Experimental trio
Pivot have made some waves lately. The
band formed in Sydney as a five-piece in 1999 but truly came to the fore with the J Award nominated
Make Me Love You, released in 2005 on independent Melbourne label
Sensory Projects.
After playing around the traps the band split, leaving the core duo of brothers
Richard and Laurence Pike to perform as a two-piece. Collaborating with Perth based electronica artist Dave Miller, the brothers continued to fine-tune the results even as Miller moved to London.
The resulting LP (tentatively titled
O Soundtrack My Heart) caught the attention of legendary UK label
Warp, famed for harboring pioneering
acts like Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada and Autechre. No strangers to
the upper echelons of the electronic-cum-punk royalty themselves - they've
already rubbed shoulders with the likes of
Battles, Four Tet, Prefuse 73 and Deerhoof - Pivot have signed with Warp to release the record in August and so packed up
the extension leads to be closer to their new home.
We had an email chat with default-frontman
Richard Pike about the move, the music and fortuitous after-parties.
So you're o.s already, I didn't realise. What are you actually doing right now?We’re doing a few things – settling in to our new environment, learning how to use London buses and the tube, drinking ales. But also meeting people – the Warp family, booking agent etc. We’re mainly here to play, so we’ve done 4 shows already in UK and Europe.
Is this the first time you've physically met the people from Warp? Are they helping out with mixers, tour managing and whatnot?We met a couple of them about a year ago, when we went to a Maximo Park after-party. They were drunk. But they were interested in the record coz they’d heard bits and pieces about us. But now we’ve met them. And yes they help with tour support, and the whole bit. We got a team of people with our Aussie managers as well.
How did it all happen? Emails and CDRs? They saw you?
No, strangely, they never saw us live until two weeks ago. They just heard about our live show. But mainly, it was the old fashioned way of getting a copy of the album to the right person. And making sure the quality of the album was really good. They’d heard Laurence’s drumming on a Savath & Savalas record too, and heard we mixed with John McEntire from Tortoise. So they were curious. We got an email in the middle of the night from the head of Warp. When we signed the deal we posted them a hot dog from Australia, as a sign of our appreciation.
Have Warp outlined plans? As in, do they want you stay there for a while and try and settle? US plans? Elsewhere in Europe?
Yes. We’re constantly discussing and developing the plans, and being
over here makes it easier. I’d love to settle in Europe for a bit –
we’re considering Berlin – but we’re making the most of London. We just
did Rotterdam and Brussels, and we’ve got France and Germany coming up.
US and Japan we’re thinking later in the year, but first we gotta set
up shop over here. That’s the plan. But in the end it was our choice to
come here, it wasn’t in the deal or anything. They strongly suggested
we set up shop here though.
Pivot - 'Didn't I Furious' - Live at the Sydney Festival 2008
Tell us the difference between 'Make Me Love You' and the new record. Music/Headspace/Focus/Line Up/Cash...It’s 10 times more adventurous 20 times more heavy and I also think just more mature. It was better recorded, better produced and produced quicker too. We also had a real drive and focus in terms of themes and ideas of the record. It’s almost a concept album to us. We wanted it to have a shape to it, and a real epic, vast quality about it. The whole project was about loss, change, and catharsis.
The line up changing was one of the reasons for this catharsis - break ups in the band and personal relationships. We all had some issue to deal with and overcome, and we did that together. We could’ve done a group therapy camp in the wilderness but instead we made a record. Financially we did the record for not much more than the first one.
You were playing as a duo up until recently. Was Dave contributing
while he was overseas or did he toy with what you had when he came back?
We made the album with one recording session with Dave, then about a
year of sending files back and forth via ftp while Dave stayed in
London. Laurence and I would do overdubs and chopping, and eventually
we came out with a record. We’d spend days working on stuff, and then
we’d chat via MSN at night, and Dave would continue working while we
were asleep.
We admit that we’re geeks. We’re trying to bring back geek chic in fact.
And ou use some fairly specific gear. Did you have to lug that over with you?
Great question. Yes we did. Although we depend on backline here – drum
kit, bass amp, guitar amp. But our main stuff we took – Dave’s live
travel case that houses a laptop and interface, my 2 guitars, 1 bass, 2
keyboards and a custom built a pedal board. Oh and Laurence’s cymbal
case. A warning for young players - airlines charge through the teeth to
take all that.
Where are you actually living at the moment actually? Floors? Soup?Ha, it’s a bit like that. London is nightmarishly expensive for visitors, or anyone for that matter. I wonder how the hell Nick Cave and the Birthday Party did it, whilst having drug habits. Also, just dealing with the climate here is a shock for an Australian. We’re living in Hackney, near Hackney Central. It’s pretty grimy. I’m staying with a friend, and she said her street used to be called ‘The Front Line’. Apartments across the road were crack dens. Her house is really really nice though.
Seems like a fairly exciting damn time, both for you and for people here to watch. Nice to know particularly that a worthy marginal act (in Australia anyway) cops some deserved recognition.Thanks. Possibly the most exciting thing about it all is that we can make the most artistic and independent music we want to make and not really worry about commercial pressures. I mean we want this record to be big - but no-one from the record label is gonna step in and demand an RnB pop hit. They want to promote unique music – and we’ve been lucky enough to find one of the best labels in the world to do that with. We’ve got our single coming out in May – 'In The Blood'.
I guess lastly, what are your hopes/fears bout all this?Hmmm. I feel pretty fearless right now. So I guess the hopes are that we make some kind of mark with the music, and get to keep exploring new ideas. So there is a little bit of pressure for the album to sell - so we can keep making more, but that’s no different for any band. I also hope we do some remixes. We want to do a soundtrack. And eventually I’d love to produce other bands.
Go to www.pivotpivot.net to download a free MP3 and check out Pivot at Warp Records