Merging Musical Genres: An Interview with Pendulum

October 16, 2008 5:14 PM
by Marcos Colón

Everyday a new band surfaces and attempts to be innovative by creating music that fuses together two genres of music. Whether it’s the ever-familiar rap-rock or the tasteful sounds of alt-country, it’s not as easy as you think to combine two genres of music, unless you got the right idea. When it comes to bringing together rock and drum and bass, there’s one band hailing from Australia that definitely paints the perfect picture. Pendulum, the six-piece electronic rockers from Perth, are making headlines across Europe with their signature mix of rock and drum and bass. Originally being a drum and bass act, Pendulum has added guitar and live drums to the mix, pushing them in a more rock and pop direction. With their recent sophomore release, In Silico, the band is determined to spread their sounds to the masses as they kick off their first North American tour.

CoolJunkie recently caught up with Pendulum frontman Rob Swire on the production of their new album, their cross genre jamming and what it’s like to be on their first North American tour.

CoolJunkie: So how does it feel to be kicking up your first North American tour?

Rob Swire: It’s good man. We’ve actually played a show here in Sao Paulo. Were amped!

CJ: So going in the studio for In Silico what was your approach compared to the debut album?

Rob Swire: Our main approach was to not do what we did on our first album and judging by what the critics in the UK wrote we’ve appeared to have done that. We just didn’t want to repeat ourselves so we tried playing different.

CJ: Do you find it difficult to bridge that gap between rock and roll and electronic music or is it sort of like a natural thing for you now.

Rob Swire: Not really. Our whole thing going into the album was to try and fuse those two naturally so you couldn’t tell which part was electronic and which part was rock.

CJ: And you defiantly did, cause the album sounds great. What made you want to incorporate the two together in the first place?

Rob Swire: I guess we were just listening to some shit from the 90s and we sort of didn’t like the way that the electronic and rock parts were matched together so blatantly and we wanted to do it more tastefully and subtly than that.

CJ: Where do you get your inspiration as far as song writing goes?

Rob Swire: Well we do a lot of rock and metal shit. We keep up with the drum and bass, dub step, break beats and rock.

CJ: What are your major musical influences from the past?

Rob Swire: Well starting off with drum and bass acts like Bad Company and we listen to more rock stuff like Queen of the Stone Age and Led Zeppelin.

CJ: How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard of Pendulum before?

Rob Swire: Well if your at a live show its probably like having your ears raped.

CJ: What made you guys want to relocate to the UK?

Rob Swire: Australia is way too far away and there’s only 5 cities to play there.

CJ: Where have you guys gotten the biggest responses so far outside of the U.S?

Rob Swire: Definitely the U.K.

CJ: Do you feel it’s important for you guys to make an impact on the U.S.?

Rob Swire: Yea, but were not really getting stuck into that whole ‘Are you gonna break America’ thing. I mean it’s just a fucking country of people who love music the same as anywhere else.

CJ: How do you feel about the music scene in the UK compared to Australia?

Rob Swire: There a lot more open to new music in the UK than they are in Australia or anywhere else I find. They are just so accepting of shit that’s new and unheard of. It’s a fucking great place to experiment.

CJ: What’s in the works for you guys for the remainder of the year?

Rob Swire: We're writing a new album as we speak. We got the U.S. tour coming up then we got the UK and Europe and Australia.

Click here to hear more from Pendulum.