Esjay Jones is a singer and songwriter who’s worked with musical acts on the heavier end of the spectrum like Grey Daze (the late Chester Bennington’s first band), Escape the Fate and Alien Ant Farm. On Thursday she officially launched her new project (We Are) PIGS with a cover of the Slipknot hit “Duality,” which she performs with Alien Ant Farm guitarist Terry Corso. In the song they stay true to the heaviness of Slipknot while Jones adds glitchy electronic influences to the instrumentation, making it a cover that pays homage to the original while treading new ground.
Warning: video contains flashing lights / strobes and may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensative epilepsy.
In addition to the cover song, We Are (PIGS) have released a new video for the song. It features strange, sometimes-disturbing imagery like people wearing animal masks (which, admittedly is fitting for a Slipknot cover), but mostly totally random objects. The frenetic pacing of the video fits the uptempo hard rock song, one of the more melodic tracks in the Slipknot reportoire.
While there is no album announcement yet, Jones has shared that she’ll be releasing more star-studded collaborations in future. These collaborators include Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Brian “Head” Welch of Korn, Sonny Sandoval of POD and Crazy Town.
Jones was born in South Africa and is now based in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree. She produced five of the songs on Grey Daze’s album Amends, which was released in January of this year. The album features re-recorded instrumental versions of songs from the short-lived band’s discography. Before striking it out as a solo artist, she was the frontwoman of South African rock band Stealing Love Jones.