Producer/singer-songwriter Esjay Jones is better known for her number #1 singles in her native South Africa, as well as her work with artists like Grey Daze, Alien Ant Farm, Jeffree Star and Escape The Fate, just to name a few. Over the last two years in between writing and producing for bands, she has been building a repertoire of hip-hop and metal influenced productions under the moniker (WE ARE) PIGS.
Today, August 20 arrives the video of first single from the project with a Slipknot cover of “Duality” which made its premiere via Loudwire here. Graphic design, visuals and videography is helmed by Dean Roberts of Layla Vegas Design out of South Africa.
View the (WE ARE) PIGS video for “Duality”
Mixed by former Betraying the Martyrs guitarist Lucas D’Angelo in Paris, France and mastered by Maor AppelBaum (Faith No More), the track–which features guitar from Alien Ant Farm’s Terry Corso–has a unique blend of analog, industrial and trap elements mixed with a haunting female vocal scream. The song has already garnered over 100,000 streams on Spotify. Listen now here.
“I’ve always had a great love for the nu-metal era and ‘Duality’ is one of my favorite tracks from the early 2000’s,” states Jones about the project which is also heavily influenced by her love of the Deftones. “It’s been a great quarantine process to put a different spin on this incredible song to record this ‘PIGS version’ in isolation, then finish it with a couple of friends from around the world over the inter-web.”
The track is produced and sung by Jones who states, “I ended up leaving the very first original one-pass demo vocal take on the track. It was initially recorded a semi-tone higher but there was an uncertainty, imperfection and vulnerability to the vocal that I didn’t want to mess with. I’m a big fan of the imperfect. I didn’t want to overthink this. The slip and slide of the vocals and the backing vocals not being perfectly in-time, gave it a live, erratic quality which I felt sat well with this particular vibe.”
Look for more (WE ARE) PIGS releases to arrive later this year with friends and some of the most significant names in modern rock including a unique collaboration with Billy Corgan as well as tracks with Brian “Head” Welch (KORN, Love & Death), Sonny Sandoval (POD) and Crazy Town.
