Emily Strange interview (2006)

Emily pulled out her blueprints and put them on the table in her basement. The collected pile of debris from three weeks of scavenger hunting sat in nine boxes in the corner by the water heater. Miles sniffed around the front boxes but figured out pretty quickly this thing was going to make some noise.

Looking closely over the rolls of blueprints, Emily checks off the list of items.
- LCD screens, 2.5 inch, preferably cracked (2)
- Amplifiers, more the better
- Dice, 9 sided (23)
- Yaya 604e computer processor
- Teleoperated remote control device
- Red vinyl records (13)
- Organic organ soundmixer (hard to find, see Zenith)
- Nine E.V.I.L. reverb synthesizers

Staring off into her imagination, Emily pictures this new invention to replace any conventional lightshow with a new audio/video inhibitor that shapes light from the music it is playing. It will work perfectly with any soundmixer specializing in cracked glass and bottomless feedback. Emily snaps back to reality for a second and remembers to contact long-time gadget cohorts Ladytron about her new gizmo working with their custom-built White Light Re-generator. "I bet Ladytron will really dig having this on their current tour".

After typing in a seventeen minute text message on The Oddisee's rotary cell phone, Emily hits send. "Hey guess what, I'm making a portable Light B(l)ender - it would be great for your current tour! I'll let you use it if you answer these questions that have been itching the back of my brain for a while now though..."

Emily: What's the difference between the midnight hour and the witching hour?

Mira: Witching Hour has a different kind of light. The Moon has a great effect on people. Witching Hour also refers to the period in the Middle Ages when Witches were persecuted.

Helen: Witching Hour is when the witches and gremlins and warlocks and black cats come out to play. It's always a full moon. Unlike the midnight hour.

What does 'ESP minus CMYK' mean to you?

Mira: REM in YMCA.

Helen: WLTM.

If you boost all the RGB and in your cover art, what do you get?

Mira: Owls kissing.

Helen: Eagles and lizards.

Do you have any cats?

Mira: I have a very pretty but overweight tabby called Chanel.

Helen: I have one Cat. She's very cute, and likes to kiss, a lot.

Have you invented any instruments? Tell me about them...

Mira: No but I have invented many many strains of bacteria and quite a few new genes and proteins.

Helen: Not as yet.

Do you ever use the C-sides of records?

Mira: On the hexagonal records we use the C side for writing notes and the F sides for doodling when I'm bored.

Helen: For secret tracks.

The reason I ask is because my blueprint calls for a very sharp Needle- like a Kat Klaw 361. What kind of turntable needles do you prefer?

Mira: I know what you mean. It is hard to doodle with a diamond so I prefer to use a uranium enriched needle.

Helen: I wouldn't like to use a Kat Klaw. Just a razor sharp needle will do.

Does long exposure to projection screens make your eyes blurry too?

Mira: It makes me see nice patterns when I close my eyes.

Helen: Oh yes. Makes my head want to explode. A bombardment of colour can make you fall over.

Do white light generators ever burn out?

Mira: Yes and then they become black light generators. Sometimes they are more useful anyway. It's always better to burn out than to fade away.

Helen: It's all about the black light.

If you had a choice, 2 or 3 strings on a bass?

Mira: I would have it with a lot of strings like a harp. A bass harp.

Helen: I prefer even numbers.

2 or 3 turntables at once?

Mira: I don't like excess apart from in Prog Rock music so I'd go for 2 though I also enjoy the 1deck ragga soundsystems.

Helen: Seeing as I have 2 hands, then 2 would be good for me.

Hydro or solar powered amps?

Mira: Dynamo powered so we don't depend on anything but our legs and we get a bit of exercise as we don't get to move much when we are on the tour bus.

Helen: Solar powered.

What is your favorite sci-fi movie?

Mira: Solaris. The original Tarkovski version though and not the George Clooney remake. When you get a glimpse of the sky in space it is white. It is also very dry and serious and suddenly there is a scene where a dwarf runs out of a room with no explanation and no one even pays any attention to him.

Helen: Westworld.

What is your favorite time of night?

Mira: When you first hear the birds tweeking just before dawn.

Helen: When the bats start to fly.

What is this?



Mira: It looks like a smile detector.

Helen: Some kind of telescope?

If you were stranded on a mountain top, would you rather have a radio or pen and paper?

Mira: A pen and paper for sure. I love mountaintops and wouldn't want to spoil their silence. The silence on mountaintops has a very special sound.

Helen: I think I'd have a pen and paper. I could write everything down and then fly the words off on the wind.

What is the longest stretch of traveling you have done from one show to the other in less than 24 hours?

Mira: We are about to do LA to Buenos Aires at the end of this tour so I think that would have been the longest.

Helen: That will be the longest.

How often do you write music?

Mira: When the mood strikes me. Can't force it.

Helen: When I feel inspired.

One last question. What password shall I program to activate this Ladytronic lightshow apparatus I built?

Mira: Supercalafragalisticexpialedocious.

Helen: Witching hour soft power.

Source

Ladytron - Bimbo's, San Francisco, 2003

Format: MP3, 320 kbps CBR

Track listing:
01. True Mathematics
02. Playgirl
03. Another Breakfast With You
04. Cracked LCD
05. Blue Jeans
06. He Took Her To a Movie
07. Fire
08. Black Pastic
09. Evil
10. USA vs White Noise
11. Seventeen
12. Discotraxx
13. Turn It On
14. The Way That I Found You
15. Oops Oh My

Download

Little Black Angel

Planet Notion interview (2011)

I defy anyone reading this article who denies listening to Ladytron at some point during their lives. Personally, my seminal Ladytron moment was using their song 'Seventeen' as my profile song on MySpace when I turned, you guessed it, twenty-one. No, joking; I did actually put it on my profile and kept it there for the seventeenth year of my life. Back in the day, everyone was listening to a bit of Le Tigre, and possibly downloaded a couple of New Young Pony Club mp3s, and up there with those femme-pop disco gems were Ladytron. Part of the whole electroclash era (at its most widespread around the late '90s to early '00s) that has continued to influence a variety of music today such as Crystal Castles and The Whip, Ladytron continue to be one of the most influential electronic acts of the past decade. To celebrate their cult success, Daniel Hunt, Reuben Wu, Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo have just released their Best of 00-10 album, as well as a brand new single, "Ace of Hz". AND they've got a brand new LP, Gravity the Seducer, coming this year too. Us lucky ducks got to have a natter with Mira about the past ten years; here's what they had to say:

You've been away for 3 years as a full band even though you've been doing a few individual DJ sets. Where have you been?

We have been DJ'ing all over the world, but also writing and working on our 5th album as well as putting together a 10 year retrospective album with a couple of new songs on it and also a little photo booklet for the limited edition package.

Throughout the years you've been compared to acts such as Kraftwerk and The Human League but who are your influences?

They are very varied, from '60s girl groups to My Bloody Valentine, from '70s prog and folk to obscure disco, from '70s german bands to pop and R'n'B. We have never been interested in recreating anything. There are elements and sounds we have taken from all over the place but the main thing is that we have always wanted to have our own sound and I think we have achieved that.

As figureheads for the 'electroclash' scene, how would you describe that sound?

We never saw ourselves as figureheads of any scene really. The main thing we have in common with other musicians lumped under the same banner is use of synths. We don't really make dance music however, are a band, perform live in a very traditional sense of the word and make albums that are to be listened as a whole, as opposed to a few songs destined for clubs. I also think our music is quite a bit more layered and not as minimal and clean.

You started over 10 years ago. How has Ladytron changed since it began? How have you guys evolved since then?

When we started out we didn't really know where we were going or what we were doing. Everything evolved very instinctively. Our music has become thicker and more layered and varied, as we have learned a lot of things along the way. We have toured all over the world and playing live has had a huge effect on how our music developed. 604, our first record, was written and recorded before we played almost a single gig so it kind of sounds more fragile in a lot of ways. Playing live toughened us up in a lot of ways.

As artists you've seen a rise from cult status into deserved commercial success. But you've always had this aura of remaining on the fringes. Do you see yourselves as trendsetters?

I wouldn't say we are trendsetters in any way, but when we started out there weren't many people making the kind of music we were and we had to justify why were doing it quite a bit, where as now it seems to have seeped into the main stream. There weren't many bands using synths in the way we were 10 years ago and now you hear certain sounds and production everywhere.

Why do you guys prefer to use old school analogue tech rather than go digital?

We don't really use only old school analogue stuff. We record digitally and use all sorts of digital instruments when we need to too. We are not purists in any sense. We just like the sound of old synths and organs and the way you play them and work with them, so we end up using them a lot. They give you a much warmer sound and we like the element of unpredictability you get and also the uniqueness of the sounds. Often we cannot recreate sounds that we have used once on a record. It's a case of you get a good sound, use it and record it as you might not be able to get it again.

Your songs feature in loads of computer games; what do you think makes Ladytron so popular for these soundtracks?

Computer games have evolved so much in the time we have existed as a band. They are much more cinematic nowadays and so look for creating an atmosphere and a mood. I guess our music gives them that. Also we probably have fans amongst the people compiling these soundtracks and so they use our songs. In a way our music is also very universal as it is quite melodic. We really enjoyed writing music specifically for The Sims game and look forward to doing more of that.

I've read that you're all currently living in separate cities. Do you guys still hang out when you're not touring, or is it now more of a professional partnership?

It's a bit of both. We see each other socially every now and again, but because we spend so much time together anyway, it's important to have a life outside that relationship too. I don't think we would have lasted as long or developed as much otherwise. It's good to bring new influences into the equation and also to feel refreshed when we do get together to work on music.

What were the last 5 records/artists on your collective iPod?

Caribou - Swim; Tame Impala - Innerspeaker; Squarepusher / Shobaleader One - d'Demonstrator; Bot'Ox - Babylon by Car; Jacques Dutronc- L'integrale.

How did you come around to working with Christina Aguilera last year (on her album Bionic to write the songs "Birds of Prey" and "Little Dreamer")?

She was a fan of our music and seemed very familiar, not just with the famous songs like "Playgirl" and "Destroy Everything You Touch", but with the whole albums. She wanted our kind of sound and luckily she just went straight to us as opposed to asking someone else to write and produce in our style, which has happened in the past.

Any more collaboration on the cards?

Hopefully. We look forward to writing and producing with other artists.

What's the plans for 2011?

Releasing 2 albums, more DJ gigs, more live shows.

Source

Ladytron - Seventeen (Live)

IGN interview (2002)

Ladytron is an analog lover's band. These guys and girls have more cool, obscure gear than Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman combined. OK, maybe not, but I can guarantee you that Keith and Rick didn't pick their gear up cheap in the 80s like Ladytron's Daniel Hunt did.

I spoke with Daniel recently about how he and the rest of Ladytron (Reuben Wu, Helen Marnie, and Mira Aroyo) put together their retro-futurist pop songs.

Your music is sequenced in a rather simplistic way. Is that because you're using vintage sequencers?

Partially, but stuff ends up in Pro Tools or whatever. I often listen to electronic music and think things have been made over-complex. Mainly, that's probably because we're just learning how to use the equipment. We've never read a manual in our lives. The whole sound of the album 604 - the sequencing, the production, everything - is just us learning how to use the equipment. We didn't actually aim for any particular style.

What sequencers did you use?

It's just drum machines, and we sequenced some stuff in Cubase. We did a couple of basslines there, but the sequencing on a whole was drums. And we played the keyboard parts by hand. It adds that tiny bit of unpredictability to it and you're more likely to end up with a happy accident. Sequencing is useful when we're actually writing, for getting an idea down quickly. And obviously for stuff that can't be played by human beings.

What kind of drum machines do you use?

The main one I use is not very glamorous at all, it's the Yamaha RY-8. If anyone had one they'd be able to recognize the sound straight away.

I thought I heard a Roland TR-707 in there.

Yeah, I've used some samples of the 707 as well. We use quite a lot of sample kits. As a reliable workhorse, the RY-8 does it every time.

Have you played with the RY-30? It has filters and stuff in it, it's pretty weird.

I bought the RY-8 on a whim and found it's got a rap kit and stuff, it's great. I picked it up really cheap. "He Took Her to a Movie", that's got it all over it. I've also used 505 sample sets as well.

The Korg DDD-1 is cool too. You can get them for around $100. You can actually sample into it - it's got one second sampling - so you can do weird, percussion samples. Nobody wants the mid-80s digital stuff so it's super cheap.

I'll look out for one of those. I'm just starting on the second album now, so we're wondering where to look for some new gear. We've already got some new stuff but we're not going to use exactly the same sounds on the second album. I read an interview with Air where they said they didn't want to use any of the same sounds at all from Moon Safari and I don't really agree with that. You arrive at a sound you obviously like it; you make a record and people like it - I don't see the point in abandoning the whole thing.

What were some of the keyboards that you used on the record?

I'll reel them all off for you: Roland SH-09, that's my favorite, it's really tactile and fat; the Crumar Stratus Polysynth (I'm sitting amongst them right this second), the Crumar's quite useful and the organ sounds are nice as well; Korg Micro Preset, there's a really nice control called Traveler on it which is a bit like a filter.

I used to have a Mini Korg and it had that. All of the names for stuff were different, like decay is called Percussion.

Yeah. You can get nice white noise stuff with it. Moving on, I've got a Logan String Synth.

That's some weird stuff. Is a lot of it European? I know the Crumar's from Italy.

Yeah, I used to be really lucky here in Liverpool. There was a shop called the Keyboard Corporation about seven or eight years ago, and it closed down because I was the only customer. When it closed I inherited a few keyboards, like the Crumar. So I've got this Logan thing, it's got a really nice, ghostly sound and a really great orchestra sound. I play some riffs on "The Way That I Found You" that are very Joe Meek-like, "Telstar". I've got a Sequential Circuits Pro One, which I used with a MIDI to CV to play the bassline on "Discotraxx" and stuff like that, stuff with fast, sequence-based lines. It's really tight. I've got this Casio CT 630 and that sound is all over the album. I think it was the first MIDI Casio. We had them when I was at school in the mid-80s and I thought it was useless until I picked one up for like 20 pounds. It's got all these amazing stock sounds on it that, when the keyboard was made, were probably a bit long in the tooth. Every keyboard sound you'd need if you were making a record between 1976 and 1980 were there, which were obviously dated when I last used the keyboard. Really big, sweeping pads and great synth strings, organs, and harpsichords. In fact, the atmosphere in "He Took Her to a Movie" is completely done on that keyboard. I've got this old Korg organ sitting here and there's a couple toy keyboards as well.

Wow. So when you're doing a live show, you obviously don't bring all that gear with you.

No, me, Mira and Reuben have two keyboards each and Helen's got one. Obviously Helen and Mira are singing. We put the drums on a DAT because it's the safest way of doing it. We were toying with the idea of going with convention and having an actual drummer but everyone talked us out of it, because it would have diluted the whole essence of what we were.

It's much more Kraftwerk just to have four people playing keyboards.

Exactly. And if we brought a computer or a sequencer, it would just be something else to fail. I don't want to be shouting out to the audience, "Has anyone got a copy of Mac OS 9?" [laughs]

It's nice to hear that you play live because I've been to so many shows where, it's cool but it's a guy sitting behind a computer.

Our attitude was, we might as well not do it at all if we were going to do that. We've avoided playing in England - we played in London once but we were on a tour with Solex in February. We played in Europe when we were invited to get a free holiday but the live thing now is developing into a real thing now that the album is out. We wanted to wait until the album was released and there was a market for what we were doing and people wanted to see us.

Are you going to come to the US?

Yeah, we should be coming over in September.

Do you feel an affinity with other synth revival bands?

No, because we scream and run away when people start using the word "revival". It's like, we're using these instruments and influences to generate our version of modernity. We don't dress in the clothes or have the haircuts or wear the makeup. We've separated the elements of the sounds from the image and all of the baggage that went with it. People like Daft Punk, I feel affinity with them. I was really proud because someone said we were Daft Punk's more tuneful cousins. I probably feel more affinity with someone like Air than I do with, say, Zoot Woman [the new band from Les Rhythmes Digitales guy Jacques Lu Cont]. I feel like they're more of a stylistic snapshot of 1984 whereas we're slightly harder to categorize.

There's a few American electro groups like Le Car and Dopplereffekt that you remind me of. The big difference is you have vocals.

I spent some time over there at the end of last year, in LA, and the thing that was weird was, we seem to have all of these punk kids into us in San Diego. It's like, we're like this thing that punk's evolved into over there that doesn't really exist in England. That's quite strange. There's definitely punk in what we do, it's just not immediately apparent. I think that when people see us live they'll understand that we've got this subconscious desire to subvert everything we've created, in a way. We can't really help it, it just seems like the natural thing to do. We enjoy confounding people's expectations of us.

There's nothing more boring than going to see a band and have them recreate the album on stage.

Exactly, we play the songs in a different order. No, I'm only joking [laughs]. Live it's a lot edgier. There's a definite live sound - some of the songs do sound very different. There's obviously a balance, because if we messed with it all people would get on our case about it. "Zmeyka", we start with that normally. The harsher stuff tends to work better live so we gear the set in that direction.

Source

Unboxing of "Best of 00-10" deluxe version

The Times interview with Ladytron & Depeche Mode (2009)

When Depeche Mode met Ladytron

When you meet someone famous for having taken the path to excess and tripped over on it a fair few times, you wonder if the demons can really have left them.

Dave Gahan, lead singer with Depeche Mode, famously nearly died after overdosing on drugs at a Los Angeles hotel in 1995, when his band had already enjoyed a decade and a half of hits, in more than one sense of the word. The synthesizer music that made his pop group so famous in the 1980s, with thrilling singles including "Everything Counts", "People Are People", and "Enjoy the Silence", saved him from a life of car-stealing and juvenile courts in Basildon, Essex. Yet it also led him to a life of highs and lows on the road, including that near-fatal overdose.

Meeting him now though, with his bandmates Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, it's striking how astonishingly well Gahan looks, with his dapper pin-stripe suit and glowing bronzed skin. In fact, all three of them are looking remarkably healthy after three decades on the road. "There were always vitamin shots in the bum, but you can take that how you like, ha ha", Gahan says. "Life keeps changing, as always, but yeah, I do enjoy a lot of that fitness stuff. I get a kick out of it. I'm disciplined now". They are preparing to release their 11th album, Sounds of the Universe, and go on tour with a younger synth band, Ladytron, whose glacial keyboard pop sound is finally breaking through after several years of underground cult success.

The two bands are gathered together for a drink in London before their tour. They don't know each other really but there is obviously mutual interest, with lots of discussion about the equipment they use, how they verge between computer software and clunky real keyboards — and guitars too, since both bands feel able to use a broader sound than just electronic. This should be a good time for them all: synth music may have taken a back seat while indie guitar bands such as Kaiser Chiefs and the Kooks ruled the charts in recent years, but now it's back. While sexy strummers such as Razorlight see their sales plummet, new pop acts such as La Roux and Little Boots are bursting into the Radio 1 playlist with their 1980s-inspired synth-pop sounds.

Younger bands such as Ladytron look up to Depeche Mode as perhaps the founding fathers of that sound, yet both bands admit that they owe an awful lot to the German masters of the whole genre, Kraftwerk. And both turn out to have encountered disaster when Kraftwerk started taking an interest in them.

"Our most embarrassing concert ever was in front of Kraftwerk, in a little club in Germany", Gore recalls. "Probably the worst concert we ever played. Everything broke down — and we were supposed to be the new electronic geniuses around".

"But that happened to us too!" says Reuben Wu, from Ladytron: "One of the first gigs we played was in Paris at a bowling alley. We had only just started out, so we had keyboards borrowed off people, but they weren't plugged in, we really just had a backing tape. One of Kraftwerk was meant to be there so we needed to be amazing, but the gig was sponsored by Chupa Chups, massive plastic lollies everywhere, and people were still bowling while we were playing. We had to dodge the balls as we were walking on to the stage". Sharing these disasters seems to bring much mutual relief.

Wu tells Depeche Mode: "We've just heard your new album and I love the way it starts up, it's almost like an orchestra tuning up". The older band are pleased. "That was the idea", Gore agrees, "an electronic orchestra. I actually had a dream. Start with a synth orchestra tuning up like an orchestra tunes up".

Fletcher tells Ladytron: "I think it's very brave of you to use analogue keyboards live because early on in our career we had so many problems with them". "Like what?" asks Mira Aroyo. "Like being able to play 'em", Gahan smirks.

Depeche Mode are interested to hear about the nightclub that Wu runs in Liverpool, but they warn him not to let it turn into a Hacienda, referring to the legendary Manchester nightclub, which was managed so hopelessly by Factory records that it drained bands such as Joy Division/New Order of their profits.

Depeche Mode used to play a club in Southend called Crocs. "It changed its name to the Pink Toothbrush — but there were these actual crocodiles and there was always a big debate whether they were alive or not", Fletcher says. "I think one of them was dead", Gahan says, "or it just didn't move much. Yeah, we played there a few times". "A few times? We had a residency there!" Fletcher corrects him. "We did?!" Gahan is shocked. He admits that he can't remember large chunks of their past.

Back in 1995, after their fourth band member, Alan Wilder, left, things looked bleak for Depeche Mode. There were major doubts if the band would record again, especially since Gahan's overdose. (Scars on his arms are the legacy of two drug-induced heart attacks.) Gahan has said that it was that second chance, after nearly dying, that made him turn his life around, as well as setting up home in California and adopting a healthier way of life.

Still, he doesn't seem weighed down by regret. "I just liked getting high. It was fun for a long time. Drinking, getting loaded — that's how we did the first 15 or even 20 years of what we were doing. We toured Songs of Faith and Devotion for 18 months solid and Fletch didn't even finish that tour; he had a nervous breakdown".

"But I had to stay in America", Fletcher explains, "because it was our year off. Tax purposes". "Which is even more nuts when you think about it", Gahan adds. "A year into the tour our American manager told us that we were spending more than we were making, and had been for a whole year, so we would have to stay on the road for an extra six months to break even. It's crazy. But some of it was fun as well. Some of it wasn't! It went on and on. And even when the tour ends, you don't stop".

Ladytron agree that coming back down to earth after touring is a major feat. As Wu puts it: "I find it had to get to grips with reality when I get home. You want to call the tour manager asking them to feed you". Gahan nods, recalling one time he tried to reintegrate into normal life in a shop on Hollywood Boulevard, trying to buy cleaning products, "and there were way too many detergents, too many options, and I was like 'Waaargh'. This woman came over to help me and I was pathetic, I was like: 'Which one of them is good?'"

"But let's face it", Fletcher says, "you wanted to take the detergent. It wasn't for cleaning". Everybody falls about laughing. "Oh, it's probably true", Gahan says, smiling.

As for the music industry now, they have mixed views, though all agree that the actual record is no longer the main event. "Record sales are dwindling but we have to remember that music is popular. It's more popular. It's just that people don't buy it", Gahan says. He sees the changes through two sets of eyes, since his son Jack is working in music too. Having done work experience at a PR firm and in recording studios, Jack is now working for a tour promoter (though his dad suspects that he would like to make his own music eventually).

"The live scene is very good, there are still opportunities there, and I think things are going to get better. You do still spend a lot of money making the records but you make it back touring. Our strength for the past 20 years has been our touring income. But I always tell my son that it baffles me that people complain that CD prices are still too high but they think nothing about going into Starbucks and spending five quid on a cup of coffee. I just don't get it — that seems pretty ridiculous to me".

Depeche Mode's music continues to resonate. They didn't even know that Johnny Cash had covered their song "Personal Jesus". "I think when you're somebody of Johnny Cash's calibre", Gore says, "you don't ask for permission". They were, of course, thrilled. As were Ladytron when they came off stage after a recent Oxford gig and a nice young undergraduate started chatting to them about their Mini car they arrived in. "And after a while", Aroyo tells them, "she said: 'I don't mean to sound boastful but my dad is Brian Eno'". Next thing they knew, Eno himself was asking them to play with him at the Sydney Opera House, which was pretty exciting for a band who had named themselves after a Roxy Music song.

As for the resurgence of keyboard music, both bands insist that it's the songs that matter, not the instruments on which you play them. "You ask us the secret of our longevity, but we'd be nothing without good songs", Fletcher says. Gore adds that he has recently gone back to collecting old keyboards, but that the band also record in a high-tech studio where he once did his backing vocals through a plastic water bottle that was cut in half.

Technologies come and go but sometimes it's the simple things that work best.

Source