Band: Michelle Walters of  Voodou / Pigface / Super Sport  
Interviewer: Maggot


Interview:

Hi Michelle, this is Maggot from MidwestMetal.info. First off I'd like to say that I love your work, that I know of so far..... Voodou in which you do vocals, keyboards, and synths not to mention Pigface and Super Sport in which you also do vocals in. So will you take us back to the beginning of your music career? You may go back as far as you would like but definitely when possible include your personal discography for us diehards.
Hey there Maggot! Thanks for the kind words…uh…I like you too? The beginning of my musical career, oh boy. Well, before I was born, my mother was in a municipal band (the stars and stripes forever kind of thing) she plays the flute and piccolo. She continued to take me after I was born and would slide my baby seat under her chair. She always said that I was the most relaxed there and would sleep through the entire thing…even when the tympanis and trumpets were going full volume! She did what they called a “ sing-a-long” where they learned to sing a new set of show tunes every month. She always said that I learned the songs way before they did so they would set me in the front row and watch my lips so they could remember the words. I was maybe 4-5 years old then. When I got to be a teenager I wanted to play guitar then drums but I was too impatient to learn. I am fairly new to the music business. The absolute first time I ever put my lips to a microphone was with Voodou in 1999 on the original Blessing of Curses demo. We then signed with Martin Atkins and Invisible Records and re-recorded at the Mattress Factory in Chicago. That was my first experience in an actual studio . While I was there I recorded on 2 tracks of Chris Connelly's album “Private Education. Invisible Records released “Your Basic Evil Black Squadron” a remix album. I also sang on 2 songs of Pigfaces’ album “Easy Listening…for difficult fuckheads”, “Insect/ Suspect” & “Everything”.


Voodou was an 80's styled Goth/industrial band started in 1999. Later to be signed with the world infamous Invisible Records in 2002. The album was named "The Blessing of Curses," which too present day is one of my favorite CDs. As with all outstanding albums there seems to be a follow up. Will there be a follow up to , "Blessing of Curses?" If not what's the reasoning?
I’m glad that you still get enjoyment from The Blessing if Curses. Unfortunately, Voodou disbanded-banded in August 2003 and all of the members have moved on to other projects. I am still working with Billy Miller from Voodou along with Seibold from Hate Dept./ Pigface.


In 2003 you toured with Pigface. Will you share with me the experiences you had and if this is something that you are interested in doing or will be doing again?
In 2003 I toured twice with Pigface. On the United I and United II tours. I love touring with Pigface. I think that there is no better way to expand my ability than to tour with a ton of legendary giants that push me to explore all of your possibilities as an artist. Martin has asked me to join Pigface in the spring stint with Pigface. It will be really interesting to see who else he pulls together for the shows!


One of my favorite things about Invisible Records/Pigface and all others in that area of that label is the fact of the ever growing and continuous inbreeding of all the bands, genres and styles. How does this inspire you and who were some of the great artists you got to work with?
It’s one of my favorite things, as well. It has shown me that there is no limit to what you can do, really! The United tours were very “eye opening”. Going from “THE” front person to “A” front person is something that every musician should experience. As for some of the great artist that I have worked with, I am so lucky to now work with one of the most amazing artist and human I have ever met, Steven Seibold. Chris Connelly has been a huge inspiration to me as a performer. Martin Atkins has spent countless hours coaching, calming and sharing his years of wisdom with me. I am proud to call En Esch and Guenter Schultz friends and band mates. Curse Mackey has taken me from a whirlwind of panic to perfect reasoning. I could go on and on…


I hear you are also doing backing vocals on the new upcoming album for Chris Connelly from the famed Revolting Cocks, Damage Manual and Ministry. Explain this work if you will. A lot of the noted projects are usually pretty uppity and groove driven, but not all of Chris' projects are like that, particularly the one of Chris Connelly and the Belles. Does this compare or one in the same? When does this get released and who is it being released thru?
Uh…I haven’t heard anything about that. Maybe you heard about Chris Connelly's Private Education which was already released through Invisible Records.


So now there is this other project named Super Sport, which seems to step a tad off to the side from the industrial realm. Why the change? Oddly enough there are other industrial/electronic music artists in this project, but it is southern punk music. Tell us who these members are and how they help in the make up of this band. Fill us in on future plans for Super Sport, this don't seem to be a typical short lived band. This seems to actually be gaining a lot of steam. Will there be a nationwide tour? More albums???
YAY, I get to talk about Super Sport. Yes we stepped off to the side, and around the block, and then to the other side of the state from the industrial realm. It’s funny that we asked ourselves the same thing…here is what we came up with. Every member of Super Sport that was previously in an Industrial band has VERY deep roots in punk music. You know when you are growing up and relate to different genres of music…I guess we all morphed into industrial from punk. We are basically, going back to our roots. Seibold is the front person for Hate Dept. which toured with Ohgr in 1999. He moved to North Carolina from California in October of 2003 and fell in love with the south. Billy Miller from Voodou is originally from the North Carolina and Ben Gibbs is Billy's’ cousin, and he just happens to beat one hell-of-a’ set of skins. We don’t plan on this being “short’ lived” we absolutely love what we are doing, there’s nothing spooky or necessarily dark about it. We should be putting out an album within the next few months and then we are looking to get back out on the road.


OK, so with all this said you are like a superwoman in music right now. How does this make you feel as a dominating female energy that at this point seems to be unstoppable in your creative field?
Am I? I would think that being “superwoman” would pay better…hehehe. I do agree that I feel a bit unstoppable. There is a certain passion for what you do that drives you, no matter what. Thank you for that though…I’m going to go look at myself in the mirror now.


At the end of the day you go home to your family. Without exposing to much info, what's that like to you and who are your happy to see? Now this may seems a little personal but I'm referring to a certain animal whom you, with the assistance of many others have restored life to and may actually have become a little too healthy. I'm speaking of Chuck the boxer, in particular. Can you tell me how the miracle of Chuck began for you and what exactly happened? Was this a soft spot for just one animal, or do you run a mini zoo at your home? Animal rescue is my first passion. I have been working with animals for about 10 years and I’m still not done! I started working at a Humane Society as a kennel manager in Boone, NC when I was a teenager, then a veterinary technician in Melbourne, Florida and an animal control officer in Wilmington, NC and Wrightsville Beach, NC. I am now working as a volunteer for an animal control shelter in the Marion, NC. This shelter is very small and had an annual adoption rate of .5% . They don’t have the manpower to post their animals on the internet so more people will be exposed to them. So, Seibold and I go to the shelter every Monday, take photographs and post the animals on www.petfinder.com . Last week they adopted 12 out of 16 animals…a record for them. It’s very time consuming, but, passion doesn’t carry a timecard. I lost my best friend, Sam, a Great Dane at the age of 13 in February 2003. Sam was with me for 9 years when I rescued him from euthanasia at a shelter. As for the Chuck monster, You can see his entire plight at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/chuck_the_boxer . I found Chuck on the same site that I am posting the shelter animals on. I was just browsing the site as a kind of “therapy” from the loss of Sam, when I ran across Chuck at an animal control center. He had some kind of injury and was never claimed. Seibold and I decided to pick him up and , at least, get him out of the shelter. We found out that he had a broken pelvis in 2 places and his spine was broken at the base causing some slight nerve damage. To make a long story short, I sent a newsletter out to all of the Voodou & Hate Dept. fans and there was an outpouring of donations to help with his surgery. Chuck is doing great and he is our baby. He goes everywhere with us and is included in everything that we do…he’s even in the Super Sport video “It’s a Scam”!


While we are floating around the topic of home, I have seen some pictures of a really bad ass vehicle that was restored and perhaps was the Voodou vehicle. Tell me about that and fill us in on if this was a hobby or was something that was done for you.
Well, there were three 1968 Chevelles’ belonging to the Voodou troop. The “bad ass” is Chad's (the guitarist from Voodou), the primer black one was mine and there might have been photos of a red one that was mine, as well. Chad still has the nice one. The red one was a small block 400 that got rear ended and totaled, I was forced to sell the primer black one, due to the severity of the winters in the mountains. I took auto body repair classes for 2 semesters (I made A’s ::bows:: ). Everything that isn’t a living, breathing entity gets put 2^nd…as wonderful as those cars were to me…they had to get left behind.


So is there anything you haven't done that you would like to do. I mean come on from the cars, and pets and a seemingly full schedule musically haven't you hit all the bases? Any future goals or wishes?
No…not really. It sure would be nice to have a little bit of money for all these passions, but that’s the price I pay for following my dreams and not falling into something that doesn’t fuel the passions behind my life.


Well that covers all most all of my curiosities for the moment. I thank you for your time and creativity. I always like to think that your mind is your only limitation, lucky for fans of your music your mind is kicked open like a front door in summer. Until next time!

VOODOU - http://www.voodou.org

SUPER SPORT - http://www.supersportmusic.com/

INVISIBLE RECORDS - http://invisiblerecords.com/


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