The Pigs reached the final stages of said TV show performing a re-interpretation of Kanye West’s Gold Digger. A large percentage of The Pigs’ repertoire is similarly unique covers of chart-busting hits and T-Bone reveals the rationale behind adopting the particular songs that they do.
“The main thing is that we look for songs that may need some help and there’s not many songs that can’t be improved by banjo. Something like Beyonce’s Single Ladies, her version has just got a couple of keyboard stabs in it, so we’ve fixed it up and given it a whole new lease on life. If you’ve heard it you’ll probably agree we have done it a hell of a lot of justice.”
The Pigs’ inclination to enhance songs with a magic banjo touch doesn’t mean they’ll cover any old song purely because they think they can help it. T-Bone adds that they’re usually attracted to decently well written songs, which they then proceed to give a distinctive re-model.
“It’s got to have a message or something that we like. We’d never do a song that we don’t like. We go ‘hang on there’s something cool about this song,’ and we like to take it to our own level or the next level, depends how you see it.”
Having also reworked the likes of Kelis’ Milkshake and LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem, The Pigs add a bluegrass tint to popular hip hop and R&B songs with seeming ease. However, T-Bone explains that there are occasions when the re-formatting process reveals a lack of substance in the song under review.
“We do have a few dance or electronic tracks in our repertoire and often they require major rewriting. Often there’s one chord that would go through the whole song, whereas that’s sort of boring if you’re playing that in a band. It’s probably boring for the crowd as well. In a way we rewrite the chordal structures to make it better and people can’t really tell, just that it sounds good. But if it was in its original form it wouldn’t translate very well.”
The Pigs tread a fine line between a covers act, a novelty/comedy act and an authentic country/bluegrass act and dipping into all of these areas makes them a difficult band to succinctly categorise.
“At the gigs they get it, they can see it and they’re part of that whole immersive experience. Telling other people, for example doing interviews and trying to advertise and get what you do out there, is actually quite difficult because you’re not just giving that one message ‘yeah we’re this,’” T-Bone admits.
It’s a fine balance to make music that involves having a hearty laugh while also wanting to be taken seriously. T-Bone explains that the band’s development from friends jamming into a touring attraction wasn’t exactly planned and it can be hard to communicate the integrity behind it.
“It’s a constant battle because we do want to be taken seriously but also we do have a lot of fun and act a bit like idiots sometimes. When The Pigs started we just did it for a laugh and we did it for complete fun and it didn’t have to be anything. Then the people started to come to the shows and we thought, ‘Oh wow people like this, a few guys up on stage having a laugh.’ Then the songs started to become original stuff. It sort of just morphed into that. There’s some serious stuff, we also love doing the fun stuff and we love doing the covers.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
