GET TO KNOW todd skaggs

DATE OF BIRTH
I'm a Sagittarius born in the year of the Boar....that's all you need know.

HEIGHT
Six Foot Too

PIERCINGS/TATTOOS
the ear's pierced and the shoulder's inked.

INSTRUMENT PLAYED IN DEVILCAKE?
Keyboards; atonal backup vocals

WHAT GEAR IS IN YOUR CURRENT DEVILCAKE SETUP?
The KeyZ O Death, second generation (Yamaha SHS10); Yamaha TX216 (DX7 MIDI Rack); pewter plated Flugelhorn, and several completely superflous effects pedals.

FAVORITE DEVILCAKE SONG?
Stromboli Fever (that song makes me sweat like a mofo)

SIDE PROJECTS
Aural Fixation(techno band of one)
SuperBreakout (electronica w/Ian and Darrin)
Second Floor (experimental cheese w/Darrin)
TwistedZen Productions (the umbrella of my creative spoogings http://www.twistedzen.com)

WHEN DID YOU START PLAYING MUSIC?
I started playing the baby grand piano my parents had when I was 6. They sold it when I was 8. In a passionate fit of creative despondancy, I turned my back on my non- lessoned, classical (non)upbringing and turned to Rap. At 13, Kid Chill was born. I got a Casio and a boombox and several pep assemblies and bad haircuts later, I had enough shit for a tape. The first label to produce me was Lonely Whip Emissions, headed up by a young visionary, Ian C.Stewart. The rest, as they say, is history. Well, actually it's a bizarre twisted tale of red pop and Dominoes pizza eating, to british humor watching to gettin' married and losing touch to reuniting in a band where I got to wing donuts at punks kinda story... but you're not really interested in all of that.

WHO WERE YOUR EARLY MUSICAL HEROES + INSPIRATIONS?
I used to listen with my brother to his Pink Floyd and Kiss records (I was 6 at the time...yes, I know...it explains quite a bit). And later, Leonard Cohen...oh and that Ian Stewart dude was constantly teaching me shit about music and encouraging me to do more than just write it down. He was one the one who convinced me I actually had something worthwhile to share with the rest of the world. Poor bastard...now look what he's done.

WHAT OTHER INSTRUMENTS DO YOU PLAY?
Guitar, piano, bass (poorly), drums (when Darrin lets me), synths, blues harp, and the aforementioned flugelhorn

ALL TIME TOP TEN ALBUMS
these are NOT in order of significance, merely the order I thought of them
1. The Wall-Pink Floyd
first album I can ever remember listening to. I've been fucked up ever since.

2. Pretty Hate Machine-Nine Inch Nails
the quintessential "break-up, fuck you, you've ruined my life you stupid whore" album (I find myself going back and listening to that album quite a bit)

3. Piper At the Gates of Dawn-Pink Floyd
Syd Barret's a master...quite insane...but the great ones are.

4. Kings of Rock--RUN DMC
without a doubt in my mind, the greatest rap album ever.

5. I'm Your Man-Leonard Cohen
a poet and a Canadian with a big-ass nose...this dude knows how to write some fuckin' lyrics

6. Skylarking-XTC
the album I lost my virginity to...and just a fuckin' great listen

7. Straight, No Chaser-Thelonius Monk
the man was a genius on the keys...my inspiration, no bullshit here.

8. Show-The Cure
sure, Robert Smith's a whiner...but damn...it's still a good album.

9. Hot Rats-Frank Zappa
the Gumbo Variations is a flat out jam...and Frank's one dude that makes me feel ok about writing a song a day...one prolific mofo.

10.King of the Delta Bluesmen-Robert Johnson
in my mind the epitome of the delta blues...if you're sober or happy, don't even bother with it.

ALL TIME TOP FIVE BOOKS?
1. Hamlet-William Shakespeare....in my mind, his best play and one of the most insightful glimpses into the human condition
2. The Lorax-Dr. Seuss. You figure out why for yourself.
3. Teachings of the Buddha-Buddha. Because I dig shit like that, that my
mind can just wrap around itself until it stumbles upon universal truths.
5. The Stranger-Albert Camus...not only the inspiration for a Cure song
(Killing an Arab), but a damn fine piece of existential lit.

I am currently reading Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman; The Existential
Imagination (a collection of Existential pieces); and Transcendentalism: a
Reader.

ALL TIME TOP FIVE FILMS?
1. The Wall...
one of the few movies where I can get so engrossed as to tune out everything but the movie.

2. Requiem for a Vampire
I have a strange Lesbo/vampire movie fetish, and this is the best movie of that genre to date that I have found.

3. The Matrix
the best modernization of the Messiah story since Godspell...that and Laurence Fishburn's a bad ass.

4. Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail
the only movie I can laugh myself stupid over EVERY time I see it (which is now numbering in the
hundreds)

5. Enter the Dragon
the best Kung Fu movie ever made...bar none.

FAVORITE TV SHOWS?
I have to preface this by saying I don't currently watch TV. My television set has been used to watch DVD and VCR movies exclusively for the past year or so. These shows are my all time favorite TV shows.
1. Scooby Doo Where are You (the episodes from 1969-1972, anything after that sucked wind)
2. SuperFriends
3. Miami Vice
4. Fat Albert
5. Square Pegs

(a close 6, 7, 8...Dukes of Hazzard;Diff'rent Strokes; Facts Of Life)

FAVORITE ACTORS/ACTRESSES?
Actor: Robert De Niro...I've never seen him play a chump.
Actress: Jennifer Love Hewitt....I could watch her make toast and be enthralled

FIRST CONCERT YOU EVER ATTENDED?
Probably the Rolling Stones, junior year of high school.

BEST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED?
Nine Inch Nails, Newport Music Hall, 1990. The perfect songs at the right point in my life...the intensity of dodging beer rockets...and the palpable energy from his angst. Nothing has matched it.

LAST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED?
Sonic Youth/Pearl Jam; Polaris 2000

WHAT'S THE FURTHEST YOU'VE EVER DRIVEN TO SEE A CONCERT?
Detroit, Michigan in the pouring rain in a Geo Metro with two broken windshield wiper blades. We were going to see Leonard Cohen. I thought we were going to die. But it was an incredible show.

YOUR FIRST LIVE GIG?
Technically, a rap for a high school pep assembly. After that, I would say it had to be Devil Cake

YOUR BEST LIVE GIG)?
Devil Cake, 1992, Dayton, Ohio....playing some warehouse party....damn thing felt like playing at a bus stop...there was some kind of strange, sweaty, stinky vibe goin' on that makes it stick out as the best, to date.

WHO ARE YOUR MUSICAL HEROES + INSPIRATIONS NOW?
still Ian.
Darrin
Syd Barrett
Thelonius Monk
Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails
Depeche Mode

WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO?
any electronic/trance/ambient that Ian feeds me
Depeche Mode (yes, still)
devilCake radio...that shit's the bomb.
Darrin's stuff...that shit rocks!
PinkFloyd
Leonard Cohen
PortisHead
The Cure
Any of the 2000 MP3's that I've collected from Darrin
Aggro-Industrial (this kick ass K-Tel compilation).
Babybird
Swans
Everything but the Girl

NAME THE LAST 3 CDS YOU BOUGHT
Ohmega Tribe--Anodyne Wisdohm
Aforementioned K-Tel compilation
this tricked out Techno CD w/magazine from the Media Play bargain bin

FAVORITE FOODS?
anything Italian
Any type of MEAT cooked over the open flame of a Grill (with the exception
of man-meat)

CAN YOU COOK?
Hell Yeah! What kind of chump joins a Food-Core band and can't even cook?

FAVORITE BEVERAGES?
diet Wild Cherry Pepsi
Long Island Ice Tea
Rum and Coke

WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE ON THE PLANET?
My grandparents farm in the hills of Kentucky. The only place I've ever been where i can totally feel centered.

I HAVE TO ASK, WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?
purple...but it's not a gay thing or anything like that...I can never decide between blue and red...honest.