1. Hi there, and thanks for having this interview with me in the first place.
Jamie: Thanks for having me!
2. Please introduce Yourself to the ones reading this exclusive interview and Your role within the band, thanks
Jamie: I'm Jamie and I make up one third of the band, the other members being Frank and Manny. Our roles are not particularly set as they would be in a more traditional band setup. We all write the music and produce it ourselves but the more distinct roles come in the form of lyric writing and singing where that's most taken care of by Manny and occasionally Frank. I work pretty heavily on the remixes most of the time.
3. How long You been producing by now ?
Jamie: As Infusion we've been producing since 1994.
4. Tell me further details about Your sound, and what was the main factor that made You start using "cold instruments" while playing ?
Jamie: The concept of Infusion came about from jamming on keyboards and sequencers without any real structure. We thought it would be exciting to be an electronic band basically throwing in sounds and loops and seeing where any one gig would take us. Playing that way determined the kinds of instruments we would use on stage - equipment that was open-ended and allowed real-time manipulation and for us the Akai MPC was always great for that. The tactile nature of "real" hardware just worked for the way we jammed.
5. Speaking about that, what Your studio consist of ?
Jamie: In the studio, we use a lot different sorts of instruments and not the same setup as we do with the live shows. These days we basically have 2 studios - one in Melbourne where Manny and I live and one in Sydney where Frank lives. We use Logic as our main sequencer both on Mac and PC. We have all kinds of odds and ends like an SH101, Access Virus Indigo, Yamaha CS15, 909, 808, Crumar Trilogy, Kawai K5000R, Nord Lead 1, Juno 106 and 12 string semi acoustic, a glockenspiel, all kinds of microphones and guitar pedals. You can see we like collecting!
6. So You are more like old skool to me, no reason to ask anything about Your software or any other music programs You might use then.
Jamie: We use software a lot! We build all our songs in Logic Studio, do a great load of plug-in processing, use a lot of Logic's soft synths and sometimes I use a bit of Ableton to get some ideas down quickly.
7. You have a very interesting and special sound, I would say, which is missing from EDM today, who influenced Your sound ?
Jamie: Thanks! The most obvious influences when we started would be Depeche Mode, Orbital, 808 state, people like that. I think the most critical difference between us a lot of the club-orientated music that is produced these days (I'm not saying all) is that a lot of these people are coming to the music from a DJ perspective whereas we never really took that into consideration. We obviously loved to create music that DJs would play but we weren't really trying to copy the sound of the week. Our sound therefore really is this mass melting pot of 3 music writers and producers who love working with all sorts of sounds. We try and make music in the broad sense and we just happen to love the world of club music. One foot on the dance floor and the other... I don't know... In the clouds?
8. So... 3 albums so far, tell me more about it.
Jamie: Albums are a very long process for us. Our first album called "Phrases and Numbers" was released in 2000 on a Sydney-based label called Thunk. WE made that album every night after work and on the weekends. It only came out in Australia and Japan. After that we started touring a lot overseas and in 2002 moved to Melbourne. we released a few singles on Audiotherapy and Marine Parade and then when we sorted getting the next album together, we realized that the shape it was taking was more broad and Manny's voice started to get better and there were more "songs". Because of this, we thought there was some potential to get out to a broader crowd so we spoke with a few major labels and ended up signing with BMG. Most of the album was completed by the time we signed and ended up releasing "Six Feet Above Yesterday" in 2004 in Australia and 2005 the rest of the world. There was a LOT of touring off that album which made it really hard to get in the studio and working again and wasn't until the start of 2006 that we started working on new material. We decided to leave BMG (which had become Sony/BMG) and looked around at some indie labels instead. We made this new album, "All Night Sun Light" with all our own money so that slowed things down because we had to make the money to spend it on string sections, live drum recording and the final mix-down and mastering. It was a very, very long process! Eventually we just decided to start our own label and license it out and ended up releasing it here in July and the rest of the world through Omnis, a label based in San Francisco, in December.
9. What other projects are You guys working on right now ?
Jamie: Getting all the singles remixed and do a few live gigs. We each have little things we do on the side sometimes but mostly we're focused on the new album and getting back out with the new live show.
10. Back in July, this year, how did the tour in Australia go ? I bet You guys had some fun out there.
Jamie: For us it was a fun experience playing with a drummer and guitarist and being able to play our songs faithfully as opposed having to "club them up". Playing more traditional live venues meant we could do a set that was very dynamic, being able to slow things right down with an acoustic song build right back up again and thrash something out as opposed to having to maintain a consistent groove as you would in a club environment. For us it was about pushing ourselves to present the songs as dynamically as possible.
11. You know, back in the days, I heard something like this: "If You get Junkie XL's attention, that means You are good, damn good, the guy doesn't deal with newbies". Now tell me, what's the secret behind it ?
Jamie: Hahaha! The secret to being damn good? I don't know about that. We try and make our music as best as we can and we spend a long, long time making sure our music is exactly how we want it to be, with intricate layers and sounds that take you somewhere else. Perhaps this is what Tom (Junkie XL) heard and connected with. Tom's an amazingly talented man so of course it was a big surprise and honour that he supported us so much was played a part in taking our music somewhere else.
12. How did You guys managed to get a collaboration with Junkie XL ?
Jamie: Well Dave Seaman got him to remix "Legacy" which was licensed off the first album. He did such an incredible job with that. Then when he was working on his "Broadcast" album, he sent us some files with rough ideas of a track. We took those, made some new sounds and Manny sang over it and these went back to Tom who then finished it off. That was "Nightmares". Tom also reworked his remix of "Legacy" to turn it into "Aquaman". Since then we've remained friends and hopefully we'll get to do something like that again soon!
13. There is another remix of Yours, this time made after Delirium's track "Truly", vocals by Sarah McLachlan ? That really took me by surprise, amazingly good.
Jamie: Thank you! That was a fun remix to do and it's always great to work with lovely vocals. But I have to set this straight - the vocals are not Sarah McLachlan. It's sung by Narina Pallot. I think "Silence" is the only track of Delirium's that Sarah McLachlan sang on.
14. Ohhh, that's good to know, thanks for the information, anyway, who do You like production-wize out right now ?
Jamie: I personally really like what The Field do and people like Reboot, Deepchild... there are a lot of great club producers out there right now and also a lot of terrible ones! Producers of bands that we like are Nigel Godrich, Dave Friedman of The Flaming Lips, people like that, those producers who really push the boundaries.
15. In terms of latest stuff from You, I have seen this "Try it on". Tell me further details about it.
Jamie: It's a song that grew from a simple loop and guitar riff. once the vocals were added, we decided it would be great to have an almost disco string section to give it more of that flavour. It's a song that turned out so nicely and has a vibe that we haven't really explored a lot on the past which is something that appeals to us. We made a video for it as well which is very cute! it's up on YouTube if you want to watch it!
16. I reckon I am just about to finish this amazing interview with You guys, but is there is something else You would love to share to the ones reading this interview thou ?
Jamie: Not too sure... Thanks for the great questions and allowing be to blabber on about making music! It's be greatest job in the world!
Interview made by Cosmin Lukacs (TranceSound.net admin/founder)
Links:
Infusion official website
Infusion @ MySpace
