Dug Pinnick
Emotional Animal
MA-9079-2


King's X bassist's latest solo album.

Dug played most of the instruments and performed most of the vocals with a little help from Jerry's son Joy Gaskill on drums and Kelly Watson (mouth trumpet and vocals on "Freak The Funk Out")

The CD was recorded and mixed at Poundhound Studio by Dug.
Mastered by Ty Tabor.

"emotional animal" will have an interview and bonus demo versions of 2 of the songs on the cd-rom portion of the disc.

Checkout the demo Freebie MP3 of "Crashing" from "Emotional Animal"


It’s no exaggeration that King’s X is one of the most beloved and influential bands amongst musicians and discerning rock fans who’ve studied the genre over the last 15 years. Huge artists have cited Ty Tabor, Jerry Gaskill and Doug (now Dug) Pinnick as torrid, life-changing inspirations over the years, and each corner of the King’s X trinity has continued to write exquisite, virtually perfect, melodic metal confections as solo artists, expanding on a catalogue that even at the core, grows swiftly and gracefully as flavors of the day pass on by. Dug, the band’s bassist and co-lead singer, has done more than his share, authoring ‘00’s Supershine with Trouble’s Bruce Franklin as well as two albums as Poundhound - Massive Grooves from 1996 and Pineappleskunk from 2001, surprise touring ensuing, fans ecstatic at this unexpected wrinkle in the King’s X saga.

Consider Emotional Animal a new Poundhound record, in grinding groove, in throbbing bass tones, in soulful singing, in lyrical wonderment… in everything but name. “Fans have never understood the Poundhound thing,” explains Dug, “and it never made any sense, really. It's all me, anyway. I just did it because Dave Grohl did it, making his first record Foo Fighters, and I thought it was cool. And then I got stuck with it. On the third record, I just decided, let's just let Poundhound go to sleep (laughs).”

But for those who know the down-tuned sub-woofed Dug Pinnick as solo machine, sleep is not an option. Emotional Animal, featuring Dug along with Jerry Gaskill’s son Joey on drums, is a massive, wide-angled, often psychedelic, often Sabbatherian collection of soul- replenishing sound sculptures.

Pinnick’s singing is a joy, as fans the world over have gathered, through soaking in the man’s work on such records as Gretchen Goes To Nebraska, Dogman and Tapehead. Emotional Animal offers much in this department, the thick, almost languid nature of the songs allowing Pinnick to breathe his life-worn wisdoms, well beyond any previous record from the man - band or solo.

Central to the album are tracks like “Beautiful” and “Missing,” each bristling with redemptive lyrical and vocal power, Dug near evangelical above his chosen eccentric palette, one of abrasive textures and sublime melodies that emanate truths rather than delivering them primary-colored and sharp-angled.

Says Dug: “”Beautiful” is one of my favorites: ‘Don't forget you’re beautiful.' Everything I sing about, even if I’m telling somebody something about themselves, I'm actually talking to myself, about something that I've been through. So I just go ‘you,’ instead of ‘me’ (laughs). There were many times I just never felt like I was any good, and a lot of us feel that way. So I just figured, hey, ‘Don't forget you’re beautiful.’ That's a good line. And I've seen people cry, listening to that song. And “Missing;” musically it just slams; just from the beginning, even before I put the lyrics on it, it's like, this song is going to work. It was just special for me. It has some kind of vibe that I wasn't used to, a whole new slant with respect to what I do.”

Lightening up from the dirty strip-mining of the record’s guttural tone is a little ditty called “Equal Rights.” The song is pret’ near a bit of a revival hoe-down, and might be a surefire hit, in a different time, space and dimension.

“Yeah, that was fun,” laughs Dug. “There was an old Larry Graham/Grand Central Station song, and Sly And The Family Stone used to do the sang type of thing. They used to sit around and do these harmonies, this black gospel kind of thing, and I grew up in that situation, so I put that together with the slide guitar. I picked up slide years and years ago, but never played it. On this record I play slide all over the place. So I sat down and started strumming a guitar, and I thought, you know, maybe I'll write some kind of old gospel-type song. ‘Equal rights for everyone,’ yeah! Because I've been very frustrated with the way we're treated because we vsmoke weed, but then everybody else… you know, the United States is a drug-infested country. People are taking stuff and doing things way, way worse than smoking weed. And I just feel like it's unfair that that stigma is there, that ridicule and hatred. “Equal Rights” was called “Driving In My Car,” and Ty said, ‘Doug, just call it “Equal Rights;” people are going to like the song and they're not going to remember that name. Come on, quit stabbing yourself in the back.’ And I have a bad habit of doing that. If something can possibly reach more people than it could, well, I always do something to sabotage it (laughs).”

“”Bite” is a good one, because I was coming out of religion,” says Doug, citing another of the record’s many highlights. “I was just very frustrated and disillusioned with pretty much all the religions, and in the course of it, I was just looking for a bite, something I don't have to fight. I'm looking for some type of religion or some type of spiritual something where it's not a battle. And Christianity is a battle. Never at peace. I'm going, this is not religion to me, this is hell.”

“I like “Change” because it's a good pop tune. And I was really happy with the slide solo I did in the middle of it. I never say anything about being happy with leads or slide solos, but this is one that just got nailed, and I went, ‘Yup, that's a cool lead’ (laughs). Lyrically, it took me two years to do this record, because I've been on the road so much. And when I come home, we've got so much other stuff we have to do, I would just get in there and pick away at a song for a while, get a chorus, and I was gone again for three months. So this record took so long to make, I don't remember a lot of how it feels. Usually when I make a record, it's a train of thought, even though I don't try to put it on there or make light of it. Usually when you’re thinking about something, that's all you think about, so that's what you write about. But this time, the record took me so long to make, I have no idea what I was thinking about. I have to sit down and read the lyrics again (laughs).”

So yes, in the end, Emotional Animal is just Dug being Dug, who, when asked what’s up, simple says, “Music, music, music, music, music. That's all I ever do. I don't have a life.” But get the guy in a solo situation… just him, his bruising down-tuned bass, those glorious pipes, his genius for optimism despite examples of pain all around him and within, and he tends to
make… a lot of noise.

“I just know what I hear in my head,” says Dug, of his predilection for sonic caterwaul. “When I pick up the guitar or bass, I just tweak it and tweak it until it sounds great to me. When I start mixing, I still continue to tweak and tweak, to get the tones exactly the way I want, even if they aren't the same tones going down on tape. Because it's a fine line, to lay in all those instru-ments, to make them all sound coherent and clear. I hear everything clearly, because I've been the one doing it, but I realize now that some people don't get to hear everything that’s going on. It's always been difficult for me, because I'm sort of a sloppy guitar player, and I'm kind of noisy too. I like noisy distortion, so a lot of times my music is a wall of noise. The bass is the last thing I work on on my solo albums. Bass is the hardest thing for me, and just about anybody who works with Kings X., to mix. Because my bass is just a real fucked-up tone (laughs); it's really difficult, to get it mixed right. They're still trying to figure it out (laughs).”