Melbourne’s electro outfit Midnight Juggernauts has released its third full length album Uncanny Valley . I had a chat with Andrew Szekeres (Andy) about the recording process of the record, the themes behind it, touring, djing, music videos and creating their own film.
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BLAKE: You recorded Uncanny Valley in the Loire Valley in France, and mentioned losing contact with all technology. How was that experience for you guys?
ANDY: I think it ended up being a really good thing, especially for recording. Pretty much everyone these days is connected to their computer or phone and I suppose recording in isolation really allowed us to focus purely on music. I guess getting rid of the outside world and being in a place where we recorded, which was this amazing studio that had this big church attached to it, and being in the middle of fields and a lake near by, suddenly all those technological devices we have didn’t seem to be important and it really helped. We were able to record at night and go into the church and spend a few hours recording, which really helped with clearing our head.
Before recording Uncanny Valley were there any themes or concepts that you set out to explore?
I guess this idea of uncanny valley relates to our music because it’s about this idea of perfection or not being able to fight the impossible search for perfection which has parallels with making music. Especially for us where we spent a long time recording this one – probably longer than we have recorded before. The hypotheses about trying to create robots as human as possible and by the final time it reaches likeness it’s suddenly repulsed by it. I guess it’s an interesting idea that maybe it’s impossible to find the perfect anything. It’s a really interesting idea especially with us making electronic music and lining it with real elements and then this idea that you are always chasing a level of perfection which you can never quite get to. But I think it’s interesting because as soon as you feel like you have reached as high as you can go, you might as well stop it, so you are always trying to improve and make things better.
Uncanny Valley sounds a lot more stripped back and cleaner, was that a conscious attempt to redefine your sound?
The way we recorded our last album was together in the same room. With this one we wanted to take our time recording in our own space, generally most of the time in our own studio, then we went to France and did some recording there. So I think that the idea behind it was to be in a better headspace for recording and I think that we were able to be more free in the way in that we wanted to record this album. We wanted to make a more energetic record and I suppose the last album was a very heavily layered record so it was a very complex album to mix. So we did want to move away from that and at least with this record make something that was a bit more simple.
The last track on Uncanny Valley ‘ Melodiya ‘ has a strong Indian vibe to it paticularly at the beginning of the song, what influenced you in this track?
There are different influences throughout the record, such as the first part of that track which references a few old psychedelic songs from the 60′s. But when the chorus comes in it kind of turns into a house song. We thought it was interesting in having this slow build with a more psychedelic sound to a more modern sounding house song. Those were two different ideas we were able to put together and make it what it was, so it was cool the way it turned out.
Anywhere you are most excited to return to play?
On monday we start our tour and the first place we are going to is South America for a few shows. We go to Columbia first and then to Chile then Argentina. Every time we have toured South America it has been one of the most amazing experiences. We have had really good shows there and a good response from people and I don’t think our albums have every been properly released there. We have really been able to build a fan base there. Anytime we get to go to an exotic place or places from Australia that seem weird and different. Like going to Russia was amazing and all of South America and Mexico. When we went to Kiev that was another crazy place to go. We haven’t toured for quite a while so everything we are about to do is exciting for me, just being able to go back to these places.
On the side you guys sometime do DJ sets, recently playing Vice Australia’s 10th birthday, what is it most you like about DJing?
It’s a very different experience for us. We’ve always had an interest in DJ music and playing electronic music and I’ve always had an interest in house and techno. For us DJing has always been a fun side project. We have never been really serious about and I wouldn’t say we are amazing DJs, but we’ve gotten better at it as we’ve gone along because we’ve been asked more and more. At times it’s a fun thing on the side and then other times we have played DJ festivals, so that’s been another avenue to promote the band. Personally it’s an interesting thing because it gives you the opportunity to mould a set from start to finish without stopping – creating different kind of moods. We all do stuff separately so sometimes we DJ music that is weird and that you can’t dance to. In a club we will try and do a club music set. Compared to playing our live show it’s different because when you are playing your own music there is a lot more responsibility and pressure on you because it’s what you are. We are able to play other music that we like and it doesn’t feel like it has the same level of pressure for us. It’s definitely a fun exercise and lets you get drunk and party.
Where did you guys find the quirky props that where featured in the film clip for ‘ Ballad of the War Machine ,’ such as the cutlery ?
It’s actually crazy because we shot pretty much all the clip in Russia. There was a small section at the prop warehouse. We had access to millions of props and we had five friends and limited time, so we would be dragging props for 20 hours straight. We filled this the room with props and everyone brainstormed and worked out combinations of props to create a weird setting. It was a hectic experience. We would be like “let’s do a plate with forks and I can pick you up and be eating you.” There were so many props which where from the past 40 years of various productions, plays and operas which were all stored there. It was pretty fun to go through all these crazy props and working out how to incorporate it into our video.
You have done some work in creating soundtracks for 1960′s documentaries for ACMI, if you were to direct your own film what would it be about? What theme would you explore?
Well that’s a very tough question. I think that our music has always limited itself to doing some kind of epic symphonic score. We got into synthesisers via horror movies and lots of Italian movies and Soviet era movies. So it would be cool to do some kind of psychological horror/thriller type film with a big synthesiser score, that would something we would do, but I think we would have a go at any type of film. Vince also makes films as well and has done lots of stuff, he’s always working on stuff.
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WORDS BY Blake Creighton
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