The Digital Fix interview (2011)

For more than ten years now, Ladytron have been tantalising us with their ice cool electronica, breaking through at a time when some of today's Moog meddlers were still getting to grips with their Fisher Price DJ decks. With their new album Gravity the Seducer imminent, we caught up with the band's Helen Marnie to discuss their latest effort and how it feels to reach the milestone of a decade in the industry.

Hey Ladytron! Normally at this point we ask you to introduce yourself and tell us what the most exotic item within your current field of vision is.

I'm Helen from Ladytron! Within my current field of vision it would be a Chinese fighter pilot helmet I got when we were playing in China in 2005.

Because we have access to the internet, we know that Gravity the Seducer is your fifth studio album in ten years - which is a veritible flood by modern standards. When did thoughts turn towards writing a new album and is it easier or harder to come up with new material over time?

Yes, we've been lucky enough to sustain a music career since 1999, something I never thought would happen. As soon as we stopped touring Velocifero towards the end of 2009 our thoughts turned towards album number five. We always write when we have time off, never when on tour. The two just don't mix.

We are inspired by everything around us and events in our own lives so this is all poured into new material. There's always something there to write about.

Do you start with a plan as to how any new material is going to come together into an album, or do you just write and see what works?

We never really plan as such. We give ourselves a rough timeline and whatever material is ready by then goes into the pot and then we decide what we think is going to work best and what should be concentrated on. It's a pretty natural process. It's never contrived. We write about what we want and then pull it all together.

Does GTS have an overarching theme at all? A few tracks like 'White Elephant', 'Transparent Days', 'Mirage' suggest something about illusion maybe?

The album as a whole feels like it is thematically linked. The songs almost merge into one another at points. There are loose themes and imagery running throughout and re-occurring instrumentation. Themes range between life and death, optical illusions, and altitude, to name a few.

Ladytron, as a vehicle, has given you the opportunity to travel all over the world. What's the oddest thing you've ever seen on tour?

Yes, we've travelled to some amazing places and seen quite a few things. I think the most interesting place I've been is probably China. It's just so culturally different from the UK so is very unfamiliar to me. We first toured there in 2005. The streets of Shenzhen and Shanghai were lined with huge red posters on flagpoles with our faces on them. It looked almost military! We were the first western band to play there since Elton John I believe, so it was quite a big deal for us.

What kind of items do you take with you to remind you of home?

These days when I go on tour my most precious item is my laptop with Skype on it. It is a saviour. Means I can keep in touch with my husband and family and stay grounded when crazy stuff is going on on the tourbus.

I imagine Ladytron have some pretty hardcore Japanese fans. What kind of presents do they give you?

It's kind of weird but we have never actually played Japan as a band. Danny DJ-ed there years ago, and our EP Miss Black and Her Friends was released there by Bambini in 1999, however it's one place we've not been. We would love to go though!

What was it like putting together your 'best of'? When you sat down to compile the tracklisting, did it change the way you thought about your decade together?

It was quite a nostalgic process and it did make me realise we've gone through a lot together as a band, but also as friends. Sometimes it's easy to forget that we just started out making music and making fun for ourselves. Obviously today we have to be a more serious outfit, as Ladytron is what we do. But it was good to track through the years. Looking at the photo booklet really showed us as a bunch of kids. We look so baby faced.

Compiling the tracks was quite difficult because we all had ideas about what should and shouldn't be included. In the end we compiled a huge list and then narrowed it down by selection until we all agreed on the final cut. It did take quite some time though. The deluxe version is more rounded I think because it included some more obscure tracks, fan favourites, and tunes we thought should've had more exposure.

When you hit an anniversary like that, does it make you think about the future? Do you want Ladytron to be around for a long time or is it a case of one project at a time?

These days we don't really think too far ahead because who knows what the future holds? We do want longevity though. As long as we can keep producing music that we feel is worthy of release then we will continue to do so.

We always try and ask bands for some personal advice when we can - say there's this guy, maybe he writes for a music website and he's got a bit of a crush on the girl who works in the local musical instrument shop. He's going to go in and try out a synth in order to impress her - what should he play? A bit of Bach? Laura Brannigan? The hits of Meatloaf?

Hmmm. Classical is probably not the way to go. I say play some Carpenters, that's sure to win her over. If it doesn't maybe she's just not that cool.

Source

The making of "Mirage" music video

Ology interview (2011)

Your favorite band are probably still reading the instruction manual for their new Minimoog, but Liverpool quartet Ladytron have been releasing effortlessly hip, old school analogue synthesizer pop for more than a decade. Their new album Gravity the Seducer (out tomorrow) is maybe their biggest stylistic leap forward yet—a seamless song cycle of evocative synth textures, haunting pop melodies, and, as always, the chilly future-sex vocals of singers Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo.

I spoke with founding member Daniel Hunt last week about the band's new album, the upcoming "Mirage" music video, and the return of the album as an artistic statement.

Hi Daniel, this is Brett at Ology. How are you doing?

Hi, I'm good, thanks!

What've you been up to today?

I've just been chilling out. We've actually been up in Scotland shooting a video for "Mirage" all week, which was interesting.

Your North American tour kicks off in a few weeks. How much time do you typically spend rehearsing before a major tour?

It depends. We've been playing shows already this summer. We just had a break in August, so we'll have a little refresh before we go out.

There are a lot of really dense, complicated textures on several of the new songs. Has it been a challenge translating them into the live setting?

Not really. I mean, we cross that bridge when we get to it. The most important thing for us has always been to make the records sound right. When we reproduce that live, we approach it in turn, and we've done it differently from tour to tour. There's no set way of approaching it, really. Depends on the set-up.

I read that you recorded the new album in the countryside in Kent. Did the environment have a direct effect on the writing or recording process?

No, not really, because we write and record for obviously a long period before we approach studios. I would say perhaps the choice of recording location was influenced by the material, rather than vice versa.

You chose to work with producer Simon "Barny" Barnicott again on this record. What did he bring to the table this time around?

We've worked with him off and on since 2002. The first thing he did was a single mix for "Blue Jeans"-- he used to be Jim Abbiss' assistant and mix engineer. We did a couple of single mixes and Witching Hour with them, and now he works alone and has a set-up out there in Kent. So it made sense, really-- we really like his mixing. He has a great set of ears and some interesting tricks… quite convoluted analogue techniques to getting certain things. We try to remain outside the digital realm as much as we can, as much as is possible. He and Jim Abbiss are both really great for that.

When you hunker down to write a new album, will you typically come up with a set direction or sound you want to pursue, or does it all come organically out of the songwriting?

You end up with a batch of material that you're working on and sometimes the sound of tracks kind of attract each other, in a way. Tracks become closer together sonically as things develop. I think that's one of the strengths of this record—it sounds very coherent, that was a conscious move on our part… as conscious as these things can be, obviously. A record like this definitely couldn't be planned mathematically.

I really love the sounds on "White Gold". Do you remember which synthesizers or keyboards you used on it?

You might be talking about the Conn organ. That's probably the most characteristic sound on it. Or else, there's a sound that sounds like a plucked guitar, which is actually hollow plastic pipes that are pitched… It sounds a bit like a guitar, comes in after the first chorus. That might be what you're talking about.

I think that "90 Degrees" might be my new favorite Ladytron song of all time. How did that song come together?

I'm glad you said that, that song's quite dear to me. I actually originally wrote that in Portuguese for my fiancé, and then translated it to English. It's a couple years older than the others. To me, that's like the heart of the record. I think that track was the seed for what developed elsewhere on the record.

I really love the "Ace of Hz" and "White Elephant" videos. I'm wondering, are visuals something you're thinking about when you're writing and recording, or do they come much later in the process?

It comes later in the process because, to be honest, almost all videos are just the director's representation of the song. Unless you're hands-on making the video yourselves, they're not part of the canon, they are something added on. Sometimes they work in their own way, or they somehow transcend the track alone, or whatever, but rarely are they actually part of the album's visual identity. So they can be standalone, but now we're getting a little bit closer to the album. For example, Neil Krug has made some video material for the record and Helen and I put together the concept for the video for "Mirage", which we've just been shooting with director Michael Sherrington. The "Blue Jeans" video was completely our thing, and we've had input before, but this one might be the first time where we feel like the video and the song have genuine synergy. But it's not finished yet, so we'll see how it turns out.

Ladytron have been pigeonholed as being a lot of different things by the music press over the years. Now that synthesizers are becoming much more of a mainstay in rock and pop music, do you feel like there's less of a tendency to label electronic bands into the different categories than there was when you were first starting out?

Yeah, I think to be honest, we bore the brunt of it. The focus on genre and this need to classify everything was something that we found… I wouldn't say we found it annoying, but we found it bemusing. It's like, why do things need a genre? And at the same time, why invent a convoluted genre for something that doesn't really have one? Why not just let things exist on their own? Why not just let an artist exist without a generic tag at all? Then again, it's just part of the marketing, it's just how records are sold. So we obviously understand why those genres need to be there mechanically, but in terms of journalism or the appreciation of music, we didn't really understand why they had to be there. We were very reticent to be tagged, which is unavoidable, but we resisted it as much as we could. I guess we don't mind these kind of tags as long as we think they're fair or they're accurate.

Sometimes I find it surprising when you read about records and the way they're described is just completely wrong. It's almost like people are reading aggregated feeds of information about something without actually listening to it and appreciating it. For example, reposting a video on your social networks or whatever before you've gone beyond the first 10 seconds. I feel like this is part of how music is appreciated now, and what I find is, more and more of my friends are switching off that side of things and are listening to records for the duration and stepping away from the feeds and the aggregation and the genres and the boxes.

A lot of music has been single-based for so long. I'm wondering, do you think there's maybe a retaliatory move towards making real albums again?

I think so and I hope so! There seemed to be this kind of defeatist attitude maybe five years ago. It was like, "Oh, f--k this, we're not making albums anymore, f--k it, nobody listens to them anyway, no one buys them anyway." And I think it was maybe an older generation of artists who just felt like all that effort wasn't appreciated and that digital market people only buy the key songs. That doesn't and shouldn't affect your own creative endeavor. People always have their favorites. Ten years ago, the majority of people would get a CD and have the tracks that they listen to and ignore the rest. You have to give your audience the benefit of the doubt that they are going to appreciate all of the stuff you're going to do and not assume they only want the singles. If that was the case, I'd just give up, it'd be pointless.

Ladytron - Selector Festival, 2011

Content: Runaway / Seventeen / White Elephant / Destroy Everything You Touch

MTV Hive interview (2011)

Ladytron has been making their particular brand of icy, New Wave-influenced electro-pop for a long time now. Following their Best Of 00-10 album, released earlier this year, the band's fifth album Gravity the Seducer is out today. While we've come to expect a certain gloom from the four-piece collective — serenely stoic goth-like hooks sung over sleek ambience or sparse electro-rock, for example — Gravity isn't so heavy. Instead their newest creation tones down the dark disco aesthetic for a brief foray into the light.

The lead singles are the clear successes of this endeavor: intro track "White Elephant" is built on a foundation of grandly swooping strings and lightly floating synths, "Ace of Hz" carries the strongest hook of the set and hauntingly broods in a style that's distinct to the group, but with a little less melodrama. Gravity, however, does work best as a whole. Where once we found ourselves playing a never-ending loop of "Destroy Everything You Touch," the recurring shimmer of chimes and warmly laid synth-beds of the band's newest creations are best understood when played as a set. Gravity the Seducer is more of a cinematic experience than anything they've done before.

Hive caught up with Ladytron's Reuben Wu a few days ago to talk about the release, the band's recording process, and what makes this album different from the rest.

You recently toured in support of your Best Of career retrospective. What was it like to be sitting on a new album while playing mostly your back catalog?

We played "White Elephants" and "Ace of Hz," so we were able to have a bit of fun and play at least two new songs while playing our old stuff. I mean, obviously, playing new music to an unsuspecting audience, it's not really great for us. Because, you know, a lot of people who go to gigs just want to hear music they recognize and they can sing to. I mean, the first time we ever played "Destroy Everything You Touch" was in '05 in China and when we played it there was absolutely no response. It was quite funny. So you say, "This is a new song," and you get a half-hearted reaction from the audience. It's actually quite nice to play hits and music that people know and love. It's nice now that the album has come out that now we can start playing the new stuff because that means there will be more recognition and audience participation, which is really what it's all about.

When you started recording Gravity the Seducer did you already know how you wanted it to be different from Velocifero? Or anything else you had previously done for that matter?

Well, we had some themes. We knew that we wanted a more kind of mid-tempo, a down-tempo, album. We wanted more of an atmospheric, surreal soundtrack vibe to it. We also knew it was going to be an album that people wouldn't necessarily expect us to produce. I think this sounds [like] what we wanted it to be but it morphed into something else. It did eventually become another kind of pop record in a way. It stands alone from the other albums that we've done but it's very, very, very much us. You can still hear our sounds in the music.

I know you wrote "Ace of Hz" a few years ago, around the time you were touring around your last studio album. Considering Gravity is so fluid in the way you mentioned earlier, did you have to consider that track in particular when recording the rest of the album? Did you have to mold anything around it?

That track is a little bit different from the rest of the album just because, yeah, it is one of the oldest tracks on that album. I think it still fits in to the story of the whole collection of songs. With every song, every song has it's own identity as one, yet it sticks together as an album perfectly for me. It works as an album better than any album that we've produced, I think. It's a very cohesive sounding album yet every song sounds different from each other.

This album also has an ethereal quality that makes it kind of cinematic. Are you guys interested in doing soundtrack work in the future?

We have quite a lot of our work used in movies, but they're songs. We've never actually written our own soundtrack and that's actually something we'd really like to do in the future.

If you were given the opportunity to choose a director or writer to work with, who would you pick?

For fun, I don't know, David Lynch? No, I can't say David Lynch. Everyone says David Lynch. I'm a massive massive Twin Peaks fan and a fan of Angelo Badalamenti's music so that would be cool. Werner Herzog. Alejandro Jodorowsky if he were to make another film. Anything really. If we were given the opportunity we would just make it our own and make it cool.

In past interviews Dan [Hunt] has avoided listing any influences or anything that could be genre-binding to the group, but there's definitely an impulsive desire to define your sound as '80s New Wave, electro-pop, or synth-pop. How do you maintain that ethos without becoming a slave to it?

It just comes from having a broad interest in music. A broad taste in music. That's the thing that Dan is probably thinking of, because we like so much music. It would be wrong to say that we liked this or that because, you know, it doesn't really give a true picture. It also helps that we are four people. It keeps us from doing the same thing. We kind of keep each other on our toes. It's a really good thing. Instead of just working alone, you have to be incredibly aware of everything. It's very difficult to keep yourself aware and take a step back from your work, you know? It helps when you have three other people listening to your stuff and always thinking, "Is this new?" Are we writing the same song again? Does this sound like someone else?" At times you have to create something that is original to us but interesting as well. That's why every album sounds new.

Do you ever listen to music while you're recording? Do you ever feel like you need to be keeping "in the loop"?

No, not really. Especially now when it's very difficult to be in the loop and also maintain this calm enthusiasm for music. Mainly because there's so much stuff out there. There's so much crap stuff as well. You have to listen to so much crap to get to the good. Whereas in the past you'd have people who would tell you for this band to look out for or you'd go to a record shop and you'd hear something someone was playing and then you would buy analog recording. You really had to listen to the music. Nowadays you have everything, like iTunes, out there telling you, "If you like this, you'll like this." And you have to kind of try it to actually know. It's quite frustrating, you know, taking suggestion from a computer. I'd much rather have real people giving me tips about what they're listening to.

That said, you're also releasing a new album into that market and your following is somewhat cult-like. They've been following you forever. How do you expect new people to be tipped to you?

The internet. [Laughs.] Yeah, their computer. I think the problem is that we live in this twenty-second attention span, where if you don't like it in twenty-seconds you move off from it. It's important to us that people look at the whole rounded idea of who we are and what we produced. That was one of the reasons we made the Best Of compilation, because we wanted to give this idea of who we were, not just the popular singles we produced. Also, I like to think that people learn about us through reading reviews and word of mouth more than anything else. Parties too – people playing our songs. That kind of thing. I think that's one of the reasons we have such a great following, because people think the music scene belongs to them and not to everyone.

I know that you and Dan met in the '90s while DJing. Are you still doing that?

Yeah, for sure. Whenever we get a gig we go out and play. We generally play high-energy music. Not really music like Ladytron but a party vibe and an electronic vibe. But yeah, that's a fun side project.

Have you been paying attention to any newer dance-outfits lately? There's a few that are pulling inspiration from '90s-era house music.

It seems like there are a lot of bands right now that are using keyboards. These cycles go in ten years or something like that. There's been a resurgence since about ten or twelve years ago. That might explain why a lot of bands are using keyboards and those sounds now. When we started off playing keyboards people would come to us like, "So, uh, why are you playing keyboards instead of guitars?" Now everyone's doing it again.

Source

Ladytron - Montreal, 2011

Content: Soft Power / International Dateline / Mirage / Ghosts / High Rise / True Mathematics / White Gold / Runaway / Ace of Hz / Little Black Angel / Discotraxx / Fighting in Built Up Areas / Seventeen / White Elephant / Destroy Everything You Touch

Ladytron - KEXP, 2011

Format: MP3, 320 kbps CBR
Note: I converted to MP3 320kbps CBR from WMA 128 kbps CBR stream. I added tags with MP3Tag and I made the cover.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. White Elephant
3. Mirage
4. Interview
5. White Gold
6. Ace of Hz

Download

OurStage interview (with Reuben)