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 seminal industrial supergroup Pigface. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, her father was a US Air Force electronics engineer. Her mother was Taiwanese. Meg spent part of her childhood living an unusual existence.

"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 atop a sea of poverty. The building was shaped like a wedding cake with each floor getting progressively smaller toward the top. It was all surrounded by a high concrete fence with shards of broken glass at the top and an alarm system. The tiny single room on the top floor was my playroom. Not being allowed out, I felt like a princess trapped in a tower. From the balcony, I could see the whole village. The locals stared up at me with what seemed like a mixture of curiosity and some disdain. It was confusing... I felt guilty for having such luxuries as running water and electricity. I saw kids my own age having to work all day. I guess I never got over it. That experience still haunts me. It is like a nagging voice behind everything I do".

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!"

She spent the late 1980s living in London where she formed the all-female "Crunch". Crunch had the distinction of being amongst the first western bands to perform in the Ukraine just after it's dissolution from the former USSR. The band performed at the Miss Rock Europe festival at the Palace Ukraine in Kiev January 92, and in Kharkov Prison (near the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Plant).

In 1997 she built a recording studio in her bedroom at Old Compton Street in London's Soho where she recorded her first album. "Piece and Love" was released in 1999 by the Chicago based Invisible Records headed by producer Martin Atkins - former drummer for PIL, Killing Joke and Ministry.

Signed to Invisible for 5 years, Meg Lee Chin is probably best known for her work with 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. The album was hot-tipped in Billboard magazine amongst others. Meg and her Soho studio were featured the January 2000 issue of EQ Magazine. A remix album - Junkies and Snakes was released in 2000.

Meg Lee Chin currently lives in London, England.