The Glitch Mob I Everyone feels included

One of the greatest and most bombasticly staged acts of rockstar-electronica, the Glitch Mob returnes after four years to the A38 Ship on June 24! The Los Angeles based producer-trio will give its only club gig at ours on their usual summer European tour. Before blowing the ship’s roof off, we’ve asked them about their relationship with their fans, about their D.I.Y.-philosophy and about a lot more.

You’ve already performed at Budapest four years ago. What kind of memories do you have about that night?

Budapest is such a beautiful city – it was amazing driving around and seeing all of the architecture. Before our show last time, they took us to get some amazing Hungarian food. The people there were very enthusiastic about the music, and knew all of the melodies. And there a lots of good musicians who live there, one of our buddies AMB is from Budapest and he’s great.

You’ve said in an interview, that the relationship with your fans has actually influenced your creative process in making Love Death Immortality. Could you open up a bit more about that?

We keep a very close relationship with our fans online and IRL, and always have. After we released Drink The Sea, people would send us lots of stories about how the music affected them. We heard stories about how it helped people through dark times, and these really impacted the way we think about music. We realized that it’s much bigger than us, and it really becomes a part of people’s lives.

What’s the story behind the album’s name?

The name was something we came up with that gives the listener the feeling of the music — it’s meant to evoke a feeling, not be anything literal.

 Comparing it to your first album, Drink To Sea, Love Death Immortality is much grander and epic. What do you say, what have triggered this change?

We wanted to take the same feelings we explored in Drink The Sea and craft it for the live stage. It’s an album with a lot of energy, this is just what came out. We didn’t think about it too much.

Everyone in The Glitch Mob crew comes from your personal life and you are also committed to a D.I.Y.-philosophy: you run your own label, build your own computerized instruments and so on. Was it a concious decision or it just happened that way?

It was never a conscious decision to say, hey we should be DIY. It happened natureally because we are all interested in so many aspects of the music. The performance, the visuals, the artistry behind all of the different elements is very fun for us.

Tell us a bit more about your full live production, The Blade. What did you mean by saying that it’s a physical representation of your music?

The way The Blade looks is just as important as the album cover, we approached it the same way. It a piece of the creative puzzle. It takes music out of simply the utility of music gear and brings it back into the imagination. Although we aren’t able to tour it in Europe just yet, hopefully next time we can bring it. It’s very expensive to ship around. This time in Budapest we will be a doing a live set off of laptops.

Playing your instruments towards the crowds seems very important to you during your live sets. What is the purpose of showing the crowd what you are playing?

We wanted to break down the wall that is created by laptop performance DJing that we used to do. It’s boring to watch someone stare at a computer, and it’s not interesting for us to be the ones staring at the computer screen during a show. With all of the gear tilted towards people, it allows people to see more of what we are doing. More importantly though, it creates a more fun dynamic with the crowd. Everyone feels included. It helps the energy because there’s nothing hidden.

What is the weirdest thing that happened during a The Glitch Mob gig?

One time someone through a high heel at me and it hit my face and then landed on my computer. There are many stories like that. We look forward to see what adventures happen in Budapest.