Interview

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SEEKAE INTERVIEW

August 16th, 2011 by Dave Ruby Howe | No Comments | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

Sermon (Seekae Remix) by ThTch

So how’re you feeling about 2011 so far? We’ve passed the halfway mark of the year and you guys have been pretty busy, does it feel like you’ve accomplished a lot?

“We’re feeling great! It’s been a lot of work, but it’s given us the chance to travel and play all around the country and overseas which has been fantastic. We feel like we’ve accomplished a fair amount, but there’s still a long way to go.”

You guys were in Europe for a while, right? What was that like? Any highlights of the trip?

“Europe was tip top. We spent the majority of our time in England, but it was great to play in France as well. The highlight would have to be when Alex was accosted by a young Liverpudlian lady after a show, turns out he’s wanted by women all over the globe.”

What’s the reaction to you guys outside of Australia like? Both with fans and other artists that you might have a kinship with.

“The reaction was surprisingly good compared to what we predicted. Our first show at The Great Escape festival in Brighton was to a room full of about 250 people who seemed to get mad jiggy with it. We also played a headline show in London with a few artists we were into, Klaus and Lapalux, which was ghetto-ambientastic.”

What are the advantages, do you think, of touring overseas than in Australia? Are there just more audiences over there than in Australia?

“Well, for us this was really just testing the water, so I don’t think we’ve seen the full advantages just yet. It’s easy to see though that in Europe alone there’s an abundance of festivals and people seem more open to an electronic style of music as well, perhaps as lot of it originates from there. There certainly are more people in Europe, but I think it’s the vast popularity of genres over there that are still quite niche here that makes playing there different.”

How do you feel like your fanbase has grown here over the last couple of years? Do you take notice of growing audiences and bigger venues with each tour and think that that’s cool?

“We’ve been really lucky to see our fan base grow over the past few years, and it’s exciting to hear people wanting us in places like Adelaide and Perth as well. The most enjoyable part is when people actually recognize the songs in the opening chords, I think that’s what’s made us realize that we’re becoming more well known.”

I suppose it would vary from musician to musician, but do you ever get sick of your own songs? Or perhaps ‘grow tired’ is a better term. When you’re performing live are you finding little tweaks and improvisations to them to keep the songs fresh for you guys?

“It can become as you say ‘rather tiresome’ performing the same songs over and over again, but when you’re on stage it doesn’t seem to affect us too much. We try to vary the songs as much as possible for both the audience and us, plus when Alex is playing drums he often serves us a few improvised treats. George also saves a fire alarm sample on his MPC for special occasions.”

On that, how have you felt about +DOME and the reactions it’s received from fans? Obviously it’s hard to remove yourself when you’re making it but what’s your take on it now?

“It was a record that took us over a year and a half to make and a intentional effort to move away from The Sound of Trees Falling on People, so we were initially quite nervous (and sick of it) when we released it. Looking back on it now, we feel proud with how it’s turned out, and the general reaction seemed to be a positive one which is great.”

Have you guys been working on new stuff for another record?

“Whilst we were in England we worked on a few new ideas, but unfortunately nothing eventuated into a finished track. Once we’ve finished this Australian tour we’ll get right back into it, we promise!”

In the mix you guys did for inthemix there was a whole lot of really interesting selections from great bass producers like Objekt, James Blake and Mount Kimbie. Do you take a lot of inspiration from that scene?

“Definitely, their production is absolutely phenomenal and it’ll take us years to reach that status which I think is what keeps us inspired by them. For +DOME we focused a lot on production techniques, and the bass-heavy scene coming out of London played a big part in that. At the same time we draw a lot of inspiration melodically from acts such as Arvo Part, Ochre and recently a lot of Indonesian Gamelan music.”

Is there a comparative scene to that here in Australia, do you think?

“There are a lot of things happening here in Australia that follow in the footsteps of the Europe scene. Venues like Tone in Sydney and groups like Collarbones and the Oneofour collective are doing some impressive things at the moment.”

Seekae on tour this August:

Friday 19th August – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday 20th August – The Metro, Sydney
Friday 26th August – East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
Saturday 27th August – The Bakery, Perth

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SOFTWAR

July 19th, 2011 by Dave Ruby Howe | No Comments | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

The Softwar lads were first featured on Hyperbole back when I was using the old Blogspot address and when there were three of them, I think. Now it’s just the two dudes and we’re all about the .tv and they’ve really been hitting their stride like I knew they would upon hearing some of those old demos like Paris Nights and Cosmosis. Most recently they’ve remixed the Mitzi dudes for their Future Classic release and have been bumping sets all around Sydney. I did a little Q&A with them recently for inthemix to talk shop and such and here it is for Hyperbolians.

Softwar – Back From The Dead

Mitzi – Morning Light (Softwar Remix)

First off, considering we’re now halfway through the year, how do you feel about 2011 so far? Has it been a productive year for you?

Yeah has been a pretty big year for us so far. We had our first EP come out in April which was received really well and had a bunch of gigs and remix work thrown our way which has kept us solidly busy.

Run us through a typical day in the Sofwar life; do you guys hit the studio every day, the club every weekend? Or does ‘life’ put that on ice?

We both work 9-5 in pretty boring regular jobs to tell you the truth (Myles is a librarian and I work for Centrelink) but I guess that just means we really appreciate the weekend all the more. We do at least a full day of studio work and a couple of nights scattered through the week.

You guys have been developing some real heat since coming out with your first productions – the releases, the remixes, the Modular agency gig – does it feel like it’s come naturally to you guys or is it a hard slog that nobody really sees?

Everything seems to have kind of happened pretty naturally. I mean we’ve been at it for a couple of years so the recent successes don’t feel like we’ve just popped up overnight which is good for the soul, I guess.

You did the Vivid LIVE party earlier this year with Azari & III, how was that?

Pretty outrageous, I mean how many times as a DJ will you get to play at the Opera House?! My parents thought I was full of shit when I told them. The party had such a great vibe, the Slowblow guys kept the lounge bar packed and everyone that played in the main room kept the energy going right till the lights came on.

The disco and ‘new-house’ boom has been interesting to watch bubble up – how do you guys take influence from that music and give it a fresh spin for today?

Well I’d say the tracks we put together for our EP was slow house with elements of that neu disco sound thrown in. We both like everything from classic disco to super deep minimal house so we just use elements from all kinds of genres and influences when putting together songs. We don’t start a song thinking, “let’s make neu disco” or “let’s make house”, we just kind of mess around until we find an interesting sound or sample and build around that. A lot of the time finished songs sound nothing like what we start with but I guess that’s all part of the process.

What’s next output-wise for you all?

We have an EP coming out very soon with Future Classic and currently we are working on our Modular EP which should be done by the end of the year. Remix wise we just finished stuff for Bag Raiders, Mitzi and Mario Basanov.

More and more DJ acts seem to be making the jump to live shows at the moment, is that something that interests you guys? Are there any concepts left? The Softwar LED Triangle?

Yeah we want to do a live show based out of the ‘helmet’ of a giant LED phallus. We’re going to call it ‘Softwar…cuming at cha’.

What’s on the cards for the rest of the year? What’re your goals for the remainder of 2011?

Well to get the live show ready for one. Then we have Slowblow which is the first Saturday of every month at Goodgod. Then we will be gig-ing (MTV Snow Jam tour in July, Splendour In The Grass in August) until the start of September when we go to New York and LA for a month to play some parties, back to Australia in October for the start of silly season!

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FRIENDLY FIRES

May 27th, 2011 by Dave Ruby Howe | 1 Comment | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

A few months back I interviewed Friendly Fires’ Jack Savidge about the band’s then upcoming second record, Pala, and have been sitting on the interview for a solid couple of months now. This feature ran in The Canberra Times a week or two back and I thought it was interesting enough to make the leap onto this blog. I’ve stopped giving my features titles as they often get changed in the final issue but if I had to call this one something it would probably be something naff like Friendly Fires: In Living Colour. Damn that is naff. But it sort of sums up feelings about the (very great) new album.

Friendly Fires
By Dave Ruby Howe

Following up a riotously successful debut album can undo even the most promising artist, but as Friendly Fires’ sophomore release is poised to bow in stereos and handheld devices across the world this week the group are already looking beyond album number two and to what’s coming next.

“Today I’m going over to our singer Ed [Macfarlane]’s place to work on a bunch of new ideas that we’ve got kicking about,” says Friendly Fires’ wonderfully named drummer Jack Savidge. “We kind of noticed after we finished all the touring for the first album and everything that it was quite hard to get back into the swing of things and start writing new things for the new album. The idea of working on other stuff is to just keep the process going and to give us a few little things that we can do in between the huge amount of work we’re going to have to do get this record out to everyone. Hopefully that’ll keep us fresh and we can move straight into working on the third album when we’re ready.”

Savidge and the band may be getting ahead of themselves already, as everyone else’s main focus is with Pala, the group’s new album which makes good on the initial promise of Friendly Fires’ self-titled debut from 2008 while amping every facet of the band’s craft to blow that first offering out of the water.

Co-produced by the band themselves and the indie super-producer who produced their first record, Paul Epworth (see albums from Bloc Party, Kate Nash, The Rapture and Adele’s 21), Pala booms forth from the speakers with colourful bombast, the band blending their love of tropical pop and Madchester rave culture into a lean and confident three quarters of an hour.

As he puts it, Savidge and his Friendly Fires cohorts had a ‘free reign’ of sorts when creating Pala, spending a great deal of time fleshing out the album by themselves before taking it to Epworth’s trusted ears.

“Paul adds some really crucial know-how to the album,” Savidge explains. “We worked on a lot of it alone but if there was something we weren’t sure how to pull off Paul would always know.”

Indeed, when the band took the plunge and decided to incorporate some sampling techniques into their songwriting Epworth was on hand as an expert guide, producing the blissful album highlight Blue Cassette which whirs with a collage of looped horns.

“Working with samples is something we really enjoyed doing on this record because at least I find that working with little portions of outside music brings a lot of texture and variety to what you’re making,” Savidge says revealing his production geekery. “To use a good sample well can be really special because it has something that you could never recreate yourself.”

The result of the band’s studio experimentation is a terrifically diverse yet assured record, with Savidge saying that he and the band were after a “heavier” sound than the comparatively “thin” Friendly Fires LP.

“I quite like the songs on the first album but I think we could’ve recorded them in more interesting ways,” he reflects. “I mean, when I hear something like Lovesick in its recorded form it doesn’t seem like the song that I know today because we’ve developed it so much from playing live over the last two and a half years. It just sounds different, a bit lighter,” he says. “Making this record was often painstaking, but we really tried hard to capture the sound that we convey on the live stage – the fullness and the detail of the whole thing, as well as that energy. I guess we just wanted to make it bigger and closer to what we always imagined sounding like.”

Friendly Fires – On Board (Nic Nell Remix)

Friendly Fires – Hold On (Dub)

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ALBUM MATTERS

May 10th, 2011 by Dave Ruby Howe | No Comments | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

So this was a feature I wrote the other month that I was hoping to get published somewhere out and about. There’s unfortunately been no joy on that front but that could just be because the subject has indeed been discussed quite a bit already. Regardless, reading it again I still liked it and the input from the artists I spoke to was really terrific. So here it is for you to hopefully also enjoy. Leave a comment if you give a care.

Do Albums Still Matter?
Dave Ruby Howe

The forever churning cycle of the music industry has rendered many mediums obsolete; the cassette, the mini-disc and everyone knows the vinyl record would count among that list if it wasn’t for purists and hipsters looking to decorate their studio apartments with music they can’t play. But could the album itself be the next victim to splutter and die in the face of our move towards digital platforms?

While music as a whole isn’t ranking on an endangered species list, it’s how we consume it that spells worrying signs for the idea of an album. Really, what is the point of producing a cohesive, hour plus body of work when the ‘shuffle’ function reigns supreme? Grand and layered records count for zilch when most iTunes buyers will merely sample a handful of tracks and not the whole package. So when attention spans have dwindled down to 140 characters or less we have to ask the question, do albums matter anymore?

For Tim Hoey of Modular mainstays Cut Copy the importance of the album format has taken a hit in recent years, with the gradual shift to digital media taking away some of the ‘special-ness’ of albums.

“I love the idea of a record; this perfectly weighted portrait of an artist that really brings the listener in on something that feels important,” Hoey says. “But that just feels like a very old fashioned idea in the iTunes generation, which I think is pretty limiting. I love actually going into a shop and picking something up and studying it. An album is something an artist has given you and I think you need to get the total package to really understand where they’re coming from. It’s just not the full experience to just have the artwork as this tiny little icon on your screen…to actually hold it and feel it is something completely different altogether.”

Currently crafting her debut LP for Australian indie imprint Ivy League, Catcall (aka Catherine Kelleher) likewise recognises the diminished weight that the format holds. Nevertheless Kelleher insists she is sticking to her album ambitions, emphasising her desire to create something that stands as a “whole piece of art” and not merely a .zip file.

“I’ve heard potent arguments about the death of the LP but I still love the idea of an album because I enjoy listening to a body of work that can take the listener on an emotional journey,” Kelleher muses. “[The decline of the album] mainly applies to mainstream pop because it has such a singles focus and those albums usually have a lot of filler and crap on them. I mean, listen to a big pop record by Beyonce and there are something like 17 tracks; seven awesome singles and 10 very boring, forgettable ballads.”

Less nostalgic for the album’s time in the sun is UK electro-pop star Calvin Harris has made the choice to abandon the full length format in favour of short-form releases, explaining that after two full lengths producing LPs was no longer a ‘priority’.

“Some people still do really well in the album format but for me it’s not so much a priority right now so I’m just going to release singles for a while…keep putting music out there quickly and keep people dancing.”

Likewise Thomas Mars, frontman for French indie-rockers Phoenix, admits he is ready for new formats to overtake the traditional LP structure despite the fact that the band are currently recording their fifth full length and follow-up to 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. For that record Phoenix stretched the conventional boundaries of an LP, supplementing the original record with an extras-heavy box set edition, a remix album and a continuous online fan hunt set up by the band to offer demos and other free downloads.

“I think we still try to put weight on a record and tell people how they should listen to it, and then if they like that they can get more out of it, like all the remixes,” Mars explains of the release strategy. “I feel like every time music takes a turn with new technology it is interesting for everyone and you have to see where it will go. Like when CDs came along and suddenly you had so much space for an album. Now I want to know what is coming next.”

One third of Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts, Andy Szekeres, concurs with Phoenix’s approach to releasing records in today’s climate, explaining that with their sophomore record from 2010, The Crystal Axis, the ‘Juggernauts attempted to ‘regain the importance’ of the LP format with a slew of additional content including free merchandise bundles, bonus material and slabs of limited edition vinyl created with North American upstart imprint Acéphale.

“You almost have to convince people that an album still means something and that it shouldn’t be so easily disposable as a bunch of MP3s on your computer that you listen to once.” he says of the trials facing an artist’s album. “These days you’ve got to give people a reason to want a ‘total package’, something they can’t get by downloading a torrent of your record. Now it’s a commitment to buy and listen to an album in full, so artists have to make it worthwhile for fans, otherwise the show’s over.”

Need You Now (Architecture in Helsinki Version) by cutcopymusic

There was a lot more from Cut Copy’s Tim on the subject, some very considered discussion on the decline of not only the CD format but the concept of an album. Tim’s always a great interview, I think we’ve chatted three or four times now, as is the nature of music journalism in Australia. Because there hasn’t been enough Cut Copy love on this blog, or any blog in the universe for that matter, here’s Need You Now as rejigged by Architecture In Helsinki.

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DEADMAU5

April 24th, 2011 by Dave Ruby Howe | No Comments | Filed in Writing

No MP3 here as Deadmau5 is not my thing but his influence and status on the current dance music scene cannot be denied. As such I was pretty thrilled to get interview time with him as he approached his Australian tour which has just now kicked off. He’s quite the manic interview subject, forever flicking his zippo, jumping from topic to topic and more often than not ending his sentences with ‘know what I mean?’ even though you really probably don’t. Here’s the article as written up for Canberra’s daily paper, The Canberra Times.

Deadmau5
Dave Ruby Howe

There are very few ways for an interview to begin. Normally phone lines will connect, I’ll introduce myself to the artist and ask politely how and where they are, to which they’ll usually respond ‘alright, how are you?’ and a proper conversation will begin. This is not a normal interview.

For one, I’m contacting Canadian dance music megastar Joel Zimmerman – you might know him best as his costume-crowned persona Deadmau5 – through Skype for a live chat as he rarely conducts any phone interviews. Indeed, his Skype user name is ‘nointerviewsmau5’. After a few hours delay our chat session is connected and I’m finally face to face, or at least webcam to webcam, with Zimmerman and the the first thing I hear is “Babe? Do you want some sausage?”.

That’s Zimmerman’s girlfriend, Lindsay Gayle Evans, in the background. She is a Playboy centrefold model. While that knowledge immediately stirs up some X-rated undertones to such a query, the prospect of sausage is indeed a harmless one; Evans has really just made dinner for the two at Deadmau5’s home slash studio in Canada. You see, despite selling out 15,000+ arenas across the world, palling around with Tommy Lee and casually sharing sausage with a Playboy pinup, Zimmerman is content to reject the remaining cliches of a rock-star lifestyle and spend any spare downtime furthering all aspects of his artistry, whether that be communicating with his legion of fans online, overseeing releases for his mau5trap record label or most importantly making new music.


As such, when Zimmerman is not doing any of the above he is uncomfortable or perhaps even bored, as he appears on screen during our interview ahead of his headline slot at this year’s Warehouse festival in Canberra. Having dispatched of his girlfriend, Zimmerman is hunched in his desk chair, an unlit cigarette dangling precariously from his lips and a lighter in his hand which he fidgets with and clicks continuously.

“This is my life,” he says gesturing to the pile-up of gear and studio equipment which fill the otherwise blank room. “I’m just making music, dude. There’s not really much of my personal life up on Facebook because, really, there isn’t much of one to talk about. Everybody knows that.”

With his personal life evidently a topic of no great importance, Zimmerman becomes positively energised when discussing his musical output which has run the spectrum of dance music over his career including house, prog, electro and even dubstep. As Zimmerman explains, his colourful sonic palette comes from a desire to try “everything”.

“One of the things that I’ve found, especially with electronic music, is that it’s so easy to just get pinned to one sound. I don’t like that,” Zimmerman says, resting his lighter for a moment. “I used to really feed into what I thought people wanted from me. You know? I would sort of tailor tracks to what was working and you could hear it when I released Faxing Berlin and then Jaded and then Not Exactly, it was like ‘well, that worked!’. It’s a formula thing, and everybody has done it. It takes people a long time to realise that they’re really doing that. It took me six months to figure it out. I don’t want to hear the same shit all day. Simple as that.”

As artistically satisfying as that broad approach may be, Zimmerman admits that it has been a point of conflict for his followers on the internet, some of whom have taken their allegiance to strange new heights as a Google Images search for ‘Deadmau5 fan tattoos’ will confirm.

“I’m going back and forth between stuff and doing whatever comes to me but it’s ruffling a few feathers with people in my fan camp,” he explains. “I’ve really fucked myself, because now whatever I do I divide my fan base. People will be like ‘he’s doing dubstep, fuck yeah’ and then someone else will be like ‘why is he doing that shit?’. And then I do more of one and then more of something else and I just can’t please everybody.”

However, such reactions have yet to deter Zimmerman engaging with his online fans as closely as he does and the producer attests that he has been happy to remain open and “transparent” with people that share a passion for his music.

“I like to be transparent and maybe give some kind of insight into the going-ons of my career or whatever,” he says with a half shrug. “At the end of the day it’s me and my gear in this studio and not a single one of them [fans] is really going to come through this door and make me do something I don’t want to do anyway. I think that any artist with some kind of stature or importance and that has a following with a significant amount of people should come down off their mountain top every now and again. I know that it can be pretty comfortable up there and you can escape a lot of this bullshit but what’s the point in hiding away from the people you want to give a crap about you.”

Zimmerman has pulled no punches for his reactionary attitude to other artists in recent years and indeed it was a lazy mentality among members of the dance community which lead him to construct his towering LED live show which is debuting in Australia later this month.

“I looked at what a lot of DJs were starting to do with their shows and realised that it was time to change some things,” he says of the show’s genesis. “I’m not going to pay upwards of $50-$80 to go into an arena to watch a guy play some tracks that we both bought off Beatport on a picnic table covered in black cloth. You’ve lost my interest. I want to see a show. So I really spared no expense in my career, both monetarily and time-wise, to develop something big. A real show in every sense of that word. It’s not just to keep it interesting for everyone in the audience but it’s to keep it interesting for myself because I would be bored to tears if I was just up there as a DJ playing the same tracks that the guy right next to me could play.”

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DIGITALISM

April 21st, 2011 by Dave Ruby Howe | 1 Comment | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

Electro comeback of the week goes to Digitalism. Man, remember when Digitalism were up there? Like, way way up there. Pogo was a weekly staple of the indie-dance clubs and you could always rely on one of their monster remixes – Down Down Down most likely – to get some hands in the air. While the intervening years between 2007 and now haven’t been as exciting for Digitalism, or the electro scene, that they’ve come back so strongly with 2 Hearts is an encouraging sign of what’s ahead for their album, ‘I Love You, Dude’.

Read on below for a recent-ish feature with the group. Jens is always great to talk to and even though this is a couple of months old his insights into the album’s production are worthwhile.

Digitalism – 2 Hearts

Digitalism – Saw You In 2 Pieces

It’s been interesting to see the reaction to you guys coming back. People have really missed you guys. But I think that perception that it’s been really quiet has gotten a little out of control these days because of the internet. Everybody wants things so fast these days whereas just 10 years ago it was normal for guys like Daft Punk to have five years in between their album releases. Do you feel that there’s an increased pressure these days?

“Things are definitely speeding up these days and it is a bit of a shame that three years seems like a decade. But that’s just how it is and we have to understand that. People just zap to things, it’s life in the fast lane! It’s not like we haven’t been out there, we have, we just haven’t done any big monster tours for the last two years. And every time we play somewhere there are lots of people there to see us!”

Okay, so you’re making the second record now, where are you up to with it? We’ve tasted Blitz and Stratosphere already, which was a bit different, can we expect more stuff like that?

“Well that’s the twist actually! Blitz is not meant to be an album preview, the album’s not going to be like that. Blitz was just something for in between, something that we made very quickly – that’s why it’s called Blitz because that’s the German word for something quick. I can’t talk much about the album at this stage but there are a lot of vocals on it, which is the opposite of Blitz. We kind of like to confuse people.”

Going into this one, was there anything that you saw in Idealism that you knew you wanted to change and do differently this time?

“I think that every body moves on and we certainly have too. We’ve changed a bit. I think it’s going to be more sophisticated this time. We still like to keep things simple because we really like simplicity but definitely more sophisticated. I think it’s because we got a bit older. We just don’t want to repeat ourselves. We’re really excited about it.”

How far along with it are you guys now? When do you think it will be ready for release?

“Well we’re just about to finalise all the writing for it and then I think we’ll finish it off after Japan. It’s really just up to the industry to see how quick they can manufacture it and release it. We have sometime early next year in our heads.”

I would imagine that it’d be quite difficult to actually complete something like an album’s worth of productions. Is it hard to put down the tools and say ‘okay, this is done, we can’t tweak any more knobs’?

“That’s one of our main problems when we work, we never think the stuff is really finished. But that’s why we try to postpone actually finishing something until the very last day because then we just have to leave it. If we finish a few tracks now and then finish some more in January then we will want to go back and work on the older tracks again. It’s like you’re making a shelf and you put the screws in but only half way. You just come back and tighten them later so it’s all even.”

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CATCALL

March 31st, 2011 by Dave Ruby Howe | No Comments | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

Things are really starting to blow up for Catcall. As well as her Ivy League single ‘Swimming Pool’ going loco-bananas with all those tasty remixes, the girl was on 90210 recently thanks to her big Hollywood fan, Mr. Broke Mogul himself, Scott Vener. This is all leading into her debut LP due out later this year and to get the skinny on it and what’s ahead I nabbed some time with Catcall not so long ago for an inthemix Q&A sesh. It was pretty good. Here it is getting the Hyperbole treatment.

Catcall – Swimming Pool (The Emergency Remix)

Since the first EP it seems as though you’ve been gradually building up steam to the album release this year. Has that felt like a long process or something that you’ve kind of relished being a part of every step of the way? Or neither?

It has felt like a long process which I think is quite standard for an artist releasing their first album. It has been very necessary to let the process happen organically and to let myself grow naturally so I could reach the standard of songwriting that I aspire to. I’ve had to spend a long time demoing, then working/re-working demos, then graduating them to fully formed songs, and so many ideas get binned in that process that you have to write new material. I have really enjoyed this process because I’ve gained a lot of confidence in myself, learnt a lot and increased my ability. The EP is quite naïve and driven by a blind enthusiasm and I had no real idea of where I could go with this and what my capabilities were until I started working on the new demos. I also didn’t realize how much I had to improve on my songwriting and my vocal ability and how much I needed to mature. It’s taken a lot of failing and patience, but it’s all been worth it.

We’ve already heard Swimming Pool off the LP, is that tune an indication of sorts of what we can expect from the full thing?

I think so, I mean nothing is going to sound exactly like Swimming Pool, and nothing else will be that slow on the record, but I think in terms of vibe that track is an indication of what will inhabit the record.

What was it like to get Julian Mendelsohn involved with the release of Swimming Pool? Dude’s a legit legend and everything.

It’s pretty cool, and he did such an amazing edit. I don’t think I really knew what to expect with the remix and when he came back with it, I was pretty blown away. It feels so filmic too; my friend and I are going to make a film to it that we’ll release on the internet in a couple of months.

One thing which I really like about your stuff is that you don’t seem afraid to experiment a little and open your work up to others like GLOVES on Swimming Pool and I know Youth said he’s been doing a few tracks for you. How did you go about forming relationships with other producers and getting them involved with the LP?

Yama I’ve known via his work with Snap Crakk and Damn Arms (they played shows with my first band Kiosk way back when), and I had heard some of the later Damn Arms stuff and GLOVES stuff, really dug it and approached him to work on a track. He sent me some beds over email and I demoed some ideas then we worked on the track a bit more together in his studio. The collaboration with Luke (Youth) was hooked up through a friend and we actually demoed 4 or 5 tracks over email before I even got the chance to meet him in person. Most of the people I’ve worked with on the record are friends or friends/collaborators of friends and I’ll usually just contact them, get them to send me something and see if magic happens. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

I always wonder how those relationships with producers work, like, who brings what to the table?

It always begins with the producer sending me a bed …it could be very simple, a beat, some bass, a synth line…and then I work at home on my computer writing vocal melodies and lyrics. I’m primarily a top line songwriter so I need a beat and some semblance of a melody as a spring board to write. I almost always work alone when I’m writing initial ideas for a track and we usually go back and forth over email, sometimes we’ll get together and work on it in their studio and sometimes we won’t, it depends on the logistics. Then I’ve been taking these demos and doing the final vocal performance/recording with a producer called Bry Jones. From there we seek out cohesion in terms of production so every track on the record can sit well together.

Were you able to work with everyone you wanted to on the LP? Is there a wishlist of potential collaborators?

I’ve mainly just worked with who I had access to and I’ve tried to work with as many local artists I can whose work I dig because you never know what magic can happen. I think at this stage its great working with local bedroom producers because they’re hungry like me to get tracks out there and create great work, plus we’re all at the same level so there’s no ego or bullshit. There’s so much amazing talent in Australia, especially in electronic music and I’ve been really psyched with everyone who’s been involved. I’m keen to work with anyone who has a good vibe and gets where I’m coming from, and I really like seeing what falls in my lap.

Still on that, is it ever difficult to assert your own personality when you’re making music with a number of different people? Is there ever a case of too many cooks…?

Because I’m the human element of the track my personality is going to be part of it, so it’s never really difficult to assert. Usually when I’m working with a collaborator and they’re making tracks specifically for my album, we’re both working towards my vision, but when I’m working for someone else’s record I’m usually working to their vision.

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CLIPSE FEATURE

October 15th, 2010 by Dave Ruby Howe | No Comments | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

When I track down Terrence Thornton for our interview about his upcoming Australian visit, Thornton’s chilling at his home in Virginia and watching some TV before tackling a grand-scale remodeling of his wardrobe. Sounds like a pretty casual Thursday night, yeah? Well sure, but of course Thornton is one half of prodigal US rap duo Clipse, known by his infinitely doper moniker Pusha T, and it’s not like he’s catching up on the news or anything, Pusha is actually watching back the broadcast of the recent MTV VMAs where the rapper closed the event with friend and now label boss Kanye West with the much buzzed about Runaway from West’s upcoming My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy LP.

“That was an amazing night, man,” Pusha says stopping the playback for our interview. Surrounded by krumping ballet dancers, West and Pusha stole the show with their performance of Runaway which saw West centre stage working a sample pad while the Clipse MC darted across stage with the adrenalin-spurred speed of a boxer throwing haymakers. “I wasn’t nervous at all before we did it, I just wanted to get out there and do our thing. It was great and it everyone can’t stop talking about it.”


Kanye West – Runaway ft. Pusha T

Assured of the performance’s success – and indeed correct about the impact of the song’s live premiere with blogs and media pundits signaling West’s official comeback after a year in the wilderness – Pusha seems much more concerned about his look on the night, praising the bold salmon coloured suit he donned for his verse. “Salmon, man, it’s not every day you see a dude in a salmon suit, right? But yeah, it looks good, I know it looks good. I’m all about throwing in a bit of colour that people ain’t expecting. I was being styled by the editor of Italian Vogue that night, so I just went with it and really felt it.”

As with any competitor in the modern rap game, Pusha speaks with overflowing swagger and unflinching braggadocio turning to his clothing line with Clipse partner and brother Malice (that’s Gene Thornton) called Play Cloths and delivering a hype-y little spiel about their latest collection.

“I just got all of the new Play Cloths in tonight, they’re looking so good man. I think this is the best we’ve done yet with Play Cloths, it looks awesome dude,” he says. “Tonight I’m gonna be going through my closet and trying to make room for all these new threads. That’s going to be tough ‘cause the way I’ve got my wardrobe now, I just love it, I paid a lot of cash to get it that way but you gotta lose some old shit to make room for the new stuff, right?”

Speaking proudly about Clipse’s success with Play Cloths, Pusha refers to it as just a part of the Clipse empire and it’s this idea of an empire, of a franchise, an identity that begins to pop up more and more as we chat with the discussion moving to Pusha’s work with Kanye West and his upcoming solo album on West’s G.O.O.D. Music label.

“I just think it’s time to do it,” the rapper says of the decision to work on a solo album next and not the next Clipse record. “It’s about giving the fans what they want, meeting the demand that’s out there and showing this other part of myself to them. We gotta build the brand a bit and keep offering new stuff. It’s still early, I don’t even have a name for it but I’m loving the records that we’ve got so far for it.”

According to the Virginia rapper, the partnership with West and his G.O.O.D. imprint spun out of Pusha’s involvement in Dark Twisted Fantasy, West’s comeback album recorded in Hawaii that’s due out this November.

“It was actually Rick Ross who got me into the record,” Pusha says. “I got this call from Rick Ross and he’s like ‘what’re you doing right now? You need to be here in Hawaii because this thing that’s happening right now is huge’. So then I get a call from Kanye and he told me that he’s a really big fan of mine and that he respects the way I approach rapping and he asks me how soon I can get to Hawaii. I was in LA and then going to New York and he was going to be in New York too, so we ended up meeting in New York and flying back to Hawaii. I planned to spend like a week there but I stayed for a month in the end because we were just having such a good time in the studio working on these records, man,” Pusha enthuses. “Working with someone like ‘Ye is great because when you’re in the studio with him working on a track it’s like having a conversation with him. He’s great like that so we vibed real well. We did stuff for his album and we made stuff for my record. It’s going to be big, man.”

When pressed for details about which other beatmakers would be lending their services to his solo debut, Pusha remains cagey not wanting to give away too much, but he does offer a few interesting bits of gossip saying that there’ll definitely be some new Neptunes tracks on there and that he’s also heading into the studio with visionary hitmaker Bangladesh “sometime in October”.

Kanye West – Christian Dior Denim Flow ft. Kid Cudi, Pusha T, John Legend, Lloyd Banks & Ryan Leslie

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DELPHIC

August 17th, 2010 by Dave Ruby Howe | 1 Comment | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

This is a feature that originally ran in the Canberra paper before I tweaked it for inthemix, and I liked it – or rather, the chat with James from Delphic who was delightfully genial and articulate – so I wanted to put it up here. It’s kind of Australia-centric, so apologies for that, international hordes.

Delphic – Counterpoint (Tim Goldsworthy Edit)

Phoenix – Fences (Delphic Remix)

Delphic: DJs Without Decks
By Dave Ruby Howe

Arriving on the scene earlier this year with their debut album Acolyte, you’d be forgiven for almost writing Delphic off. Looking at their track record, the Manchester three-piece had all the touchstones to present themselves as just another buzzed about UK group that wouldn’t manage to live up to its own hype. For starters their concoction of electro and brooding indie could be viewed as some opportunistic trend-jumping and there was their hook-ups with hipster-centric labels like Kitsune and Modular working both for and against the band.

But thankfully they delivered an album of dense and ambitious electronica and when I tracked down Delphic frontman James Cook for our interview ahead of the Splendour In The Grass festival any lingering doubts were dashed. Delphic aren’t too cool for school, not at all, they’re just a bunch of music nerds thankful for the chance to do what they love.

Kicking back in his London flat, Cook’s spinning a weathered copy of Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde, in tribute to Delphic’s recent tour across the United States. “We’re just back from playing some shows over there and I think everyone of us going through a big Americana phase because of the trip,” Cook says with a grin. “I don’t know if that means you’ll hear it creep into the next record, but I wouldn’t want to rule it out! I think we could find a way for dance music and harmonicas to be paired together.”

The impetus for the US tour was some promo duties for Delphic in conjunction with the North American release of Acolyte, which comes nearly six months after the UK and Australian release dates.

“That’s quite frustrating for us,” Cook explains of the delay in international synchronisation. “Firstly it’s frustrating because if somebody wants to find out about us and they can’t buy a record in a store then they’ll actually be forced to go and download it illegally. But it’s also frustrating because in a way I think we’ve moved on from Acolyte already. We were in the headspace of that album back when we finished Acolyte in October last year and now we’re almost bored of it,” he laughs. “You have to put yourself back in that headspace when you’re playing those songs live around the world, and that’s kind of hard.”

To keep things interesting for himself and Delphic’s other musically adventurous members Cook says that the group put all their energy into making the Delphic live shows as inventive and exploratory as possible.

“We made a decision very early on that we wanted to have our live shows very mixed together and that we would kind of treat it almost like a DJ set with live instruments,” Cook explains. “There’s the tunes from the album, but in between we get the chance to do some live jamming and that bridges it all together. That keeps it interesting for the audience but also for us, it gives us something to do because we don’t like to be static on stage. There are changes in our set every single night so it’s constantly moving forwards and mutating and I think that’s the coolest thing about the live format.”

The description of Delphic’s live set as a hybrid DJ gig is an apt one, with the band bending their Acolyte material into new shapes and forms over an hour’s set, mixing it up with fresh tweaks and interludes that transport audiences back to an acid-house rave in the Hacienda nightclub.

“We’ve taken a lot of queues from acts like Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers when creating our live show,” Cook says of the band’s influences. “I remember watching The Chemical Brothers at Glastonbury in 2003 I think it was and their show was just absolutely immense. I stood in the front-row and waited for them all day, it blew my mind and that’s just stayed with me since then. The Chems and Daft Punk are acts who do everything on computers and studio equipment so they have to do everything possible to make their live shows as exciting as they can. And we want to do a new take on that but still leave the same lasting impression on people.”

Speaking in such reverential tones about those artists, it’s evident that Cook and his bandmates have a deep respect for their dance music heroes, and as it turns out, that admiration turned surreal when the opportunity to work with The Chemical Brothers was floated before Delphic.

“When we were first getting approached by record labels we said that we’d only sign a contract if the label could start a conversation between us and The Chemical Brothers to get Tom Rowlands to produce the album. And I couldn’t believe it but it actually happened, and Tom got in touch and started working on Counterpoint.”

As delicious a combination as that sounds however, the pairing of Delphic and The Chemical Brothers was not meant to be, and the band chose to pull the plug on the initial sessions, something that is obviously still hard for Cook to believe himself.

“It was unfortunate because what he did just sounded awesome. It sounded too awesome, it was like a Chemical Brothers track. We were very focused on what Delphic should sound like and, as much as we admire them, it was what they sounded like, not us. It was the strangest experience to almost be working with them and then to turn it in.”

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MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS FEATURE

May 28th, 2010 by Dave Ruby Howe | 2 Comments | Filed in Hyperbole, Writing

There’s a shit load to love about the new Midnight Juggernauts LP, The Crystal Axis, which is coming out in Australia this weekend – don’t worry overseas Hyperbole faithful they’ll be bringing it your way soon – namely its super ambitious scope which kinda makes Dystopia look like a toddler’s finger painting. And I say that as someone who loved the hell out of that record.

To coincide with the album’s release I scored some time with Andy from the band the other week to chat about all things Juggy and here’s the whole interview.

Midnight Juggernauts – Vital Signs (Istanbul Kebab Remix)

Midnight Juggernauts – Vital Signs (Rewards Remix)

Hey Andy, how’re you doing today?

“Hey Dave, I’m okay, although I’m about to fall asleep I think. We just got back to Australia yesterday after playing some shows overseas. We’re severely jet-lagged.”

That’s rough mate! But all three of you must be pretty excited that the album is less than a week away from release, right?

“Yeah absolutely, it’s been a long time waiting for this point, but it feels pretty good for everything to be almost ready and complete.”

I was checking out your tour dates for the album tour, and you’re not doing a national run of shows here until August. Does that mean you’ll be spending a lot of the time in between then overseas trying to get things synchronised for the international release?

“Yes, that’s right, we’re going to be over in Europe and America again. There’s some big festival dates in there like at Exit Festival which should be good.”

After Dystopia did well here you guys spent, like, a year or so touring internationally and building your profile overseas. I guess it would be silly not to capitalise on all that hard work from the last album and get over there again to play these new songs.

“That was what we were thinking, really. We spent about eight months touring the world after Dystopia and that was huge for us. And because it’s going into summer in the North it just made sense to try and get over there quickly.”

Having spent so long abroad for that tour, what were some of the highlights for you guys?

“There were so many good things that happened to us, man, it’s hard to name just a few. I think the best part of it was the opportunities that we were able to take part it. You know, it’s not easy going being a small, independent band from Australia. But we got to play at Glastonbury and at Coachella which was amazing for us. And that we got to actually live in Paris for a while was incredible.”

I would guess that after that time spent together, Vincent and Daniel would become like family for you. Was there that bond?

“Definitely. It was really hard being apart from all our friends and family back here, but it was great to have those guys always there. Of course, like any family, you don’t always get along with each other but I think we’re so much stronger having done that together.”

Let’s talk about the new record, The Crystal Axis. I’ve been listening to it for a week or so now, and I’m really impressed, it’s a very ambitious album.

“Thanks man, it’s good to hear the early reactions. I’m really not sure how people will respond to it, because it’s very different to Dystopia. I mean, I love Dystopia, I think it’s a great record, but I’m really proud of what we’ve done here. I think we just wanted to push ourselves a little further and try to do some new things.”

I read some quotes from Vincent about the recording process and he mentioned that he thought it would’ve been very easy for you guys to make a sequel of sorts to Dystopia. I mean, that sound – the kind of electro-y indie-dance or whatever we’re calling it these days – was new back then, but it’s not new now, it’s really exploded and I guess that’s what he was referring to, that you could’ve ‘cashed in on that’.

“Yeah that was in the back of our minds, but we definitely wanted to move beyond that. People maybe would’ve expected that from our second record, but when we were writing the songs for this album it immediately felt different. I don’t know how it will go down, but we’ll see how people react to it.”

What was the album’s gestation process like? How long after Dystopia did you start work on the record?

“We actually kind of wrote most of the songs on this record while we were touring overseas. They just started to come out of us pretty naturally, and we were developing as musicians quite fast because we were playing all these shows for almost a year straight. That’s how things started to grow, I think. We just wanted to make something that was a reflection of our influences and the sounds we wanted to experiment with. There’s a lot more grooves and percussion to this one. It’s not obviously dancey, so I think it might confuse some of the indie DJs out there.”

As you guys have remained pretty strongly independent throughout your career, releasing through your own label Sibera Records, I wanted to know what your take was on blogs and downloads. I know you guys have received a lot of blog love over the years and that seems like it’s been positive, but is there also that part where people are dipping into your pockets?

“You know, it’s such a difficult thing to navigate these days. Obviously our goal is for people to hear our music, and thanks to blog posts we’ve been able to travel and play in places that we could never have even imagined of when we started the band. But if I were to see this new album up on a torrent or something then yeah, I think I’d be a little upset. We’ve worked so hard on it and that someone can just download without even really caring about it, well, that kinda stings a little bit. At the same time, you can’t blame someone for downloading something when it’s right there in front of you. Why would you pay for something that you can easily get for free?”

I know what you mean and it’s been quite an interesting ongoing issue for the music industry. What I think works, and is something you’ve done, is offering listeners something extra. Like you’ve got bonus tracks and limited edition vinyl releases for this record; it’s more than just a plastic CD case, it feels special.

“Yeah I think that’s important for us. We’re always trying to think of something more that we can offer to people to sort of convince them that they’re getting something that they can’t have with a download. It’s more than just the tracks themselves, it’s the artwork, the package, the bonus material. That’s how we hope to connect with fans.”

The Crystal Axis is released 28 May on Siberia Records via Inertia.

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