Meg Lee Chin

Meg Lee Chin
Background information
Born	March 16, 1960
Origin	Taipei, Taiwan
Genres	Industrial music
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, web/app developer
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Underground, Inc., Invisible Records
Associated acts	Pigface,
Website	http://www.megleechin.com

Meg Lee Chin is a Taiwanese-Irish singer, songwriter, audio and video producer, writer and art activist who lives in London, England.

She is known as an early pioneer of the home studio revolution and female-produced music.^[1] As an early adopter of computer-based audio production, she built her own pc and created "Egg Studio" with a small mixing desk and audio interfaces. Her role in the movement toward DIY record production was first recognized when she appeared as the first home studio producer to be featured in the January 2000 Millenial issue of EQ Magazine which was the foremost high-end audio publication of its time.^[2][3] She also appeared in Tape Op Magazine.^[4] and Electronic Musician.^[5][6]

Early life[]

Meg Lee Chin was born on 16 March 1960 in Taipei, Taiwan, to a US Air Force electronics engineer and a Taiwanese mother.^[7] She worked as a sound engineer while studying experimental art and video production at San Francisco State University, forming her first band, Felix Natural, during the early 1980s. Chin went on to co-found the short-lived Teknofear with Lunachicks drummer Becky Wreck and Swans guitarist Joe Goldring; frustrated with American life, she spent the late 1980s living in London, and eventually formed the all-female band Crunch.^[8] Crunch had the distinction of being one of the first Western bands to perform in Ukraine just after the breakup of the U.S.S.R. After the tour the band gifted their Russian hosts with a DAT tape of an album's worth of their music to be distributed throughout the USSR copyright free.^[9]

She has been recording since her college days in San Francisco, when she recorded Faith No More's first-ever demo on her 4-track, and the vocalist was briefly one Ms Courtney Love.^[9]

In 1990, her home-produced music video entitled "The Ocean" was featured on MTV Europe's regular rotation. It may have been the first MTV Europe music video to be home-produced in super8 and transferred to video on a budget of £200. When asked by the producer how she managed to create a £200 video which was in his opinion "better than Duran Duran's £200,000 videos", Chin simply replied, "I've got pretty good taste".^[10] The video was later featured in an Institute of Contemporary Arts festival of film shorts.

Career[]

After appearing on Pigface's 1997 LP A New High in Low as well as its follow-up, Below the Belt, in 1999 she released the solo debut Piece and Love on ex-Public Image Ltd, Ministry and Killing Joke drummer Martin Atkins' Invisible Records label.^[11][12] Recorded in her Soho, London flat and released in September, "Piece and Love" achieved critical acclaim on the darkwave, industrial underground scene and was hot-tipped in Billboard (magazine) magazine's "Heatseaker" section.^[13]

The track "Nutopia" paints an apocalyptic vision of the future as a twist on Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl". Other tracks have appeared on Showtime's "Queer as Folk",^[14][15] Warner Bros. Records "Witchblade" ^[16][17] and "Sleeper Cell".^[18]

An album of remixes, titled Junkies and Snakes,^[19][20] was released the following year again on Invisible Records.^[21]

Chin contributed tracks for Underground, Inc. releases such as the 2004 release of What's the Word, Volume One, featuring Jello Biafra, Mike Ladd, among others.^[22] Other works include a remix album Junkies and Snakes,^[23] also released on Invisible, along with some remixed covers of Ministry, David Bowie and Dead Kennedys tracks.

Chin's work has become increasingly political. In 2014 she released an anti-war music video using Vietnam-era war footage. "I Can't Pull the Trigger" was produced by Chin in London, England.^[24]

Chin has released 5 homegrown music videos.[2] True to her DIY underground ethic Meg produced, filmed, directed, and edited all videos and music. A highly controversial political video "England's Mask" was featured in a talk at the Tate Gallery in London where she appeared on a panel of artists speaking on the topic "Artists Explore Brexit".^[25][26]

In 2019, she created a political documentary/cartoon entitled "England's Mask" which expands upon the song of the same name. The video demonstrates why Britain is in danger of losing its status as global creative leaders in street art, fashion and pop music. Solutions include an unconditional basic income, land tax, legal reform and doing away with income tax and VAT by taking money printing powers away from central banks and allowing the government to print the cost of running the country.^[27]

Chin created a genre called "Word Drops" which are short spoken word and commentary pieces, often of a political nature and mixed with an assortment of beats and sound effects. ^{[28] [29] [30]}

She is perhaps best known for her work with the anarchic industrial supergroup Pigface, headed by Martin Atkins of Invisible Records.^[31] According to an article in the LA Times March 23, 1998 "If you're looking for star potential, singer Meg Lee Chin".^[32][33][34] Signed to Invisible for five years, she left the label in 2002.

In 2021, she released 5 standalone singles through Distrokid.

Court battle[]

In 2002 she built, developed and co-created Gearslutz.^[35][36] Gearslutz is the largest pro-audio producer and sound engineer's forum on the web. On the 18th June 2010 in the High Court of Justice#Chancery Division in London, England, Margaret O'Leary aka Meg Lee Chin won a claim against her former business partner Julian Standen. After 3 years where she battled for her right to co-ownership of the Gearslutz business, Judge Master Justice Briggs ruled in Chin's favor for claim #HC07C03181.^[37] The settlement amount was agreed out of court.^[38][39]

In 2021, Meg responded to a petition where a group of women made a request for a name change to the site due to accusations of sexism. Chin surprised the audio community by revealing that she actually built the site.^[40][41] The name has since been changed to Gearspace.

In response to interest stemming from the name change controversy and in order to provide insight into the injustices of the legal system, Chin Lee Chin created the Gearwarz website.^[42]

Personal life[]

Chin currently lives in London, England.^[21] She blogs regularly^[43] and has also written articles for Country Squire magazine in the UK.^[44][45][46] After the UK's 2016 referendum to leave the EU Meg formed the "Brexit Creatives" along with The Football Factory novelist John King independent arts consultant Manick Govinda,^[47] Arts and Society Forum convener Dr. Wendy Earle.^[48] On March 29. 2019 Chin appeared as a panelist on a "Uniqlo Tate Lates" discussion at London's Tate Gallery along with 3 other London artists. The discussion entitled "Artists Explore Brexit" and was to explore contemporary European identity in the work of the panelists.^[26]

Discography[]

Albums[]

• Piece and Love (1999)
• Junkies and Snakes (2000)

EPs and singles[]

• Altered States of Amerika (2020)

Music videos[]

Tracklist:

1. Venus (in Brown Sheets) ^[49]
2. Celebrity Saviour ^[50]
3. I Can't Pull the Trigger ^[51]
4. England's Mask ^[52]
5. Bowies Heroes - A Tribute ^[53]

Political documentary/parody[]

Tracklist:

1. England's Mask - the Full Documentary ^[27]
2. Wish You Were Here - Free Julian Assange London Rally w/ Pink Floyd's Roger Waters ^[54]
3. Anna Soubry and the Parliamentary Backtracker's Rap ^[55]

Word drops[]

Tracklist:

1. The United States of Europe featuring The Football Factory author John King^[29]
2. Hastings featuring poet Salena Godden^[28]
3. Trojan Horse ^[30]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website