MARTIN ATKINS: Recorded in 1996/97 at my Mattress Factory / Invisible Records studio at 2024 S. Wabash Ave in Chicago. I called it the Mattress Factory, and for some reason I gave myself the production pseudonym The Girl Brothers. I thought it was the name of a UK moving company - I liked the juxtaposition of “girl” and “brothers.” Only later did I find out it was actually the production alias used by Prince collaborators Wendy & Lisa. Oops.
At the time, I was working with a ½” 8‑track machine and ADAT tapes, just starting to get familiar with digital tech and Logic.
I first met Genesis at the Sharon Tate house in California. I was out there working with Skinny Puppy on what would become The Process album, and I needed a day away from both them and Rick Rubin’s Shangri‑La studio. I stopped by the house to say hi to Trent - he wasn’t there, but Gen was, along with Dr. Timothy Leary. Next thing I know, Gen is part of Pigface, improvising on tracks we hadn’t even imagined yet. Six cassette machines onstage and a bag full of tapes. Magic.
By the time I was recording New High in Low, I really wanted Gen to come to the studio and do something. They flew into Midway Airport - this was around 1994, when Midway looked more like a giant 7‑Eleven than an airport. You could actually see passengers and the baggage carousels from the street. The curbside drop‑off was basically the whole airport.
Gen was supposed to read a spoken word piece over some dubby beats I’d built with Bodog on sitar, Dave Wright from Not Breathing, loops from Mick Harris, and engineering by Adam Yoffe.