KSCU "One Vortex Beyond" Interview
January 14, 2002 9-12 a.m.

DJ Kenny's show airs on KSCU 103.3 in the South Bay from 9-12 a.m. on Mondays. Be sure to check it out!

DJ Kenny: We're lucky to have a band in the studio from not too far away in San Francisco, the synthpop duo Ganymede. Why don't you introduce yourselves?

P: I'm Patrick.

D: And I'm David.

K: Where do you come from originally? The Bay Area?

P: Well, kind of. I live in the Bay Area.

D: And I live in Los Angeles.

K: Do you both live in San Francisco?

P: No, no, just me.

K: Wait, David, how did you get here? Are you just visiting, having fun?

D: Having a good time, working on some tracks, talking with you.

K: So, you have a new release out…

P: The new CD is an E.P. called Falling. It has some single edits, and some b-sides and remixes from our latest full-length, Euromantique, which came out last summer.

K: So, what does the name Ganymede mean?

D: Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter, and the largest moon in the solar system. We like it because it's scientific and futuristic, and space-oriented.

K: Do you believe there are aliens?

D: I do, yes.

P: Ganymede's also the only other body in the solar system that is believed to be able to support life.

K: So, what started this music? What started you wanting to play electronic music that has this analog kind of sound?

P: I always played the piano, and I kind of got into keyboards in high school and college. The analog sound I naturally gravitated towards. I was always a big fan of film music, rhythmic, big kind of music.

D: For me, it happened when I first discovered new wave and synthpop in high school. I bought my first synthesizer then, and I've been making exclusively synthesizer music ever since. In terms of the analog sound, it just goes back to what we like to hear. We are very fortunate in that Pat has invested in lots of authentic analog gear and it has really improved our sound.

K: Do you use MIDI as well?

D: Yes, and some of our gear has been MIDI retro-fitted to make it easier to use.

K: What are your biggest influences band-wise, both current and in the '80s?

P: Our biggest influence probably is Giorgio Moroder, throughout his career. I'm not exactly sure how familiar people are with him, but he wrote "Flashdance" and "Take My Breath Away," among many other things, as well as Donna Summer's disco albums from the '70s. Also, we're big Pet Shop Boys fans of course, as well as some more obscure electronic stuff from the '80s. Lately, I don't know… Dave has some favorite bands from the '90s that he probably wants to talk about.

D: I started getting into the more guitar-based synth bands, like Ultravox and Visage, and then branched out into the more purely electronic stuff, like Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode. Since discovering the modern synthpop scene, I've found lots of bands to draw inspiration from, or at least to look to as contemporaries who are doing great music, some of which are friends of ours, like Soviet, B!Machine, Neuropa, ElectroSquad. I'm also into a lot of the more popular, newer stuff out of Europe, the "futurepop" sort of music, like you were playing earlier in the show, like Apop, VNV Nation, Funker Vogt, and bands like that.

K: They seem to be crossing over into a more synthpop sound.

D: Which I think is more fortunate for us as synthpop artists. Even if we're mixing a more progressive sound into our music, hopefully it will all eventually become one genre. All the EBM Rivetheads won't look down their noses at synthpop.

K: There are so many labels for the music right now.

D: It's all really the same, but the stuff that's really popular is harder and darker, but I hear so many songs from synthpop bands that could pass for EBM or futurepop. It's all becoming one in the same.

K: It'll all just become New Wave music; you won't have to call it everything in the world, it's just modern rock or New Wave music. I think we should play a track off the new "Falling" E.P., the latest single, "Are You Falling in Love Again?"

["Are You Falling in Love Again" and "Neon Rain" play.]

K: Hey guys. "Neon Rain," a great track. You guys really progressed with that one. Tell me about the gear you used and how your sound evolved.

D: Our change in music can be attributed to learning how to use our equipment better and learning how to mix better, which resulted in a more polished sound. Also, we decided to become a little more progressive in our music. With our first album, After the Fall, we exhausted the very old, kind of Italo disco '80s sound we were going for, and it was time to move on to greener pastures. We're always trying to move ahead with our music, and moving ahead would mean mixing in some more modern influences, which I think people reacted quite strongly to on "Neon Rain" in a more positive way.

P: But what we still try to do with the modern sound is to try to hearken back to the stuff we really love, the early monophonic electronic stuff. I think that the blending of the two gives a great sound. We were 100 percent happy with "Neon Rain" and I don't think we could even top that right now. It's a great song and we were really happy to have done it. We did a few versions of it and worked it up, trying different lines and different patches, and it really came out well. It's actually nominated for Single of the Year on Electrogarden.

K: How do we vote for that?

P: Go to Electrogarden.com. We're actually nominated for a bunch of stuff on there, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, and Band of the Year. We're ahead in the Single category, so we hope to win that one. [Since the interview, "Neon Rain" did indeed win Single of the Year.]

D: We thank our fans.

K: Do you guys have any guilty pleasures in music?

P: Plenty. A lot.

K: I noticed you guys mentioned some disco.

P: Well, we're big fans of the old Italian disco scene circa 1983. Most people in the U.S. don't really know about this, but there were these great artists who would sing in English and rip off American dance hits in interesting ways. There are some great ones. There's a song called "Don't Cry Tonight" by Savage that we're huge fans of. Of course, there's popular guilty pleasures like Britney and New Orleans rap.

D: Not me, I might add.

[laughter]

K: Only Patrick likes Britney?

D: Yeah, Patrick likes Britney, and he likes a lot of disco. He also likes the new Kylie Minogue album, which he made me listen to.

P: It's great.

D: I wasn't as big on that one.

[laughter]

D: I really have no guilty pleasures, per se, I'll admit to anything I like.

K: Do you think there will ever be a mainstream resurgence of synthpop, where you can turn on the radio and hear this music?

P: I think it's already kind of happening, but not in the way that most people thought it would. I think that so much of the analog sound has made its way into something like Britney. With just a few changes, some of these tracks would be straight synthpop. The new Kylie album we were just talking about, the single "Can't Get You out of My Head," is very synthpop. But we'd really like is for some of these great artists, including us I might add, to be popular in a mainstream way. I don't know if that would happen; the futurepop probably has a better chance of that happening.

K: So you can buy your swimming pools…

D: I think the futurepop is aimed squarely at the clubs, which is where it's getting all of its exposure and popularity. I think synthpop is much more geared to radio success, as it was in the early '80s. Personally, I don't hear anything remotely resembling synthpop that's popular here on the radio or abroad even, which is too bad. But all it takes really is just one band. A phenomenon I have to talk about is one of my new favorite bands, called Moenia. They're from Mexico, and they do pure synthpop, not diluted, not distilled, or anything. They're a platinum-selling artist in Mexico, possibly because of their regional appeal. I don't think there's any reason why a band couldn't do that here. But I think our perceptions in America of the popularity of this music abroad are slightly skewed. We seem to think that Europe is some kind of synthpop Mecca, but all they're listening to there is Britney Spears.

K: I know that Apop had a hit with "Kathy's Song," and I thought that if they had gotten lots of exposure here, they would have been huge. Get them on another Lollapalooza or something. That'll break synthpop out. Let's play another track. Here's "Legacy," tell me about that one.

P: This is a great song, and it's our stab at blending a bit of futurepop into our music. A lot of people really seem to like it.

D: It's a darker track, with a big club beat. We've found a lot of people have grown attached to it, which has made us very happy. I hope you like it, it's probably my favorite track on Euromantique.

K: I'll have to request it in an industrial club.

P: And after that I think we'll play "This Wasn't the First Time," which I think is my favorite track on Euromantique. It's kind of the other side of Ganymede, kind of a lighter synthpop club song, kind of a light disco synth song.

K: Excellent! Here's "Legacy."

["Legacy" and "This Wasn't the First Time" play.]

K: So, David, you live in L.A. and Patrick lives in the Bay Area. How do you actually produce music?

P: Well, first we start fighting.

D: What we've been doing is that we've each been working on our own songs. I just bought a new computer, and Pat's been gracious enough to hook me up with the same studio software that he has, so now I can sequence stuff on my own, send the MIDI files to Pat, and he can record it with all his equipment. Then he can send the file back to me to mix it. We've been doing a lot more long distance, where in the past I've actually had to drive up to be in the studio.

K: Is it similar to what you do with remixes?

D: It's a great promotional tool for artists to remix each other, so you can get your name on other releases. So, Soviet having a remix on a Ganymede CD, people who like Ganymede will probably like Soviet, and so if they like the mix on "Falling" they should check out Soviet too.

P: And the reverse is true.

D: Yeah, so we do favors back and forth to get the name out there and attract new fans. We couldn't be happier with the remixes we got for the Falling E.P., we got three stellar remixes. Two of them, the B!Machine and Soviet remixes, were a direct result of Synthcon, which I'd like to plug. I thought it was an amazing event, and I got to meet those bands at Synthcon. I met them and said, "nice meeting you, would you like to do a remix?" And they said yes.

P: We played Synthcon, by the way.

K: Yes, are you going to be there this year, in L.A. on Memorial Day weekend?

P: We have big plans this year. We're going to be operating the Cohaagen Music and Ninthwave Records table. And so we hope to make more connections and hang out with all the great people we met last year.

K: It's like a big family. Everyone's so nice and they share their love for this music.

P: We hope the sound is a little bit better next year.

K: Yeah, and if you want more info on Synthcon, check out www.synthcon.com. Next, we'll play a track from the Falling E.P., "Never Is Forever," tell me about this one.

P: This is kind of an old song that we dusted off and made new again, with some fresh beats and what not.

D: I'd call this track archetypical synthpop. It has a bouncy bass and good beat, and it can work in a club or on the radio. I think this song very much sums up the Ganymede sound.

K: Here it comes.

["Never Is Forever" plays.]

K: How are you doing over there on those '70s chairs?

P: We're good. It's kind of like being in elementary school again.

D: It's too early. I really have to apologize on Ganymede's behalf, for going to bed too late and waking up too early.

K: I understand, I did the same thing. [pause] Let's talk about how to get your music.

P: Well, check out our website on www.planetganymede.com. Our stuff is available at all the usual synthpop places.

K: We're almost out of time. Thanks for dropping by.

P: Thanks for having us.

K: Well, I'll see you guys at Synthcon. We wish you continued success.