bosch washing machines
Click here and read customer reviews on many home electrics and retailers and find your quality washing machine.

In Conversation

10 January 2009 01:12 BST

Pendulum: D 'n' B from Down Under

Pendulum's Gareth McGrillen (Speed) talks to Spencer Thanhouser about their unique sound, UFOs and the challenges in being part of the 'underground' as they gain popularity.

Since their first live show at Fabric last year, McGrillen, one of the founding members of the drum and bass/techstep group from Perth, Australia, has watched his project quickly become one of the most sought after acts for nightclubs and universities around the UK.

The group of metalheads turned drum 'n' bass producers is comprised of Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen, and Paul Harding. Critically, the group has been well-received in both the United Kingdom and Australia for its cutting breakbeats and eerie, other-worldly melodies, making frequent features on BBC Radio 1 playlists.

With a new album set for release in early 2008, and their new single Granite already bouncing heads and climbing the charts, this group is worth keeping an eye on.

You have a new album coming out, have you come up with a title?

The working title at the moment is In Silico, which is sort of like a play on words for the Nirvana album In Utero which means 'Born of the Uterus.' In Silico means 'Born of Silicone' or 'Born synthetically' - made from computers - which we thought was very fitting given the nature of our sound.

How is it being a drum 'n' bass outfit that uses live instruments, how did you decide to do this?

It's a completely different world. We were never going to do a live show, ever, unless we were able to recapture the sound we get in the studio, which is very meticulously made - the production is sort of what we pride ourselves on. So unless we were going to be able to attain that level of production live, which is a very difficult thing to do, we weren't going to do a live show.

But the technology has been invented to permit that, and we set about devising a method of bringing that the studio sound out live. We promised ourselves we were never going to mime or anything like that - that was just out of the question. So there was a long and winding road trying to figure out how to get the sound right.

Was there a specific piece of technology that helped you to do this?

We have a lot of computers on stage. I think we have one of the most high-powered computers on stage in history. It lets us process the audio the way we do in the studio - real-time. So all the effects and all the processing we can do on stage with real instruments going through.

You are all big metal fans, right?

Absolutely.

So, how did you make the transition from metal and punk to drum 'n' bass? It doesn't seem like an easy one.

At the time we were really into metal and rock and stuff like that, and I heard drum 'n' bass in previous years but it didn't really tickle my fancy because it was kind of bouncy and more jungly. I've grown to love and appreciate the origins of drum 'n' bass. But at the time we got into it, it had turned really dark and twisted.

Just by an off chance we went to see this group called Bad Company, and I remember thinking the energy level of this kind of music did the same to me what metal did - it picks you up, thrashes you about, and then throws you back.

You mention Bad Company as one of your influences, what others?

They were initial influences for us on the drum and bass front. Musically, we're especially influenced by Led Zeppelin because of how they seamlessly fused blues and rock in a way in which had never been done before.

This is sort of what were trying to do now - fuse electronic music with punk, rock and metal. Instead of being a metal band that throws a keyboardist into its sound or being an electronic band that throws cheesy guitars into a tune - we wanted it to be a completely organic fusion of the two.

To read the rest of the inthenews.co.uk interview with Pendulum, click here.