Pendulum is one of Australia’s great success stories. Their most recent album In Silico zoomed into the number two spot on the UK charts, and they’ve sold out their last two UK tours. We’ve embraced this electronic outfit too, sending In Silico into the ARIA top ten. They’re based in the United Kingdom, but the boys have returned home to play the Big Day Out. I chatted with lead singer/songwriter/producer Rob Swire today about those big tours, what it’s like to be home, and how The Presets give him faith in the Aussie music scene.
You’re here to play the Big Day Out festival. Have you been able to see any of the other acts on the bill?
Yeah, we hung around the other day and saw The Living End which I was pretty impressed with. I’ve never really liked their stuff but seeing them as a band, they were off the hook. Apart from that we saw The Prodigy the other night as well who were better than I expected as well.
You’ve also played plenty of festivals on the European circuit too. What’s it like to be part of those big tours?
It’s good. The best shows we’ve done last year have been Reading and Download, which went surprisingly well considering we’re more electronic and it’s mainly a rock festival. With a lot of these festivals we don’t really know the history behind them. Coming from Australia, we’re kind of oblivious to what Reading means to the English people, what Glastonbury means to them. To come down here and play the Big Day Out is a bit more special.
What’s it like to return to Australia after so much time away?
It’s good but it does feel a bit alien. After a while you start to get used to the UK and its shitty weather, which I actually prefer to the heat.
Well we’ve had a bit of rain here. I don’t know whether you’ve brought it with you!
(laughs) I think we have! In fact, most festivals in Europe or America or wherever that we usually play, it usually rains. It’s kind of weird.
Do you have any downtime while you’re in Australia?
Yeah, quite a bit actually. That’s the benefit of playing something like the Big Day Out, it’s so spread out between the days it’s sort of a holiday as well.
Do you have any big plans on how you’re going to spend that time?
In a hotel with room service making tunes, probably.
What made the band decide to relocate to the United Kingdom?
Originally it wasn’t really a band. It was more a production outfit and we were just trying to get our tracks heard in the drum and bass scene, which is quite an insular scene. Especially back in 2003, unless you were amongst it you really didn’t stand a chance of making that big an impact.
You’ve had massive success in the UK with two sell out tours recently. How do the crowds there compare to audiences back home?
The audiences back home are a bit more relaxed to be honest. You’d think Australians would go for it more than anywhere else, but as far as I can see the UK beat them hands down.
Hold Your Colour had a lot of critical acclaim and underground buzz, but your second album In Silico has just exploded. What do you think is the secret to its success?
I don’t know. I wasn’t really happy with it, to be honest, so the fact that it did explode afterwards … I mean, I spent way too long on that thing and went a bit insane from wondering what the next direction was going to be, you know? I just had almost too many ideas to focus on, so the fact that it has done well is definitely a surprise.
So what weren’t you happy with? Or was it just a matter of being too close to the project?
I think it was being much too close to it. The writing process kind of involved being locked in a studio for mad periods at a time, trying to come up with different stuff. I think I just spent way too long on it and cared a bit too much about it.
In Silico sees you experiment more with rock and almost mainstream sounds. What influenced that change in direction?
With every album we try to come up with what we want to achieve, almost like a scientific experiment. With In Silico we were really trying to test our songwriting abilities. Hold Your Colour was mainly like a dance floor drum and bass club album. There were a lot of tracks just purely made to smash out a dance floor on a Saturday night in Fabric [nightclub] in London. Whereas for In Silico we really wanted to see if we could write proper tracks and have vocals and guitars and all that.
What’s your favourite aspect of the creative process? You do all the writing, and producing, and you play live; what really excites you?
I think I’m more of a producer first and a musician second. What excites me is just sitting down and trying to come up with some new tracks. And there’s also the competitive element to production. You’ve got all these other electronic artists, and all these other electronic bands trying to compete with you, I find that quite an exciting thing.
There seems to be a lot more of it around with bands like The Presets exploding. It seems plenty of artists are experimenting with electronic sounds.
You know I was convinced that there weren’t that many good Australian bands, but The Presets are one of them. They’re fucking amazing.
Image source: Newscom