Next week, Stereolab release their first new album in 15 years, Instant Holograms On Metal Film. The band’s eleventh LP finds them opening up new spaces chugging with retro futurist grooves and big ideas, still spinning fresh radical sounds over three decades on from the release of their debut EP, Super 45. If you like the sound of that, you can read MOJO’s review of Instant Holograms On Metal Film HERE. Below, ‘Lab members Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier discuss the decision to get ‘The Groop’ back together, the making of the record, and why the time is right for a radical overhaul of how society is run…
After 15 years, why was the time right to make a new album now? Did [2010’s] Not Music feel like the end for the band?
Tim Gane: “I guess I did think Not Music/Chemical Chords [the two albums were recorded at the same time] would be the last LPs of new music from Stereolab. Even when we started touring again in 2019 it was all around the recent re-issue of seven of our LPs - a very good reason for sure, but there was no thinking of extending that to a new LP. In the summer of 2023, we began to discuss the possibility. [Drummer] Andy Ramsay had already mentioned the idea and come the Autumn we decided to do it. In six weeks all the songs were written.”
Was there a spark that set the record in motion?
TG: “Not really a specific thing, on my part at least, other than playing big tours had shown us that we could still make an impact and play with intensity like we always have done. It’s the same thing when we were recording, the flow was good, and the feeling was the same as before - exploring ideas and making decisions on the spot. We found another great collaborator in Cooper Crain from [US outfit and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy collaborators] Bitchin Bajas, who fitted right in with the process of grabbing ideas and getting them down. He contributed many fantastic ideas.”
What was the process of making the record like? Was there a pivotal moment?
TG: “The actual making of the record was pretty much how much we’ve always gone about it since Emperor Tomato Ketchup. We never rehearse but arrive with basic songs on a demo and start recording things, shaping them as we go. We always try to keep the essence of the original idea but how we choose to arrange and present it can vary wildly from the original demo. Experimenting is much better for us in a studio than in a rehearsal room. We prefer making tracks by feeling our way, trying different things out then committing to something and building on that.”
Laetitia Sadier: “There was plenty of space for me to put my musical imprint beyond lyrical and vocal, which made the process a true co-creation. And that is very exciting.”
You sent out a wordsearch with Aerial Troubles – are you fans of codes and puzzles? Does that apply to your songwriting process?
TG: “That was Martin Pike’s idea. He runs Duophonic and has been the band's manager since the beginning. He loves all this kind of stuff and thinks up new things all the time. It’s one way of making a community and putting fun back into the mix. I’m awful at any kind of puzzles like Crosswords etc... but I do often approach music like a puzzle to solve, or to reveal. Setting up situations that limit your movements hopefully opens up unforeseen directions. On later LPs like Chemical Chords/Not Music I was probably playing games too much and I think it may have unbalanced the music in some ways. On this new record I’m still really pushing myself by involving processes like cut-ups, random assembly of chords and other chance elements as a way to achieve something intriguing with the music. On this LP I think there is a better balance between those things and more classic songwriting styles like picking up a guitar and playing it.”
Why do you thank Electronics Australia October 1970 on the album sleevenotes?
TG: “I somehow picked up a copy of this old audio magazine when on a tour of Australia a few years back. It’s got a nice cover and it was just laying around the studio when I was writing the demos and every time I finished one I just opened the magazine to a random page and picked a name from it, which I used as a rough title. Some of those titles later got changed but the LP name is straight out of that mag.”
Esemplastic Creeping Eruption; the lines “Mysterious journeying seed / Adventurous way to proceed” on Flashes From Everywhere – is the record quite optimistic?
LS : “Putting the idea out there that perhaps we choose our outcomes much more than we are led to believe. I think that it is becoming more and more apparent to more and more people as the absurdity of the political situation intensifies that at some point - soon?- we will have to organise how society is run in radically different ways, based on radically different values, such as cooperation, as opposed to the current capitalist ideology of competition. Aerial Troubles talks of giving birth to/creating a new existence as we experience the death of ‘modernity’. Yes, this makes this record in its intent an optimistic and empowering bunch of songs.”
This interview and the Instant Holograms On Metal Film review feature in the latest issue of MOJO, also starring: Oasis' 50 greatest songs, the Grateful Dead, Tim Buckley, Rory Gallagher, The Lemonheads, The Roches, MJ Lenderman, Slade, Pete Shelley,Tthe Stranglers, an exclusive CD featuring the music that inspired The 'Dead and much more! More info and to order a copy HERE!
