.

orbital
in space?
interview with Phil from Orbital

words by Nathan Thorin
pix by Max Michaels

 
  Chilling in the uber-sleek waiting room of the Time hotel, we waited to meet up with Phil from Orbital. This was one time when just waiting for someone was half the fun; Watching aeon flux play from many small sqaures simultaneously as they lit up the walls of the bar.
We all got drinks: coffee, gin and tonic, vodka and cranberry, if I remember correctly. Interesting what drinks say about people’s personality… or at least their current mood.

   We turned on the vid-camera on and the voices arose.

How long did it take you guys to record this new album?

  "I think it was probably about a year and a half. But some of the tracks like the last one ‘Meltdown’, that was a specific project that we were doing and it was all lumped with it. We liked it so much we put it on the album. It’s a bit hard to quantify but probably about a year and a half.
   Some of the other stuff, we got from stuff that we had done for years in live encore mode (remix of the Dr. Who theme song), and it’s a great track that was made in like 1960 for god’s sake. Even with modern technology we found it hard to recreate it as good of the original. So we did do that at the time of the last album and I didn’t even think of it for an album. It was kind of something we just did as a live thing, but then the nature of this album is a lot of shorter tracks, and more individual tracks that didn’t really relate to anything.
   The only thing gelling them is Orbital I suppose. So we found out on the website people going, ‘we want a copy of Dr. Who, Dr. Who! ‘. Because people really enjoyed it we thought, well let’s try and record it how we do it live. And then see how it fits on the album. It didn’t really seem to stick out as a wrong thing, it blended in quite nicely really, so we put it on there due to popular demand as it were."

Are you going to go on tour for this album?

  "Yeah, definitely, yeah. We’re doing Creamfields [unfortunately canceled!] in New York and Las Vegas in September. The Las Vegas show will be a springboard really for the October sort of tour. So it’s looking like October we’ll be all over the place. America definitely. The only places now are the UK and America that we do a full production. That’s our main audience really and Europe we try to cover with festivals. Holland is a really good one for us. And we’re doing a thing called ‘Dance Valley’ in August which is a 30,000 sort of dance festival in a beautiful place just outside of Amsterdam.
   Definitely going down to Florida. But whenever we go down there, it never seems to go off properly. Well sometimes it does but it’s like, ‘where are all these people? I know you are out there.’ I know it is, we just haven’t happened to tap into it quite yet."

I love the Tool sample you used on the new album.

   "Yeah! It was from Lalapalooza really, we sort of met Tool. We were like "Who is this band Tool, they must be really big because they’re headlining Lalapalooza". So that was a fantastic thing for us seeing them day in and day out, and really getting into it. Maynard started announcing us, and telling people that we were going to be coming out, and he was really nice. We really started getting together, and it was quite sad towards the end, it was sort of like some holiday romance. :::laughter:::
   Actually we just did a gig in Germany last weekend and we bumped into them again, and we were playing after them again. And that was really good to see them. After doing Lalapalooza we bought all their records, and Paul sort of knocked up this ‘Tootled’ a sort of obvious play on words, and a tip of the hat sort of thing. It was just fun to do."

Yeah, it put an interesting twist on it.

  "Yeah, and we were thinking ‘Oh, I don’t know, will they be offended?’ but they gave it their full blessing, and it was fantastic, it was great. And they saw us again. They were really good again as well. I really liked their new album. "

There is a pretty good diversity between all the songs on the new Orbital album. You had David Grey come on and do vocals?

   "Yeah, he’s my brother in law actually. Well we wrote that track, and again it had been kind of loitering about since the last album. I couldn’t see it as a track on the last album at all really. And Paul was always like, ‘I really want a male vocal, I can really hear a male vocal in there’. And Dave was literally just having a cup of coffee, chilling out around the corner. The studio where we worked was really right around the corner from where he lived.
   So we were going, ‘all right Dave, come on then. Listen to this and see if anything comes’. He grabbed the mic and just started jamming as it were. Just playing with ideas. We put together a rough demo for it, and sort of left it on the shelf a bit and released the last LP. And again, when this one came up the nature of the tracks we were already forming on this, and we thought well maybe this one will be okay to put this album. It is such a song, a sort of song song. It was definitely collaboration really, and I really enjoyed it. He’s a great guy."

It works with your style well also.

   "And we’ve twisted it again, it never quite did it for me. Now when we play it live we’ve sort of twisted it around again. And it’s been developing as we’re doing gigs, into something else again. Which is great. And what we’re doing live seems much more obviously David Grey and Orbital. And the one on the album is Dave Grey and what could be anybody really. And I’m really getting it to where I wanted it."

And there’s a little bit of the Cramps on there, are you Cramps fans?

   "Yeah, definitely! Techno-rockabilly. Techno-skiffle-rockabilly. ::laughter::
   That was good fun. Again, we wrote that track and were like, ‘Yeah, I dunno, it needs something else’. And just sitting around, we were like, ‘Oh Cramps, I haven’t really heard them for ages’. Then ‘Wait a minute, listen to that! I’m sure that would really go with that’. And you just tuned into it and it really worked well, and I love it now. It makes that track. Really good, really good."
  
So when you guys play out live you normally play just the two of you with keyboards and such, have you ever thought of ever incorporating any other elements such as bringing singers along like David Grey?

   "He’s too expensive for us now for us to hire him! ::laughter:: like $200,000 for one song, I dunno. Um yeah, I’ve thought about it. That’s about as far as it gone though. Well, because of the way we play live we’re jamming with these sequencers, nothing is set. There’s no tape, so there’s no rigidness to it. We’re improvising within the structure of the song, so we can bring in whatever we want when we want it. So it could be a bit complicated if you had the live element without a little bit of practice. And we’ve never really had the time or the luxury to get into that really.
   Do you get ‘Stomp’ over here? I think it’s on Broadway, they hit dustbins and such. There’s a mate of mine that’s in one of those, ‘cause there’s like seven troupes of them. And that idea would be fun for him to come along and do some crazy thing. I dunno, run around stage and start hitting things and mic it up. I dunno, there’s lots of ideas that haven’t really come together. I dunno, maybe it will one day."

Have you guys been just sitting in the studio working for the past year? Has that been taking up all of your time, or do you have any other projects?

   "No we’ve just been working on the album actually. Because once you’ve done the album, you have to start thinking about live. And once you’ve done that you have to convert all of the information down to these basic sequences. Which takes another couple of months, in order so it all works live. In the studio we’re using the computer and we’re only using these tiny little sequencers on stage.
   So you know, it does take a lot of time, its like filing or getting in order. So when the next track comes along your next sample is all ready and prepped. So you know you have to take another couple of months out of your agenda for just doing that.
   I’m not complaining really… it is a great job! ::laughter:: "

Where have some of your best shows been?

   "Well, London is sort of our hometown, so that’s always good. But in the US, it’s been really really good. The last two we did got a really good response.
   And the scene, I’ve seen it over ten years; it has gotten bigger and bigger. Especially after they invented the word ‘electronica’. I was like ‘okay, it’s a bit cheesy’ but you know it’s a bit of respect. At least there’s a category now, not just dance music or disco music otherwise. It’s got a genre now, which is great, it’s a bit of acknowledgement which is good.
   Yeah, I dunno, we have a good time when we come over here."

And we’ve heard that you’re releasing a DVD?

   "Yeah, we’ve done that which is great fun. My whole point on that was from the audio surround-sound point of view. Mixing it in surround-sound is wild. The whole element is new. You can pan things, and zoom back front and around and round in circles. It’s really really fun, and that format is just perfect for it. I’ve been waiting for it to come along.
   And we’ve done some visuals for it. DVD-A is supposed to come out next year, which is just DVD audio really. No visuals, which would have suited me but it’s not in people’s mentality yet to have DVD that hasn’t got visuals. It gives you the option for surround sound and gives you a higher sample rate as well."

Okay, kind of just a random question now. Do you think if you had $20 million dollars you would go to the Space Station?

   "::laughter:: No way. No way. I don’t think I would actually. But my brother would… that’s one of his ambitions; to go to the moon or go up in space. I’m like ‘ why’? I can see the idea, I think it’s slightly unnerving looking down and seeing the earth. An aeroplane just about cuts it; space is another thing. I’d find much better things to spend my money on.
   Would you do it?"

Max: Yeah, to go up for a few days, sure. I don’t think I’d gear up to climb a mountain, but I’d go into space.
Nathan:I think what’s interesting about the first paid space flight this year by an American in a Russian shuttle is the commercial aspect of it. Who knows what it will pave the way for?

Phil: "Yeah, well it only takes one person really doesn’t it. Bill Gates or somebody could set up a space shuttle airline. It only takes an enterprizing individual to privatize it."

   Phil was finishing his coffee. The interviewer had finished his second gin and tonic. The videographer had abandoned his vodka and cranberry with a few sips left.
   Thanks Phil!