Kevin William Crompton (born February 13, 1961),[3] known professionally as cEvin Key, is a Canadian musician, songwriter, producer, and composer.

When Skinny Puppy disbanded in 1995 following the death of keyboardist Dwayne Goettel, Key's main project became the electronic noise group Download, whose first album, Furnace, was released that same year.

[4] Due to an alcohol problem their father developed following his service in World War II, he and his siblings, an older brother and younger sister, had to learn to fend for themselves at a young age.

His father initially disapproved of his behavior, but changed his attitude when Key began dyeing his hair at the age of 17 and would later come to fully support his career as a musician.

There's no training for dysfunction ... Luckily my family had a piano and an organ that had one of those weird drum machines in it, and I sort of had the luck to be able to have these things around me, to take out frustrations on.

He had been planning to live in Japan and was offered a job at a Tokyo radio station as an interviewer when he received an invite from Gary Smith to join Images in Vogue.

[10] Bill Leeb, Key's friend from Vancouver's late-night club circuit, had introduced him to early industrial bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, and he soon found himself recording his own songs.

[11] Key met Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie) at a party in late 1982 and asked him to provide vocals for the songs he had made.

[13] According to Key, the concept behind Skinny Puppy was to create music from the point of view of a dog whose "tail’s trodden on" and can only bark and growl.

Key brought in Leeb (under the name Wilhelm Schroeder) and Dave "Rave" Ogilvie to help record their second EP, Remission.

[19] Key was displeased with Ogre inviting Al Jourgensen for the 1989 production of Rabies, telling Alternative Press that he believed Jorgensen had intended to break the band up.

In a 1991 interview with Propaganda magazine, he expressed his frustration regarding the recording of the album: Ogre is a different person from what I first knew, and I just can't bear to deal with it.

[22][19] Ogre quit the band in 1995 and Goettel died of a heroin overdose shortly thereafter; Key managed to salvage The Process, and released it in 1996.

The pair reformed Skinny Puppy in 2003 and signed with European label SPV, releasing The Greater Wrong of the Right a year later.

[19] Skinny Puppy released the album Weapon in 2013 and later sent an invoice totaling $666,000 to the US Department of Defense for the use of its music during torture sessions at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Other members included Anthony Valic, Ken Marshall, Phil Western, and Mark Spybey from Dead Voices on Air.

[40] In late 2018, Key announced that he and Western had finished work on a new album titled Unknown Room[41] and that it would be released March 8, 2019, through Artoffact Records.

[49]Their 1996 album To Be an Angel Blind, the Crippled Soul Divide featured a more subdued style in the wake of Goettel's death,[50] and they returned in 2000 to release Crystal Mass.

[61] In 2011, Key held the SUBcon Beyond Fest in Santa Monica which featured a number of artists signed Subconscious Communications, including Phil Western, Mark Spybey, Download, PlaTEAU, and Tokyo Decadence, and local talent such as Cyrusrex and Wet Mango.

[63] The name Scaremeister came when Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to Key as "the scare meister" while he finished work on the score for End of Days.

[65] Cyberaktif is a collaboration between key and Bill Leeb from the band Front Line Assembly, Their first album, Tenebrae Vision, was released in 1991 through Wax Trax!

[68] In February 2024, Cyberaktif released a new album titled eNdgame, featuring the lineup of cEvin Key, Bill Leeb, and Rhys Fulber.

The band Hilt, a collaboration between Key and Geottel, and Al Nelson, started when Nettwerk challenged the group to produce an album for as little money as possible.

[78] He named Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, and the album The Bridge by Thomas Leer and Robert Rental as early influences on Skinny Puppy.

[79] In an interview with Alternative Press, he mentioned Fad Gadget, The Human League, John Foxx, Bourbonese Qualk, and Mark Stewart as having a large impact on him in his youth.

[80] Key's improvisational method for creating Skinny Puppy music was done through what was called "brap",[81] which means "getting together, hooking up electronic instruments, getting high, and recording".

[82] His approach to Download differed from Skinny Puppy in that he intended to create a "centre-less musical entity, unanchored by the presence of a frontman" and explore the more experimental characteristics of his previous work.

[87] For live performances, he uses a Moog synthesizer, Roland V-Synth, Ashun Sound Machines Hydrasynth, Teenage Engineering OP-1, and an array of analog effects triggers such as a Pearl Syncussion SY-1.

In a 1998 interview with Chart magazine, he said his choice to stay away from drugs had been a relatively easy decision in light of Goettel's death:[83] The recovery from heroin is a really bitter road.

[92] with Skinny Puppy with Download with platEAU with The Tear Garden with Images in Vogue with Doubting Thomas (Canadian band) with Hilt with Cyberaktif with Twilight Circus Solo Bibliography