ROB WARMOWSKI: All right. We’re here on the floor of NAMM 2007 in sunny Anaheim, California. It’s Rob Warmowski for Gearwire and I’m standing next to Martin Atkins of Killing Joke, Big Face, Public Image Limited, Ministry, etc., etc. We’re in front of the Presonus booth, and Martin just got back from China doing a special project sort of a cultural collection maybe or collecting the culture of Beijing rock bands. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you found out in Beijing, Martin?

MARTIN ATKINS: I think it’s more of a cultural collision.

ROB WARMOWSKI: Oh.

MARTIN ATKINS: And first of all, I have to stop you. Sunny California? It’s snowing in Malibu!

ROB WARMOWSKI: I didn't know that.

MARTIN ATKINS: Yeah.

ROB WARMOWSKI: It’s not snowing at NAMM so I don't know what the hell is going on.

MARTIN ATKINS: So yeah. I went to China to -- I don't know why I went. I was lucky enough to find a club in Beijing called D22 through some guys from New York. They set up a bunch of bands for me to see and record and I recorded I think 20 bands in five days live through a FirePod to Logic Express on my Laptop. The same time, I got pulled into the scene there, extended my stay, booked time in a pop studio, brought a bunch of bands into the studio, and then decided to try and reconnect with my musical soul. I booked some time with some traditional drummers like the master drummers. So, I’m waiting for these drummers to come into the studio, and I think my interpreter wasn’t the best, and three young girls show up for the string section with their manager, and, “Okay. Fantastic. Let’s make a Pigface album.” And over the next six days, we brought in scratch DJs, guzheng players, erhu, pipa, flute, mandolin, Tibetan singers, freestyle rappers, and it was just fantastic.

ROB WARMOWSKI: Sounds insane. Where you are with that project? Is it in mixing now?

MARTIN ATKINS: We’re mixing the Pigface album, we’re mixing the bands we recorded in China and producing a couple of them, we already did the special with MTR Radio, they came down to the studio, and we just put up a seven -- a red vinyl 7” here. Hold on one second. Red vinyl 7” in 40 different propaganda posters. Pretty cool.

ROB WARMOWSKI: I feel a greater kinship with the Chairman right now just from watching -- just from looking at one of these.

MARTIN ATKINS: Right. So, it turns out that the trip is kind of about me reconnecting with the things that I do which is make music but combine things and then turn them into other things, and that felt great. It’s a 40-page section of the new book. It just rekindled a bunch of things for me.

ROB WARMOWSKI: We’re going to talk about that new book in just a second, but I do want to get in a couple of questions about the scene in Beijing. When you did the initial recordings in that studio, can you tell me little bit about what kind of facility were you in and how are they equipped? I mean what were the big surprises?

MARTIN ATKINS: Well, the biggest surprise wasn’t the studio. It was -- there has to be -- There might be 15 Starbucks in Beijing, right? I mean and on the one hand I’m thinking okay that kind of looks my China experience. On the other hand, up to my caffeine intake. I mean, you know, all I was worried about was my musical experience. There’s subways, 7-Eleven, McDonalds, surprise, and that was surprising. The atmosphere was surprising, but the political and cultural atmosphere, the atmosphere, I’m still pulling things out of my nose. I mean honestly, my kids’ favorite picture is I blew my nose on a napkin and it’s like, “Oh my God!” The government, they’re going to close down all of the industry for two or three weeks before the Olympics so the people can greet.

ROB WARMOWSKI: And when are you going to eBay off the napkin?

MARTIN ATKINS: I haven’t thought of that until this moment. As far as the studio is concerned, at the club, at the venue, they told me that the microphones were poor, so I took some microphones from Audix over there.

ROB WARMOWSKI: What kind of Audix mics did you bring?

MARTIN ATKINS: You know what, I have no idea. I called [PH] Cliff from Audix. I said, “Here’s the thing. Can you recommend some microphones?” He said, “Well, you got to take the bass drum mic. It’s awesome.” He said, “You got to take that,” and then he gave me a couple of pretty universal vocal mics and some good instrument mics, and then we had good coverage. And I took my Mac laptop and a Presonus FirePod and with Logic Express, boom! In the studio itself, it was a nice large facility that a pop producer was using, kind enough to give me six days of that time, $350 a day which was okay I guess. I then rented a drum kit, rented some amplifiers, and the drum kit didn’t come with any cymbals, and the studio guys said, “Well, drummers usually bring their own cymbals.” I said, “What? Are we in [EXPLETIVE] Chicago?” you know, but it was awesome.

ROB WARMOWSKI: I hear a lot of -- When you hear stories about China sometimes, you’ll -- especially -- Actually, when you hear stories, when you get away from the industrialized west, you hear stories like AC power might be a little dodgy or certain facilities aren’t there. What was your experience with just -- What was your expectation with just plugging into a Chinese outlet? Is that a good experience or is that a gamble?

MARTIN ATKINS: No. It was fine in Beijing. I mean when you go from England to America, English plugs are massive three pronged because the voltage is 240. You come into America it’s like, “What is this flimsy backdrop of an out?” you know. China was kind of on a par with America into a very bad ‘60s hotel in terms of wiring, but I didn’t have any experience of problems. I took [INDISCERNIBLE] a regulator thing. So, that was okay, you know.

ROB WARMOWSKI: We’re going to wrap it up here. One last thing I wanted to ask Martin is what are your impressions of the chaos that is NAMM?

MARTIN ATKINS: Here’s my impression of NAMM. The big learning experience at NAMM is open a Starbucks. Do whatever you can to open a Starbucks. There have been 80 people in line -- Here’s the guy from Bloodhound Gang. Hey man. -- There have been 80 people in line at Starbucks for four days. I don’t even want to do the math.

ROB WARMOWSKI: [LAUGHING] All right. Well, thank you very much Martin. We appreciate it. This is Rob for Gearwire.Com at NAMM with Martin Atkins of Coventry, Chicago, Beijing, and Anaheim.

MARTIN ATKINS: Thanks man.