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PERTURBATOR On Upcoming Australian Tour With HEALTH · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, James of Paterbata, how are you going?
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm good. What about you?
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Wonderful. Yeah, yeah, not too bad at all. Excuse my
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: crying child in the background. I'm sorry.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't hear it at all.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Oh, good.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Good, yeah. Yeah, oh, good. Look, you're coming back to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Australia next month with Health. What was it about this
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: particular tour that made you want to be a part
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's mostly because I wanted to be back to Australia.
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  Speaker 3: And I also know that my buddies from Health are
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: going there and they're very popular there. So they invited
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: me to.
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  Speaker 2: Open for them. And so I said, yeah, it's a
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: good opportunity to go back to Australia.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, fantastic. What was something you really enjoyed about Australia
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: last time you were here?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, well, the food is great. I like the weather.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I like the fact that it's the opposite of mine.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: And obviously the kangaroos, I mean, it's cliche, but I
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  Speaker 3: love that. But concert wise, I love the audience.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Obviously they were, they were, they were right. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: they're really, they're wild. They're cool. And the shows are
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: cool and it's beautiful. We love to hear it.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Love to hear it. That's awesome. Thank you. And, When
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you first started Paterbata, did you ever imagine the project
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: would eventually be playing alongside bands from the heavier alternative
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and metal worlds?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not. I actually never thought it would even be
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: listened to, honestly.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I just started it as a sort of bedroom producer
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: kind of project. So it was just like, I'm just
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: going to put this stuff on Bandcamp kind of thing
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: and Yeah, see how it goes. And then people just
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  Speaker 3: like really loved it. And now I'm touring and it's
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: a dream come true.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Crazy, isn't it?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's wild. That's wonderful.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And your music has always had this incredibly cinematic quality
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: to it. When you're writing, do you picture scenes or
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: stories first or does the music itself create the imagery
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  Speaker 1: for you?
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  Speaker 3: Uh i do the first the first one i always
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  Speaker 3: kind of think of a specific imagery or a scene
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  Speaker 3: like like in a movie and i'm thinking of the
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: track like a scene from a movie yeah so i
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  Speaker 3: sort of start with you know the i sort of
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: start the the canvas like that or just with picturing
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: something yeah in my mind.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah interesting and See, I think your earlier work
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is heavily associated with the synth wave movement, but your
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: sound has really evolved considerably. Was there ever a point
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: where you consciously wanted to distance yourself from the genre?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: It was after my albums in Canny Valley, where I
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: felt like I pretty much sort of like done everything
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I had to do.
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  Speaker 2: Or said everything I had to say.
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  Speaker 3: In the more like synth-wavy, more 80s referential kind of
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: parts of music. And so I decided to sort of
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  Speaker 3: break that mold a little bit, try and experiment on
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  Speaker 3: new stuff.
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  Speaker 2: With the one after that, which is a new model.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: And since then, I've been, you know, experimenting with.
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  Speaker 3: And I don't consider Pit Perturbator like a specifically synth wave.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: It's more like synth based music, but like it's very
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  Speaker 3: inspired by a lot of stuff.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And well, it's very brave of you to break out
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  Speaker 1: of what you know works as well. It must have
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: been daunting. But do you find obviously that that breaking
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: out of that sort of comfortableness pays off in the end?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Uh, so far, I mean, yeah. Well, on a personal level, absolutely.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Cause you know, I'm just, I'm, I'm feeling very, I'm
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  Speaker 3: feeling like a freedom to write whatever I want or,
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  Speaker 3: you know, experiment wherever I want. So as a, as
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: a musician and a creator, it's, it's very liberating. Uh,
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  Speaker 3: and I think for the audience, it's also good. Cause,
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  Speaker 3: The fans, if you give them the same song all
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: the time, the same kind of stuff, and if you
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: don't evolve, it's going to get stale.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. No, I agree. And there's also a sense
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: of darkness and tension throughout your music. Is that something
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: that comes naturally to you creatively, or do you deliberately
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: try to make your music feel unsettling?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's, I don't do it deliberately because I
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: think it just comes naturally. And I think it's the
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  Speaker 3: way I'm writing music is kind of more, because I
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  Speaker 3: listen to a lot of dark music. So I guess
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  Speaker 3: 90% of my influences are, you know, edgy, dark stuff,
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  Speaker 3: you know?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So it just comes off like that when I write.
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  Speaker 3: It's very complicated for me to write a happy song,
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  Speaker 3: for example.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So it's really a natural sort of thing. It just
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  Speaker 1: weaves its way in there.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: And what's the weirdest– where's the weirdest place you've drawn
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  Speaker 1: inspiration from, do you think?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, the weirdest? I mean– Um, that's, that's a good question.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, I've done, I've, I've drawn inspiration from video games, movies.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, well, photographers and stuff like that. It's, I don't,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I don't think.
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  Speaker 3: It's cool, but, uh, you know, like actual, like, uh, um,
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  Speaker 3: I've been to an exposition of, uh, it's not an exposition.
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  Speaker 2: It's like a, just a.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Little, We'll call it an exposition, but it's an artist
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  Speaker 3: called Hugh Ferris.
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  Speaker 2: Hugh Ferris, you'll see it. And it's like a lot
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  Speaker 2: of architectural stuff. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: It's very metropolis, very.
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  Speaker 2: Dark, brutalistic architecture.
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  Speaker 3: So I guess architecture is also one of the main
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: inspiration for some of the Perturbator songs.
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  Speaker 2: Like I like real architecture.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. And that is a really good answer too.
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  Speaker 1: I think that is a really cool, not so much weird,
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  Speaker 1: but a different source of inspiration. You know, when you
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: think of music, you don't automatically go to photographs, but yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's really cool. And how different is writing a track
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: now compared to when you were first starting out? Are
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: you more confident in your instincts or do you find
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  Speaker 1: yourself overthinking more?
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  Speaker 3: I'm more it's a little bit of both because i'm
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: more confident that i know like i know exactly what
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: i want and i know that i can achieve it
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: but it takes me more time because i'm very very
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: i'm getting super um i don't say i'm getting very
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: perfectionist yeah so i'm like it's it's It takes more
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  Speaker 3: time to write a track, but I'm pretty sure that
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  Speaker 3: when the track is done, I mean, I know it's.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: What I want.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: You know when. I know when and I know it's
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: what I want. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that would be something really hard for
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  Speaker 1: myself as well, being a bit of a perfectionist, is
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: knowing when to leave a track and go, it's fine.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Let's send it out. Like, that's enough. Yeah.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: You get to learn how to like, you know, you're like,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: you get to learn how to say, you know, this,
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  Speaker 3: this one's good.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Um, and, uh, look, don't have much time left,
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  Speaker 1: but what's one artist you think everyone should be listening
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  Speaker 1: to at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Um, at the moment. Oh, Oh, there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: great artists at the moment. Uh, So I would say
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  Speaker 2: Sierra Veins.
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  Speaker 1: Ah, interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, good choice.
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  Speaker 1: Very nice. And if you could collaborate with anyone, who
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: would it be?
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  Speaker 2: Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode. Oh, yes. That would be it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Gosh. Oh, perfect. And last couple of questions here.
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  Speaker 1: What's something you've learned from touring that surprised you?
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  Speaker 3: It's hard to say because I've been doing it for
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: a long time. So now I know all the, I mean,
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: most of the ins and outs of touring. But something
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: that surprised me.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, boy. I don't know.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: That's okay. That's all right. I put you on the spot.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: We'll find out sometime, and then we'll have to talk again,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and you can tell me.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: If I think too much about it, then it's going
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  Speaker 3: to take some time.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: All good, all good.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And last question, what's one thing you'd still love to
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: achieve with Perturbator?
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Well, a movie soundtrack.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Or a video game soundtrack.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Ah, okay.
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  Speaker 3: A movie or either a movie or video game soundtrack yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That would be amazing i feel like your songs are
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  Speaker 1: already like suitable for both so it's about time someone
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: needs to pick it up and make it in yeah,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: a soundtrack or a game track.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so too, yeah.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, that would be awesome.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: James?
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so very much. That felt very quick,
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  Speaker 1: but it was amazing speaking with you today. Thank you
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: so much.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Thanks to you. No worries.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: We're looking forward to seeing you so soon.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, likewise. Thank you.