By
Phil Leckman
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Industrial singer-songwriter Meg Lee Chin faces life on the road
For most modern musicians, touring is a fact of life, hated by some, cherished by others. And for a few, like industrial singer-songwriter Meg Lee Chin, it almost becomes life itself.
"I was living in London, but now I'm pretty much always on the road," Chin said. "I don't live anywhere anymore."
At 5-foot-2, this self-described "little kewpie-doll-looking person" hardly seems up for the rigors of constant touring. But that's the way life has been for Chin and her band, who have been playing nearly non-stop for the last few years. And unlike many acts, who leave the mechanics of touring to a booking agent who assures plum gigs in big cities, Chin has been handling everything herself.
"I've been doing all the booking - well, actually it's been our friends that have been doing it," Chin explained. "They send me emails saying 'come play this town' and I'll email back 'okay, set it up then.'"
This do-it-yourself approach has produced some unorthodox offerings - while Chin's current tour included a performance at Austin's prestigious SXSW music festival, it also features gigs at a Mexican cantina in El Paso and a combination liquor and video store in Bisbee.
"The music takes me in different places," she explained. "I've been kind of homeless for life."
Indeed, Chin is no stranger to the traveling life. As a child, she spent several years overseas, while her father served in the U.S. Air Force.
"I lived in Taiwan for about two years when I was a kid, when it was a much poorer country than it is now," said Chin, whose mother is Taiwanese. "I feel very privileged to have grown up in two different cultures, two very different social classes, really."
Chin's family then returned to the United States, where she spent most of her childhood and began her music career as a college student in San Francisco. After college, she moved to London, where she joined Crunch, an all-girl band that became one of the first groups to tour the Ukraine and Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union. But Crunch broke up itself not long after, and Chin began her solo career.
"My girl band broke up about seven years ago, and I started working on my own," Chin explained. Her projects have included collaborations with the British industrial supergroup Pigface, with which she's done five tours, and her own work. She has also been touring relentlessly on her own since the 1999 release of Piece and Love, her first full solo album. Chin says she values the time she has spent on the road.
"I count myself very fortunate to have traveled as much as I have - I think more people should have the opportunity to travel," she said.
But while Chin said she thinks such experiences are important, her current homelessness is weighing a little heavy on her.
"It bugs the hell out of me, but what can you do?" Chin said about her situation. "I have homes away from home. I have music equipment, so that's home for me."
This yen for technology is another feature that sets Chin and her sound, which she dubs "goth-industrial hip-hop based good music," apart. While many artists who blend rock and electronic sounds rely on others to handle the knobs and whistles, Chin's credits as a sonic engineer are just as extensive as her chops as a performer. While still in college in San Francisco, for example, she recorded the first demo for future alternative star Faith No More on a portable four-track recorder.
"I've been a hobbyist - portable studios and stuff - for a long, long time," Chin said. In fact, her interest in electronics dates to her early childhood.
"My dad was an engineer, and his laboratory was next to my playroom as a child,"she explained. "When I got bored with my toys, I'd go see what he was doing."
Nonetheless, Chin is circumspect about claiming props for her skills, saying "natural aptitude" drew her to technology.
"People enjoy things they're naturally good at," she claimed. "I'm lazy - I like to do things that are easy for me."
But while she said technology plays a "completely unimportant" role in her music, Chin conceded that her mastery of drum machines and soundboards lends her greater musical flexibility.
"On the other hand," she said, "I wouldn't be able to do the music I've done without technology being where it is now. It's about control - it allows me to do things where, as a woman, I might otherwise not be taken seriously."
In many ways, Chin has seen a lot of life. She expects some of that to come through to her audience.
"It won't come through in one night," she said, "but if you come to the show, if you check out what I do and what I've been doing, it will start to expand your horizons, come down to the show, and I'll tell you why."
Meg Lee Chin plays with Mankind tonight at 9:30 at Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave. Tickets are $6. Call 884-0874 for more information.
