Electronic Musician interview (2008)

Unknown to the world at large or even his bandmates in Ladytron, Daniel Hunt has a brand new theory about The Beatles. "They were the Internet of the 1960s", keyboardist/guitarist/producer Hunt says. "There's so much information available now that music is one of the few forms of communications that is actually pretty direct. You can have one important album that reaches an enormous amount of people, probably more than any news broadcast. Back then, The Beatles could release an album to a wider audience than any other form of media. There were no global news networks, so one of the most globally pervasive forms of media was The Beatles".

Vocalist/keyboardist Helen Marnie and keyboardist/programmer Reuben Wu seem surprised to hear this revelation — apparently they had no idea that such a concept has been forming in their collaborator's mind. Co-lead vocalist/keyboardist Mira Aroyo is not with them here in the multimirrored basement bar of a Manhattan hotel; instead, she's recovering from a broken leg suffered on a European ski slope. She'll have to learn about Hunt's Fab Four concept at a later date.

Forty years or so later, Ladytron has unassumingly asserted itself as another Liverpool foursome to be reckoned with. Their fourth album, 2008's Velocifero (Nettwerk), fires a fresh salvo into the broodingly energetic atmosphere of electronic music that they alone seem to occupy. The 13-song collection has all the signatures of Ladytron, which start first and foremost with Aroyo and Marnie's unmistakable vocal arrangements — tense, soaring, beautiful, cold and expressive. The simple danceable beats are tough without being overpowering, almost always wrapped around a grain of distortion. On the new disc, art and science combine in the multilayered analog synth lines, a pallet of mechanical organic sounds mixing increasingly with the precision of soft synths.

Code of the road

Life has been a positive blur for Ladytron throughout the current decade. Their 2001 debut, 604, and 2002 follow-up, Light & Magic (both on Emperor Norton), caught the attention of an audience struck by the group's analog-heavy style of storytelling, as well as their unique visual style. In 2005, the album known as Witching Hour (Rykodisc) combined indie-rock bite with the sawtooths of their Korg MS-20s, and propelled them on a road trip that technically never had to end, based on the Ladytron cult that grew around songs like "Destroy Everything You Touch", "International Dateline" and "High Rise".

"We toured for ages", Hunt says. "We started in mid-2005, and if you include when we went to China, it was more like three years. We could have carried on that way forever. We had to finally just say, 'No'".

"Once you get into the swing of playing live, you stop being in a musical state of mind about the record that you're playing onstage", Wu adds. "And it becomes an incubation period for the next record".

"It's not as if you're on the road writing", Hunt says.

"Some bands do", Marnie interjects. "But maybe what they write...".

"...songs about being on tour?" Hunt concludes for her. "I prefer to wait until you get home and get some energy to go and write somewhere else".

Ladytron took maximum advantage of any breaks in the hectic schedule, with each member putting together demos of their own songs while at home, typically using Steinberg Cubase SX running on laptops, along with Native Instruments soft synths and analog instruments recorded directly into the computer. As in the past, the band remains steadfast in their right to use the DAW that they believe is best for them. "People are always saying, 'Use Pro Tools, use Logic'", Hunt says. "Why? Is it better? We've had no problems; we know how to use it. We get results very quickly, and there's no use changing. Pro Tools is a necessity when there's a rig in the studio, but in that case you just get a good engineer".

As a result of their abundant-yet-homeless existence, it was inevitable that infinitely portable soft synths would play a larger songwriting role for Ladytron. For many electronic bands this would not be particularly noteworthy, but it is for a group that made its mark via its commitment to analog synth legends such as the ARP 2600, Solina String synthesizer, Harmonium (with Leslie amp) and Korg MS-10 and MS-20.

"I just think you have to be realistic about it", Hunt states. "If you're traveling a lot and using a laptop to make music, you need soft synths. Soft synths would be of little use to us live, but they're indispensable in the recording process. They sound increasingly good now, and we always combine that with live instruments. But it's not just for tradition's sake: There are things you get from an MS-20 that you couldn't get out of anything else".

"The act of playing an MS-20 in the studio is different from sequencing by putting boxes onto grids", Wu says. "It's not as perfect, but you can hear the groove".

"People are building analog-style instability into soft synths now, but it's a different kind", Hunt adds. "I like the way its converged there. Some people are hardcore about software and say hardware is dead, while other people are ultra-fascistic about the hardware and say that software can't replicate it. I think we're somewhere in between".

Into the fire

Armed with a treasure trove of skeletal demos, the foursome of Ladytron officially concluded Witching Hour touring on 29 September 2007. Their breather would last exactly 96 hours, as the group dove into the studio to sift through two albums' worth of material to begin creating Velocifero, a name that quite appropriately translates to mean "Bringer of Speed".

According to Hunt, the quick return to recording came from an even combination of outside pressure to release a new album and their own eagerness to create. "We toured longer than we expected, and we knew we had to get the record out and keep things moving", he says. "It would have been easy enough to have a break, but it's now four years ago since we recorded Witching Hour. We made this album, and when we get a chance, we're going to record another one pretty quickly — we've basically got another album in reserve with a different feel".

While Witching Hour was recorded in a Liverpool studio with producer Jim Abbiss, the seeds of Velocifero would be sown across the Channel in France. Before hard drives could get spinning for real, however, first came a brief misstep in a record company's in-house studio. The lighting was shot, the air conditioning was running hot, and despite the laid-back nature of Ladytron, the facility was graded unacceptable.

"I had to say, 'I'm sorry, I can't record here'", Marnie recalls. "It was just like a hole. We spent a day in there and said, 'Look, this is a bad idea'. Then we went to The Garage, and it was perfect. The lighting was good".

A spacious garage

In Paris, a little studio called The Garage served as the headquarters for tracking a large proportion of the vocals, as well as the creation of additional demo tracks. What followed from there would be a near nonstop amalgam of writing, recording and mixing, with the band continuing to generate new songs in bursts even as final mixes were being put to bed late in the game. The next stop for this amorphous process was the Parisian Studio de la Grande Armée.

"This place is very old-school", Hunt says. "It was built in 1978. It's modern now with a big SSL room, but the stuff that had been recorded there is pretty funny: Jagger's solo stuff from the '80s, Tina Turner, Murray Head, Duran Duran's Rio, Bryan Adams' Waking Up the Neighbors, OMD — loads of stuff. It was nice and expensive, spacious and comfortable with free Internet — it made us feel important!"

But seriously. "It was vibe-y", Hunt concedes. "This place has got a pedigree, and the plan was to mix there. But when we got there we realized we had loads more to do, and it became a tracking place as well as a mixing place. We planned just to mix what we had, but when we arrived, Helen had gone to Australia and had an operation [on her throat], so we said, 'Let's keep layering'".

Velocifero's opener, "Black Cat", is just one example of the multilayered approach that makes the album stand up to repeated listenings. Extra-crispy bass, perky-dark electric piano pop hooks and Aroyo singing quite seriously in her native Bulgarian set the tone for much of what follows on the disc. "'Black Cat' is a mixture of analog synths, soft synths, a real Korg MS-10 doubled up quite a few times and filtered through some of the custom modules that [mixer] Michael Patterson had", Wu explains. "It also has some xylophone, and the incessant thing is Rhodes".

The in-your-face beat, programmed in the Native Instruments Battery software drum sampler, propels the track relentlessly forward. Lightly infused with a nasty dose of distortion, a close listen to the Ladytron programmers' work reveals subtly effective tricks such as slightly truncated snare samples on the fills — a touch that adds to the rush without technically affecting the tempo.

"Battery is so tweakable", Wu notes. "You can load your own samples. But the main thing is that it's easy to use".

"But it feels like a drum machine as well", Hunt adds. "It's not literally represented like a drum machine, but in terms of what is represented onscreen, it's very logical. I like that you have easy access to the bit depth to nasty things up. The control over the samples is so clear".

Voices carry

Of course, not every sound that shows up on a Ladytron album requires electrical juice to run, like those hauntingly unforgettable vocals by Aroyo and Marnie, for instance. On "I'm Not Scared" there are ooos and ahs that flit to the left and the right around Marnie's arrow-sharp lead; on "Runaway", she pierces through a heavy landscape of growling synth stabs, echoes of her voice peeling away like feathers floating rhythmically out into the air; "Ghosts" confounds as she intones throughout the chorus, "There's a ghost in me who wants to say I'm sorry/Doesn't mean I'm sorry".

Despite their reputation for studio wizardry, the members of Ladytron go blank when asked about the science of capturing vocals — no dissertations on microphones, mic preamps or the proper compressor ratio settings here. Instead, they're content to let the engineer set things up for the art to follow. "We've got two vocalists in Mira and me, and we play off the differences between us", Marnie says. "That way we have another level — my vocal doesn't need to be on the track. When I'm recording at home, I'll use a Shure mic, but when we go out to the studio, it's a variety of microphones".

"Champagne helps for recording a good vocal track", she says, "but you can have a glass too much, and it does go over the edge! [Laughs.] It's important that we're in the right place: The Garage was a good place to record because I felt quite relaxed. It's got the right atmosphere".

"The vocals are what make it sound like Ladytron, honestly", Hunt observes. "Just listen to the difference between ‘Versus'' [the album closer which sees Hunt joining Aroyo and Marnie on vocals] and 'I'm Not Scared', musically. The thing that makes it Ladytron is the voice".

Ladytron also has been known to interact with a real live drum set. The Witching Hour tour saw them traveling with drummer Keith York (as well as bassist Andrea Goldsworthy), and the Velocifero sessions were supplemented by Seba, skinsman for the band Panico. "He came in and laid down a load of tracks", Hunt says. "We sat him there for three hours and said, ‘Go for it'. He's a fan of the band, and we got him to do stuff like Stewart Copeland; that was the catch phrase. He improvised at the end of 'They Gave You a Heart, They Gave You a Name', and the hats on 'Tomorrow', which is very subtle".

No shirt, no shoes, no producer

Although their friends Vicarious Bliss (Ed Banger Records) and Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails) are credited with assisting in the production of the album, the members of Ladytron themselves are the official producers on Velocifero.

"We might have needed a producer on the last album, but we don't need one anymore", Wu says. "Jim Abbiss taught us a hell of a lot on the last album, but the important thing is to work with a really good engineer and mixer. The kind of band we are is we're producers. We're producers from the beginning, although we collaborated a lot with Alessandro Cortini and Vicarious Bliss, and they got production credits".

"This is obvious these days, but everyone produces themselves anyway", Wu continues. "That's what we've done all along, but we've hit a level where you think, 'We'll have to bring a producer in'. But unless they really understand the band, what are they going to bring to it? They're not going to understand it better than you do".

Ladytron acknowledges that they learned at least two important things from Abbiss' efforts on Witching Hour. 1) How to drink vodka gimlets, and 2) the fine art of layering. "Whenever you think you've got enough, you need more!" Hunt says. "You have a lot of frequencies, but make sure they're not doing the same thing. An experienced producer told us that he really liked our first album because it sounded minimalist to them; it's only got four sounds on it, but that's because we didn't have any other sounds".

"I think it's a perception of putting on more layers and giving the impression that there aren't any more layers", Wu explains. "It's a thick sound and a lot of space. The way that 'Runaway' was built up was the product of experience: there's layers of EBow and drones using delays, building vocal textures with delays, recording synth sounds twice and panning them left and right, generally fattening things up like that. Even though we're putting on a lot more layers now, we don't want it to be too much".

"It depends what the layers are; it has to be good stuff", Hunt reasons. "With drones, for example, you play a flat line with a mono synth and a lot of modulation on it, then double it with an EBow, then double it with another keyboard, it's going to sound better if those are the ingredients. It's when people apply it without any taste that you have a problem. So it's really not about how many layers; it's about the right layers".

In pairs

Seven years into a career that hasn't gone the way anybody could have predicted — least of all Ladytron — the band has reached a happy stage where they find they're not just layering tracks, they're layering albums.

"I felt Witching Hour was like a coming-of-age album", Wu muses. "At that point it was the best album that we'd done so far, and basically lots of different factors came together, and we've now created this work that we're really happy with. I see that as a foundation, a whole new set of opportunities to broaden our range again".

"I think it might be that this record was easier to make", Hunt concludes. "It felt like we knew what we were doing a lot. It gets easier each time, but Velocifero also feels like our second album, in a way. The first two albums make a pair, and these two do".

Velocifero: built for speed

Computer, DAW, recording hardware
Apple MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz running Logic Pro 8 (in Alessandro Cortini's studio)
Digidesign Control|24 console (courtesy of Vicarious Bliss)
Digidesign Pro Tools software
Steinberg Cubase SX software

Synths, soft synths, instruments
Analogue Systems French Connection synth
ARP 2600 modular synth, Solina String Synthesizer
Buchla 200e synth
EBow electronic guitar bow
Farfisa organ
Fender Rhodes
JoMoX SunSyn synth
Korg MS-10, MS-20, Delta synths
Moog Minimoog, Voyager synths
Native Instruments Battery software drum sampler, Guitar Rig software, Komplete software bundle
Ovation Breadwinner guitar (with EBow)
Roland MKS-80, SH-09, SH-2 and Juno-6 synths
Phantom 6-string guitar, bass guitar
Sequential Circuits Pro-One synth
Sequential Circuits Prophet VS (courtesy of Daft Punk)
Live drum kit

Mics, mic preamps, EQs, compressors, effects/plug-ins
API 2500 stereo compressor
Crane Song HEDD signal processor (for synth parts)
Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synthesizer effects unit
Neumann TLM 103 mic
Roland RE-201 Space Echo tape echo
Shadow Hills GAMA preamp, The Equinox preamp/summing mixer
Shure SM7 mic (for background vocals)
SoundToys EchoBoy plug-in
Tonelux MP1a preamp, EQ4P EQ and TXC compressor
URS Classic Console Strip Pro plug-in
Various effects pedal combinations

Monitors
Genelec 1031s (courtesy of Vicarious Bliss)
Genelec 8030s

Source

Korg interview

Interview with Daniel Hunt of Ladytron

Most musicians would never admittedly claim their own musical imperfections, but Daniel Hunt of Ladytron feels comfortable with playing what he hears and not what he knows. "I'm no virtuoso on any instrument. I play each instrument my own way. I have zero knowledge of theory, and I have my own names for chords. My music teachers would be turning in their graves", says the multi-instrumentalist and driving force of the band. However, take a listen to any of Ladytron's three full-length albums, or watch as they perform to packed houses worldwide, and a sense of disbelief may cross your mind concerning Daniel's previous statement. Their unique blend of synth-driven, minor-sounding pop evokes the spirit of northern soul and '80s new wave with a modern sensibility catchy enough to acquire fans from any and all age ranges and cultures.

The basis of Ladytron's danceable soundscape revolves around the group's four Korg MS2000B synthesizers. Every member of the group, Reuben, Mira, Helen and Daniel, have their own MS2000B with a name of their choosing written on the back. "We named them to make sound checks easier, not as any kind of statement. Though the interpretations of the names so far have been hilarious", Hunt confesses. Daniel named his "Ulysses", Mira's is "Babylon", Reuben's is "Gloria", and Helen's is called "Cleopatra!"

Ladytron have a passionate preference for vintage analog synths and Daniel says, "It helps that the MS2000B is part of the lineage from the MS10 and MS20 we love so much". A consequence of that love is the abuse brought on from constant travel and use. "Taking the old gear on a world tour eventually costs a fortune in repairs and needless nightmares. It can't take the stresses of every flight and knock". Happily, Daniel is confident in the quality of the newer MS line. Hunt praises, "We got the MS2000Bs because we needed a reliable keyboard to use live that could do all we needed to do. The MS2000Bs haven't let us down".

Along with Ladytron's MS10s, MS20s, and MS2000Bs are many other Korg products in their arsenal, including a Korg Delta, an Electribe•R, and a MonoPoly. And they don't plan on stopping there, as Daniel confirms, "We're about to get a Legacy to play with and to use as a backup".

While Daniel confesses that he had the majority of the first record written before the band's conception, it is now the case that everybody in Ladytron writes. Each member comes from a different mindset, and even different parts of the world. They all met up in Liverpool, England where their personalities and talents meshed together to create one unifying sound and identity. Ladytron are very conscious that they are a single entity and have their collective hand in almost all aspects of the group's image. From their artwork, which early on was done completely by the band, to their style of dress, which has changed from album to album to include military uniforms and futuristic, gothic get-ups. Ladytron works like a well-oiled machine, making constant progress and keeping ahead of the times.

Unlike many of their "electro" contemporaries, who borrow from the great songwriters of the past, Ladytron creates all of their tracks through the use of their instruments. They produce a sonic array of sounds ranging from hard bass-driven beats, to beautiful melodies, to extremely haunting, spacey tones. This, combined with the sensual female vocal stylings of Mira and Helen, creates a rare atmosphere within each of their songs.

Ladytron's latest album, Witching Hour, is their first on a major label. Two previous releases were put out by smaller independents, along with countless EPs and remixes. Daniel made the ultimate goal of the band clear, when he proclaimed it was, "To have an effect, to leave our mark, and to influence others", which in the minds of many they already have.

Source

UberDrivel interview (2007)

I notice a lot of shoegazing influences on Witching Hour. How did this come about? Any thoughts on the apparent shoegaze revival that seems to be going on? (The Jesus and Mary Chain playing at Coachella, Robin Guthrie producing and recording, Kevin Shields saying there will be another MBV record, etc).

We've always been fans of MBV, Chapterhouse, Cocteau Twins, Lush, Ride and Ultra Vivid Scene amongst others. It all still sounds so fresh. As well as that we were listening to bands like the Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Comsat Angels and a load of stuff on the Constellation label. I think there is always a revival of past music every decade or so. It's good because it's like recycling and making it more accessible for fans who would not normally get the chance to hear the original bands.

Ladytron has a large amount of material that's been remixed, as well as contributing a large number of remixes. What impact has this had on when it comes to original material? Any particularly moments of inspiration?

I think remixing others is definitely more of a creative trigger than having music remixed by others. It gives freedom to experiment with a song which has already been written by someone else, and you are pretty much free to do anything you want to it. It's a great way to come up with interesting riffs and patterns that might be incorporated into your own compositions later on. In recent months we've remixed Placebo, Indochine, Blondie, Gang of Four and Bloc Party and I definitely want to do more studio-based work, perhaps soundtracking.

How has touring, particularly with a live drummer and bassist, affected the band? Can you attribute live sound to the denser sound of Light & Magic and especially Witching Hour? How does DJing compare to full-band sets, and has it had any influence on your own music?

Yes, the live sound that we had developed over the years with a live drummer and bassist had developed the way we think about our own music. We finished the touring in 2002 and pretty much had a load of songs ready to be worked on in the studio for Witching Hour. We wanted an album which reflected the way we had grown as live performers, not to produce yet another electro record. I think we succeeded - and whilst we still regard ourselves as electronic, I don't think we see the record as being 'electro'.

What direction do you think the band is heading, as far as new material? When can we expect a new album?

We're working on a 4th album right now whenever we get time off between gigs and I'd say we have well over 20 songs already. Direction-wise I wouldn't like to say until we are in the thick of it all but we definitely want to work with Jim Abbiss again, the producer worked on Witching Hour. Hopefully we should finish it by the Autumn 2007.

Ladytron is a pretty diverse group. How have your different backgrounds affected the creative process? Specifically, I've read that Daniel did most of the songwriting on 604, but it's become a more collective project on the later albums; how did this trend occur?

It's really the individual diversities rather than cultural diversities which has shaped the band. We all pretty much like a lot of similar things but there are areas where we bring something new into the group. I came into the band as a DJ and got more involved that way, so I tend to work a lot on programming and remixing. Regarding songwriting, Witching Hour was the most collaborative effort to date and I think the next album will be even more so. The reason why it was less collaborative then was because all but Daniel had full time jobs and there was only so much time we could commit to the record.

How did this tour with Nine Inch Nails come together? Has Trent Reznor had any influence on style, production, or any other aspect of the band?

Trent made a request for us to support NIN on the UK and European dates. It's a great honour because I listened to them a lot when I was 15 or 16. Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and the Downward Spiral are great albums and they have probably influenced me somewhere along the way. I think we listened to the same kinds of music such as Throbbing Gristle, DAF, Joy Division, Psychic TV, Queen.

There seems to be a somewhat cold aura surrounding the band (whether through the press, visually, or perhaps just our preconceptions about synths and drum machines). What are your thoughts about this? It seems that this was a real stylistic decision, at least initially, but has it changed? For example, was the shift from the 604-era “uniforms” to a more casual dress an effort to dispel these notions?

I agree some of the photos we've had done do give that impression but in all honestly, what bands do you see laughing and smiling? When we play onstage the reason why we can't move around much is because we're all playing synthesizers but we did ditch the uniforms because we felt that they were quite restrictive, both physically and conceptually. It wasn't in an effort to dispel notions, we just wanted to feel more comfortable on stage yet still look like a cohesive group.

Any general thoughts on the state of the music industry or, for that matter, the state of the world? Witching Hour is definitely a dark album, but (without revealing too much) was it in response to outside events or more personal content? I just saw that Mira was interviewed by Peta 2; is more political activism in the future?

I think we're one of those bands who are lucky to have music which has international appeal. This has allowed us to get really interesting gigs all over the world (Russia, China, Brazil, Columbia, Bangkok, Australia) relatively easy. And because of internet communities such as MySpace, it has become possible to play entire tours in regions where we have no support from labels - the interest from the internet has been enough of a medium to fill entire venues with kids who know all the words to our songs, it's a really fantastic situation to be in...

Source

inthemix interview (2009)

So imagine this: You're in a band, one of the UK's most critically acclaimed and infallibly hip electronica bands to be fair. You're just going about your business, touring your latest record, when, out of the blue, you get a phone call from your agent telling you your all-time musical hero has hand-picked you to appear in a musical festival he's curating. On top of this, said appearance is to take place in one of the world's iconic buildings, the Sydney Opera House.

That was the situation facing Ladytron, who took their name from a Roxy Music song which appeared during Eno's brief tenure in that group. The group's keyboard player Daniel Hunt was understandably thrilled by the news, which means they are part of the inaugural Luminous festival which takes place in Sydney this May and June. "A couple of [Eno's] solo albums are probably in most of our top fives. From my point of view Another Green World is one of my favourite albums of all time, so it means a lot to us on a lot of levels".

Currently on tour with dance punks The Faint, Hunt is calling from Asheville, North Carolina – which, he notes with enthusiasm, is the location of the original factory that produces the famous Moog synthesisers. You'd imagine this is something that would appeal more to Ladytron, with their sleek, icy electronic aesthetic, more than their more rock-inclined tour-mates. Still, it's been a successful pairing. Hunt says The Faint is actually the most similar band they've been on the road with. The group has generally made left-field choices for their touring partners, such as CSS, who, Hunt explains were a revelation to audiences unfamiliar with their then-unreleased breakthrough album.

An even more unlikely Ladytron associate is Christina Aguilera, who the band have been collaborating with on her upcoming album. While the initial approach from Aguilera's people came as "a shock", it soon became clear the hugely successful pop star was not merely trying to cash in on Ladytron's indie cool, but was genuinely interested in their back catalogue.

"She was really specific about what elements of our work she wanted to try and harness", Hunt says. "It wasn't just the singles or anything. It was specific album tracks and specific sonic layers and things like that". Four or five songs have already been completed. Hunt describes them as a hybrid between her previous work and Ladytron's, and the latter have enjoyed the process so much that further such collaborations may well be on the cards.

In addition to these new ventures, the four members of Ladytron regularly return to their roots by playing DJ sets. It's something they all did before forming the group and, incidentally, how Hunt met bandmate Rueben Wu. While the former prefers playing "dive-y little parties where you can play whatever you want", Wu and co-vocalist Mira Aroyo are more often found at major dance parties.

Either way, it's a good diversion for the group when they're on tour. They are keen to avoid what they see as the pitfalls of writing while on the move, preferring to regroup after they return home with something apart from life on the road to write about.

Getting the four members together may seem harder now that Hunt has moved to Milan, but he says the logistics of the move have yet to be an issue. "I can get to London more cheaply and more quickly by plane from Milan than I can by train from Liverpool, which I used to do before, so it's really not a problem".

It's also been a positive lifestyle change, allowing Hunt to escape what he saw as an increasingly aggressive mentality in England. "It's got a lot of things going for it and a lot of good people, but it wasn't for me", he muses of his homeland. "It's difficult to have a comfortable lifestyle there, in the city, because there's trouble around the corner all the time... Even in places around the world that people live in and consider to be rough, it's just not the same as the absolutely random violence in Britain".

While considered expensive and somewhat unlovable by many Italians, Hunt couldn't happier with his adopted homeland and its more laidback attitude. "When people go out [in Milan] they want to enjoy themselves, rather than requiring some kind of physical interaction… Anyway, that's my rant over [laughs]. I don't think the average Australian needs any encouragement to have a downer on Britain, so I won't encourage it!"

Source

Baltimore City Paper interview (2003)

Feels good / Looks good / Sounds good / Looks good / Feels good too / Feels good too (Uh-huh that's right)

With those lyrics from its almost 2-year-old but soon-to-be-domestically-released debut, #1, New York's flamboyant performance-art troupe Fischerspooner recorded what has become almost a mantra for electroclash, a movement with roots in New York but whose influence has been felt throughout the States and Europe. New York's most outfitted outfit has become one of the global figureheads in a widely thrown network whose electric catchall has tangled together the genuinely innovative, an orgy of fashionista mannequins, and a handful of acts who wondered if they were just getting fucked. What if being lumped in with a movement--two-thirds of which now makes no pretensions of being anything more than superficial--didn't feel good, too?

From press photos, Ladytron co-founder, songwriter, and keyboardist Reuben Wu appears to be a good-looking guy. Actually, all the members of the Liverpool-based electropop (stress on the "pop") act have a good look going for them. But fashion isn't a primary concern of Ladytron. If anything, Ladytron's members prefer not to be associated with 2002's most fashionable tag, electroclash. With an eye toward the haters that follow the hype, they shy away from a movement torn between establishing character or simply characters. Because if there is one thing Ladytron doesn't want to be, it's last year's model.

"The electroclash Web site often says things under band names like, 'Great music and model looks,'" says Wu by phone from the United Kingdom. "Who cares about being a model? It's about being in a band making music you want to make. That was irritating to us because we were lumped in as the electroclash counterpart in England, as if we'd contributed and were following that movement. Which is the opposite of what happened".

As so often happens, a style quickly began to threaten substance as more musicians clicked into cliques and jumped on bandwagons. Ladytron, in turn, distanced itself. Its members, which founded the group around the University of Liverpool, consider themselves to be following a Liverpudlian tradition of seclusion.

"When we wrote [Ladytron's 2001 debut full-length] 604, it was in relative isolation", Wu says. "I'm not saying no one anywhere was also doing what we were doing--there were a lot of artists producing with attitude, and we identify with Chicks on Speed, Miss Kittin and The Hacker, Tiga--but here there was nothing similar at the time. And we in no way were following, or at the time associated with, things happening in New York. We've always been as much into '60s pop as '80s. We've never been hard into Kraftwerk or Gary Numan or any of that. It really just is the instrumentation that bridges us with that era".

With no plans to jettison its oscillating analog synths, Ladytron used other means to avoid being too closely associated with current trends when recording its sophomore release, 2002's Light & Magic.

"We knew it was going to be quite a critical point in our path to come up with an album after [the rise of] electroclash", Wu says. "So during last spring and summer, when electroclash came up, we were producing in [Los Angeles] completely away from all of it. The songs were pretty much in various states of completion, but recording in the sunny context of L.A. gave us new perspectives [on them]".

"We had a hire car, and at first we'd drive around putting The Beach Boys on the radio", he continues. "But we realized that The Beach Boys weren't working for us, while playing Joy Division was. Which, in a way, was exactly what we were doing with our own music, taking these songs written in the north of England and taking them to where there's no such thing as a gray day, which allowed them to benefit from being put in, appropriately, a different light".

While Light & Magic isn't exactly warm, California glistens through the more densely layered sweeps and swing. Tracks such as "Cracked LCD" and "Turn It On" feel detached, but the songs featuring breathy vocalists Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo are imbued with more gauzy soft focus than frigid friction. The album holds more of the dynamic tension, the futuristic fascination and dread, that marked the cusp of '80s new wave but is now missing from much of what's called electroclash. Tracks thump ("True Mathematics"), bounce ("Seventeen", "Blue Jeans"), and squirm ("NuHorizons", "Cease2xist"). There is rigid motorik plod ("Fire") but also almost-house pulsing ("Flicking Your Switch").

The album is never dirgelike but has a cohesive duskiness. What it lacks are immediately apparent standout singles. "Light & Magic has more of a narrative, something that bridges it together if you listen in one go, even though every song on there is completely different", Wu says. "604 now feels more like a compilation".

With a more focused album under its belt, however, Ladytron is turning to compilations as a means to further flesh out its image. "We're putting out a compilation album on Emperor Norton in spring of records we like and DJ", Wu says. "Sort of a Ladytron Back to Mine, a look at what's on our decks. It's a mix of old and new stuff, like 'Horsepower' by CJ Bolland, 'Temporary Secretary' by Paul McCartney, 'Surrender' by Cheap Trick. When we first came out, people thought we were really into Human League and that was that. They saw the synthesizers and saw we didn't do much onstage but play, and people concluded we were just '80s revivalists. It's only now that people are thinking we're more than that. This compilation should be an important record for us and [should] give people a bit more of an understanding of what we're about".

Ladytron is also trying to augment its image with its live show. Having recently added a bass player and a drummer to achieve a harder-hitting set, the band members took kindly to comments that they sounded more brutal. "Too many bands stand with their laptop and have a vocalist talking into a microphone", Wu says. "Because it's electronic, people don't give a shit if it sounds like the record, but the point I've been trying to make all along is we're not just 'an electronic act.' We're a band".

And that's how Ladytron wants to be seen: as a singular entity, not just a piece of flotsam in the tide. "Acts came along, and people acted as if [they] could all be lumped in one speech bubble", Wu says. "Then people started producing music just for the speech bubble. The fashion got high profile in many magazines, but as the 'movement' received exposure the music got dumbed down to just needing a drum machine, some analog bass lines, and cold female vocals. And if you put some feathers in your hat, you could be electroclash. We'd rather make it fashionable again to concentrate on the music".

Source

Video Vision interview (2002)

Krautrock, synthpop, electroclash, techno, new wave - the labels pasted on Ladytron neither replace nor augment the live experience:
Four subjects reciting stark lyrics in robotic voices while pressing soft hands against wailing human keyboards. The four original members, with a live drummer and bassist, master Bimbo's stage and hypnotize an audience starving for pop music without the bullshit. The energy derives from the music, the performers, and the audience feedback, showing San Francisco that Bimbos is not just a guitar kingdom.

Arriving after an exhausting 26 hour bus ride from Vancouver I am amazed at the tightness and clarity of sound coming out of this Liverpool synth group. Mira and Helen in the forefront, stone cold expressions while they release sounds of tension, frustration, passion, and for a band with such a mechanical image, expressions of love. While the band regroups midway into the show I witness a giddy fan waving at Mira. The singer/keyboardist returns the wave with a slight nod and two-fingered salute. These body gestures, which some might interpret as cold, communicate to the fan a return to her musical cockpit, leading this audience into the anticipated next millennium.

Danny and Reuben stand behind the singers, still as tree trunks, to orchestrate their choral movement while locked into a state of dark musical bliss. Nothing can distract the two from fingers touching synthesizers, processors, and mixers. The smooth sounds reverberating from their keyboards supports the energy of their message.

I've heard the proclamation of an 80's resurgence in our present-day music culture, with Ladytron a leading group. But didn't Kraftwerk begin creating these sounds in the 70's? Hopefully Ladytron will continue driving in their musical cockpit expressing ideas of re-birth, a cycle that ignores image and style.

"There is nothing new anymore, only that which has been forgotten." --Pablo Ferro

Reuben and Mira set some time aside before the Bimbo's show to answer some questions about artistic expression, music videos, booty, champagne, and white fur coats.

(Rueben) I'm Rueben and I play keyboards. (Mira) I'm Mira, vocals & keyboards also.

(Video Vision) How did you guys meet? Who met who? What was the idea behind Ladytron when you first met up?

(Reuben) I kind-of knew Danny in Liverpool, we're both from Liverpool... basically from seeing each other in the same clubs and shops in Liverpool. Later we met up with Helen, who was a music student at Liverpool University. And later we met up with Mira through a mutual friend.

(Video Vision) Is there a standard process in your creative process? Does one person write the lyrics and another write the music or is it all collaborative?

(Mira) With 604, our first record, that was primarily done by Danny because he handles the Freddy. With this one (Light & Magic) it's a lot more collaborative but there's no standard process. Every song comes out differently.

VV : Was the succes of 604, an unexpected surprise? Had you planned on continuing on with Ladytron after you made that album?

(Reuben) We didn't really know what to expect at all when we were making that album. At the time we all had full-time things that we were already doing.

(Video Vision) So it started more like a side project?

(Reuben) Well, not really, but... (Mira) It was more like taking things one at a time, and just seeing what happens. (Reuben) It was something that was just there. We never thought that it was, that we were, going to get to a certain place, it just happened. So in a way it was very surprising.

(Video Vision) Reuben, I've seen you do a DJ set here in SF at the Cat Club. It seemed influenced by Ladytron, but you also did other stuff with a different style than Ladytron. Do all four of you continue your own side projects?

(Reuben) We all DJ now, and we all play different music. So it's always interesting to hear what each of us (individually) have to play. And also to have a look at the difference between the first record and the second record and hear all of the new combined elements in there now.

(Video Vision) Do you see Ladytron as your main gig though?

(Mira, Reuben) Yeah, there's no time for anything else now. (Mira) We come off tour on Monday and we're in London for a four day break, but during that time we have to go to Paris, and after four days we start a new European tour. There's not enough time to do your laundry let alone start another band. (Reuben) We may as well just sit on the tour bus (for 4 days) and just wait for it to begin again.

(Video Vision) Are you happy with that right now?

(Reuben) Yeah! We're very lucky, it's a very good thing to do.

(Video Vision) Regarding artists and image, do you feel it's necessary to label music with a certain style or name? For instance, the music magazines are calling Ladytron "the next best group in electro synth pop". Do you think categorizing music is useful or just a marketing ploy towards the consumers?

(Mira) Well it's categorizing by the media or an industry for a marketing ploy, and definitely not categorizing by the band. There's no need to narrow yourself down in any way, and putting labels (on the band and music) really narrows you. Plus, we've always just done our own thing, and never been the "next thing" in anything. We don't know what we're going to do. (Reuben) Categorizing can helpful to the extent that it gives a new-comer pointers to new bands, labels and influences. But it gets taken a bit too far when people say "ALL THIS" equals one thing, and that's when it gets a bit frustrating.

(Video Vision) I read an interview which expressed surprise that Danny is interested in soccer... I suppose there was a surprise because it didn't fit in the image of the band.

(Mira) But that's some kind of image that people have imprinted on us. (Reuben) It is weird... it's stuff which is absorbed by the media which is reabsorbed into us and it becomes this never ending circle... (Mira) You have to face up to things which are said about you all the time and it's... (Reuben) We're always reading things which are written about us and it's... (Mira) It's funny. (Reuben) Yeah, it's funny.

(Video Vision) So there's no concern that you have to fit this certain image if you want to stay...

(Mira) No! Not at all. (Reuben) If anything, it makes it more exciting really. (Mira) And it makes us want to break that image a bit more, really.

(Video Vision) So about your music videos... With your video for "Seventeen", the director, David Chaudoir, was there a lot of collaboration between the band, and the director and the concept for the video?

(Mira) A little bit, but at first people approached us with different treatments. And one day we read about 20 of them, and most of them were absolutely abysmal - like really literal and they were really funny. It's a bit difficult reading treatments, I guess, and the one we chose is the one we didn't laugh at. So we decided to persevere with it and we met the guy and talked about it. It was the one that fit the song the best because it's not really in your face and it doesn't define and narrow the song down to anything. It kind-of leaves things open, which is the way we feel about the song as well. (Reuben) I think we're quite unwilling to write a brief and give it to everyone because they'll all come back with the same idea. And it's always nice to see other interpretations, because it's not just our interpretation which matters, it's the listener. (Mira) It's also important to us to not be over interpreted, and this video was not over interpreted (whereas others were). We kind of wanted a booty based video, but we didn't really get away with it. This one has a bit of it but... (Reuben) Yeah, we wanted champagne and white fur coats... (Mira) We wanted big guns and low rider cars but...

(Video Vision) When you saw it for the first time, did it trigger something in you similar to when you created the song like "this is what I saw it as"?

(Mira) We do everything for the day. And every time we play "Seventeen" or hear it, it becomes a different thing, because it's in a different situation. So it's not about nostalgia because every time you hear it you feel something different about it. So when we recorded "Seventeen", we were just having a laugh while we were doing it rather than thinking how it would look or feel later on.

(Video Vision) What do you think about music videos? Do you see them as a necessary promotional tool for bands trying to survive or even make it?

(Reuben) I don't think it's a necessary evil. It's going to be an even more important part of songs... music that can be bought by people. With all the issues regarding piracy, I think the record companies need to start thinking about putting more value into what people actually buy - what they take home, rather than just the music itself. (Mira) It's also really great because most musicians are really visual and it's great to be able to play around with it as well, so it's good fun for musicians.

(Video Vision) Given that there's only four lines in "Seventeen", was that a primary concept for the video, to reflect that sparseness?

(Mira) Yes, the sparseness of the video is very much linked to the sparseness of the song. But it kind of grows in a different way... like we came up with four lines which we thought were strong, so there was no point in putting other stuff around it.

(Video Vision) Your work with Interpol, and the remix of "Blue Jeans" - is that true that it's only going to be a UK release? How did that come about?

(Reuben) For now it's only for UK release, we're not sure about the US. We just hooked up with them somehow, befriended them. When we get some free time (haha) we're going to do the remix of their song. We're not sure which one, we'll see.

(Video Vision) Is there an instrument or kind of keyboard that you could call the base of the Ladytron sound?

(Reuben) I use an MS-10, because I tend to play more bass lines live. (Mira) I use the MS-20 all the time. Everyone uses something different.

(Video Vision) Do you tend to experiment more when you're in the studio or playing a live show? What's the major differences between playing live and studio sets?

(Reuben) I think we experiment quite a bit more when we're jamming on stage. Because after playing them so much, you get to know songs really well, so you start to explore and experimenting with them. And you end up thinking, "that could be a new song... "

(Video Vision) Do you read the audience at all when you're experimenting or (are you) into your own thing?

(Mira) It's more like being into your own thing, and how you feel. And it depends what kind of sound you're getting from the stage; sometimes you'll hear new things from that place, or you can make a mistake and like it.

(Video Vision) Mira, you were studying genetics at Oxford? Are you still doing that?

(Mira) I was writing up, but it's kind-of taken a back seat. I haven't written anything for six or seven months. (Reuben) You shouldn't be saying that on TV? (Mira) My professor's too busy reading papers to watch television.

Source

Chachi Jones interview (2001)

Last year Ladytron's landmark release 604 turned the independent music world on its ear. Keeping company with electropop predecessors such as Stereolab, Add N to X, Saint Etienne and Chicks on Speed, Ladytron's rise to underground acclaim was the musical masterstroke to defining a future-retro genre centered around breathy female vocals, vintage analog synthesizers and simple pop song structures.

This Liverpool, England four-some have got a new release entitled Light & Magic on Emperor Norton Records that plays like an encore performance of 604 and is packed with infectious pop singles poised for college radio superstardom. I got the chance to interview Daniel Hunt, one of the main masterminds behind Ladytron' sound and their main songwriter.

Did Ladytron start out as one person's concept or did it grow out of improvisation among all of you?

The shape of the band grew from the way all four of us are, and what we each brought to it. It wasn't planned as such.

What do you think makes your melancholy, computer-girl style so appealing?

It's instinctive at our end... that's important. It isn't some kind of high-concept. It just feels right. The songs are sad to some, to others they're optimistic. All that's true is that there is some energy in the songs themselves, not just the production.

What are the most important tools for you in your studio?

The hard drive. The synths. We're quite fetishistic about the keyboards, but we look beyond them... there are live drums, guitars and bass on the new record.

What's so great about living in Liverpool?

Low cost of living. Small scene. Lots of choices. Nice girls.

What inspires you to write new songs?

Moments of inactivity.

How does Ladytron manage to perform live? Are you all behind synthesizers like Kraftwerk?

We're all behind synthesizers but not like anyone in particular... it's just the only way to reproduce the music live... it's fair to say that most people are just playing P.A.s to a DAT nowadays... which is sometimes enough when it's all about the show, but we're anti-spectacle really. I enjoy the music being created. Watching someone create the music is more appealing to me than any stage theatrics... If you'll excuse the post punk analogy, we're probably more like Joy Division, as opposed to say... The Tubes.

What's the best record for robots to copulate to? Metal Machine Music?

I'm not sure, probably Telstar by The Tornados.

What's the worst thing about the current state of pop music?

I don't pay much attention, but I've always enjoyed the occasional guilty pop pleasure... there is good stuff there. Some of it is dismissed for being popular and accessible. If we had all had that attitude 30 years ago we would be staring into the void right now.

Who's the biggest synth gearhead in the band?

It's probably me, though Reuben and Mira have unhealthy obsessions, their MS-20s etc. Helen is a lot more realistic.

How did your sound develop? Were any of you guys in rock bands before or have you always played electronic-based music?

I was in a couple guitar based bands... my first group sounded like My Bloody Valentine or something, I still love that stuff.

You guys seem like you're ripe to be remixed by other producers, are there any projects in the works?

There's always lots of mixes going on. We're also remixing ourselves for a possible remodels album. That's actually going to be interesting.

If synthesizers were people, what synthesizer would you most like to have a night of cheap sex with?

Octave Kitten.

How would characterize the typical Ladytron fan?

I don't think there is one. Our concerts are normally a mixture of old synth heads and teenage girls so perhaps somewhere between the two?

What do you want Ladytron to be remembered for?

Songs.

Is love best when it's bitterseet?

It makes better copy when it is either on the rocks, or unrequited. I wouldn't say that makes it best, but nobody wants to hear about how great somebodys relationship is... they just want to watch the car crash.

Source

Drowned in Sound interview (2011)

Although recognised by many as an integral part of the electroclash scene that welcomed in the early part of the last decade, the story of Ladytron actually predates that whole fad by several years. Having formed in Liverpool at the back end of the 1990s, the foursome of Helen Marnie, Reuben Wu, Mira Aroyo and Danny Hunt set about creating music that would be seen as an alternative to the current alternative. Influenced by electronic music, krautrock and kitsch pop as much as traditional guitar bands, it was no surprise that when their debut long player 604 first saw the light of day in 2001 it was greeted like a long lost relative from another continent, its contents sounding like nothing else either of the present or from the past fifteen years or so.

Ten years and three subsequent albums later, Ladytron still confound and surprise in equal measures, whether that be with 2005's shoegaze-tinged Witching Hour or most recent long player, Velocifero, released in 2008 and heralded by critics as their most radio-friendly pop record to date. Later this year, the band will release their as-yet untitled fifth album, with a career-spanning Best Of also due beforehand mid-summer.

It's a pleasant January morning and Reuben Wu is in a buoyant mood, the forthcoming record finally completed. Ever the eternal optimists ourselves, DiS are on-hand armed with a sackful of questions for our only-too-willing participant to breeze through. And gracefully he does...

It's been nearly three years since your last album. What have you been up to in the meantime?

Well, we actually just finished the new record about a month ago. I've just been adding a few bits and pieces here and the odd remix there. We're still kind of busy preparing for the album's release and stuff, gradually easing into the new year!

When the band started over a decade ago, did you still expect to be sat here in 2011 talking about pending Best Of compilations and album number five?

I really had no expectations to be honest. At the time when we formed the band we all had other things going on and so Ladytron wasn't really the biggest thing in our lives. From that point on it just grew really. I remember being surprised by the first few years of our existence, from where something we were just doing as a hobby then turned into us getting NME Single of the Week, and then we had interest from America and ended up signed to an American label. It was like a quick succession of very pleasant surprises really, so to still be here making music after eleven years is more something that we've grown to get used to rather than plan for. Thinking about it, I guess it is quite shocking actually!

It's fair to say you had a major influence on a lot of electronic music this past decade, and also the underground dance scene. Do you have any regrets in some ways that other artists perhaps enjoyed the commercial success Ladytron paved the way for as opposed to the critical acclaim you've amassed over this time?

We have no regrets. The way we've developed as a group and as individual artists has been quite an evolution really. We've never had hype, and although musically similar we never really saw ourselves as part of the whole electroclash movement, even though it was very big at the time. I think the thing about electroclash was that every artist associated with it was actualy quite reluctant to be involved with the scene. I think most of us were grouped together because the music we were all making was very different from what had recently come before. It felt like a template for more individualistic sounds rather than generic rock and roll or house music. We saw ourselves as trying to inject some kind of character into the music scene at that time, so were resentful of being seen as part of a collective movement when that really wasn't the case. Also, every artist was very different from each other. The only thing we all had in common was that we preferred using synthesizers to guitars in a rock and pop context. It was quite a disparate movement really, although it did make using synthesizers cool again in that environment. Obviously it had happened before in the early 1970s and a lot of our inspiration was taken from that. Even though Electroclash soon died a death, as every fad does, it had a long lasting impact on pop music in general which can still be heard today. At the time we were constantly having to defend ourselves against journalists asking us to justify why we used synthesizers.

It's interesting you say that, particularly about the synth era of the 1970s. Do you see Ladytron as having more in common with progressive artists from that period like Brian Eno - the band being named after a Roxy Music song - and Emerson, Lake & Palmer as opposed to the New Romantic groups of the 1980s?

I think that's possibly true. We listen to and like a lot of music. We're all much bigger fans of German progressive rock from the sixties and seventies like Can, Neu! and Harmonia than the music that came along in the eighties. I think some people kind of decided that we were some kind of 1980s revival band. They saw the keyboards and made that conclusion without really listening to the music. We have drawn influences from that era too - a lot of music made around that time was incredible - but to me it just seemed an easy comparison to make.

One of the reasons why Ladytron have stood the test of time must be down to the fact that you've managed to transgress so many different styles and genres of music. Where do you see yourselves in the broader spectrum?

That's a question which has always been difficult for us to answer. It would be impossible to just simplify our music to that extent, but on sites like MySpace for example where we have to put little catchphrases describing our music we just put "electronic pop". I guess that's the most direct and easiest to understand reference for who we are and what we do.

You've also never really been fashionable in a sense where you could drift out with any particular passing fad. Was that something you were consciously aware of?

Yeah, we always knew we never wanted to be an obscure underground band. We never purposely wanted people not to listen to our music. We want to get our music out there as much as possible, but at the same time we're never going to compromise our sound just to infiltrate the mainstream. Because we've never had a massive rush of hype behind us; if anything, it's been more of a stable trajectory for us and as long as people still know who we are that's fine. It's funny, I got stopped by the police while I was on my bike in Brick Lane yesterday. He was a plain clothed police officer and he showed me his badge and I was like "Oh fuck, he's going to tell me off for riding on Brick Lane because it's too crowded!" and actually he said "Excuse me, you're riding a very expensive Bronson bicycle and I was just wondering where you bought it from as there have been a lot of thefts in the area recently and we'd just like to check the number on the frame." He obviously thought I'd stolen my own bike - I was wearing a gore-tex waterproof jacket so maybe I did resemble your average bicycle thief - so while he was checking my details and awaiting confirmation from the station he asked me why I'd purchased such an expensive model. When I answered that the main reason was that it folds up and I can take it on tour with me he asked if I was in a band, and I quite reluctantly said "Yeah". He then asked which band and when I replied "Ladytron", he went "Ladytron!?! I know Ladytron, I saw you play with Nine Inch Nails in Brixton and you were amazing, so in that case, I believe you, you can go!" So the moral of that story is if a policeman stops you on suspicion of theft, tell him you're a member of Ladytron and everything will be alright!

When I hear songs like 'Sugar' they remind me of My Bloody Valentine, particularly the layered backing track, which is very Loveless orientated. Were they an influence on the way you recorded and produced that song?

The whole of the Witching Hour album to be honest is influenced by Loveless. When we were writing that record it was pretty much all we listened to. I remember when Loveless first came out and thinking it was the weirdest, craziest collection of sounds I'd ever heard, and it stuck with me all the way through. I think by the time we'd gotten round to putting Witching Hour together, it had become embedded in our musical consciousness. I can see why you'd mention 'Sugar' as that layered sound is most prevalent on that track actually. We had quite a funny experience recording the song as well. To get that guitar sound we had to use a whammy bar, but it wasn't a plucked string. We used an E-Bow instead to sustain it to infinity. Danny (Hunt) was holding the guitar with the note and the other hand on the whammy bar, whereas I had one hand on the E-bow and the other on the whammy bar...it's definitely something we wouldn't be able to repeat on stage!

You've worked and played with numerous reputable artists from all fields and genres of music. Who would you say stands out the most for you and why?

The ones which really stood out for us would have to be Nine Inch Nails. We toured all over the UK and Europe with them back in 2007, and because they're such a huge band we were actually quite shocked at how bands at that level operate, y'know with seven tour buses and their own catering...

How did you become involved with Nine Inch Nails?

Trent Reznor's a fan of the band, and he got in touch with our management. At the time we were in the throes of our North American tour so we were already on the road, then suddenly this invitation to support Nine Inch Nails came in. Our first impressions were like "Woaahhh...how are we going to do this?" It would mean us literally having one day off in between both tours to sort all our kit and then be ready to get back on the road again, so it was all a bit frantic. We were also a little worried about what kind of reaction we'd get from these hardcore Nine Inch Nails when they see us and hear us play our first song. We honestly thought there was a chance we'd get bottled offstage, but what we found were a bunch of really receptive and open-minded fans everywhere we played. I think there's much more in common between our band and Nine Inch Nails than people realise. We seem to like pretty much the same music and we share the same kinds of instrumentation. The only difference is they seem to have been accepted by the metal genre whereas to us they're an experimental electronic orientated band.

One other link between both bands has to be that while no two albums by either artist sound the same, both of you are also very distinctive in your own right.

Yeah definitely. I was a massive fan of Nine Inch Nails back in the day. Pretty Hate Machine is an absolute classic, so I guess it was only natural for there to be some kind of overlap where we were concerned. It was an amazing experience, and we made so many new friends on that tour, particularly Alessandro Cortini who was their keyboard player and ended up working on our last two albums.

If you had to choose an album as being THE definitive Ladytron record which would it be?

I think the classic record would be Witching Hour because it showed where we were musically at the time after lots of hard touring. Also, the general rule is that you only really become yourselves as a band after the third album. The second record is always said to be the "difficult" one, so if you get to that third record you should also find your identity. It was a record we wrote after spending a long time on the road and during that period we'd changed from being what was initially quite fragile sounding. We changed the way we played live, took a drummer and bass player on tour, brought more guitars into the set and playing the music at that time became more of an influence to us than simply trying to replicate what was already on record. I guess looking back, we were still learning on the road and figuring out what kind of band we really wanted to become, and Witching Hour documents that period succinctly.

It's certainly a very different record to your first album 604 for example. How would you go about replicating some of those songs live now, or has a lot of that material gradually disappeared from the set over time?

There are some songs from that era we wouldn't play any more. Songs like 'Paco!' for example were of their time and just don't really fit in with what we're about these days. We still include things like 'Playgirl' and 'He Took Her To a Movie', although we don't play them in the same format as they sound like on the album. Even going back to 2002/2003, we'd started to develop most of those bands for playing live by adding more drums, more bass and more processed synthesizer sounds, and we've continued to do so ever since. Basically we want them to be as powerful as the songs from Witching Hour. It almost feels like that record signifies the point where we finally became the band we wanted to be when we started back in 1999.

Your sound has developed in many ways over time. We haven't really touched on Light & Magic but that represents a giant leap forward from 604, then Witching Hour moving things further before Velocifero almost brings you back full circle being arguably your most pure pop record to date. Would you agree with that?

I don't know to be honest. The word "poppy" wouldn't really come into my mind that much when I think of Velocifero. I see it as being more progressive or psychedelic in many ways. We definitely came full circle in terms of using predominantly electronic sounds, almost by way of a reappraisal of what we'd left behind with Witching Hour. I think Velocifero sounds bigger than any of its predecessors. By that point we'd become a lot more competent in the studio, more collaborative as a work and possibly even better songwriters as well. For me I'd have to say it's my favourite album as opposed to definitive in terms of the whole band, and possibly our most diverse as well.

Moving onto the present, you've just finished recording the new record. Does it have a title yet?

Gravity the Seducer.

And a projected release date?

Not exactly no. Hopefully it will be out before the end of 2011 but we've got the Best Of album coming out first.

How would you describe the new record in terms of sound compared to your previous albums?

I think it's a moodier album. There's definitely a lot more space in this record than on Velocifero for example. It's more expansive, yet understated at the same time. I wouldn't say it's downtempo but it's definitely not as hard as some of our previous albums either.

Your forthcoming single 'Ace of Hz', is that quite representative of the band's current sound and will that feature on the new album?

It will be on the new record, although I'd say it is probably the least representative track on the entire album! It's actually quite an old song from the Witching Hour era, although production-wise it does fit in well with the rest of Gravity the Seducer. It's difficult to put into words how this record sounds except to say it isn't anything like Velocifero. I've listened to the finished version of the album so many times now that I just want to put it away for a while.

Regarding the Best Of, how did you arrive at the final tracklisting?

It was quite difficult. We had a lot of different options. We could have just put all the singles on in chronological order, and to be fair, a lot of the singles are on the compilation, but if we'd just done that it would have been a bit of a cop out. I think all of the tracks on the Best Of could have been singles anyway. The second disc on the deluxe edition is my favourite because it's mainly comprised of b-sides and obscure tracks which very few people have heard, plus there's a whole load of remixes and a photo booklet of behind the scenes and tour footage.

Will there be any surprise omissions?

There'll always be surprises for people. "Oh I can't believe you missed out 'Paco!'... it's my favourite... I'm not buying it!". No, 'Paco!' isn't going to be on the record!

I read somewhere that you were all based in different parts of Europe. Is that still the case and if so, what kind of strain does that put on the band in terms of writing, recording and rehearsing?

At one point, Danny was living in Milan, I was based in Liverpool and the two girls Mira and Helen in London. At the moment, I'm also spending more time in London but Danny's all over the place. He's actually in Brazil at the minute. We have to organise things very meticulously. When it comes to recording or rehearsing we tend to book a week or two in a studio where everyone can get to. Velocifero we recorded in Kent for example, and we managed to lay the whole album down in literally a couple of weeks, so once we are all together the process is pretty straightforward and manageable. Each person will have their own pieces beforehand and once everyone is happy with their bit, that's when we collaborate as a band to bring it all together.

With the power of hindsight, if there was anything about the past decade you could change about Ladytron, what would it be and why?

When I listen to how we sound as a live band now, I think we've really upped our game and improved beyond recognition, because when we first started out I think we were absolute shite! Most of that was down to a lack of knowledge in using the technology we had. We could record in the studio but live so many things went wrong.

I remember the first time I saw you at Dot To Dot in Nottingham back in 2005...

Oh God I remember that! Helen lost her voice, the sound was awful, and thinking about it now that is quite possibly the worst show we've ever played! We had to cut out all of Helen's songs actually... I'd like to think we've learned from experiences like that to become the band we are now.

Is that show the main reason why you haven't played Nottingham since?

No, not at all. I think it's just more a logistical thing to be honest. We just don't tend to go on big tours as much as we used to, while at the same time still trying to take in as many countries as possible. It's really strange because we seem to attract much bigger crowds in the USA than anywhere in the UK.

Why do you think that is?

I don't know, except that from the very start the Americans seem to have got us. I think they see us as being quintessentially British whereas with an indie rock band from this country the general perception over there is that they're just trying to be American. We're not conventional in the sense we aren't a normal band like your average four boys with guitars and it seems to have worked in our favour over there. We played a show with Brian Eno at Sydney Opera House a few years ago and Eno said that bands like Ladytron made him proud to be British, which is possibly the greatest compliment anyone has ever paid us.

Finally, are there any plans to tour this year?

Again, we'd like to think so, although that's looking more likely as though it will coincide with the release of the new record rather than the compilation.

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DailyWhatNot interview (2011)

At Djarum Super Mild: Djakarta Warehouse Project '11, we interviewed the English electronic band Ladytron (Reuben Wu, Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt, minus Mira Aroyo). It's kinda silly!

DailyWhatNot (DWN): How much Roxy Music means to you?
Daniel Hunt (DH): It's obviously a band we like, but the band name is more of a coincidence than anything else. But Brian Eno is obviously someone who we've been in contact with and that meant a lot to us. But if you listen to our music, I don't think you could hear a lot of Roxy Music in it.

DWN: What's the big difference on being 17 and 21? Is it really like your Seventeen song?
Helen Marnie (HM): I don't think there's much difference. 17 you're younger, 21 you're older.
DH: But there's a big difference between 21 and 36.
HM: Hahaha! I think you're still fun really on 21.
DH: It was just someone else's opinion, not ours.

DWN: You guys are Liverpudlians rite?
HM: The boys are.
DWN: So, Liverpool F.C. or Everton F.C.?
DH: Liverpool of course! If we supported Everton we wouldn't be here in Jakarta.
HM: I'm not from the Liverpool but I supported Liverpool as well over Everton.

DWN: Which new artist do you like now?
Reuben Wu (RW): I've been listening to Connan Mockasin. I'm not sure where he's from, but he's a singer/songwriter, sounds kinda like early Bowie stuff.
DH: I really like a band called Other Lives. Their record this year is been my favorite so far.
HM: I quite like the kind of fun aspect like Foster the People, like catchy fun stuff.
DH: For a big mainstream record that's really good.
DWN: Foster the Hipster!
Ladytron: Hahaha!
DH: Foster the Hipster, I like that, hahaha!

DWN: Do you guys care about Kate Middleton's pregnancy rumor that been going on for months?
DH: No.
HM: Care about what?
DH: Kate Middleton is apparently pregnant but we don't really care, hahaha!
HM: No, I don't care, hahaha! But I'm very happy for them.

DWN: Which of your song had the biggest impact for your music career?
DH: Destroy Everything You Touch is probably the biggest. In terms of all of the action we get when we play it anywhere in the world. It's the one that everybody knows.
HM: And people consider it to be our biggest hit.
RW: But there are a lot fan favorites though, like the first single Playgirl and He Took Her to a Movie was very important at the time.
DH: They got us attention.
HM: I think Playgirl and Seventeen are probably are the big ones majority people know and people always want to hear when we play at a concert.

DWN: Who do you really wanna see tonight at Djakarta Warehouse Project '11?
Ladytron: Jazzy Jeff.
DH: We met him at breakfast.

DWN: What or who influenced you in music?
DH: It's too many things, it's like now, it used to be an easy question to answer what music do you like maybe 20 years ago when you're in school or something, cause you normally like one thing, you like one band and you wanna have every record, but I couldn't describe what music I like and I haven't been able to for at least 10 years, it's impossible. Hmm, you can pick out a couple of bands you've like over the years or that they've been important to you but they don't themselves constitutes and influenced, so I don't know, it's really the hardest question, it's impossible.

DWN: You guys know Trent Reznor right?
HM: Yeah, we toured with Nine Inch Nails.
DWN: How is he like?
HM: He's a serious guy.
RW: He's loads of fun. He loves throwing jokes.
DWN: So he's serious or a joker?
RW: He's a serious joker.
HM: Hahaha!
RW: You should've seen his dressing room on the last tour.
Ladytron: Hahaha!
DH: He's a nice guy and he was helpful to us, but he's a serious guy.
HM: He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. He was nice to us, so it's cool.

DWN: Is this your first time in Jakarta?
HM: It's my first time.
DH: And me too.
RW: I've been here before with Mira.
HM: I saw a monkey here!
DWN: Where?
HM: On the street.
DWN: With the doll mask?
HM: No.
RW: Do they make the masks themselves?
DWN: Hahaha! Come on!
RW: Monkey mask.
Ladytron: Hahaha!

Soccer Gaming interview (2011)

The first SG Music interview of 2011 sees us catch up with FIFA 11 featured artists, Ladytron. Having been on the scene for over a decade, the 4 piece featuring members from Scotland and Liverpool have created quite a cult following amongst festival goers and are renouned for their live shows. Their track, Ace of Hz can be found on FIFA 11, and their music has also been featured on EA titles such as Need For Speed and The Sims along with the recent release for PS3, LittleBig Planet 2. I caught up with Reuben from the band to discuss football, music and performing!

Firstly, Ladytron could you explain a bit about your name and how you came together?

Ladytron was the name of a song on Roxy Music's first album. We formed in 1999 when I was back in Liverpool doing a masters degree in design, Danny was DJing at his own club night and Helen was doing a degree in music. We met Mira through a friend of ours while she was doing her PHD in genetics in Oxford.

Your music has a very strong electronic vibe, who would you class as your main musical influences?

Although we sound electronic, our influences are much wider-ranging than that, and it's impossible to list all of them, as the 4 of us like a lot of different music. With me, it's My Bloody Valentine, Brian Eno, Goblin, The Fall, Serge Gainsbourg, Curve, Wire, Broadcast, Stereolab as well as stuff like Aphex Twin, Pansonic, Nine Inch Nails, The Carpenters, Angelo Badalamenti and JS Bach which I have loved over the years.

Your are widely praised amongst music fans for opting for creativity ahead of conforming to the generic musical styles. Is this a conscious decision about the direction as a group or something that comes naturally?

When we are working on music or anything requiring creative thought, we automatically end up asking ourselves whether it's original and whether it's any good. I can't think of any time when we have decided to do something which was similar to anything in the mainstream media - I guess we are just not wired that way and many of the decisions are made solely by the band rather than a record label. In answer to your question, it's probably a combination of both. It also helps that there are 4 of us.

Ladytron are renouned for putting on top level live shows when they performing, and have developed something of a cult following. What are the best parts about performing live?

The best parts of live shows are seeing the crowd react to the songs we play them. We built up our live shows from scratch. When we first played live I'd say it was an attempt to replicate the early recorded material, whereas we're now at the stage where the quality of songwriting is matched by the ability to play them all out live. As electronic artists, it's very important that we keep it as live as possible and not resort to easy ways out, as it's just not fulfilling.

Having released your first international EP in 2000, how do you feel the music world has evolved and changed over the past decade, both positively and negatively?

Well, I can only comment on the music world that we are part of. I know that nowadays it's totally mainstream to feature synthesizers in music, whereas when we released our first records, only a very small handful of artists were using them as prominently as we were. Every interview we did asked us why we were using keyboards, compared to now when every band uses synthesizers but never get asked why! One aspect of modern music-listening which is both a curse and blessing to me is the internet allows anyone with a decent connection to listen to everyone else's music but at the same time it has nurtured short attention span and increasingly homogenised music.

Onto gaming, your tracks have been featured on games such as Need For Speed, The Sims 3 and of course FIFA 11. Do you feel these mediums are the best way to give mainstream audiences the opportunity to hear your music?

Definitely, we've always been quite an underground band so having our music included on these games is really refreshing. It's a whole new platform and adds a new dimension to music-listening. Our tracks as a soundtrack to a visual experiences work really well.

Do Ladytron game as a band at all, and if so, what are your favourite games to play, and ultimately, who is the best gamer?

Not really! I used to be an avid Super Nintendo player though. My favourite game was Legend of Zelda which I once completed in one day on one life after I pulled a sicky off school.

Music within video games is becoming a massive thing, with soundtracks being commonplace amongst many top level titles. Would you ever be interested in one day composing and developing an entire musical score for a video game?

Yes, we'd love to compose a whole score.

Regarding football, and with a band made up of people from both Liverpool and Scotland, do you follow any teams and are there any in group rivalries?

Not really. Danny's a big LFC follower but the rest of us aren't really huge fans. One thing's for sure. If there's a big LFC match on then we won't be in the rehearsing room.

Finally, there are very few groups that are mixed gender and manage to stay together for ten years. What are the best and worst parts about having both male and female elements to Ladytron?

It's all good. Seriously, I think this is one of the reasons why we are still together! Things are a bit more civilised when ladies are involved.

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