photo by E Gabriel Edvy
interview by John Wisniewski for mk ultra magazine
Raymond Watts has an impressive resumé. Aside from fourteen albums as PIG, he has worked with stalwarts of the global industrial scene such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Foetus and Psychic TV, in Japan with the bands Schwein and Schaft, and was a founder member of electronic rock band KMFDM with a key writing and vocal role on their best known songs of the ‘80s/’90s.
Watts has also written music for film, TV, advertising and fashion shows in Europe, Japan and America. His work in fashion includes ‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ (Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York) and ‘Plato’s Atlantis’ for the late fashion icon Alexander McQueen, which was reprised as ‘Savage Beauty’ (MMOA and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London).
In May 2026 MK ULTRA reported: Industrial glam maverick Raymond Watts and his chief songwriting partner in swine Jim Davies (ex-Prodigy and Pitchshifter) are proud to announce that PIG has given birth to a healthy new album, ‘Hurt People Hurt’. Weighing in at 10 tracks, this latest addition to the PIG bloodline was released into the wild just after midnight UK time May 22, 2026.
PIG has toured with KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Schaft, Schwein, and Einstürzende Neubauten.
PIG recently played Dark Force Fest 2026, two sold out shows in Tokyo on 25th and 26th June and are also performing in Chicago, Los Angeles and Austin as part of the Cold Waves XIV festival in September. A full North American tour has been announced.
John Wisniewski: Tell us about the new single, “Sex and Suicide” by PIG, Raymond. What inspired you to write?
Raymond Watts: Well it doesn’t take much to get my creative juices flowing…and who could resist these juicy subjects? The two extremes that people can drive one to. The edges of pain and bliss are always calling to me and it seems that at these borders is where some of the most interesting stuff happens…in life and art.
JW: What was the experience like working within KMDFM? What were your early days like with the group?
RW: I was pushing the boundaries of sampling and using different sound sources and reconstructing them into different song formats so it was quite fun dragging these innocent German boys En Esch and Konietzko into the twilight world of my studio and showing them the dark Pandora’s box of noise and fun to had with machines, married to a richly anarchic and deeply disrespectful attitude.
JW: Is a tour being planned? Do you like playing live?
RW: Since I resurrected PIG I have approached touring in a completely different way. It has turned from pain to pleasure. Nowadays I really enjoy meeting and performing for the people at the shows and it’s been amazing to be able to connect with those who resonate with PIG. We tour on a modest level and the experience is so much purer than it was. There is much less bullshit and pretence. I have really good people around me and this makes all the difference and is completely opposite from how vacuous it used to feel for me.
JW: Anyone in the industrial scene that you like currently?
RW: The fact that so many people are being creative I find fabulous and amazing. Even if it’s not calling to me particularly, it’s wonderful to have such a fertile field of artists around at the moment. I could possibly say that there’s maybe a tad too much nostalgia, but I understand people like the stuff they listened to when they were younger. I think it’s great that there are bands who still release new vital sounding material, but of course there are other bands who rest on their laurels a bit.
JW: How has the industrial scene changed over the years?
RW: It’s changed completely. Working with bands like Psychic TV, Zos Kia and Neubauten in the early 80s felt like quite an ‘unsafe and challenging space’, but that was what made it so electrifying and vibrant. Nothing stays the same though and that’s a good thing. Walls sometimes need to be broken but we need to build something in their place only for others the break them in their turn. It was ever thus.
JW: How did you initially get involved with music?
RW: I started off banging on a biscuit tin when I was a very young child. I then moved to drums, bass and then me and my pals I was making noise with bought a CR78 drum machine, then an 808, a Korg MS 20 and then I was up and running. Going back to my childhood, I think it felt as though music was the only thing I really connected with and reflected back what I felt inside.
JW: What were the early days like for you, going back to the 1980s?
RW: I was lucky enough to find myself with a band in Tokyo for five months in 1981 and it gave me enough money to buy a simple 8 track studio. This was the key and the conduit for me. Getting into ‘the studio’ always felt like entering the halls of Valhalla, and to be able to have the time to experiment, make mistakes, learn and work with bands I liked without the constraints of time and money was a revolution for me. London felt boring and broken, so I moved to Hamburg and joined a Neue Deutsche Welle band called Abwärts. In my studio (that I’d brought in the back off a van with me) I started recording PIG and KMFDM albums along with many others. I did collaborations with the guys from Neubauten and inevitably moved to West Berlin which drew misfits and reprobates like flies to shit. It was a richly crazy and creative time.
JW: Who do you like in the arts, literature, art, film?
RW: At the moment I really enjoy classic Italian opera, Mark Waldron’s poetry and Cormac McCarthy’s writing. London is stuffed to the gills with art galleries so there’s always something to get me out of the house. I’m always going to see one of my pals at the theatre which I love doing or I’m to be found desperately trying to stay awake in the cinema! I’m also a recent convert to podcasts which I’d never really listened to, but have been listening to The Rest is History on recent dog walks. It’s fascinating and fun.
JW: Tell is about recording “Poke in the Eye With a Sharp Stick”.
RW: I was lucky enough to work with some of West Berlin’s really great musicians at the peak of their powers. Although I’d started the album in Hamburg, most of it was done at Voov which was in a basement on Leuschnerdamm with the Berlin Wall about 2 metres opposite the door. It was dark and cramped. I did things differently then and writing words has become a much more important and interesting part of the process for me since then. They were long sessions often lost in haze but I was able to give birth to the noise inside my head with the help of Jon Caffery (who produced with me) Jon made a return to the PIG fold recently as he mastered the new album Hurt People Hurt, proving there’s no escaping the world of PIG.
JW: Could you tell us about working with guitarist David McAnally? Do you collaborate with him?
RW: When Dave got in touch with me it was his sheer enthusiasm and his infectious feel for the guitar that grabbed me. And as with all the people I work with nowadays he was a thoroughly lovely person … this touches on a far deeper root than pure musical ability. All the people I work with have to pass the ‘no assholes’ test as I’ve done my time in the trenches of working with poison people.
JW: Could you tell us about the new video for Sex and Suicide? Who created the video?
RW: The video for Sex & Suicide was directed by the incredibly talented Grete Stitch Laus who has made videos for PIG in the past. She is an absolute creative powerhouse who designs costumes for theatre, opera, does photography, styling and directing. I’m very lucky to have her lend her talents to the world of PIG … a marriage made in hell.
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