of people are saying is really summing up how they feel. Its about the fact that everyone is a liar. Not intentionally and it doesnt mean its a bad thing. But its that thing ofwhen youre splitting up, and you have to tell that person, [you say,] If you ever need to talk, you know, Ill be here for you. Things like that. But then time passes, and how many times has that person texted or rung you and you kind of ignored it because its not that way anymore. Its not because youre a bad person but its just the way it goes, time turns you into a liar in many ways.
NP: People mean things in the moment. It was a truth in that moment, in those set of circumstances, after maybe two glasses of wine.
SP: Exactly. The repeated line in the song is: A lie can't be a lie if you mean it at the time.
NP: Its something that I actually think about a lot. Im very weary of not making promises that I cant keep and not making commitments that, even if I want to fulfill them, I cant because I dont have the timeIm so aware of managing peoples expectations and not over-committing to stuff.
SP: ExactlyEven in a friendship way. If youve got a friend whos in a very bad way or has split up with someone or is just having a very dark time, the things in that moment you would have to say and with 100% belief, you know, that literally any time, day or night, give me a call and all that. But then again, in the cold light of day, in a working world and in a world where you have to exist and do stuff, its not always that straight forward and simple.
NP: So talk about The Struggle.
SP: Its written as kind of a blues song and its a story about a serial killer, but in reality its actually an exploration of the idea of celebrity. I was reading a book a while back called The Book Of Disquiet. There was a bit in it that really blew me away where it was just talking about how the King of France cant dream. It was saying hed rather be a pauper because he can dream of being the King of France, whereas the King of France is the King of France hes not dreaming of being the King of England, because hes the King of France. Hes already that person. He made me think a lot about the celebrity and how theres always these celebrity scandals, and we get on peoples cases. Particularly a lot of actors and musicians who are in that world from day one, how can we expect them to exist within the moral systems that we live in, or the emotional system that we live in, when theyve lived in a completely different world?
Theyve grown up either being adored or being incredibly wealthy or having everything they wanted. It just got me thinking it wouldnt be unrealistic if it turned out that one of our superstars obviously this sounds like a huge leap now, but its intended as a leap or a broad illustration of it did turn out to be a serial killer and was going from town to town murdering peopleIts all easy to cover up. Naturally our celebrities these days go from town to town all over the world, so itd be incredibly hard to trace if one was to become a serial killer. Because its not like the films, not every murder gets a huge investigation and a CSI crew down to solve itSo, in essence, its just this weird story about a celebrity being a serial killer, but its actually exploring the idea of celebrity.
NP: I love that idea that the King of France cant dream.
SP: Yeah. I think of it. Imagine of not being able to have the aspirations and targets. Because obviously its great that youve reached them, but taking away the ability to dream, youd have to replace it with dreams of something else which might not be altogether wholesome. Your mind could easily take you in any kind of dark direction.
NP: I think that with people like Charlie Sheen, where theyve got all the money and all the fame in the world, their dreams do go in very dark and bizarre directions.
SP: Again, its easy to look and judge, but what should Charlie Sheen be doing? Its a hard one to say. What should he be doing?
NP: What do you do for shits and giggles if youre Charlie Sheen and you can have anything you want?
SP: Exactly. Exactly. Is it really true that all of us wouldnt go a little bit crazy? Maybe not to the Charlie Sheen level, but again, its perfectly viable. Go a little bit nuts and just enjoy yourself.
NP: Going back to the idea of dreams, what are your dreams?
SP: Its all kind of a step at a time really. The goal is always to keep improving upon the previous year. I think if you have too specific targets, again, its that thing of once you achieve them, what do you do? If your target is always to improve, then its never over. You cant ever reach the end point and go, Well, there you go, Im just going to do a Charlie Sheen now and just go absolutely mental.
Distraction Pieces is out now. Scroobius Pip will be taking his shit on the road too. For more info visit: ScroobiusPip.co.uk.