About Piggy
Piggy was originally written with Citizen and percussionist, Tim Gruber, as an extravaganza of fun percussion based on a Ghanaian rhythm called a
gahu, but with the usual Kicksville twist. However, somehow one night the City Council got started on a discussion about people with a puke fetish, and this nice instrumental turned into a look inside the mind of Piggy Biz - a self-serving, arrogant, manipulative man with a fetish for the bizarre (and ex-love interest of Luna). Resident artist Tone Deaf then added his two cents worth, pulling choice pieces from the continuing saga of Luna and Piggy (check out
Piggy Meets The Brick and
Pork Chops).
The Music
With the help of all sorts of West African instruments including a
gyil, a
sabar, and even a brake drum, Tim laid down all the percussion nuggets that make up the bed of this song. After adding in a bunch of programmed beats, some filtery synth sounds, and a big-ass drum kit part,
Piggy turned into another great example of how we love to mix electronica with traditional rhythms and instrumentation. One of the more especially fun parts of this track was doing the random group vocals that happen throughout the song, all of us in one big room with an
AKG 414 set on omni. And I must say, getting all greazed up to sing the main vocal with the appropriate character was pretty hot action too!
Citizens
cover art: PIggy by Skinny Gaviar
Conrad St. Clair: bass, keys, programming
Mike Stehr: keys, vocals
Lou Caldarola: drum kit
Tone Deaf: spoken word
Tim Gruber: gyil, percussion
Chris Huntington: vocals
The Piggy Choir: Conrad, Mike, Lou, Tone, Chris, Denise St. Clair, Aya Peard
