The Ultrasonics Interview
The Ultrasonics have burst onto the electro scene with their stompers, 'Why You Had To Leave' and 'It's Over Now' and Electroqueer caught up with them recently to find out more about them and what we can expect them to bring to their debut London performance at Popshow tomorrow. The Ultrasonics consists of two twins James and John Kinnear who have the creativity to rival the Pet Shop Boys, Cliff Millender - a genius DJ/Producer and singer Johanna Lee Gervin who has a great image and attitude to match!
Electroqueer: Hello to The Ultrasonics! Thanks for taking time to speak to us! So tell us a little bit about how you guys came to start recording together and where did you find the lovely Johanna?
JAMES: Being twins, myself and Jon have known each other for…quite a long time now. As long as I can remember actually. But anyway, I’d worked with Cliff on some other music in the past.
CLIFF: What's funny...is that I had done a remix for James years earlier, and it completely SUCKED! I was shocked when he came to me again about doing another remix. But, while producing it, it occurred to me that our sounds meshed quite well, and I had the thought of forming a group.
JAMES: We all loved that retro sound so it really came naturally.
CLIFF: Yes, being a huge 80s music fan, I had been thinking of trying to get a retro band together. I spoke to James about it, and he and Jon jumped at the idea. James sent over a snippet of this new song he had started (Why You Had To Leave). I knew this was it! We all started producing it together, and as James said it just all came naturally. Our personalities all fit - we are all a bunch of jokers, and clowns - and musically, it seems as though our styles were made to go together.
JON: We were looking for the right singer and when we came across Jo we knew she would be perfect for The Ultrasonics.
CLIFF: Yeah, James sent me to Jo's Myspace, and I checked our her pictures before I even listened to her music. haha. There were so many pictures where she looked like she had been timewarped from 1985. She just had such an edgy, punky, retro look...I thought..."man, if this girl can sing too, she will be perfect!". I listed to her music, and knew it would work. We all talked about it, and knew that we had to get her in the studio immediately!
JO: When the guys got in contact with me about the project I jumped at the chance! Who wouldn't?? The music is exactly what I wanted to work on and I knew that I could bring a cool, punky edge to the group!
EQ: We love 'Why You Had To Leave' - what was the inspiration behind this track?
JON: We wanted to go for a cool electro sound, but keep a general pop sound. I think that’s what works well with 'Why You Had To Leave'. It’s great in the clubs but also on the radio too.
JO: It’s such a great upbeat track! You have to dance along to it and I've seen and heard a few people walking around singing 'Its hard to believe'! Ha ha ha! Its a track that will definitely stick in your head and that can only be a good thing!
JAMES: I think lyrically it’s something that everyone could relate to at some point in time. A lot of people have told us they can really relate to the message in there. With a lot of dance music the lyrics are often quite predictable and meaningless, it’s just about a good beat.
CLIFF: Yeah...when James sent over the lyrics, I knew that people would relate to it, and we just needed some production that added to the emotion of the song. James is right. It seems as though most dance acts write a great music production, and then just throw in a bunch of meaningless lyrics. We don't do that. We try to have all of our songs tell a story.
EQ: So what can we expect from you're upcoming appearance at Popshow tomorrow?
JAMES: We're performing our first single 'Why You Had To Leave', as well as some new stuff.
JON: We’re looking forward to seeing the reaction in a live atmosphere. This is the first time the song has been performed, so we’re all excited to see how it goes down.
CLIFF: Yeah, it will be nice to see the crowd reaction to 'Why You Had To Leave'. But quite honestly, we have had so many people say great stuff about that song already...I think I may be more excited to see what people think of the new songs!
JO: Yeah we've had a lot of people on our Myspace asking to hear more tracks from us so at the Popshow gig they'll get exactly that rolled into a wicked 80's influenced 'live' performance and I cant wait!
EQ: Any other gigs lined up?
JAMES: Yeah, after Popshow we’d love to do some more live shows to tie in with the single release.
CLIFF: Nothing scheduled at this moment, but we definitely plan to do some shows around the release. Our manager will be lining up more shows shortly.
EQ: So you obviously have a huge electro influence in your music. Who do you guys listen to when you need a little inspiration?
CLIFF: We get that question a lot. Most people think we will only listen to dance music, but I find a lot of influence from classical, jazz, etc. As far as producing, I am mostly inspired by Depeche Mode, The Cure, U2, Information Society, The Eurythmics, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, Berlin, The Police, Duran Duran, The Clash, The Pixies, Cyndi Lauper, When in Rome, The Cars, Madonna...you know...just to name one or two. haha. Seeing how I am old as dirt (32) and the rest of the group was not even born until the mid 80's, I am always sending over old 80's songs for them to listen to. Pretty much anything from 1980-1990. After that, music went downhill for a bit, and now has come full circle. There is a TON of great bands coming out these days. You can hear the 80's influence in a lot of new bands.
EQ: So give us the scoop...an album or EP in the works? When can we get our hands on your tunez?
JAMES: Yes we’ve been working on the album now for over a year. It seems like ages actually!
JO: Yeah, we all cannot wait for people to be able to get their hands on the tracks and get dancing away! Every song has its own story, each its own beat and I find it hard to pick a favourite! I just love them all!
JON: There are so many good songs on there. We try to make every song we work on a hit.
CLIFF: Yes, the album will be sure to rock! We already have several songs completely done and ready to go for the album, and the other half of the album is written, started, and will be finished up shortly!
JAMES: We’ve been waiting to release 'Why You Had To Leave' for so long. I think people are getting a bit impatient – us included! But we’re sorting out the release at the moment, and it will be out later in the year.
CLIFF: Yeah...crazy enough, we actually started that song in May of 2005! I never would have believed it if someone said that it would be two years before it all came together for a release. I was certain back then that we were looking at months, not years. It is great to see it all finally falling into place.
JO: We hope that 2007 is the year of The Ultrasonics!
And so do we Jo! Thanks to The Ultrasonics for answering our questions and we wish them the best of luck at tomorrow's Popshow. If you can get your butt down to Soho Revue Bar tomorrow to check them out - it will be a great show along with Switch22, The Electric Dolls, Discotheque and many others!
I confess to being one of those millions of myspace people begging Ultrasonics for more fab tunes up on their myspace player lol. I love Johanna's voice and look/style - Ultrasonics GO! GO! GO! leave your mark on 2007 and turn SUPERSONIC - M X
Posted by: Mandy | June 02, 2007 at 10:52 AM