31 March 2011

Spinner interview (2011)

A decade may not feel like a long time to some, but when the 10-year anniversary of Liverpool's Ladytron came around, the electro-pop band definitely took note.

"I feel old", vocalist Mira Aroyo tells Spinner. "We're very aware of it, but since it's been 10 years, it's like wiping the slate clean".

A lot has changed since Ladytron first formed in 1999. As Aroyo puts it, "the world was a very different place".

"Just the fact that we were making these pop songs using synths, there weren't any bands doing that at the time, whereas now it's completely common and now it's just seeped into the mainstream".

Aroyo explains that the release of a best-of compilation entitled Best of 00-10 this March will help "make it all nice and fresh for our new record because our new record is quite different-sounding". And they mean it.

"We were very conscious in not repeating anything", she says. "We're not here to make a new "Destroy Everything You Touch" or a new "Seventeen"".

While the leap between 2005's Witching Hour and 2008's Velocifero was a minor one, Aroyo assures fans that the band takes a much bigger step on the new record but "it's still very much us -- the songs, the melodies, the lyrics... we can't really depart from that, but every now and then we make these big steps".

Currently in the midst of mastering their new full-length, slated for release later this summer, the band is looking forward to showing off a grander sound which incorporates more orchestral elements. "We're really excited about it", says Aroyo. "Instrument-wise, there were a lot of organs used, and it's just a more mature record".

"Ace of Hz", a new single which has also spurred its own remix EP, is the only tie linking the band's old and new material, and will appear on their upcoming as-yet-untitled record.

"Every album has been a different experience", says Aroyo. "We've never done it in a place where we've lived before, but with this one, three of us live in London".

The band recorded throughout the summer in Kent, England, and Aroyo cites the experience as a positive one. "We enjoyed being home, and it was just like having a regular job where we go home where we go home every night!"

Co-produced by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Editors) the album was recorded in his personal studio, which, according to Aroyo, felt like a playground.

"He was just getting more and more gear as we were working", she says. "New organs were arriving all the time and we were just using them. It was brilliant for us".

Source