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 On the eve of the release of their second album O Soundtrack My Heart, DAVE MILLER of PIVOT lets ANDREW TUTTLE in on a few secrets about the practical use of emoticons in an album creation process.
Consisting of multi-instrumentalists Dave Miller, Laurence Pike and Richard Pike, Sydney/London Pivot have found themselves smack bang in the middle of an indescribable critical and creative frenzy of late. Formed by the Pike brothers around the turn of the century, Pivot developed a cult following in Australia with such releases as 2005’s debut album Make Me Love You. However, it was the addition of London-based Miller in 2006 that has seen the band creatively expand, with Pivot inking a deal with Warp Records and embarking on comprehensive worldwide touring. Although arguably coming out of nowhere, Pivot are the current culmination of a trio of respected musicians. The band’s musical pedigree includes stints and collaborations with Triosk, Roam The Hello Clouds, Qua and Damo Suzuki, and releases on labels including Leaf, Background, and meupe to name a few.
For the recording of upcoming album O Soundtrack My Heart, Pivot were required to think outside conventional musical squares. With the Pike brothers being based in Sydney and Miller camped out in London, conventional rehearsal and recording procedures were hardly practical. Instead, utilising file-sharing technologies, the trio largely wrote and recorded the album with scant regard for continental boundaries.
“It [O Soundtrack My Heart] was created in different hemispheres, with Richard and Lawrence in Sydney and me in London. The initial recording session I was at, and from there we sent sounds and ideas in a backwards and forwards process, so that’s how the record was made.”
To make matters that little bit more geographically complicated, in addition to it’s genesis in Australia and the United Kingdom, O Soundtrack My Heart was mixed in Chicago by John McEntire of Tortoise and The Sea & Cake notoriety. Despite the disparate creation process for O Soundtrack My Heart, Miller believes that the physical distance between the band members often serves as a conduit for expanded musical thoughts.
“Musically it’s made it a more democratic process. The distance means we can raise an idea and think about it later. It’s actually meant we’ve been a bit freer, which is great – it’s been really positive. Personally we’ve gotten quite good at writing emoticons on the internet to describe the way we talk about the music!”
Although O Soundtrack My Heart is a gargantuan creative leap forward for Pivot and a fresh sounding work, its release is a culmination of almost two years of intensive labour, nervous waiting and careful preparation, as Miller explains.
“The album’s been finished for 18 months now, it’s taken a long time to get things mixed, mastered, finding a label for it. Once Warp said they’d put out the album we had to figure out how we were going to release it. We decided on touring Europe prior to the album release to get a bit of an audience for it and then coming back here after the album is out.”
As for the album itself, O Soundtrack My Heart harnesses Pivot’s industrial via Krautrock via synthesised rock formula with an equal emphasis on live performance and studio trickery. Tracks such as lead single In The Blood create an atmosphere that is simultaneously foreboding and mesmerising, with the haunting synths, punishing drums and moody production conveying an optimistic outlook of an apocalyptic future.
“Musically it’s made it a more democratic process. The distance means we can raise an idea and think about it later. It’s actually meant we’ve been a bit freer, which is great – it’s been really positive. Personally we’ve gotten quite good at writing emoticons on the internet to describe the way we talk about the music!”
O Soundtrack My Heart will be released on renowned British indie label Warp (home to Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Plaid, Battles, Autechre, Grizzly Bear and Jamie Lidell amongst others), making Pivot the first Australian act to be released via Warp. Although finished some time ago, Pivot and Warp chose to delay the album’s release in order to grant an opportunity for the band to raise their profile prior to a release. Miller describes the process as a fortuitous one, a chance to further gel as a band whilst providing some truly surreal moments in the interim.
“We’ve been touring around Europe and the UK and played around twenty or thirty gigs, playing the new record in for different audiences, which has been great. We’ve played a few great gigs like Glastonbury, Royal Festival Hall in London supporting Yellow Magic Orchestra as part of the Meltdown Festival curated by Massive Attack. Gigs everywhere from places like that to shitty dives in East London.
“It was pretty amazing meeting Ryuichi Sakamoto who has done so much from Yellow Magic Orchestra to working with Alva Noto. Also getting to meet the guys from Massive Attack and talking about our music with them, that was a surreal moment for all of us.”
Whilst the recording process for O Soundtrack My Heart was not necessarily disadvantaged by the inter-continental gap between the trio, the requirements of a heavy touring schedule and works for a new label have required an alternate approach. Since December all three members have been based in London, this location being practical for the recent constant stream of European performances. However, when pressed Miller reveals an ambition to transcend the staid realities and practicalities of single-city living through hard work and a constant desire to travel as a musician.
“At the moment we’re all kind of drifting ships of the night. We’ve all been based in London for the past nine months, but have also been living out of suitcases. It’d be nice to have no base in some ways. We’ll be in Australia for the summer, and then Europe again and the U.S after that touring.”
Although undoubtedly Pivot is the primary focus of all three band members and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, Miller states that when the chance for external projects arises it’s more than likely to be jumped upon.
“Laurence has played drums on a few albums released over the past year or two. Pivot is our main project at the moment, we haven’t had a chance to work on anything else and we’re pretty happy with that. Laurence and I did a session for the ABC which was fun, a live improv session.
The end of the month sees Pivot return to Brisbane for the first time in several years, performing a rare club show sandwiched between festival appearances and major support slots across the nation and throughout Europe. Armed with a wealth of new material and the experience of a recent heavy touring schedule, there hardly seems a better time for audiences to be acquainted (or is it re-acquainted?) with Pivot’s intense instrumental live performance. Promising energetic and re-imagined renditions of tracks from O Soundtrack My Heart and older material, Miller seems quite enthused about returning to Brisbane after a lengthy absence.
“It’s been a while since Pivot have played in Brisbane, a couple of years in fact. We’ll be featuring a large amount of the new album and also some tracks from Make Me Love You. We’ve been playing the new album live a lot over here so I can imagine we’ll do the same. [Of the live show] someone said it was like watching an arthouse movie where you don’t know what’s going to happen, and I like that quote.
“We’re looking forward to playing Brisbane and hopefully to people coming along with open ears – hopefully there’ll be some smiling faces afterwards!”
PIVOT play Wolfgang at Alhambra on Thursday July 31, supported by Traps (Syd) , re:enactment + WolfGang DJs. O SOUNDTRACK MY HEART is out August 9 through Warp/Inertia.
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