Orchestra of Spheres have picked up a bit of praise in recent times for their off-kilter jams, most notably from Caribou who has picked them to play on the bill for this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. UTR caught up with band for a quick fire q + a….
How long have you been operating as Orchestra of Spheres?
2 years-ish, sometimes as a 5 piece, currently as a 4 piece.
What’s your usual approach to writing and recording music?
Jamming, disagreeing on stuff, working on everyone’s ideas, trying stuff out live, working on it till we’re all satisfied that it’s cool.
How much of it is collaborative?
All of it.
Who in the band is involved in other projects?
Everyone.
How did you find playing at Campus A Low Hum this year? Do you usually go along?
Awesome. We also played there last year.
How did you get picked up for the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival?
Caribou saw us play at Camp A Low Hum, he’s curating this year’s ATP and asked us to play.
Is this the first offer you’ve had of this kind? What was your reaction to being asked?
Thought it was cool to be asked. Seemed like a long shot for us to be able to make it there initially, but we’ve managed to suss out a European tour and it’s gonna be great.
Have things felt increasingly pressured since it was announced?
Not really. Nothing’s changed, we were planning on keeping on playing heaps anyway, it’ll just be in different countries.
Have you received much overseas exposure besides ATP?
Not really. We did our album ourselves in NZ and didn’t really think about doing stuff overseas. A handful of people from other countries have got in touch wanting to get hold of our album.
What else will you be up to overseas at the end of the year?
As well as ATP, we’re playing at Les Transmusicales festival in France, a festival in Utrecht, and other gigs in England, Germany, Czech Republic and elsewhere. European dreams: Hoping to check out lots of cool music. E=MC303 will be eating lots of cheese. Jemi Hemi wants to party and try heaps of new European fizzy drinks. Mos Iocos aims to twiddle the moustaches of 100 frenchmen. Baba Rossa would like to drive really fast on the Autobahn.
Anyone you’d particularly like to play with in the future?
We don’t know what bands will exist in the future, but we would like to play with the most awesome ones.
What kind of music influences the music you create?
Including but not limited to: mbalax, kwaito, kuduro, tarraxo, shaangan disco, shooby bop, psychedelic primary school disco, costume rock, witchdoctor haus, afro drag, muscle rave.
Who’s your local inspiration?
Lots of amazing musicians and bands, including but not limited to: HiHaHu, Full Fucking Moon, The Golden Awesome, Golden Axe, Terror of the Deep, Diana Rozz, Cartoon, Butt Simpson, LA Lakers, Melancholy Babes, Futurians, Horsehead Nebula, Mental Health Triangle, Axe Men, Omit, Greg Malcolm, Chris O’Connor, Jeff Henderson, Pumice, Coolies, The Aesthetics, Crude, John White, Anthony Milton, Campbell Kneale, Patrick Bleakley, Noel Clayton, TFF, Kitsunegari, Seth Frightening, Lucien Johnson, James Wylie, Jump Street, Victor Dimisich Band, Dorkwind, Six Satans, Primitive Art Group, Kokatahi Band, Dominion Centenary Band, Elephant Men, Teen X-ray, Bad Statistics, Real Live Tragedies, Sets, Marineville, Mantarays, House on Haunted Hill, Delaney Davidson, Rockshop, Satanic Rockers, Public Toilet Limited, Mr Sterile Assembly, Witcyst, Village Idiots…and another 100 or so bands and musicians that we can’t think of right now.
Anything Orchestra of Spheres will be doing in the next few weeks?
Recording a bit, jamming, getting ready for our midwinter blacklight party at San Fran.
What about releases? Any on the way?
We’re working on a new record, possible tour EP, and talking with some people about putting Nonagonic Now out on vinyl.
And finally, where do you think music from New Zealand is going in 2011? How does it relate to you?
It’s going around and around the sun. And that relates to us because we live on planet Earth.
Michael McClelland
You can stream Orchestra of Sphere's excellent album Nonagonic Now via their bandcamp below.
