RS: So, when you're working on the music are you working in Logic
or Protools? What are you using on the computer?
Empire of the Sun: Well, I generally use Protools, but we did this in
Innuendo. A lot of the songs, we composed quite a lot of things on
tape and with various gear, I guess. We use a lot of old keyboards,
I'm talking early 70s, very expensive, beautiful machines, the kind of
things that Vangelis used.
RS: That really makes sense with the sound because there is that
sort of new romantic feel with most of the stuff on the album.
Empire of the Sun: Yes, I mean we’re all about honesty and sounds,
you know, we won't go in for the computer-based shit. I’ll use it to
enhance what I do, but I will never let it direct what I do. I'm very
much about music existing in spaces and I'm actually pro-human, as
depressed as I can be, so I like people to play the parts and I like
to retain that kind of integrity, if you like, of true musicianship.
And when things are just like dialed up on the computer and like ‘oh
look, I've got a piano here on the screen’ – well, that's bullshit.
Like that’s great and everything and, you know, modern technology and
all that stuff, but the great records that have inspired me have taken
time, they’ve taken blood, sweat, and tears, and you've got to work
hard to make great music. You put so much energy and so much of your
f**king soul into writing those songs, why would you do such a
half-assed job in making them realized for the public, for everyone
forever to hear? It doesn’t make any f**king sense.
RS: I agree with you.
Empire of the Sun: But that's what people do man, that’s what people do.
RS: And right now I notice the early champions of new music have
been the whole bloghouse scene, are you familiar with that?
Empire of the Sun: I don't know exactly what that means but yes, I
know that people blog and stuff but I don't really… I check my eMail
every day but I'm not, you know, I'm not too well-versed in that
universe.
RS: Basically bloghouse is describing this kind of DJ who gets
their music from blogs pretty much, and they play in the clubs, and
it’s a lot of French stuff, the new disco, and the new electropop,
like you all, Ladyhawke, all the Modular stuff is what they’ve been
championing. And here in Nashville, Tennessee, where I'm based, the
local bloghouse DJ has been banging your stuff since you released it.
And I was wondering whether you knew anything about that or why do you
think the bloghouse scene is supporting your music so much?
Empire of the Sun: I think it’s great that they are supporting it,
I'm sorry that it’s not full quality because, you know, the real
recording just sounds better. There's so much depth and work in these
recordings, they're really handmade. So, I don't care about people
not paying for music, there's nothing I can do about that. But in
terms of the quality, I think when kids are going to clubs now and
there listening to music it’s just not going to sound as it did ten
years ago. So are we going backwards? I know the Concorde was
cancelled a couple of years ago and yes, I did shed a tear, because it
seems like the world is actually falling in on itself. We are now,
ladies and gentlemen, going backwards.
RS: Well I guess the point I was going for is that these kids can
download anything and they can buy anything, but they're choosing to
play your music, that they feel something connected to you through
your music. That's more the point I was going for.
Empire of the Sun: Well I dig that, you know, I really dig it and
maybe it’s the first time and maybe it's the last time that I’ll have
kind of an audience, you know, that's connecting with what we're
trying to do, what I'm trying to do. But, you know, I want to give
them all full quality amazing copies of my music, I don't want them to
settle for less.
RS: Very cool, very cool. Have you been involved with the
remixes of your music?
Empire of the Sun: No, not really. I got my bro to do a few but…
RS: Say again, your bro?
Empire of the Sun: To be honest, my brother, yes, Sam Ramon. But I'm
not really in that DJ world so much anymore. I used to work with a
guy called Darren Emerson who was in a band called Underworld for a
couple of years, and Harry B and a few dance luminaries, if you like.
But these days I'm more focusing on songwriting and composition so I
don't really go to clubs and take ten pills and fucking run around
like crazy. I'm not actually that well-versed in that universe
anymore. I do like Danger though, I like Danger’s mix, and there's
another guy called Break Pot out of Paris I really like.
