Scroobius Pip: Distraction Pieces
Tags: Milla Jovovich, nine inch nails, POS, Scroobius Pip, Distraction Pieces, dan le sac, Charlie Sheen, Danny Lohner, Travis Barker, Sage Francis
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, “I’m 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 here’s 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. It’s all very exciting at the moment. Exciting, but I’ve barely left my flat. Kind of that weird excitement.
NP:
Are you chained to your computer and your phone?
SP:
Yeah. Pretty much. Because I’m releasing it on my own label. It’s the first time I’ve been artist and label manager and everything. I’ve had my laptop open pretty much 24/7. It’s all good. It’s all doing far better than expected, so I can’t complain.
NP:
Well, it’s a bloody good record. I’ve spent the past couple of days listening to it and I’ve 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, that’s right.
NP:
How did you get involved in that?
SP:
It was out of necessity really. I’d 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.
I’d 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. That’s how I started, and then it was just open mics and things like that.
I’d 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. That’s 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:
It’s a weird one because a lot of people think it’s 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 it’s a creature that wakes up and doesn’t know what it is. He tries to go with the lions for a bit and be a lion, and that doesn’t work. He tries to go with the fish, that doesn’t work. At the end, it just doesn’t 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 it’s been with me for a while.
NP:
I know that you’re a longtime member of SuicideGirls and I guess we’re 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 I’ve done two albums with dan le sac, and we’re working on a third. The thing I’ve enjoyed there is that it’s out of my comfort zone. It’s hip-hop, but it’s more with a dance influence, and growing up none of the music I was into was dance. So I’ve got to this point where I’ve done two records with dan.
What I grew up loving was punk and hardcore and metal, and I thought I’d 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 I’ve been putting into the music for the last few years.
What I grew up loving was punk and hardcore and metal, and I thought I’d 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 I’ve 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:
I’ve known Sage for a while now. When me and dan were doing our first record I MySpaced him and said, “Look, I’m a fan.” He’d heard our “Thou Shalt Always Kill” song. I said, “Look we’ve got a deal in the UK and Europe, but we’re looking for something in America.” He liked it and Strange Famous [Records] rocked for putting it out, so we’ve 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 didn’t know if Travis Barker was into it at all because I’d 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, “It’s amazing. I’m a huge fan. I’m into this. It’s great. Let’s 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 who’s on the drums. It was nice to have that nod of approval.
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 didn’t know if Travis Barker was into it at all because I’d 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, “It’s amazing. I’m a huge fan. I’m into this. It’s great. Let’s 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 who’s 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 you’re about.
SP:
Exactly.
NP:
One of the song titles that I found particularly intriguing, maybe because it’s close to home, is “Domestic Silence.”
SP:
It was kind of looking at the fact that…a lot of people can have really tough time, but it’s just emotional. There doesn’t have to be this deep, dark story. Does that make sense? That some people can just struggle in life – struggle in socializing and interacting…I guess it’s in human nature, but you rarely get the attention or credit for that unless there’s a big story there…The human mind is a weird thing that we don’t understand at all. You don’t 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 you’re coming from, but then I have to defend my fellow writers.
SP:
I’ve had some brilliant conversations about this. It’s something I really enjoyed looking into, but I never came to a conclusion on it. I genuinely didn’t…Particularly in the British press, there’s very little actual journalism now that comes across. There’s 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 isn’t much of an art anymore. It’s more opinion and conversation…It’s not really the journalists’ fault, it’s the public’s 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 doesn’t get on the front page, it doesn’t sell papers.
But then I was thinking that maybe it’s a good thing, because with bloggers and with Twitter and with Facebook you’re hearing about situations direct from the people involved in them. There isn’t the middle man, some evil Rupert Murdoch type, passing on agendas…But even then it’s a human speaking about it. It’s not just fact, it’s perspective, and not through any slyness or any evil motive, it’s just the life you’ve 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. They’re not blocked in. They don’t have to make it fit to a specific magazine’s view or style, it can be unedited. But the problem there is, how do you find the ones that allow that? It’s not an easy thing to find ones that are going to be well researched and well looked into…a lot of the blogs will be some kid just spouting opinion.
But then I was thinking that maybe it’s a good thing, because with bloggers and with Twitter and with Facebook you’re hearing about situations direct from the people involved in them. There isn’t the middle man, some evil Rupert Murdoch type, passing on agendas…But even then it’s a human speaking about it. It’s not just fact, it’s perspective, and not through any slyness or any evil motive, it’s just the life you’ve 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. They’re not blocked in. They don’t have to make it fit to a specific magazine’s view or style, it can be unedited. But the problem there is, how do you find the ones that allow that? It’s not an easy thing to find ones that are going to be well researched and well looked into…a lot of the blogs will be some kid just spouting opinion.
NP:
I think that’s 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 I’ll 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 they’ll normally be tweeting about or retweeting the stuff of others so that credibility by association can start to come into it.
NP:
It’s almost like instead of having a newspaper, my news is crowdsourced via Twitter.
SP:
Yeah…I do a lot of that and I worry that I’m being guided in a certain direction…
NP:
You always wonder if there’s a really important part of the picture that you’re 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, we’re of the mentality if it’s well written it must be 100% all the facts. You don’t know if something huge has been omitted from that, intentionally or otherwise.
NP:
It’s hard to know what you don’t know.
SP:
Yeah, exactly.
NP:
Are there other tracks on the album that you’d like to talk about?
SP:
It’s been interesting just getting the record out there. Over here, it’s gone far better than expected. It’s number seven in the UK iTunes chart.
NP:
Congratulations!
SP:
It’s just weird. I just put it out on my own record, so it’s 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.”
It’s impossible when you’re writing to know what is going to click…I felt “The Struggle” would get attention because it’s a very odd one, but “Broken Promises” is the one a lot of people are saying is really summing up how they feel. It’s about the fact that everyone is a liar. Not intentionally and it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. But it’s that thing of…when you’re splitting up, and you have to tell that person, [you say,] “If you ever need to talk, you know, I’ll 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 it’s not that way anymore. It’s not because you’re a bad person but it’s just the way it goes, time turns you into a liar in many ways.
It’s impossible when you’re writing to know what is going to click…I felt “The Struggle” would get attention because it’s a very odd one, but “Broken Promises” is the one a lot of people are saying is really summing up how they feel. It’s about the fact that everyone is a liar. Not intentionally and it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. But it’s that thing of…when you’re splitting up, and you have to tell that person, [you say,] “If you ever need to talk, you know, I’ll 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 it’s not that way anymore. It’s not because you’re a bad person but it’s 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:
It’s something that I actually think about a lot. I’m very weary of not making promises that I can’t keep and not making commitments that, even if I want to fulfill them, I can’t because I don’t have the time…I’m so aware of managing people’s expectations and not over-committing to stuff.
SP:
Exactly…Even in a friendship way. If you’ve got a friend who’s 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, it’s not always that straight forward and simple.
NP:
So talk about “The Struggle.“
SP:
It’s written as kind of a blues song and it’s a story about a serial killer, but in reality it’s 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 can’t dream. It was saying he’d rather be a pauper because he can dream of being the King of France, whereas the King of France is the King of France –– he’s not dreaming of being the King of England, because he’s the King of France. He’s already that person. He made me think a lot about the celebrity and how there’s always these celebrity scandals, and we get on people’s 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 they’ve lived in a completely different world?
They’ve grown up either being adored or being incredibly wealthy or having everything they wanted. It just got me thinking it wouldn’t be unrealistic if it turned out that one of our superstars — obviously this sounds like a huge leap now, but it’s 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 people…It’s all easy to cover up. Naturally our celebrities these days go from town to town all over the world, so it’d be incredibly hard to trace if one was to become a serial killer. Because it’s not like the films, not every murder gets a huge investigation and a CSI crew down to solve it…So, in essence, it’s just this weird story about a celebrity being a serial killer, but it’s actually exploring the idea of celebrity.
They’ve grown up either being adored or being incredibly wealthy or having everything they wanted. It just got me thinking it wouldn’t be unrealistic if it turned out that one of our superstars — obviously this sounds like a huge leap now, but it’s 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 people…It’s all easy to cover up. Naturally our celebrities these days go from town to town all over the world, so it’d be incredibly hard to trace if one was to become a serial killer. Because it’s not like the films, not every murder gets a huge investigation and a CSI crew down to solve it…So, in essence, it’s just this weird story about a celebrity being a serial killer, but it’s actually exploring the idea of celebrity.
NP:
I love that idea that the King of France can’t dream.
SP:
Yeah. I think of it. Imagine of not being able to have the aspirations and targets. Because obviously it’s great that you’ve reached them, but taking away the ability to dream, you’d 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 they’ve got all the money and all the fame in the world, their dreams do go in very dark and bizarre directions.
SP:
Again, it’s easy to look and judge, but what should Charlie Sheen be doing? It’s a hard one to say. What should he be doing?
NP:
What do you do for shits and giggles if you’re Charlie Sheen and you can have anything you want?
SP:
Exactly. Exactly. Is it really true that all of us wouldn’t go a little bit crazy? Maybe not to the Charlie Sheen level, but again, it’s perfectly viable. Go a little bit nuts and just enjoy yourself.
NP:
Going back to the idea of dreams, what are your dreams?
SP:
It’s 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, it’s that thing of once you achieve them, what do you do? If your target is always to improve, then it’s never over. You can’t ever reach the end point and go, “Well, there you go, I’m 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.
Distraction Pieces is out now. Scroobius Pip will be taking his shit on the road too. For more info visit: ScroobiusPip.co.uk.
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