Re/Volt Interview
Interview by Scott Mallonee
Courtesy Re/Volt; click here for original article

Ganymede, a synthpop duo out of California, consists of Patrick Runkle (synths and vocals) and David Friede (synths and "mystery voice"). Ganymede perfected their sound in their second full-length, "Euromantique," released earlier this year. Signed to Ninth Wave records for 2 years now, Ganymede has gained a strong following in the synthpop scene. I got the chance to ask both David and Patrick a few questions about the band.

The new album, "Euromantique," is quite different from your debut, "After The Fall." It's much more diverse, and the music and vocals have gained a new complexity which wasn't really present in your first album. Can you explain how and why you think your style has evolved so dramatically in your newest release?

Patrick: I really think Euromantique represents the kind of music we want to be doing artistically as a band. That is, electronic music that has its grounding firmly in the past, but stylistically and thematically looks toward the future. As we've said before, we did After the Fall in a vacuum. We really didn't know much about the modern synthpop world, and I can say for myself that I was sitting in New Orleans in 1998 listening to Fancy, Divine, Lime and stuff like that. And I was thinking, “Why isn't there more music like this? I don't care that it sounds antiquated.” So we undertook doing our first demo, and after that, we did “After the Fall.” Our recording knowledge was somewhat limited, and we didn't have a whole bunch of equipment like we do now. But all the things we learned along the way, including all the wonderful music we discovered in the modern synthpop world as well as our desire to return more to our musical roots (film music, early electronic music) led to the style you hear on Euromantique. We're really happy with this album, we think it holds up and we're proud that we did it all ourselves.

David: With "After the Fall", we think we successfully fulfilled our objective of doing a pure retro-style synthpop album. So, instead of repeating ourselves, we sought to give "Euromantique" a more modern sound and a wider array of styles. All the while, of course, staying true to our analog synthpop roots. As for the advance in production, that would pretty much just come down to experience and everything we learned through the production of our first album. The mountain of new gear that Pat acquired in the interim would also probably account for the broadening of our sound.

"Legacy" was a very dark track in comparison to your typical style. What or who influenced the mood of this track?

D: I'm a huge fan of lots of the new "future-pop" style music out there, and I thought it would be really interesting to do a song in that style and filter it through the Ganymede analog sound. I'm thrilled with the results, and it's my personal favorite track on the album.

P: “Legacy” is very sci-fi influenced, obviously. From a production standpoint we wanted it to be a breath of fresh air that would be a strong finish for the album. It has some unique sounds on it, and its structure is a bit different for us.

How did you hook up with the Cruxshadows for the remix of "Only Pictures Cry" on "Euromantique"?

D: David Richards, the president of our label (Ninthwave Records), had a good relationship with the president of their label (Dancing Ferret). He asked if the Cruxshadows would be willing to do a remix, and fortunately they agreed. We are really excited to have a Cruxshadows remix because of the size of their fanbase and the potential to expose our music to a whole new audience.

Have you done any remixes for other bands in the scene?

P: We did a remix for our friend Gary Flanagan that's on Electricity, and we just finished a remix of “Sleepless” for Raindancer’s upcoming Sleepless EP. We did a remix of “Hand on the Gun” for Empire State Human, but we're not sure where that will show up. We're about to remix Strange Angels, ElectroSquad and Soviet, and we’ll be doing another Gary track for Electricity II.

D: Remixes are lots of fun to do, and we're always on the lookout for more bands to swap remixes with.

Have you collaborated with any other bands other than remixes?

D: Not yet, remixes are definitely the most natural sort of inter-band collaboration within this scene. I'm not really sure how we would collaborate with another band in a different respect, but should the opportunity arise, we'd most definitely be game.

What changes should we expect for Ganymede's work in the future?

P: We're talking about the new album as the next logical extension of Ganymede’s style. I want to extend many of the ideas we had on Euromantique, and continue to explore. We're looking to do an album with longer songs that could be singles if edited, but work better in a longer, more developed form. In terms of production, I want the new album to reach in both directions, both hearkening back to monophonic electronic stuff from the early days in terms of electronic textures, but looking forward past the current trends and dance-oriented all the same.

D: I think we'll only continue to improve, so hopefully the evolution between our last album and our new one will continue as we work on our future projects.

Are you currently working on a new album?

P: Yes, and we have a bunch of other stuff on our plate. First, there’s our new remix EP from Euromantique, which will feature our single mixes of “Are You Falling in Love Again?” and “Legacy,” three b-sides, and remixes by Soviet, B!Machine and Simulator. In addition, Dave [Friede] is supervising Electricity II for Ninthwave, and I’ll be doing the artwork. We're also doing "Don't Go" for the upcoming Yazoo tribute CD on Ninthwave. I’m about to move all of my studio equipment, and when it all gets put back together in a few weeks, we’ll start the long process of recording the new Ganymede album, which is about 75 percent completed from a writing standpoint. We're hoping to have a single out by next year’s Synthcon, and then an album to follow in late 2002 or early 2003.

D: I'm very excited about our upcoming EP, it should truly have something on it for all tastes. It will be lots of fun watching the next album take shape, I'm extremely proud of the material I've written for it so far.

So, I hear you two are really into movies. Have you seen any good ones lately?

D: "Bully" is definitely the must-see film of the year. "Memento", "Brother", and "With a Friend Like Harry" were excellent also, and "Ghosts of Mars" was lots of fun. John Carpenter is always an entertaining director.

P: We both loved Bully. That’s the kind of movie we’d like to see more of. God bless Larry Clark.

Playing at SynthCon had to be an experience. Can you explain how it felt to be up there in front of the biggest synthpop fans in the States?

P: Obviously, it was daunting, but we had a good time. In terms of our show, I don’t want to speak ill of folks, but the sound guys kind of screwed us up. It was about half as loud as the other shows. A lot of it has to do with the volume of my voice, which is quiet, but a competent soundman should have been able to deal with that without the feedback they were getting. But people heard the music and liked it, which was fun. It was also great to meet so many big synthpop fans.

D: It was a real honor to be invited to play at Synthcon, and I had a fantastic time at the convention. It was great to meet people who knew our music and to network with the other bands. As for the performance itself, I was very disappointed by the sound problems we had, which were out of our control. I just hope that the people who wanted to see us play didn't feel too let down, and that we didn't make a bad impression on people who were hearing our music for the first time. I encourage everyone to pick up "Euromantique" and turn it up really loud to hear what a Ganymede show should sound like!

How often to you usually get to play live?

P: We’ve been averaging about once every other month or so. Our next show is for a Halloween goth festival in Long Beach – we're really excited about it.

D: To be specific, it's the "Bizarre Vampire Bazaar" on October 27th. More details to follow as we receive them. Should be fun, and we hope all our Southern California fans can make it to the show.

Do you have any plans for a tour in the near future?

P: We really want to do a two- or three-week tour next summer, either on the East Coast or in Europe. We’ll see what happens.

D: A tour would be great, should it be financially and logistically feasible. Since we live so far apart, it makes coordinating live shows somewhat tricky.

You had the first track, "Messages," on the Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark cover album of the same name. Were OMD one of your biggest influences?

D: They definitely were an influence on me, if not necessarily one of the biggest. In particular, I learned a great deal about songwriting by studying the structure of their early singles.

P: Dave is more into OMD than I am. I love Andy McCluskey’s voice, which is why we didn't try to compete with it!

Are there any bands that influenced you that we wouldn't expect to have done so?

P: Mike Oldfield has been a huge influence on me personally, as well as Vangelis. In addition, New Orleans rap has been a strange kind of influence. I love the immediacy and fun-loving party attitude of hardcore Southern rap. I feel lots of east and west coast rap is too serious and not interesting enough from a musical standpoint. But stuff like “Wobble Wobble” and “Get Your Roll On” is absolutely great. And I love that those productions are being done by people who know what they want, and not a group of overpriced studio producers going for the middle of the road.

D: I think all of my influences are reflected in Ganymede's music in some way, even if it's apparent to me alone. Our orchestral film music influence is probably more felt than heard, but it's there for sure. I do enjoy certain styles of rap music, though I wouldn't really say they influence my composing at all.

Is there anything else you'd like to say to your fans?

P: Thanks for listening to our music and checking us out. We are truly grateful.

D: We appreciate the support. Please check out our new album "Euromantique", and visit us online at http://www.planetganymede.com. Thanks!