THE CRYSTAL METHOD – Making The Trip Out To Australia…
Words by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Thursday 10th November 2022
Returning to Australia for the First Time Since 2007
At the risk of sounding old, the 90s were an exciting time to be alive. Technology was racing forward, and by the end of the decade, the internet was exploding, video games were getting awesome, and there was a computer in almost every house. The music industry was changing too. Electronic music was booming, as pioneers like THE PRODIGY were dominating the airwaves, and infamous videos like Breathe were appearing alongside rock bands on the TV. Rising big beat stars THE CRYSTAL METHOD were just finished up their album Vegas when they got the call to be part of an album that would blow my young mind in 1997. Ahead of his first Australian tour since 2007, I spoke with Scott Kirkland about becoming a star at the turn of the millennium…
My first exposure to THE CRYSTAL METHOD, you guys were the opening track on one of the first CDs I ever owned, which was the Spawn soundtrack. FILTER & THE CRYSTAL METHOD… I was like, “Holy shit, this is amazing.” What do you remember about that collaboration?
We were putting the finishing touches on the album Vegas, and our manager at that moment, and still to this day, Richard Bishop, was also managing FILTER at the time. Richard has always been one that, as most managers are, they get out there and they talk to people, other managers and other projects, and always have their ear on what’s going on. He knew that there was this movie coming out, Spawn, that was really looking for some bold collaborations … He asked us if we were interested in doing a collaboration with FILTER, and we were like, “Of course, of course!” But our focus was our album. So as we sort of started to put the album together, the first track on that is Trip Like I Do, and Richard sent it over to Richard Patrick and the other guy in FILTER at that time, and they were immediately excited about doing something with that track, and that’s what turned into (Can’t You) Trip Like I Do … I can still remember us in the studio, bouncing out stems, running out the door, catching a cab, going to the airport, missing our flight, all in an effort to just get to Chicago and meet up with these guys. They were a big band, you know? They were a professional rock band. They had a big studio that they were working out of, and we went in there, and we were just these two guys that worked holed up in a studio, and had our own methods of working and collaborating. They were just awesome … I remember Richard Patrick calling, and he’s like, “Check this out!” And he starts to sing the main line, and we were like, “Holy shit, that’s awesome!” The video shoot … It’s a wonderfully imaginative concept all done by the wonderfully talented Floria Sigismondi. She was the director – beautiful photographer, amazing photographer, really edgy, really unique – she had all these concepts, and we flew to Toronto to shoot the video. It was just a blast collaborating with them, hearing the end result, and then the long journey we went on with them together with that song.
I’m an ’85 baby, so that was as I was becoming a teen. The 90s … it sounds [silly], because every time is [technically] “the future”, but back then, the internet was this thing that was coming into being, and video games were starting to get really cool – obviously you guys had own experience with that … It felt like the future, didn’t it?
Yeah, it absolutely did. You could do things … The computers that we were working on in the studio were getting more powerful. For us, the ability to record audio into a computer was something that was … When we first started, we were recording to tape machines and different things like that, and to be able to now record digitally, capture stuff, and yes, the explosion of the internet and the fusion of the end of grunge and the electronic scene at that moment … PRODIGY, CHEMICAL BROTHERS, ORBITAL, THE ORB, FLUKE … All these bands that were truly inspiring to us, they were starting to be understood and appreciated in the States, and it did seem like the future. Especially in town, we had this big radio station in Los Angeles called K-ROQ, and I remember, my wife and I were driving to Thanksgiving or Christmas or something … I remember we were driving to Vegas, and they started to play The Box, which was a big track from ORBITAL, and I was like … Sometimes they play a minute of it and talk over it, and then they go to commercial, but they were playing the whole thing, and I was like, “This is the station that, just two years ago, was all about grunge and that music. Even on a specialty show you wouldn’t hear this music.” But now, during a prime-time spot, they were playing THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS and this ORBITAL track, and eventually they added our track, and it just was like … the world was changing. The preferences in what people were listening to were changing, people weren’t so pigeonholed in one particular style. That album [Spawn] was a crossover between heavy rock and metal and electronica artists, and I think it was brilliantly done … Todd McFarlane … his vision of the movie, it’s one of those things … I think there was a lot of ideas, and one of the things [that was] really fortunate was that there was this really inventive and creative idea to bring these artists that seemingly were in different genres together, although we had a great appreciation for FILTER and METALLICA and some of the other artists that were part of the collaborations. It didn’t seem that foreign to us, but it was a big deal for the greater community, because that song was picked up on a lot of radio stations, and the video was played on MTV, and different outlets around the world. I think it really opened up our fanbase to a new audience, because at the time, people were sort of in their own genres, living with the music that they really enjoyed, and weren’t really exposed to a lot of it. But as the internet started to grow, and people started to have all these opportunities to hear music and hear different music, I think that was a big deal for us, and many bands in our genre, because we were able to get out of the clubs and get into the audience that maybe didn’t make it out to a midnight or 2AM club event. They were able to experience THE CRYSTAL METHOD, and we grew with them, and it was a really magical time, for sure.
As you were saying about how things got a lot better for electronic artists in the 90s, two years after Spawn came out, THE DUST BROTHERS did the entire score of Fight Club.
Oh yeah, brilliant. Of course, we were familiar with them because they had done some productions with BEASTIE BOYS … I think they produced Paul’s Boutique with the BEASTIE BOYS. But they also had a couple of other things that they were doing, and yeah, I remember being in a theatre in New York and watching that movie and thinking to myself, “Wow, this is a fucking cool score!” It fit the movie perfectly – really odd, corrosive, edgy and dark, but also a little bit playful, and you didn’t know exactly where it was going. I still, to this day, enjoy listening to that, just out of context – just on its own. It’s a real trip, that album.
You were a duo with Ken Jordan. He retired a few years ago. What was it like moving forward without him? How did that change things for you?
First off, when he told me that he was ready to move forward, and him and his wife were going to go down to Costa Rica and they had this plan, and they wanted to make a smaller carbon footprint and grow vegetables and have a self-sustaining home, and fully embrace that green living, his enthusiasm for that move and what their future was going to be, added with his appreciation and full dedication to what we had been doing for the previous 20-plus years, that just came together, and I was just completely happy for him, and enthusiastic for his new adventure … Also, he fully wanted to back me up to do whatever I wanted to do, and continue with the band and make music. We worked out all the details of the studio that we own and all the gear that was in it … There wasn’t any animus. There wasn’t any “well fuck you! I’m leaving! I’m going to Costa Rica!” [Laughs] None of that. It was a brother going off to live in a different state. Even though you don’t have the opportunity to be in the same room as them and enjoy the company and do the same things together, you have all the history that we have together, all the memories and all that. We still talk every once in a while. He and his wife Janine were in town not that long ago, and I was able to give him a preview of The Trip Out, and get his blessing, if you will. He was really into it. With that backing and support from him, I thought, wow, this is a great opportunity for me to explore some other things and work with different people and see where it goes … Rearrange the studio to my liking, get rid of things that I’m not into, buy a couple of pieces … not that I needed any more pieces. [Laughs] It’s like when the big brother moves out of the room. “I can put all this stuff in my closet! I’ll put my pictures over here! I’ll move my desk against the wall!” It had that kind of feel to it. I embraced it, and I went forward with his blessing, and that was something that helped propel me into the future.
When you were talking about divvying up your gear, I had this mental image of you guys with this keyboard and you’re fighting over it, and it’s like, “Right!” [Karate chop motion]
[Laughs] You know, again, one of the things about their adventure down to Costa Rica was that he was like, “I’m not going to make music anymore.” He was done with making music. He still DJs around different events down there and stuff, but as far as production, he was completely done with it. I don’t even think he took a keyboard with him … absolutely nothing. That was something that made that process a lot easier. It was something that took me back a bit, because I was like, “Wow … nothing? You’re not going to do anymore music?” He was like, “Yeah, I’m really proud of what we’ve done together, and I’m really excited to go forward and do something else.” I’ve got to appreciate him for that. And again, that also helped. When I say “divvy”, I mean like, “This is what’s here. Here’s a value.” And the building, because we own the studio here. So it was that kind of thing. It was nothing where we were like, “I’ll take that one and you take this one.” Not a lot of this stuff works when it’s in pieces. [Laughs]
THE CRYSTAL METHOD tours Australia in December. Ticket link below.
The Trip Out is out now.