Meg Lee Chin's Biography

MEG LEE CHIN has always been a byword for cutting edge, uncompromising and incendiary new music. The onetime frontwoman for the all-female noise unit Crunch, she was also a member of the notorious industrial supergroup Pigface. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Meg spent part of her childhood living an unusual existence. Her father was a US Air Force electronics engineer. Her mother is Taiwanese. "The Air Force placed us in the middle of a shanty town of bamboo huts until they could find us more permanent accommodation. Our house was this big, white monstrosity floating in a sea of poverty. It was shaped like a wedding cake with each floor getting smaller towards the top. There was a high fence with an alarm system. The tiny top floor was my playroom. I felt like a princess in a tower. From the balcony, I could see the whole village. The locals stared up at me with a mixture of curiosity and envy. It was confusing and frightening. I felt isolated and guilty for having such luxuries as running water and electricity. I saw kids my own age who had to work all day just to eat. The experience had a profound influence on me and is the nagging voice behind my music today" Returning to America did little to lessen the sense of dislocation. "It was the Vietnam era and we lived in a small town called Pembroke, Massachusetts. With my slanty eyes, everyone thought I was the enemy!"

Meg spent the late 1980s living in London where she formed the all-female "Crunch". Crunch became one of the first western bands to play in the Ukraine after it's dissolution from the former USSR. As a subject of controversy, they performed at the Ms. Rock Europe festival at the Palace Ukraine in Kiev January 92, and in Kharkov Prison (near the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Plant) at a time of social upheaval and unrest. Later, Meg built her own recording studio where she recorded her first album. She signed to Invisible Records headed by Martin Atkins, ex-drummer of PIL, Killing Joke and Ministry.

Signed to Invisible for 5 years, Meg is probably best known for her work with Martin Atkin's own project Pigface. Pigface membership at one time or another, reads like a who's who of the industrial scene. Bandmates included; Genesis P. Orridge (Psychic TV), Ogre (Skinny Puppy), Taime Downe (Faster Pussycat), Danny Carey (Tool), Chris Connelly (Ministry, Revolting Cocks), FM Einheit, (Einsturzende Neubauten), En Esch (KMFDM), Geordie Walker (Killing Joke), Jenny Bellestar(Bellestars), Charles Levi (TKK), Seibold (Hate Dept), Michelle Walters (VouDou), Siggy (Sugarcubes), Chris Haskett (Rollins Band), Mick Harris (Napalm Death), Lee Fraser (Sheep on Drugs), Martin King (Test Dept), Jared Louche (Chemlab), Slymenstra Hymen (Gwar) amongst others in the ever shifting line-up.

After appearing on Pigface's 1997 LP A New High in Low as well as its follow-up, Below the Belt, she released the solo debut "Piece and Love" in 1999 which was critically acclaimed as a forerunner in the home studio revolution. Meg became known as a prominent figure on the darkwave/industrial scene. Her second solo effort Junkies and Snakes was released in 2000. Meg Lee Chin now lives in London, England.