7: Witching Hour… I’ve seen it described as wild and unstable, how do you feel about that…. Do you feel that is a true representation of what the album is?

Rubin: I think it is more wild than it’s more unstable.  I don’t think it’s that unstable really.

Mira:  It’s also… it is wild, kinda it sounds wild… but it’s actually so… there’s so much care been taking into…

Rubin: Very carefully planned…

Mira: Very carefully wild.

7: So not as unstable as you would think?

Rubin:  Yea… controlled rocking.

Mira: still very controlled wild… we’re more wild on stage

7: So do you guys plan a lot of your stuff out?  I mean, is that kina, are you very like controlled all the time.

Mira: No, not at all.  It’s just that we take a lot of precision when we care when we record things.

Rubin: Yea, especially with this album.  The pile of sounds that we’ve used… we’re a lot more…  umm, there are so many layers we have to be very… we’re very careful in, you know… what goes where… and a lot more than the past two albums actually.

7: So do you guys take a lot of time when you are in the studio?

Mira: Yea

Rubin: Yea… yea…

Mira: it’s kinda like... in a way... the writing process is above the recording process… we kinda write and jam for ages and ages… we kinda start working on it and build everything up

Rubin:  Yea, it’s like the production is part of the song writing process.  They’re never separate

7: In addition to that… Witching Hour has been described as kind of a dark album… do you see yourselves as a dark group?  Is that where you get inspired from? 

Mira: I don’t think we get inspired... I think just naturally it just bubbles up to the surface.

Rubin:  Yea, I supposed we gravitate to more, um, darker music I suppose.

Mira:  It’s not like when we’re writing… sort of that’s what we need or the point of it… it just like you start writing something and that’s what comes out.  You don’t really think of it as I write it down.

Rubin: Yea, it’s not intentional.

7:  So is it something that you draw from your own lives, or is it just what you’re attracted to?

Mira:  It’s just everything about you really.  It’s just everything that surrounds you.

Rubin:  I suppose we were listening to a lot of My Bloody Valentine, and Susie and the Banshee’s, Cockatoo Twins, before… that kind of thing.  So it’s… We don’t… I’m not really into… All of us are… We’re not really into happy music.

Mira:  A lot of sad songs kind of make us happy though.  I was actually just listening to the new Sparks record when we were coming out...  And I think it’s incredibly dark and just, like, very pretty…

Rubin: ...angry

Mira:  angry and operatic… just as we were driving in and we were going past the windmills it made me feel high, made me feel like I was on ecstasy or something.

7: So I know you mentioned Susie and the Banshee’s… who else do you draw your inspirations from?

Mira: We listen to a lot of different stuff you know.  Anything from bluegrass to classical, but it’s not like we draw inspiration from necessarily.  It’s like we just want to make something.

Rubin:  We listen to a hell of a lot of music.  Everything from, you know, really really obscure electronica to death metal and 60’s French pop, and Ska, and soul.  There’s so much really it’s impossible to list.

Mira:   But it’s not like… when everything... you don’t really think about it, it’s sort of like… we always listen to music, but then when you sit down… it’s just like… you have some sort of an instrument and you make a sound and you start building around it… and when you start you don’t know where it’s going to end up.

Rubin:  I suppose the greatest influence really for this album has really been ourselves, because we had been touring so much before hand really developed the way we actually listen to our music and think about our music.  For instance when we started touring after Light and Magic came out.  It sounds a lot more live, a lot more raw.  When we started writing the new songs for Witching Hour they, we kinda, um, imagined them and composed them in our heads in that kinda vein.  So it was really that kinda just day in day out touring and playing with each other... and really just being a band.

7:  Absolutely… So do you guys go back and listen to your old albums and just see where you’re at?

Rubin:  No, not really.

Mira: Not really... but sometimes like for example when like before we start rehearsing or something I haven’t listened to anything on 604 for ages and I was just listening to Discotraxx and it just …

Rubin: it sounds so weird…

Mira:  just sounds so weird.. It’s just like oh my god…

Rubin: But everything… like the vocal are completely different… the breath of the sounds is different.

Mira: Yea, it’s just a completely different thing.

Rubin: Yea…

Mira:  And because we have been playing these songs live as well they’re actually taken on a life of their own.  So you get the way that we play live then you listen to the record and you get surprises.

Rubin:  I mean, we understand our development perfectly because being the band, we worked on the music, we performed the music, we tour, and we start working on the new album and we tour and we see a progression.  But with listeners, it is a quite a big leap.  Unless they are die hard fans that have come and watch us over time it’s quite difficult to see it.  But to us it’s a very logical progression.  It’s like any artist needs to develop to make a leap forward otherwise there is no point in doing it.

Mira:  There are just snapshots… like the 3 records are just snapshots that have come out of the last 7 or 8 years.

7: So where do you see yourselves going after this?  Do you have something that you are working on?

Mira:  Just writing songs, at the moment we are concentrating on touring.  Hopefully we are going to be back here, or we are going to be back here in the autumn.  Witching Hour hasn’t even been released in a lot of countries yet so we’ve got some shows coming up in the summer.

7:  How do you guys feel about touring?  I know you said you were on the road for a while…

Rubin:  It’s the best thing… we’ve come from being a band who decided initially not to tour to a band who can’t survive without touring.

Mira:  We had jobs and it was like, oh we’re doing this for fun and we didn’t know where this was going to end and we had to juggle holidays, job, with touring so we didn’t… you know… we were just kind of a studio band.

7:  So what got you guys touring to begin with if that wasn’t what you wanted to do?

Mira:  It’s not that we didn’t want to do it.  We just didn’t see it that way.  We though, oh, we’ll hold down jobs and put music out.

se7en:  So looking back on it now are you blown away by where you are?

Mira:  No because then again, it’s been 7 years and it’s been very gradual.

Rubin:  We’ve just grown as a band really.  We are a different band now then we were back in 1999… definitely.

7:  Back in 2000 in another interview you guys said that you were in favor of downloading music because it gets the music out to people; do you still feel that way?

Rubin:  That’s a bit of a generalization really.  I mean…

Mira:  I think generally people you know... It’s good to be able to hear... you know... people can’t get the album in every country.  And it gets people excited when they can hear the tracks.

Rubin:  Yea, it’s almost like try before you buy.  I think that’s really important.  There are so many bands out there and people don’t have that much money.

Mira:  That’s why I think myspace [www.myspace.com] is really good because I can just think of a band, type it in and listen to their music.

Rubin:  Most people, they really want… artists are now putting together stuff that you can’t download, it’s like DVD’s and really nice artwork and putting a lot into the package that you would buy.

Mira:  If you’re a fan, it’s just difficult like for an album getting all the songs and then you know, sometimes they cutout at the end or the volume is all over the place.  So you’re sitting there with your iPod and something just jumps and hits me…

7:  I would imagine too, as an artist it would be incredibly frustrating because people aren’t hearing what you guys are truly putting out.

Rubin:  Yea, yea because the album is like one record….

Mira:  Yea we have thought about the track listing obviously and I think that changes the way the song sounds.

7:  When you guys are out and touring what kind of venues do you find yourselves drawn to?  Is it something like this [Coachella] or do you like more intimate locations?

Rubin:  It’s kind of a mix really.  We’ve played some small tours… during our first tour it was mainly venues between 500 and 1200.  And it’s been kind of the same on this one because there’s been such a gap between tours for 3 years.  We’ve only really done Coachella… that’s been the only festival in the states really.  It would be great to play others.

Mira:  We played similar type festivals in Europe like this one festival called Benicassim [Spain Valencia Benicassim Festival].  I think the only thing that this might even compare to is Benicassim, only because of the weather.

Rubin:  Yea, it’s so beautiful out there.  The next time when we come back in autumn we’ll probably step up and play slightly bigger venues. 

7:  Did you guys enjoy Coachella last time?

Rubin:  Amazing, amazing…  I think enjoyed myself a little bit too much… I think this time…..

7: Kinda keep it low key?

Rubin: Yea… yea

7:  At this event do you have bands that you are particularly interested in seeing?

Rubin:  I’d like to see Depeche Mode… Tv on the Radio

Mira:  They’re playing just before us so….  The Animal Collective, and Wolfmother…

Rubin: Daft Punk

7:  You guys touched on this before but how would you describe your onstage show?

Rubin:  I supposed it’s a lot more rock than you’d expect.  Having listened to Witching Hour it’s a lot more similar to the record than... there’s less disparity to live then recorded for example the last album that we had…

Mira:  But I mean... some people expect us to be, like those who haven’t seen us, just a DJ and some like PA with live vocals… but it’s nothing like that… it’s a rock band.

Rubin:  Yea, most people understand that we are a live band now.  We have been touring for such a long time.   I think people are generally very impressed… we have gained so many more fans in the United States and Canada over the last three years since the last time we played that it’s almost like being a new band again.  So everyone has been really impressed.  And, yea… it was a good thing to do to develop the sound and make the live show a lot more powerful.

7:  What do you think some of the biggest obstacles are for bands coming up today?

Mira:  A lot of pressure is put on like, ya know.. you get your first album and you get some hype.   the first album is what your defined by.  And it really takes like 3 records to find your sound.  And everyone is like you get your deal and if your first album isn’t not on the charts your off your label, you have no money and you break up.

Rubin:  There is a very knee jerk reaction… it is very cutthroat.  Bands really aren’t allowed the time to incubate their ideas and properly develop their identities like they need to.  And there is the danger of just burning out by touring too much.

7:  So what kind of advice would your advice be to people coming through then?

Mira: Do your own thing and just make the music first, and worry everything else after that.

Rubin:  Just take care of yourselves…. Old man says… take care of yourselves…

Mira:  Do good drugs… don’t do bad drugs…

7:  Do good drugs?  Ok, so which are the good drugs?

Mira:  Whichever suits you… aspirin in some cases.