Usurper Of Modern Medicine interview

In the lead up to the UOMM ‘TURBO HANDSHAKE’ EP launch, Steve, Cam and Cam took time to talk about all things TURBO HANDSHAKE.

1:The new songs feature a bit more ‘electronic’ elements and effects on the vocals, tell us a bit about the songwriting and recording of the album, was it done differently to Acid Chess? Were the track titles thought up before the songs written?

Our recording and writing process was generally the same as for Acid Chess, we worked in the same studios with the same engineers. I think this time we just had much more confidence in what we were doing, and that being said we took a lot longer to make this record because we spent more time experimenting and pushing forward our ideas into new realms. Vocal lines are now fed from the stage into Cameron’s laptop which can alter and sample the sounds of the vocals into rhythmic, synthesized patterns, for that reason every time we use those effects live they sound totally different. We hope to explore this further on future releases.

The majority of these songs were in existance when Acid Chess came out, however, as with our previous material, we crafted these songs by recording them and playing around with arrangements during the mixing and recording process, so the end result is obviously removed from the original jams.

I think just about all song titles were floating around before the songs themselves existed, with the exception of the closing track Steak Rainbow which was named after the apartment we stayed at in Osaka, Japan when we were on tour, and during our days off in that city we finished writing the song.

2: Once again you have had every song on the EP remixed, did you give the remixers guidelines on what you wanted done or did everyone have a free reign? Who would you like to remix your tracks if you could choose anyone from a ‘dream list’?

All remix artists had free reign, of course, we chose them because we are fans of their production style and trust their judgement to re imagine the tracks. I personally would love to have Burial, Fuck Buttons and Flying Lotus do some remixes for us.

3:UOMM is a very visual band, with the projections and the video for Grill Washington Christ, are there any plans for a video for one of the tracks off TURBO HANDSHAKE (Pigeon Religion perhaps)?

I’m working on it right now! Watch this space. We took a camera down to our jam last week and filmed us playing, and now, like how we do with our music, I am manipulating it into something much more then originally intended.

4: Tell us a bit about the gig and the bands/acts chosen for your launch at The Bakery

We are playing the Bakery in order to set up our full stage and lighting setup, which we often find we don’t have enough opportunity to do so. Full projections and lighting coming in - it should look incredibly epic.

We are bringing some special guests from Melbourne named Absolute Boys over to support. They are a great band we saw at a festival we played in New Zealand earlier this year. We think you’ll love them. They remind me of My Disco but with a very heavy dub (real dub, not dub-step…) influence. Incredibly sexy rock music.

French Rockets are one of the most psychedelically assaulting bands that Perth has, who are coming back to play shows in support of their upcoming album. They were mindblowing performing with Wooden Shijps the other week and i’m sure they’ll be just as incredible at the launch show.

Naik makes some of the greatest beats in the business, blending genres and sounds like no other. You could call it hip-hop but its so much more and amazing to see performed live. As a provider of a fine remix for us there was no contest, he had to play.

         

USURPER OF MODERN MEDICINE “ACID CHESS” EP Launch

USURPER OF MODERN MEDICINE
live with special guests
APRICOT RAIL 
and
DJ GEMMA PIKE (RTR FM)
and DJ CARLOS ROCKETS

8pm - 12pm
$10 Entry