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ON THE COUCH WITH: Pendulum

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: Hey Gareth, how’s it going
Pendulum – Gareth: Hey i’m doing great, just hanging out on the big day out tour, we’ve got a bunch of shows coming up, so things are good for us.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now the last year has been a big year for the band, with a lot of touring & a new release in the new record “In Sylico” being released, how do you guys feel the record has been received?r
Pendulum – Gareth: Better than expected is all i can truely say, we really didn’t think the record would do as well as it has, which has been just amazing to us. We obviously would’ve liked things to have been bigger than they were in Australia, the record did really well, but being based overseas we were unable to really push the record to its full potential back home.

Access All Areas.net.au: On the record, you went away from your traditional drum & bass style to a more rock & electro style, looking back are you guys happy with the direction of the new sound of the band?
Pendulum – Gareth: Where we are right now with our music is a really good place, we have a lot of fun playing as an actual band instead of just djs so its good. We really loved drum & bass because of its hard hitting intensity that regular dance music couldn’t produce & we got the same vibe with the sound of heavy metal & rock which really showed us we could go in the direction. With the release, it was a step up for us to create the new style which is a lot rockier than our previous albums, but as i said we have fun playing as a band, so its good.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the new sound, you guys have become more of an actual band than just djs, do you enjoy playing like this or prefer the more dj style performances?
Pendulum – Gareth: Well to me, nothing beats a good club show as djs, where we can control & select all the material as well as showcase new material to the fans. However, we are really enjoying the experience of getting up on stage, with the full band ensemblement & putting the live show together. The new live show has been good for us as it has opened up opportunities for us to do a lot more festivals & touring that we were unable to do as the dj set, so it has been very beneficial, not just enjoyable to do the live show as a band.

Access All Areas.net.au: You have had a few singles released from the record & a few of these were up for voting in this years Triple J Hottest 100 countdown, how did you feel to possibly have a few songs in the countdown & how do you feel your songs will go in the countdown?
Pendulum – Gareth: Well its an honour i feel to just be recognised by all of the music industry entities that have given us a chance to have our music put out there. We feel very happy to have a couple songs up for the hottest 100, but to be honest, we don’t feel they will do as good as they could due to us being based overseas. With stuff like this, its all just such a priviledge for us, as we grew up listening to triple j & all its programs & to get the opportunities through them has just been so great for us, we really appreciate everything we have had & we try to give back as much as we can to the people who have helped us get to where we are.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now on the record, you got to tour around Australia, Europe & into North America on some dates, how were the shows, was the new material received well?
Pendulum – Gareth: Touring has been amazing, we have had such an unbelieveable response to the new material, no matter where we have played. From Australia, to the UK to America, we have had just the best tour, with some of the biggest shows we have ever done.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the north American shows, these were your first i believe, was it difficult for you to go to tour somewhere that you hadn’t really broken into the dance scene of?
Pendulum – Gareth: To be honest, it was rather scary for us, as not having gone there before, we thought it would be almost a disaster to even possibly tour. Once we got there, we got to do some truely amazing performances, with some of the biggest crowds at the shows or festivals we were playing. I suppose having the internet to allow people to hear what we are like helped us, as each show on the tour got better & better for us & by the end of it we were selling out shows & getting airplay on radio, which was all so amazing for us to even dream of. I guess we felt it may be difficult, due to stories & stuff we’d heard, but after touring there last year, we can’t wait to get back & play to the audiences over there again.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now currently you are on the big day out festival tour, how are things going?
Pendulum – Gareth: Things are going great, we started the tour in Aucland & we had just the biggest crowd we have ever had for a show in New Zealand, so it was a great day. We did the first Australian date, being the Gold Coast, which was very nervous for us. This festival tour is the biggest opportunity we’ve had to play to the Australian music punters & we felt that if we won over the Gold Coast, all others would fall in our favour. What we got at the Gold Coast was just amazing, there were so many people jumping & dancing & singing to our songs & it was just crazy, so tours good for now.

Access All Areas.net.au: On the tour you are sharing the stage with such artists as The Prodigy, Hot Chip & Simien Mobile Disco, are you enjoying playing alongside these artists on the tour?
Pendulum – Gareth: Oh yeah, definitely, however we aren’t sharing the stage with them on all dates, as we will be on differing stages throughout the tour. With the dance lineup for this year, it is just amazing, from the headliners in The Prodigy who are coming back with a vengeance to the live scene to just the djs playing inbetween the sets, the whole dance stage for this tour is just so much fun & we will have a lot of fun touring with our fellow dance artists.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the big day out, you have more of a limited set time, are you able to play all the material you want to, or do you have to cut back a few?
Pendulum – Gareth: We have a set made for the big day out set time we are given & we feel it is a real bang of a set, with all our best & biggest songs that everyone will love. Of course we have to cut back a bit, but if people are disappointed we have a few sideshows they can come to for the material they want to hear.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now apart from the big day out, you also have some sideshow dates, which you are headlining, are you excited about these shows?
Pendulum – Gareth: Yeah as i said earlier, nothing beats a club show where its just the artist & their fans, where they can all interact together to have the best show possible.

Access All Areas.net.au: With these shows, will you be playing a few things in your set you are unable to do in your set time at the big day out?
Pendulum – Gareth: Yeah, of course, its going to be a full show set with everything we could possibly throw in, so if you’re a fan of ours & want the full pendulum experience, i highly recommend you get yourself along to one of our dates.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now quickly, just a few festival questions, firstly, any tips for the people coming to the big day out to rock out for pendulum?
Pendulum – Gareth: Yeah i’d just say if you’re a bit weaker than other people stay a bit further back from the front, as our shows get pretty intense in the crowds. In some of our shows we’ve had some pretty intense corwds & people have gone down from the intensity, so yeah just keep that one in mind.

Access All Areas.net.au: What would be one of your most memorable festival experiences?
Pendulum – Gareth: Well for me, the whole big day out is one major experience, as its our biggest opportunity to play to the Australian music crowds, so everything on this tour will be great for me. Other than that, i’d say the UK festivals, such as Redding where we had like 25,000 people come to the dance tent to see us play & it was just out of control, then we had a set at download which is a metal festival where we thought we’d be bottled off stage but instead had about 35,000 people rocking to us.

Access All Areas.net.au: Who would you say is your favourite artist to have seen play at a festival?
Pendulum – Gareth: Well i saw Tenacious D at Redding, they were on before Metallica & they did a pretty good, funny set. Also the band that played after, Metallica, they were amazing to see live. Apart from that the only other band i can think of would be Tool, i saw them a bunch of times while doing the dj sets in 2007 and they were always good.

Access All Areas.net.au: Finally, which festival would you say you have enjoyed playing the most?
Pendulum – Gareth: Well it’s probably got to be the European festivals, there’s too many to name but there’s always a good time had at them. Besides that, its just the UK festivals, i don’t know how to describe it, but the energy at them from the punters is just unbelievable. I mean, even if it’s raining at a UK festival, the punters won’t let it get to them & will just have the best time possible in the conditions of the day, so i’ve had some good times at these festivals i’d say.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now, just quickly, much coming up for pendulum in the near future?
Pendulum – Gareth: Well in march we head back to America for another tour which will run for about a month or so, then we’re really just back into the writing mode for our next record, we’ve been writing for a while now & will look to get it written & recorded sometime this year or early in the next if things don’t go to plan.

Access All Areas.net.au: Well Gareth, its been a pleasure talking to you again, all the best on tour & have a good day.
Pendulum – Gareth: Thankyou for your time, have a nice day, bye.

Interview By: Ben Coby.

INTERVIEW - APRIL 16 2008

Access All Areas.net.au: With the new record ‘In Silico’ what sounds and or influences were sourced to create the new record?
Pendulum: We were really listening to everything from Led Zeppelin to soft rock etc, basically everything besides drum & bass.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the new record in mind, the latest single released “propane nightmares” seems to have a melodic & jazz/funk sound mixed in with the traditional drum & bass you are known for, was this a new direction you were interested in taking for the new record?
Pendulum: Not really, its not really something which you’ll hear much of, its just one of the new sounds which worked for us in the studio.

Access All Areas.net.au: Alongside the sound direction of propane nightmares, is there any other new directions we can look to hear on Pendulum’s new record?
Pendulum: There’s a lot to look to on our record, a lot of different sounds, which flow from the influence during the creative process, but as a whole it’s still drum & bass, there’s some things on there which will be different to what we’ve done before, but really just look for our usual style of drum & bass, which will blow you away.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the new songs which have been coming out this year, there seems to be more of an instrumental sound featuring the groups musicians, how has this in your opinion progressed the sound of pendulum’s music?
Pendulum: We haven’t really changed that much, we are putting in a lot more of live instrumentation, but really we’ve just kept what works for us.

Access All Areas.net.au: In regards to the live arena, at any of your recent shows have you been sampling to the crowds any of the new material & if so, how have the responses been?
Pendulum: Yes we have had some recent shows which were in New Zealand which were great, the crowds were so reactive to us & we were able to slip in a couple of our new songs into the set which got great responses from our audience.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the live arena in mind, you will be doing some Australian shows in the coming days, how are the group feeling about playing live to the home fans, and will much new material be sampled on these shows?
Pendulum: We can’t wait for the shows, it’s a bit of a whirlwind tour for us, being through Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne & Perth in the short amount of time we have, but we are excited to get back to the stage at home. We will be certainly playing some of the new tracks for our home fans as we are looking to showcase to the fans what they can expect on the new record.

Access All Areas.net.au: After the run of Australian dates, what are the plans for the group touring wise, are you lined up for any major international appearances in the near future, will the group be going to any uncharted territory?
Pendulum: In the near future we have a UK tour planned in may which should be great for us, the fans over there are always good & we can’t wait for that tour. With regards to uncharted territory, we will be going to Los Angeles to take part in the Cochella Festival which we hope will help us expand into the American market.

Access All Areas.net.au: Things at the moment couldn’t be going much better for pendulum, in recent months you guys picked up the WAMI awards for best electro/dance group, how did you feel to be the recipiants of these awards?
Pendulum: Yeah, its always great to be acknowledged for your work by any music industry & as it’s our home state’s we couldn’t be happier.

Access All Areas.net.au: With the Western Australian electro/dance scene in mind, in your opinion how do you see the state of it at present?
Pendulum: We’re not really as in touch with the scene in WA as we’re based in the UK & have been so for the last couple years, but we believe that it is a thriving scene as it has always been with lots of talented djs & artists coming through.

Access All Areas.net.au: Are there any upcoming artists from western australia you believe are destined for success who should be taken notice of?
Pendulum: We don’t know of anyone who we could say to take notice of as we’ve been based overseas, so we can’t get a grasp of the current artists who are in the scene, but we are confident that there are several well-talented artists who will stand out in WA’s drum & bass scene.

Access All Areas.net.au: Well I would like to thank you for your time this morning & would just like to ask if you have any final words or thoughts for the pendulum fans of Australia.
Pendulum: There’s not really much we wanna say, come & see our shows, get our new record when it’s released in may cause we’re gonna blow your minds like only pendulum can.

Interview by Ben Coby

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Pendulum formed in their home-town of Perth (Western Australia) in 2002, when producers Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen teamed up with acclaimed local DJ Paul 'Elhornet' Harding. While their individual formative roots ranged from producing drum & bass, breakbeat and hardcore, to playing in metal and punk bands, their comparable talents proved an unstoppable force when they managed to single-handedly conquer the world of drum & bass in their first 12 months together.

After selling more than 100,000 units of their debut artist album "Hold Your Colour", remixing for such respected artists as The Prodigy, being play-listed and featuring regularly on BBC Radio 1, all whilst continuing to tour the world over as DJs...Pendulum decided that was finally time to take things to the next level - performing live.

The last 12 months have seen Pendulum retreat to the depths of the underground to work on their second album, and to hone and perfect their sound for the live arena.

So apart from that, what the hell are Pendulum all about? In the words of the boys themselves...

"We want our music to be an escape. While technology continues to constantly advance production techniques and (arguably) sound quality, something has been lost in the process - that original sense of self-escape, the idea of leaving yourself open to experience something you don't necessarily find in every-day life. That was the energy we picked up on and liked about electronic music when we first got into it. It felt like the same energy found with bands like Led Zeppelin and even The Beatles, and still occasionally today with bands like Tool, The Mars Volta, Queens Of The Stone Age and others.

To us, it made perfect sense to combine the best of both worlds, but it had to be done in a way that didn't make it sound obvious. In the last 10 years you've had all these bands that tried to cross the bridge by recruiting a turntablist / using a synthesizer on their new single, or electronic artists who just threw an obvious guitar sample into a tune...but eventually it just came across as a gimmick or a bit cheesy. We thought we'd try and do it properly, because to us it still hasn't been done right and theres a lot of room for exploration.

If you turn on the radio today you'll hear 20 tracks in a row describing someone's every-day life, or songs with a one-line catchphrase chorus about shaking your ass in the club - the production is usually great but when you look deeper, there's nothing behind it...it doesn't offer you anything past its face value. We want to hear something different and exciting, but the material we want to hear isn't getting made. Thats why we spend nearly every waking moment trying to create music that takes you out of this universe - for ourselves and anyone else who wants to listen."

www.pendulum.com

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TBG, Pantera, Biggy, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Fat Freddys Drop, The Clash, The Specials, Kate Bush, Tenor Saw, Tanuki Dub, The Dead Beat Band, Daft Punk, Led Zepplin, Johnny Cash, Bianca Jade

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Turn up, bring your ticket.