08 June 2011
06 June 2011
Clash Music interview (2011)
The eclectic, electronic four piece that are Ladytron have returned to the fray with a 'Best Of' album, marking out a decade in the business and as a forerunner to their fifth studio album 'Gravity the Seducer', which is due for release in September.Known for their lush synthesized sounds, uniform wearing (back in the early days) and for ploughing their own fantastically unclassifiable furrow, they are a band at the peak of their powers, traversing the worlds of video games, movie soundtracks, DJ sets and remixes for other artists.
To promote the album they're currently touring the UK, with upcoming shows in London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Dublin this week (see details below). Daniel Hunt lent us a little of his time between shows to answer the following questions.
You have a new album due out soon, why did now feel like the time to go for a 'greatest hits'? Is it purely to mark the decade milestone or perhaps to put your current work into some sort of chronological context?
Both, it's an opportunity to draw a line in the sand that will not come around again. Additionally, much of our audience weren't even aware of us the last time we put an album out, let alone when we began.
You've produced music for The Sims and for a FIFA game... do you think that dilutes what you do as a band or it just another channel to get your music 'out there'?
No different to a film or TV show. Didn't produce music specifically, nothing unusual or particularly noteworthy.
You started out playing to backing tapes and doing one off shows whereas now you're well respected as a live band... did this happen organically, through the process of playing together or did you think, we need to get this live thing down because its the only way to make money these days?
We began to focus on live only when it was apparent that there was a demand for us to play around the world, and bear in mind we had already passed on a 2001 tour in the US. We didn't assume that we would be touring all over the world. It was also nothing to do with money, tours were still in part supported by labels in those days remember, they were considered marketing.
To be honest the way the balance has shifted, I dislike when artists are making albums purely as a platform to tour, and conversely the attitude that musicians should just accept that touring is the only source of income. That is actually, for all but the biggest artists, an untenable situation which is beginning to be acknowledged, although I must say, usually anonymously.
This is why artists, especially new ones, in general deserve to be cut some slack for seeking ways to monetize their music, the average listener has had quite a good deal from decimation of the old industry after all.
You're known as a four piece but there's now an additional rhythm section that aren't part of the 'band'... are they just used when you're touring or do they contribute to the recording process?Touring, very occasional session playing if required.
You continue to use analogue equipment when you tour, as it must be hard to duplicate some of your sound digitally... irreplaceable items no doubt give up the ghost in transit, do you mourn them or just get searching for replacements?
We buy every MS-20 we find. Seriously.
You've admitted that you're a album band, would you be happy to dispense with the whole single business or do you enjoy choosing an album 'taster' and making of the subsequent videos?
I wouldn't say we admitted anything, we make albums. That's part of the album process though, it need not be mutually exclusive, we love putting singles out. What we don't want is the charade where an album is made purely as a platform for touring, as I said, which is endemic now. The album, is and should be a viable form in itself.
You've listed very disparate influences in terms of what you listen to... most of if historical. Are there there any current bands that are influencing your sound or that you're excited by?
To be honest I’m not sure I remember listing any influences explicitly, certainly not for a long time. However I do remember explaining which assumed influences were actually inaccurate.
In general, normal listeners, rather than music geeks, have almost universal knowledge of back catalogue nowadays. I find that I rarely tell anybody about a record, it is assumed that everybody is aware.
But for a band that has been active this long to be overtly influenced by something totally current seems perverse, as you're already on your own journey, our records have been substantially different anyway. You can always be influenced by a change of context, or a change in audience however.
The atmospheric aspect of your music feels like it could easily be translated into a cinematic collaboration... would you like to do a soundtrack for a movie and if so which directors would you be interested in working with?
I'm already working on some film projects.
You're playing at the Arches (Glasgow) in June to promote the album, does Helen view that as a homecoming of sorts, especially in light of the greatest hits?
Yes she always loves playing Glasgow.
You DJ, do you get something very different from that than you do when you're performing; do you ever play any of your own records?
DJ'ing is totally different to playing live shows, seems pointless to compare. Sometimes you play your own record, depends on the circumstances, if there's a crowd there for us specifically then sure, but I wouldn't normally if it didn't matter.
Was it a bit strange collaborating with pop princess Christina Aguilera or did you respect the fact she liked your sound and wanted a piece of it?
Both. but I've said before, I respect the major artists who actually seek out the collaborators who they want to work with, far more than those who just send a list of names to A&R for a producer to approximate. She deserves more credit for that than she actually got. I would say that some real nonsense has been written about this though, which I suppose is natural given the nature of her celebrity, but is not our world.Do you feel as enthused and prolific as when you first began working together or do you believe Ladytron to have a finite existence?
We never planned beyond making the next record, even when we began, though looking back, five albums always seemed appropriate. It depends on what we want to do next. Creatively we're not confined to this group, or to music, individually or collectively. All I would say is that this album has been the one whose creation has felt driven by the strongest desire.
Source
05 June 2011
The Fader interview (2009)
Five Questions For Ladytron
Before Ladytron take the stage in their glam outfits and backed by pulsing electronica, their calculated keys producing some of the most recognizable dance tracks around, I climb aboard their tour bus parked around the corner from the venue to stare directly at a KFC. Very chic.
Member Daniel Hunt is making coffee as band mate Mira Aroyo tinkers on her laptop when I sit down. Ladytron and The Faint are playing for two nights at The Fillmore in San Francisco and are swapping headlining duties. Playing at the Fillmore, says Hunt, is surreal because "it's where we started" as a band.
The UK outfit, which also includes Reuben Wu and Helen Marnie, has been busy since releasing Velocifero last year. In between remixing, DJ appearances, and touring, the band is also producing new tracks for singer Christina Aguilera, which Hunt apologizes he can't offer to us for a sneak peak. "As soon as you're gone, I'm actually gonna blast it". Ladytron are also embarking on a mini-Australian tour which include two nights at the Sydney Opera House as a part of a festival curated by none other than Brian Eno, who asked the band personally to tag along.
During the live show I observe that songs with a more synth like "Ghosts" and "Seventeen" pack a better punch; this night is the one Ladytron are headlining at, and a lot of people in the audience seem half-enthused and half-out of their mind from what I can see from the balcony. I'm glad to also witness that most of the electronic shows I've seen in the past few months have had a killer light show to accompany the dance soundtrack. Note to self: think about maybe getting high next time.
At the after show hosted by Popscene, Wu and Hunt take to the DJ decks to blast some crazy techno-type beats. Before the night is over, a woman badgers them about how she got gypped out of seeing Ladytron perform live. "The flyer lied to me! I want my money back! She didn't perform!" Confused, the two gently try to explain that they were only there to spin and not play, to which the woman replies "How can you be in the band?" She thought Ladytron was a solo act. Hunt's amusement is beyond containment.
I was told you have the juicy info on everyone in the band. Is this true?
Juicy info, really? [laughs' Maybe just in regards to what we're doing. We're finishing the tour in the U.K., then flying to Moscow to play dates with Depeche Mode. And, we're doing an opera with Brian Eno in Sydney, tailor set to creation and surroundings.
Are you in Brian Eno's iPod? How did that solidify?
His daughter was actually at our Oxford show, and said her dad was into us. Which is amazing, he was hugely influential to not only us but many others -- just try to document it. The opera is not really every day sort of thing we get to do.
You guys are like the UN of electro groups; you're in Milan, Reuben's in Liverpool, and Helen and Mira live in London. Is it hard for things like band practice with you being the furthest?
Living in different places is actually quite good. You spend all this time on the road, so it's nice to split for a little while. In Europe it's so cheap to get around. From London to Italy is as easy and cheap sometimes from Liverpool. Milan is also underrated in its reputation, I think. Santo looks like an artsy Paris, and Italians don't like it very much. But the infrastructure and jobs in architecture, I quite like it. It's an hour away from the coast.
For making music for people to dance to, it seems your stage presence is really quite calm.
We get asked about that a lot, and that is also said about us a lot too. Truthfully it's like day and night [when you look at the way we first performed and to now]. I mean, do you want us to strap on a synth and punch the air? The whole idea of "stage craft" is bullshit, like someone gave you a manual and things to say in between songs and how to act on stage. I find it to be really false. When I watch bands, I just watch them play, not how much they jump around. We just didn't buy into the idea and I've always found that a bit funny.
What does it mean to go on a DJ tour, anyway?
Put on your iPod and play some shit. (laughs) It's normal from band members to do that, but "DJ tour" I admit is a weird wording. It's more like DJ gigs. When we started going out on our own to DJ it was quite uncommon, because most bands were just doing live shows all the while. It's a good way to try out new material that you don't do on the road, or when you're in between albums and need to kill time. But sometimes that goes against us or people do weird shit. Once someone asked me "Can you play some Ladytron?" and I said, "This is Ladytron, it's our new single". The response there was "Oh, okay. But can you play some Ladytron we know?"
Source
Before Ladytron take the stage in their glam outfits and backed by pulsing electronica, their calculated keys producing some of the most recognizable dance tracks around, I climb aboard their tour bus parked around the corner from the venue to stare directly at a KFC. Very chic.Member Daniel Hunt is making coffee as band mate Mira Aroyo tinkers on her laptop when I sit down. Ladytron and The Faint are playing for two nights at The Fillmore in San Francisco and are swapping headlining duties. Playing at the Fillmore, says Hunt, is surreal because "it's where we started" as a band.
The UK outfit, which also includes Reuben Wu and Helen Marnie, has been busy since releasing Velocifero last year. In between remixing, DJ appearances, and touring, the band is also producing new tracks for singer Christina Aguilera, which Hunt apologizes he can't offer to us for a sneak peak. "As soon as you're gone, I'm actually gonna blast it". Ladytron are also embarking on a mini-Australian tour which include two nights at the Sydney Opera House as a part of a festival curated by none other than Brian Eno, who asked the band personally to tag along.
During the live show I observe that songs with a more synth like "Ghosts" and "Seventeen" pack a better punch; this night is the one Ladytron are headlining at, and a lot of people in the audience seem half-enthused and half-out of their mind from what I can see from the balcony. I'm glad to also witness that most of the electronic shows I've seen in the past few months have had a killer light show to accompany the dance soundtrack. Note to self: think about maybe getting high next time.At the after show hosted by Popscene, Wu and Hunt take to the DJ decks to blast some crazy techno-type beats. Before the night is over, a woman badgers them about how she got gypped out of seeing Ladytron perform live. "The flyer lied to me! I want my money back! She didn't perform!" Confused, the two gently try to explain that they were only there to spin and not play, to which the woman replies "How can you be in the band?" She thought Ladytron was a solo act. Hunt's amusement is beyond containment.
I was told you have the juicy info on everyone in the band. Is this true?
Juicy info, really? [laughs' Maybe just in regards to what we're doing. We're finishing the tour in the U.K., then flying to Moscow to play dates with Depeche Mode. And, we're doing an opera with Brian Eno in Sydney, tailor set to creation and surroundings.Are you in Brian Eno's iPod? How did that solidify?
His daughter was actually at our Oxford show, and said her dad was into us. Which is amazing, he was hugely influential to not only us but many others -- just try to document it. The opera is not really every day sort of thing we get to do.
You guys are like the UN of electro groups; you're in Milan, Reuben's in Liverpool, and Helen and Mira live in London. Is it hard for things like band practice with you being the furthest?
Living in different places is actually quite good. You spend all this time on the road, so it's nice to split for a little while. In Europe it's so cheap to get around. From London to Italy is as easy and cheap sometimes from Liverpool. Milan is also underrated in its reputation, I think. Santo looks like an artsy Paris, and Italians don't like it very much. But the infrastructure and jobs in architecture, I quite like it. It's an hour away from the coast.
For making music for people to dance to, it seems your stage presence is really quite calm.
We get asked about that a lot, and that is also said about us a lot too. Truthfully it's like day and night [when you look at the way we first performed and to now]. I mean, do you want us to strap on a synth and punch the air? The whole idea of "stage craft" is bullshit, like someone gave you a manual and things to say in between songs and how to act on stage. I find it to be really false. When I watch bands, I just watch them play, not how much they jump around. We just didn't buy into the idea and I've always found that a bit funny.What does it mean to go on a DJ tour, anyway?
Put on your iPod and play some shit. (laughs) It's normal from band members to do that, but "DJ tour" I admit is a weird wording. It's more like DJ gigs. When we started going out on our own to DJ it was quite uncommon, because most bands were just doing live shows all the while. It's a good way to try out new material that you don't do on the road, or when you're in between albums and need to kill time. But sometimes that goes against us or people do weird shit. Once someone asked me "Can you play some Ladytron?" and I said, "This is Ladytron, it's our new single". The response there was "Oh, okay. But can you play some Ladytron we know?"
Source
30 May 2011
Ladytron - Melt! Festival, 2007
Format: MP3, VBR V0 192-320 kbps
Track listing:
1. High Rise
2. True Mathematics
3. Evil
4. Weekend
5. He Took Her to a Movie
6. Soft Power
Download
Track listing:
1. High Rise
2. True Mathematics
3. Evil
4. Weekend
5. He Took Her to a Movie
6. Soft Power
Download
29 May 2011
Fused Magazine interview (2008)
With five studio albums, a hefty number of globetrotting tours and their own Liverpool based venue to their names you would think the world would walk, talk, think and eat Ladytron. Alas it seems that the band are still hovering under the commercial radar albeit with a cult following in tow. With the recent release of their quirky, haunting yet addictive album Velocifero under their belts, we felt after nearly over-consuming this masterpiece in the Fused office it was time to show Ladytron some love. We managed to snatch a brief chat with Danny from the band during a rare break in their never-ending touring schedule.
What are you guys currently up too?
We have just kind of finished the North American Tour, and we have done lots of festivals over the summer.
We really like the new album, how have you changed as a band on this album?
When we started it felt like a work in progress, we were just experiencing things as we went along. We are just really more aware of things now. I mean it was 8 years ago the first album came out!
On the first album obviously you feel a certain pressure as it's your first, but I think we have avoided the 'dreaded second album syndrome' that most bands encounter. I think we have been lucky to have been, allowed to develop gradually over four albums. Commercial pressure can often be quite pressing so we are lucky in that respect. Most new bands get shelved for another act or even dropped after their first album due to the commercial pressure on them to obtain a certain chart position. This is mainly down to the attention spans of an audience as Myspace and the instant accessibility of music and this has increased their exposure to a constant flow of new music and therefore shortens attention spans.
So how was it working with Vicarious Bliss (Ed Banger Records) and Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails, Modwheelmood) on the album?We produced this album ourselves and just drafted in several people for collaborations. It was great, it was just like adding an extra band member to the equation each time we worked with someone new.
Our first album was totally self-produced and our second album was co-produced by Jim Abbiss so we have experienced both variations. We now understand the band completely after working together for so long so we felt that we could self produce this album and just bring in a few collaborators. Sometimes bands don't actually want to make decisions but they need reassurance occasionally.
You seem to be touring constantly the tour schedule looks huge? How do you cope touring for so long?
Sometimes it's quite deceptive it's often looks a lot more than it actually is. We tend to draw the line at any sections of a long tour spanning over 8 weeks from home! It really depends where we are touring, now we have a nice bus and the facilities are great – we don't even have to share DVDs, we all have our own little quiet time and Internet access too! There is no need for forced activities to take place anymore – ha-ha. Oh and American facilities are great.
So what are your favourite places to play?
North America is obviously a winner, however Russia is a special place too – St. Petersburg was amazing. We actually played a great gig in Bogota [Columbia]. People often have a perception that South America is quite dangerous in comparison to other places, but we played four cities there and they all went smoothly except one.
So what happened at that 'one' gig?
Well we ended up getting shut down by the army! There were lots of soldiers and we were playing and all of a sudden the music stopped suddenly and we were just standing there! I think it may have been a scheduling issue though...
Words: Kimberley Owen
Illustration: Stevie Copter
Posted: 18 November 2008
27 May 2011
Ladytron interviews
This is a list with all 92 Ladytron interviews. Also you can view all interviews one after another ordered by the date when they were posted on this site. For Marnie interviews go here.
The Portable Infinite interview (2000)
London Evening Standard interview (2001)
Chachi Jones interview (2001)
Disturb.org interview (2001)
IGN interview (2002)
The Telegraph interview (2002)
The Guardian interview (2002)
Video Vision interview (2002)
Chaos Control interview (2002)
Muzik interview (2002)
Premonition Magazine interview (2002)
Baltimore City Paper interview (2003)
Chicago Sun-Times interview (2003)
Virtual Festivals interview (2003)
Ladytron in China diaries (2004)
Q Magazine Special: The Story of Electro-pop (2005)
Contact Music interview (2005)
XLR8R interview (2005)
Rare FM interview (2005)
The Scotsman interview (2005)
Remix Mag interview (2005)
Chaos Control interview (2006)
Emily Strange interview (2006)
The Gearwire interview (2006)
Korg interview
Club Events interview (2006)
Jim DeRogatis interview (2006)
UberDrivel interview (2007)
Chief Mag interview (2007)
Battery in Your Leg interview (2008)
Format Magazine interview (2008)
The Guardian interview (2008)
Prefix Mag interview (2008)
Rave Magazine interview (2008)
Roland US - Insider interview (2008)
The Daily Record interview (2008)
Fused Magazine interview (2008)
Miusika interview (2008)
Snippets Zine interview (2008)
Electronic Musician interview (2008)
The Stool Pigeon interview (2008)
Under the Radar interview (2008)
Sunday Mail interview (2008)
Rave Magazine interview (2009)
The Times interview with Ladytron & Depeche Mode (2009)
OC Weekly interview (2009)
The Fader interview (2009)
Scene Magazine interview (2009)
inthemix interview (2009)
Repeat Fanzine interview (2009)
Maja Magazine interview (2009)
The Game Reviews interview (2009)
Voxy.co.nz interview (2010)
The Electricity Club interview (2011)
Spinner interview (2011)
NME interview (2011)
Planet Notion interview (2011)
Swede + Sour interview (2011)
we7 interview (2011)
Clash Music interview 1 (2011)
Clash Music interview 2 (2011)
Gutter Magazine interview (2011)
This Is Fake DIY interview (2011)
Rocksucker interview (2011)
Stereogum interview (2011)
Electronic Musician interview (2011)
Interview Magazine interview (2011)
The Digital Fix interview (2011)
MTV Hive interview (2011)
Ology interview (2011)
DailyWhatNot interview (2011)
Soccer Gaming interview (2011)
Drowned in Sound interview (2011)
The Skinny interview (2011)
Beatportal interview (2011)
Scotcampus interview (2011)
Rolling Stone interview (2011)
City Weekend Shanghai interview (2013)
GE Reports interview (2014)
The Black Key interview (2014)
Into More interview (2018)
Paper Mag interview (2018)
ClashMusic interview (2018)
Music Radar interview (2019)
Bido! Lito! interview (2019)
Billboard interview (2019)
Get Some Magazine interview (2019)
99.3 County FM interview (2019)
mxdwn interview (2019)
MusicOMH interview (2019)
Bido Lito! interview (2019)
London Evening Standard interview (2001)
Chachi Jones interview (2001)
Disturb.org interview (2001)
IGN interview (2002)
The Telegraph interview (2002)
The Guardian interview (2002)
Video Vision interview (2002)
Chaos Control interview (2002)
Muzik interview (2002)
Premonition Magazine interview (2002)
Baltimore City Paper interview (2003)
Chicago Sun-Times interview (2003)
Virtual Festivals interview (2003)
Ladytron in China diaries (2004)
Q Magazine Special: The Story of Electro-pop (2005)
Contact Music interview (2005)
XLR8R interview (2005)
Rare FM interview (2005)
The Scotsman interview (2005)
Remix Mag interview (2005)
Chaos Control interview (2006)
Emily Strange interview (2006)
The Gearwire interview (2006)
Korg interview
Club Events interview (2006)
Jim DeRogatis interview (2006)
UberDrivel interview (2007)
Chief Mag interview (2007)
Battery in Your Leg interview (2008)
Format Magazine interview (2008)
The Guardian interview (2008)
Prefix Mag interview (2008)
Rave Magazine interview (2008)
Roland US - Insider interview (2008)
The Daily Record interview (2008)
Fused Magazine interview (2008)
Miusika interview (2008)
Snippets Zine interview (2008)
Electronic Musician interview (2008)
The Stool Pigeon interview (2008)
Under the Radar interview (2008)
Sunday Mail interview (2008)
Rave Magazine interview (2009)
The Times interview with Ladytron & Depeche Mode (2009)
OC Weekly interview (2009)
The Fader interview (2009)
Scene Magazine interview (2009)
inthemix interview (2009)
Repeat Fanzine interview (2009)
Maja Magazine interview (2009)
The Game Reviews interview (2009)
Voxy.co.nz interview (2010)
The Electricity Club interview (2011)
Spinner interview (2011)
NME interview (2011)
Planet Notion interview (2011)
Swede + Sour interview (2011)
we7 interview (2011)
Clash Music interview 1 (2011)
Clash Music interview 2 (2011)
Gutter Magazine interview (2011)
This Is Fake DIY interview (2011)
Rocksucker interview (2011)
Stereogum interview (2011)
Electronic Musician interview (2011)
Interview Magazine interview (2011)
The Digital Fix interview (2011)
MTV Hive interview (2011)
Ology interview (2011)
DailyWhatNot interview (2011)
Soccer Gaming interview (2011)
Drowned in Sound interview (2011)
The Skinny interview (2011)
Beatportal interview (2011)
Scotcampus interview (2011)
Rolling Stone interview (2011)
City Weekend Shanghai interview (2013)
GE Reports interview (2014)
The Black Key interview (2014)
Into More interview (2018)
Paper Mag interview (2018)
ClashMusic interview (2018)
Music Radar interview (2019)
Bido! Lito! interview (2019)
Billboard interview (2019)
Get Some Magazine interview (2019)
99.3 County FM interview (2019)
mxdwn interview (2019)
MusicOMH interview (2019)
Bido Lito! interview (2019)
London Evening Standard interview (2001)
The weird world of Ladytron
If Kraftwerk and The Human League had found themselves marooned in a crumbling apartment block in late-1970s Eastern Europe with only an old synthesiser and a worn videotape of the film Christiane F for company, they might well have given birth to children who grew up to be Ladytron. Especially if Giorgio Moroder and David Bowie were sharing the flat next door. And Suicide were the in-house band at the local hotel bar, while Marc Almond got arrested for lewd behaviour down the street.
Carrying the fantasy further, the two boys and two girls that Kraftwerk and The Human League spawned would grow up on a diet of consumer durables, technology and processed food, listening to Detroit techno on cheap personal stereos while spending their days wandering aimlessly around the empty aisles of the local state-run department store. Their parents would make their children wear black uniforms and, Von-Trapp style, form a band and sing about their lives. At least, that's how it should have been.
"If someone really didn't want to like us, they could quite easily point to our influences", says Danny Hunt, the founder member of the group along with his Liverpudlian childhood friend Reuben Wu. "But part of the reason for the sound is because of all the travelling we've done in Europe, and we don't feel like an English band. Perhaps it's the melancholy, the emotional tonality of our sound that gives us that European feel".
Singer and keyboard player Mira Aroyo agrees: "We feel affiliated to European music and we don't have any connection to American music and the indie-rock tradition it has created. Europe in the 1970s was much greyer than America, and consequently our influences are from much more pessimistic bands than all of that hippie stuff. People like Can and Kraftwerk, who didn't want to sing about how wonderful everything was, because it wasn't".
Ladytron's real story is almost as good as the one they should have had. Danny had the idea of being in a band called Ladytron before he actually was, and, having spent his teenage years picking up vintage synthesisers at car-boot sales, he finally got around to calling up Reuben, who shared his interest in electronic music. They met Helen Marnie in a bar, and Mira, a Bulgarian genetics scientist currently living in Oxford, under circumstances no band member will fully divulge: "You can say that we met on the Bulgarian national railway", says Mira, somewhat mysteriously.
"We never put an ad in the paper asking for like-minded black-haired individuals", adds Danny, "but we did get the uniforms made to go further with what was already there".
The dark electro-pop of their debut album, 604, looks set to convince a new generation that Berlin circa 1981 was the only place to be. Ladytron's first two singles, "He Took Her to a Movie" and "Playgirl", were both NME singles of the week and Playboy magazine described "Playgirl" as "post-coital music that your girlfriend would like", which the band were pleased about. Europe is accepting them with open arms.
"In Sweden we're play-listed on national radio, and in Germany I thought we could never get away with it because it would be like coals to Newcastle, but they loved it", says Danny. "And in Spain they just love everything because they're on pills 24 hours a day".
Whether their vision of grey cities and consumer culture will appeal to the average Coldplay fan is another matter. While most bands sing about broken hearts and no-good girls, Ladytron like to write about their favourite buildings. "Architecture is a big influence. We all love the TV Tower in Berlin and a number of European train stations", says Mira. Unsurprisingly, they don't get out on that many strolls in the countryside. While Mira says that she does enjoy looking at trees and fields from the safety of the inside of a train to Liverpool, Danny sees Ladytron as a product of city life. "We're all city people. The album was recorded right in the middle of Liverpool, with drunken idiots on the streets outside and bad house music coming from every direction".
Along with adaptations of patriotic songs from Mira's Bulgarian youth, as well as an ode to the Bulgarian national football team, the album does feature love stories of a kind. On "Paco!", the theme tune to Are You Being Served? is the basis for a song in which Mira tells her lover/victim: "I saw your face on a black-and-white machine/I got your name from the checkout machine".
"Consumer culture is getting more and more extreme", she says, "and we wanted to reflect that". But it has come full circle - Ladytron's music is currently being used to sell Ivy League-style clothes in the American chain Abercrombie and Fitch. "They're really horrible", says Danny. "I wouldn't want our music to encourage people to buy clothes like that. At least I suppose you could say we're subverting things from the inside now".
7 Mar 2001
If Kraftwerk and The Human League had found themselves marooned in a crumbling apartment block in late-1970s Eastern Europe with only an old synthesiser and a worn videotape of the film Christiane F for company, they might well have given birth to children who grew up to be Ladytron. Especially if Giorgio Moroder and David Bowie were sharing the flat next door. And Suicide were the in-house band at the local hotel bar, while Marc Almond got arrested for lewd behaviour down the street. Carrying the fantasy further, the two boys and two girls that Kraftwerk and The Human League spawned would grow up on a diet of consumer durables, technology and processed food, listening to Detroit techno on cheap personal stereos while spending their days wandering aimlessly around the empty aisles of the local state-run department store. Their parents would make their children wear black uniforms and, Von-Trapp style, form a band and sing about their lives. At least, that's how it should have been.
"If someone really didn't want to like us, they could quite easily point to our influences", says Danny Hunt, the founder member of the group along with his Liverpudlian childhood friend Reuben Wu. "But part of the reason for the sound is because of all the travelling we've done in Europe, and we don't feel like an English band. Perhaps it's the melancholy, the emotional tonality of our sound that gives us that European feel".
Singer and keyboard player Mira Aroyo agrees: "We feel affiliated to European music and we don't have any connection to American music and the indie-rock tradition it has created. Europe in the 1970s was much greyer than America, and consequently our influences are from much more pessimistic bands than all of that hippie stuff. People like Can and Kraftwerk, who didn't want to sing about how wonderful everything was, because it wasn't".
Ladytron's real story is almost as good as the one they should have had. Danny had the idea of being in a band called Ladytron before he actually was, and, having spent his teenage years picking up vintage synthesisers at car-boot sales, he finally got around to calling up Reuben, who shared his interest in electronic music. They met Helen Marnie in a bar, and Mira, a Bulgarian genetics scientist currently living in Oxford, under circumstances no band member will fully divulge: "You can say that we met on the Bulgarian national railway", says Mira, somewhat mysteriously. "We never put an ad in the paper asking for like-minded black-haired individuals", adds Danny, "but we did get the uniforms made to go further with what was already there".
The dark electro-pop of their debut album, 604, looks set to convince a new generation that Berlin circa 1981 was the only place to be. Ladytron's first two singles, "He Took Her to a Movie" and "Playgirl", were both NME singles of the week and Playboy magazine described "Playgirl" as "post-coital music that your girlfriend would like", which the band were pleased about. Europe is accepting them with open arms.
"In Sweden we're play-listed on national radio, and in Germany I thought we could never get away with it because it would be like coals to Newcastle, but they loved it", says Danny. "And in Spain they just love everything because they're on pills 24 hours a day".
Whether their vision of grey cities and consumer culture will appeal to the average Coldplay fan is another matter. While most bands sing about broken hearts and no-good girls, Ladytron like to write about their favourite buildings. "Architecture is a big influence. We all love the TV Tower in Berlin and a number of European train stations", says Mira. Unsurprisingly, they don't get out on that many strolls in the countryside. While Mira says that she does enjoy looking at trees and fields from the safety of the inside of a train to Liverpool, Danny sees Ladytron as a product of city life. "We're all city people. The album was recorded right in the middle of Liverpool, with drunken idiots on the streets outside and bad house music coming from every direction".
Along with adaptations of patriotic songs from Mira's Bulgarian youth, as well as an ode to the Bulgarian national football team, the album does feature love stories of a kind. On "Paco!", the theme tune to Are You Being Served? is the basis for a song in which Mira tells her lover/victim: "I saw your face on a black-and-white machine/I got your name from the checkout machine". "Consumer culture is getting more and more extreme", she says, "and we wanted to reflect that". But it has come full circle - Ladytron's music is currently being used to sell Ivy League-style clothes in the American chain Abercrombie and Fitch. "They're really horrible", says Danny. "I wouldn't want our music to encourage people to buy clothes like that. At least I suppose you could say we're subverting things from the inside now".
7 Mar 2001
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)