Late last year, Delerium released “Epiphany,” a live DVD shot on their 2008 North American tour (predominantly at Washington D.C.’s 9:30 club.) Featuring vocalists Kristy Thirsk (Rose Chronicles) and Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer), the disc contains a good cross-section of material from Deleriums’s Nettwerk years (as opposed the earlier, more ambient work.) “Epiphany” alse features interviews with Delerium founder Bill Leeb as well as the touring band members. The DVD was produced/directed by Nasty Byte, who gave us some more details in the following email interview:

Delerium was an entirely studio-based project for many years, and even now isn’t necessarily thought of as a ‘live’ band. Did you find any particular challenges in capturing their performance in an interesting/exciting way for the DVD? If so, can you describe your approach to overcoming them?

Other than the fact that we didn’t have different vocalists for each song as one has come to expect with Delerium, their live concert is not any different from the other bands that use electronic sounds and samples. More challenges come for me in the editing. One of the biggest challenges with this particular concert was deciding the colors on the video for “Silence”. On most videos I usually go with the original colors, or close to that, but with “Silence” I didn’t feel that the original colors fit the mood of the song. I’m not making a documentary, I’m creating video art, so for me I can take license to make such alterations if I feel it enhances the song. In the concert there were alien green lights projected on everyone during “Silence”, which were really disturbing to me. Then one day I was watching the film “Vatel” which shows Louis XIV, The “Sun King”, and his entourage partying at a French chateau. The colors of the interiors were predominantly gold, peach, burgundy and the greens were a pale celadon. By altering the colors in “Silence” to these tones, the mood shifted toward the sublime. Then I added more texture – an embossing effect at the intro, and adding more white to imply a heavenly ascent. I usually don’t look outside the material for answers, but sometimes inspiration comes from unexpected places. Once the color palette felt right, I could cut the track. I think “Silence” will be special for me in that I probably won’t use the embossing effect again – just this one time, because the song is like receiving a special invitation from this world to the next. The end result is a kind of visual poetry that is meant as an interpretation on multiple levels. On a side note, “Silence” was voted #1 Trance Song of all time! So I hereby declare Bill Leeb the official Trance King. You can also watch “Silence” here online so you can see how my edit decisions played out.

Delerium “Silence” from Epiphany dvd from Nasty Byte on Vimeo.

Is it a complete performance that we are seeing, and if not what factors went into determining which songs were used/cut?

The full concert was 15 songs. MVD agreed to release 10 and I pushed it to 12, but I couldn’t go beyond that. As for which songs to cut, it was more about which songs to use rather than which ones not to use. Most concert dvds cut the encores down to 1, because they are also limited as far as content, so I did the same, keeping “Incantation”, and leaving out “Orbit of Me” and “Heaven’s Earth”. I moved one track – “Forgotten Worlds” – from the middle of the concert to the end, to use for the credit roll track, and left out “Run For It” which was also in the middle of the concert. However deciding what to use and what not to use was about assembling the songs in a way that made sense aesthetically. It’s the same when a writer takes a novel and adapts it for a film script. You usually can’t include everything that was in the book in a 2-hour movie. You keep whatever you feel is the most dynamic material.

Obviously a project like this needs to be done on a lower budget than a concert DVD for, say, a major label artist. Yet buyers/viewers might not make the distinction and expect the same level of quality. Were you conscious of this? Where there particular tricks/techniques employed to get the most out of the resources you had to work with?

I didn’t make any concessions as far as quality. The only thing you might see with a major label artist dvd is that more content is permitted. To produce this dvd I basically got people who usually get paid a lot more and were willing to work for a lot less on this for one reason or another. I wanted the best audio engineer, and the one I got, Jake Mossman, has worked with Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Springsteen etc. I spent about a week editing each track, so that’s 3 months to edit the 12 tracks from the concert, plus another month on the bonus film and another month on the menus and trailer. It’s just how I work, so that’s what I’d do whether it’s Delerium or Lady Gaga. But also because of the low budget, out of necessity I had to fit the work in around other work, so it’s taken a while to get done.

How did your involvement with this project come about?

Bill Leeb asked me if I would produce a concert dvd for Delerium, and I agreed to after negotiating a deal with MVD.

How did it come to be released through MVD as opposed to the Delerium’s label, Nettwerk?

Nettwerk was not interested in financing a concert dvd for Delerium. MVD is in the business of releasing music dvds, and they have a huge worldwide distribution, so I am pleased to be working with them.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on some new video special fx, working on a video for Dead Voices on Air, having my website redesigned, doing research to write a sci-fi film script, and I’ve got a few surprises that I’ll keep secret for now…

For more info on Nasty Byte, visit: www.NastyByte.net

Over the past decade, Atticus Ross has collaborated with Trent Reznor on many projects, including several Nine Inch Nails albums and the score for the new film “The Social Network.” When I interviewed Ross back in 1998, he was focusing on his band, 12 Rounds, which features his wife Claudia Sarne on vocals. 12 Rounds had just put out an album, “My Big Hero,” on Reznor’s Nothing Records. They supported the album by touring with Marilyn Manson, and recorded a Reznor-produced follow-up (which was never released.) Most recently, they scored the Hughes Brothers movie “Book Of Eli.”

Click here to read our 1998 interview with 12 Rounds.

Gnome & Spybey – Live in Denver, CO / Larimer Lounge – 06 Mar 2010 from dBom on Vimeo.

Over facebook, we did a short interview with Mark to get some more info on the origins and future of the project.

1) How did this collaboration come about?

Tony approached me to act as my booker in the USA, having also worked with cEvin Key. We got along and he sent me music he had been making which I loved. We just started to collaborate and then we toured together for a week in the States and played some of the songs live. We then went back to the record and finished it off. Very naturally. It all came together remarkably easily.

2) What was the creative process/working relationship like?

I think on this project, the lead author of most of the tracks was Tony. I interpreted what he did and had to say to him, “I’m going to make this dirty, is that OK?” It was great music but I felt like I needed to kind of throw it into a dirty puddle, pick it up, dry it out and clean it up again. A lot of electronic music makers just couldn’t tolerate me doing this I think. So when I added real drums to a track, Tony said something like, “it’s great but some of the beats aren’t exactly hitting the mark,” and I said, “that’s how I like it!” He said, “cool.” Perfection can never be attained but for those who think that they have to try to create something that is as close to perfection as possible, my sense is that this is a stagnant landscape. An empty bottle. Devoid of any possibility. I think this record leaves holes that the listener can explore and as such, it’s deeply evocative to me of the landscape of Texas, especially the Texan night skies. Which is where it was partly gestated. Tony knows when to stop and he knows when NOT to do something. That economy is the mark of a good listener. So, for me, this is as stripped a record as I have made and the process of making it was also tightly restricted by place, by time and by equipment. I think that really helped us. I also enjoyed being the second fiddle a great deal, I feel as though I can listen to this cd, without me feeling uncomfortable. I can rarely, if ever, listen to my own music without feeling a little irritated with myself.

3) Beyond the 400 copes of the limited edition cd, will the album be available for purchase as digital files?

The album is now available via iTunes for download I believe.

4) Do you have any plans for more live performances?

We are all touring again in late September and early October as part of the Subcon Beyond Fest, with Download, Otto von Schirach, DVOA etc. mainly mid-west to east coast. In January of next year we hit the west coast and Tony and I have spoken about doing Gnome and Spybey then. The film maker who made the concert video Allie Lane from Denver is coming on the tour and she did some wonderful work for us. I think Gnome and Spybey is filmic music.

In the following email interview, members Klive and Nigel Humberstone explain a bit about the release.

1) Why re-issue the material at this point in time?

NH: We’ve started incorporating a couple of tracks from that period into our live sets (especially during the ‘Alt und Neu’ tour) and really enjoyed going ‘back to basics’, rediscovering the passion and inspiration that helped shape those pieces in the first place.

KH: Recently I have been asked by various publishers and authors to recollect on the musical past. A guy in Poland, writing a book on Post-Punk attitude contacted me andďż˝ i agreed to put down some thoughts. Another publication in Germany, called ‘Sparkling Darkness’, asked me for my personal accounts and memories of early ITN circa 1980′s. Especially playing concerts with Death in June and releasing our records on the NER label. The process got me thinking about the whole era, the difference in the way we communicated – i wanted to make a good job of it – i’m sure fans today, who listen to this genre of music, want to ‘look back’ and learn from the musical past. And to do that, you have to ensure that it is factually correct and stimulating. ‘Aubade’ came about for various reasons. Firstly, necessity – the earlier CDs with these songs on had gone out of print and needed to be collated and released again. Secondly, my research into the early days of ITN had uncovered letters, photographs from the period that would be perfect for the artwork. Thirdly, we had always wanted to somehow include material of our very first concert in 1981, but had never seen the opportunity – it just so happens that ‘Aubade’ was the first song we ever played and has remained unreleased for nearly 30 years. It seemed fitting to place it on this comprehensive collection and title the compilation after it.

2) There seems to be a Joy Division influence in some of that earlier material – would you cite them as an inspiration? Were they other bands at the time, perhaps lesser known now, who were also influential early on?

KH: The music of Joy Division was much more than an inspiration, they were our motivation! Having seen them play in 1978/9 and buying their records, we felt compelled to make music ourselves. To create an emotion with sound was the way we could express our ideas. Unknown Pleasures is easily one of the greatest albums of the post-punk era and for two eighteen year old boys at the time, the experience was a revelatory insight into what music could do to the senses. I like to think that it was an ‘journey’ that both myself and my twin brother, Nigel experienced together. We got into Joy Division after buying “An Ideal for Living” 12″ EP in september 1978, followed by the Factory sampler in January 1979. It was only a matter of time before their debut album became a ‘must have’ item as soon as it was released. All visceral and all imposing, the overall mood in the album is powered by Peter Hook’s driving bass lines and Bernard Sumner’s jagged guitar. Nigel was learning bass at the time and i had a guitar – so we both latched onto the appropriate sounds coming out of the album. Experiencing Punk music first-hand had given us the ‘do it yourself’ ethic, but listening to Joy Division gave us the vision in which to express our ideas.

I think back to many songs from that period that impressed me (Buzzcocks, Magazine) and in time i’ve discovered many of these new wave/punk records were produced or engineered by Martin Hannett. It seemed fitting that this ‘mad-hat’ producer helped shape the Joy Division sound, creating space between the instruments and leaving room for the spectral baritone of Ian Curtis. I’ve never tried too hard to analyze why the voice and lyrics of Ian Curtis impressed me so much – they just did. It’s a visceral experience, sparking off images in the mind – creating another world.

3) Your sound has evolved quite a bit since then; do you feel you’re made a conscious effort to sound unique, or has it just been a natural evolution based on your musical tastes/interests?

KH: Technology and recording techniques have changed dramatically over the last 20 years. It is strange to think our earliest releases were only recorded using guitar, bass, drums and vocals – with perhaps a little bugle and saxophone. But it wasn’t long before we started experimenting with the studio technology – the advent of sampling meant we could conduct our own orchestra, computers allowed us to experiment further without the confines of renting expensive recording studios. The choice of instrumentation has changed with each recording – we like to match the use of instruments and sounds to each individual project. With ‘ERA’ we wanted to write a series of contrasting tracks, ones that contained a lot of heavy orchestral drumming with the signature ITN military percussion, which could be performed in the live arena along with compositions that had a more ‘delicate’ side to them.

4) Listening to these early recordings, what are your thoughts on the studio and musical technology of the time, versus what is available today? Are there perhaps ways that working within limitations shaped the sound in particular ways (that might not have come about if done today)?

KH: It is refreshing to hear the ‘clarity’ in the early recordings. Especially the songs we recorded on the Mini LP ‘When Cherished Dreams Come True’. Listening to them now – brings back all the memories of recording the night sessions at Revolution Studios in Manchester. They are very simple in their execution. Music can be a great form of memory recall and acts as a link to moments in the past. We had a clear idea of what we wanted to play. Being our first time in a recording studio, we had to re-adjust to playing the songs, individually, instrument by instrument, starting with the percussion. But, because we knew the songs so well, it wasn’t a problem. The instrumentation was kept very sparse i recall – no overdubs except for one or two embellishments on the bass drum with a LInn Drum machine – which was played by hand along with the track.

5) Since your sound has changed quite a bit over the years, have you ever found inspiration listening to the early music? For example, hearing a particular element and getting an idea of how something similar could work within the context of your current sound?

KH: It all comes back to the first inception of an idea. In the early days – we wrote music using bass and guitars. That has changed over the years, but more recently Nigel has been playing bass a lot more – we have even tried playing many of the earlier songs ‘old school’ style and played these at live shows. It is refreshing and fun to play like this and the simplistic nature of the performances brings back the notion that writing songs and expressing yourself comes from ideas and not the technology we all crave so much for.

For more info in In The Nursery, visit their website at : inthenursery.com

Jordan says that the members of Big Catholic Guilt have remained good friends over the years, despite being separated geographically. In 2002, Jordan was writing Resurrection, “a 5 song project written on one theme during a difficult time in my life,” and flew to Seattle to have BCG chief electronics expert Tim Osbourne work on some production. Drummer Perry James flew up from San Francisco to be part of the recording, and when Jordan returned to the east coast he went to Boston to work on guitar parts with Dan Bongiorno. The only member not available for this project was bassist M. Crazz.

“The songs sounded good, but, essentially the final mixes amounted to demos, and I decided not to release them at that time,” explains Jordan. “We have, however, been working on them, and will be playing these new tunes at the show on the 8th.”

At some point in time, all of the samples used in the BCG live show disappeared, so the band was faced with the task of rebuilding songs from the raw samples and various bits and pieces that were found. Jordan says that this process took 1 1/2 years, after which time the band got together to see if things worked. Happy with the results, they went into the studio to create rehearsal tracks so that band members could practice individually.

The current BCG line-up is the same as it was for their ‘final’ show – Perry James, M. Crazz, Dan Bongiorno, Tim Osbourne, and Sam Jordan.

The reunion show will be recorded as well as videotaped with 8 cameras. As for the future of BCG beyond this performance, nothing has yet been determined.

“We are taking it one step at a time,’ says Jordan. “Will we go in and record Resurrection? Possibly. Will we do shows again on any kind of basis? I can’t really say. For the moment, this is a one-off show, and at this point, that is how we are looking at it. But, well, you just never know! Right now we are just happy and excited to be working together and getting ready for this performance.”

For more info in Big Catholic Guilt, visit their website at bigcatholicguilt.com. They are currently offering a free download of a new recording, “Sing For Absolution” (a cover of the Muse track – the band didn’t want split thematic songs of Resurrection by offering one of those tracks.)

How did “Send Me an Angel: ’80s Synth Essentials” come about?

I got an email from Brian Perera head of Cleopatra records asking about a possible Real Life, Cleopatra project he had in mind. When I called him he outlined a cover’s album, which had never occurred to me. However Brian is such an enthusiastic music fan type person, I couldn’t say no.

In initially deciding whether to take on such a project, what did you see as being the pros/cons?

The pro’s were, there was a good budget (enough to totally upgrade my studio equipment), I could pick any songs I wanted as long as they were 80′s and would be known to most people, nothing too obscure. A great opportunity to force myself to do something all by myself for the first time.

The con’s were, the fact that I’d never been the one who midi programmed or engineered any of our records before. I didn’t have much confidence and thought I’d fail somewhere along the way, but found that there are some fabulous computer music magazines and online tutorials, so I was learning as I recorded. I also got advice from Danny Simcic and George Pappas, who previously provided those skills on Real Life recordings. Time was a factor as well. I was doing a lot of touring at the time and didn’t want Cleopatra to forget their offer. It took me about 3 or 4 months over a year between tours. The whole thing was done using Logic 9 in my home studio, though I did have it mastered at a proper facility.

What factors went into the selection of songs? Where there any that you’d perhaps wanted to do that did not end up working? Any that you were hesitant to do that you feel turned out better than expected?

Firstly they had to be favourites of mine that I could sing with my limited style and vocal range and I wanted to play all the guitar and bass parts ( the album credits are for fictional players) I had several failures including songs by the Cars, Iggy Pop and Alphaville. There were a lot of Australian artist songs that I would have done, but they weren’t hits outside Australia. There’s no way I’d try an INXS song. I’m pretty happy with most of the songs, but I’m really happy with both my voice and the guitar solo on Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime by the Korgi’s. Also really enjoyed playing the guitars and singing the vocal on Primary. Cleopatra wanted fairly faithful reproductions, nothing too different from the original. Covering a song forces you to look at how it was constructed and every song made me aware of just how clever the originals were in performance and arrangement. I was very wary that the original artist might think my version a pile of shite (as I do with 99% of Send Me an Angel covers).

Since cover versions are often used in film and TV soundtracks rather than original recordings, I’m curious as whether that kind of licensing was part of the intention behind the release? (from a business standpoint)

Now that’s something that never occurred to me, but a good observation I guess you’d need to ask Cleopatra if they try to place songs that way. I think it’s more in the writers and publishers interest than the cover artist.

What was the line-up for the making of this album?

The line-up of Real Life these days is just me and who ever is standing behind me playing at a live show. It’s just the way it’s ended up. With the amount of money I’ve had to throw into legal disputes over the years (never with band members) [read more about that in our 1997 interview] I feel it’s my brand, a bit like Underworld. I’m too old to think of changing it now. Danny, George and I still talk of working together on something in the future when the time is right.

Are there any songs that you’d really like to release a cover of, but weren’t able to include on this because they weren’t from the 80′s?

Hmmm… I think I’d rather be able to do something totally different to a song I was covering, not just a copy and it wouldn’t have to be 80′s, more likely 60′s or 00′s. I’d rather be a re-mixer (electronic dance music) and I’m always happier doing my own songs. No more covers from me.

When can we expect new music from Real Life? Any touring plans? Other news?

Let me look into my crystal ball. I have a new sense of inspiration, independence and freedom thanks to the learning process of the cover’s album. I’m writing new stuff at the moment, but I have no idea when or what’s going to come out. And touring these days for me is limited to 80′s type grouped tours. For once I come home with some money in my pocket.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW

1) Are these your first performances in the US?

KH: We actually performed last November in LA, presenting ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’ at The Silent Movie Theatre.
That show gave us the impetus to arrange some more. So this time we are playing at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on 11th May and then ‘A Page of Madness’ at The Silent Movie Theatre in LA [on May 17th]. We are also quite keen to find the right venue in New York to take our Optical Music scores to – a show in NY is long overdue!

2) Can you describe the process of the “Optical Music Series” a bit?

KH: As with all OMS scores we view the film and log cue points for sections of music. Then we start putting together a collection or palette of sounds with which to write the music. It’s often useful to limit ourselves to a specific sound spectrum but the types of sounds, samples and timbres are usually dicatated by the film and what needs to be expressed. For instance, with ‘A Page of Madness’ we used samples of traditional Japanese instruments like the plucked Koto and expressive Shakuhachi flute. We edited and layered these sounds to give them their own identity within the compositions and combined them with other electronic and percussive elements.

Certain sounds obviously didn’t fit with the atmosphere that we were trying to create for film – for example symphonic strings. Instead we used a very thin sounding solo string harmonic.

3) Are these soundtracks generally comprised of completely new compositions, or do you perhaps look to previously unused/unfinished music/musical ideas that you think will fit on?

KH: Most of the latest scores are completely original compositions. I think the only exception was with the first soundtrack we did, ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ back in 1995. At the time we adapted a couple of tracks from our Les Jumeaux side-project. The score was originally intended as a one-off performance and never intended to be released on CD, or performed again. We have learnt a lot since then – The optical music scores are created and composed to exist on their own.

4) Have the film projects become the focus of In The Nursery? (as opposed to traditional albums)

NH: The film soundtracks add a variety to our work, but not a main focus – we generally alternate between studio album and soundtrack.

5) What else is in the immediate future for you?

KH: During the summer, we are putting aside some ‘quality’ time to record new material.
In August we head over to Hong Kong for a series of Optical Music score events and an ITN masterclass session

For more info on In The Nursery, check out this Chaos Control interview from 1993, as well as their official site.