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An Interview with Jim Davies of Victory Pill
Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2008
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Victory Pill is still a new entity in the realm of industrial rock, having emerged in 2004, two years after guitarist/vocalist Jim Davies departed from British industrial punk rock group Pitchshifter. However, with the release of their self-titled album on Otherside Recordings in late 2007, the group stands poised to bring rivetheads and headbangers back to the dance floor with a blistering mix of seething electronica and aggressive rock energy. Davies has amassed a reputation over the years for his innovative guitar style, utilizing a plethora of varied effects to create sounds that many have easily confused for synthesizers. Having demonstrated this unique style of playing during his five-year tenure playing with Pitchshifter, Davies also acted as live guitarist for The Prodigy, where he would first collaborate with Victory Pill bassist Kieron Pepper. Following Pitchshifter's P.S.I. release in 2002, Davies would continue to work with Prodigy vocalist Keith Flint in his short-lived band Flint while also working with DJ Hyper in his band. Recruiting Pepper and Peter Crossman to form Victory Pill, the band has steadily built a following, releasing a self-titled debut album, singles for "Another Clone" and "Worst Case Scenario," and playing alongside such acts as Static X and Skindred. Now, Davies and the band trudge forward to break free from comparisons to their past selves and truly break new ground with a futuristic style of electrified rock that is sure to send fans of both danceable electronica and metal into an uncontrolled frenzy. From the band's working dynamic to Davies' guitar style to their plans for the future, Davies asks ReGen readers to swallow this pill for assured victory and reminds us not to pass the band off as just "Another Clone."

Victory Pill began in 2004, and released its debut album in 2007. How did the album come together over the course of three years? As all three band members have a part in the songwriting, what is the process like among the three of you?

Davies: The band started with me writing a load of instrumental music. When I write songs, I almost always finish them as instrumentals before vocals happen, but at that stage of the game, we didn't have a vocalist, so I wasn't sure what I was writing the songs for! It was after playing them to the band's bass player, Kieron Pepper, that I decided to actually form a band. He was blown away with the instrumentals and insisted I did something with them. We tried to find a singer, but all we got back from ads in the music mags were people that sounded like Slipknot or Korn. It wasn't what I wanted; I wanted a very English-sounding, almost punky vocal. I love Paul Weller's voice and bands like Depeche Mode and The Cure that sound very English. In the end, for us to take the band further, Kieron and I decided to do vocals while we waited for the singer to appear! What we ended up doing surprised us both, and we thought, 'You know what? We can do this!' I'd never written vocals before, so it was a great new challenge.

Writing-wise, I normally write the bulk of the music, and with the first album, I then passed the tunes over to Kieron, who added 'meat to the bones' in the drum department. He also added great vocal harmonies, and then the tunes were given to Pete to mix and produce. It's a good system. I don't have to spend ages trying to write drum loops. I just use a basic beat to write the tune and then pass it on to Pete and Kieron to beef up. Stick to what you're best at, I say.

Tell us about the name Victory Pill. What does it mean, and how does it relate to the concept of the band, if there is one? If so, how does it relate to any underlying themes that may run through the album?

Davies: I had two ideas for a band name. One was 'Red Pill,' as I'm a big Matrix fan, and the other was 'V for Victory.' I love the word 'victory,' and I'm a bit of a history buff, fascinated by World War II in particular. We tried for months to find a name, and then Kieron suggested we write all the names we had down, and that's when Victory Pill appeared out of the ones mentioned above. It kind of took on its own meaning. I'm very into the Soviet Second World War propaganda art, and I could see the name Victory Pill would fit that image perfectly. I'm also a bit fan of the whole 1984 Big Brother idea. I guess I had this concept of a bit in the future, companies and armies being able to produce a pill that 'ensures victory,' or 'maximum production,' as the Soviets would say, a pill that makes soldiers totally unafraid of war and workers dedicated to the cause! Not that the album is a concept album, but having those ideas really helped with the artwork. Dose Productions in France did the artwork and video; both look amazing. I'd worked with them before while in Pitchshifter, so they were the obvious choice.

Victory Pill has garnered quite a number of positive reviews, several of which take note of your past work in Pitchshifter and The Prodigy. What is your reaction to these comparisons, and what do you feel you can do to dissuade them? Or is that not your intention?

Davies: I think I'd be fighting a losing battle if I tried to avoid it. The way I write is the way I write! Some of the Victory Pill album sounds like Pitchshifter. That's unavoidable, as I wrote a lot of the Pitchshifter stuff. I'd never change the way I write music or what sort of music I write; I can only do what I'm inspired to do! I can't be in a normal four-piece rock band; I'd be bored shitless! I need the electronic side of things. I love sub-bass and big beats. A regular live drum kit on its own doesn't do it for me; I need the extra power. But I do think the Victory Pill album goes places I couldn't have gone on a Pitchshifter album. 'King and Country,' for instance, would not have worked on a Pitchshifter album, but 'Another Clone' and 'Set in Stone' probably would have. Most of the first album was written a few months after I'd left Pitchshifter and not that long after we wrote P.S.I., so I was still in that zone. The second album is definitely moving away from that now. The reviews in the UK have been great. It's still been a battle to get press, though. We did this record D.I.Y. all the way, and the rock press likes bands that can do something for them in return for a feature, i.e. big advertising, etc., which we didn't have the means to do. It was quite annoying, but eye-opening. I wanted this album to be quite underground and for people to discover it themselves, which I hope they will. Any band that mixes guitars and electronics will get Prodigy comparisons, but let's face it: if anyone's got a license to do that kind of music, it's me! So lazy comparisons are part and parcel, I guess.

You and Kieron had also been members of the live bands for Keith Flint and DJ Hyper. What is the current state of these two bands? Is either of these bands still active, and are you still members, live or otherwise?

Davies: Flint died a long time ago! Shame, as there were some good tunes; the whole project was just a bit of a mess with no direction. We made a very punk rock album that the major we signed to had no idea what to do with! Hyper is an ongoing thing. We gigged a lot last year, mostly dance and festival gigs. It's interesting to have one foot in the dance scene and the other in the rock scene and see how both compare! I actually prefer dance gigs these days: far more fun and none of the 'too cool for school' attitude you get in the rock scene these days. The second Hyper album is out this summer. I've been heavily involved in the writing of it and done vocals on one of the tracks. It's a very good album, which I'm sure we are going to tour a lot for. I'm also doing an album with breakbeat girl Odissi; the project is called Sex and Circuitry. It's very dark and electronic guitar-driven filth!

Having made a name for yourself as an innovative guitarist, how would you say your style and method has developed to what you now display in Victory Pill? How do you feel your work in Victory Pill is distinguished from what you've done in the past as a guitarist?

Davies: I'd hope I've developed. I guess when I first recorded with Pitchshifter and Prodigy, I was very young, and I think as you get older, you definitely learn your craft and become better. I'm a much better songwriter now than eight years ago. The new stuff I'm writing for Victory Pill is of a quality I just couldn't have done eight years ago. Guitar-wise, I haven't changed my style that much. I still use the same effects units I used on the www.pitchshifter.com album, but I have moved on from certain effects, as I feel I've done them to death. I've also discovered new bits of kit, like Guitar Rig on my Mac, which has helped me evolve. That wasn't around when I first started writing. I'm much better at using computers than I was, but I still prefer just writing the music and then passing the tune on to Pete for synths and beats. I do think some of best stuff I've done is on that Victory Pill album. I don't think people realize a lot of the sounds are guitar, not synth; for instance, the intro to 'Downfall' and 'Set in Stone.'

Being a guitarist working in varying forms of electronic music, and as there is always a preferential question on the inclusion of guitar in electronic music (some scorn it, others embrace it), what are your thoughts on the guitar's place in the genre? What do you feel the guitar accomplishes sonically and/or musically in electronic music?

Davies: Well, it gives the genre a more live feel. I think actually electronics add more to a guitarist than, say, the other way round. It's more exciting for a guitarist like me to play over electronics than a normal rock band, but I know a lot of dance producers that aren't big fans of guitars because they are so hard to get in the mix properly, because they take up all the frequencies. That's why on a tune like 'Firestarter' I kept the guitar very high melodically; any kind of attempt at a big chunky riff would have been lost in the mass of bass! That's how I got so into my effects and more weird lead-type parts, as anything else tends to get lost in dance music. I think it can be done very badly, and a lot of bands do it very badly. I think you have to have a head for dance music as a guitarist before you approach playing on it. If you took your average metal guitarist and said 'play on the breakbeat track,' they'd just try to shred or play some detuned heavy riff. That just doesn't work. The guitar for me is more than just a riff or lead instrument. I try to use lots of textures and atmospheric sounds as well as riffs and lead. There are so many ways you can go that sometimes it does my head in!

Aside from the instrumentals 'Red Pill' and 'Scaremonger,' your vocals are also a rather prominent part of Victory Pill's music. What is it like to now be fronting your own band, whereas in the past you'd been a background member? How does your approach to the vocals differ from that of the guitar? In other words, do you prefer to be the vocalist, or do you prefer that the music have vocals at all?

Davies: In Pitchshifter, I started doing a few bits of backing vocals, but not much. I never thought I could sing at all, really, but with Victory Pill, I just gave it a go and it worked well. I'm not saying I think I'm a great singer by any means, but I think my voice has a bit of character to it. I have a good sense of melody when it comes to guitar, so I can come up with vocal melodies easily; singing and playing is hard, though. The thing is, I don't see myself a front man in the sense of someone like J.S. in Pitchshifter. I'm restrained by the fact that I use a lot of pedals and sometimes play tricky guitar parts, but even if I didn't, I don't think I'd be that kind of front man. I'm quite reserved, really, I'm far happier behind a guitar. I'm more inspired by front men like Page Hamilton from Helmet or Walter in Quicksand. They are up there knocking out these great tunes but don't feel the need to be some kind of great entertainer! I just want to get up there and play my tunes! There's a real sense of freedom when you do vocals for your own band. It means I can get entire tunes done alone without having to wait on a singer or have someone else put their lyrics on your tunes. I do like a lot of instrumental music, though. I've just written a guitar instrumental album. It's not Steve Vai-style guitar instrumentals, though; it's very electronic, but all the sounds are guitar-generated. I've just used beats to back it all up. It's quite experimental—should be out by the summer.

Having been a member of Pitchshifter and a live member of Prodigy for a number of years, you've seen the development of electronic music's incorporation into rock music both in the mainstream and the underground. What are your thoughts on the current state of electronic music, and how does Victory Pill fit in?

Davies: We don't fit in at all, I think. The thing with this band is we have one foot in the dance camp and the other in the rock camp, and we don't really fit in either. We supported Static X last summer, and it kind of worked, but I've started to feel quite uncomfortable playing in that scene. I don't really have anything in common with it these days. Eight years ago, bands sounded much more experimental and were breaking new ground. The bands I hear now are just recycling old ground, as far as I can see. I'm not into screamo or emo and the new Iron Maiden rip-off bands that are everywhere at the moment. I never buy rock music mags, and I hardly ever go to gigs! I'm much more at home in the dance scene. I'm writing with quite a few dance artists at the moment, and the way the new Victory Pill album is going, it will be directed towards the dance scene and probably on a dance label.

Your former band mate in Pitchshifter, Jason Bowld also contributed live drums to 'Another Clone' and 'Worst Case Scenario.' How did he come to be involved in these songs? As he's now rejoined Pitchshifter, what is the potential for you to work with your former band again?

Davies: Yeah, obviously I've known Jase for years. He's a great metal drummer, so I got him to play on a few tracks. The new Victory Pill is not metal at all, so I have other drummers I'll use for that. As far as Pitchshifter goes, I get nostalgic occasionally, but then remember I left at a good time, when the band was just coming down from its peak. I haven't been around for any of the reunion gigs, and they have new guitar players in place now anyway. We are still in contact, but I would only want to do new stuff if it was better than the last album, P.S.I. Now I write my own music, I'm far more critical and would only get back involved if there was a point and good new material. That said, they may not need or want me involved, so it's not something I've thought about.

Now that your self-titled debut has been released in both Europe and the USA, what's the next step for Victory Pill?

Davies: The second album! We did the first album very D.I.Y., and it took a long time to work out how to get it out. This time around, I know exactly how I'm going to do it and how I want it to sound. It's going to be a very heavy electronic album, with the power coming from the beats, not the guitars. I'm going to hang back a bit, guitar-wise. I got a lot out of my system on the first album and the guitar instrumental album. It's time for Pete, our beat/synth man, to shine! I think any gigs we do will be in the dance scene this time around. We've got a great buzz going at the moment. The new tunes are amazing; I've just this second finished a new one and my ears are blown to bits!