Back in May, KEXP was lucky enough to make our first ever trip out to Detroit, MI, for the 2013 Movement Festival. Now in its 13th year, this largely techno-centric festival has dialed itself down to a science, with production values reaching an all-time high on both the visual and audio front, and a noticeably more mature and “up-for-it” crowd than in previous years. The music was also on point. It’s as if there was a memo circulating backstage that read: “Bring your 'A' game!” because that was the common thread that ran through the lion’s share of performances we saw.
The most outstanding block of music came on Sunday night with the trifecta of Audion, Stacey Pullen , and Squarepusher closing out the mainstage -- so much energy, intensity and just straight-up pure-weird shit crammed into a 4-hour window, with a massive audience completely locked in. Other honorable mentions go out to Bill Patrick, Cajmere, Deadbeat, Daniel Bell, Maetrik, Drumcell, Steve Rachmad, and Rrose for playing some outstanding sets. It was a true musical experience that we'll never ever forget.
While at the festival, we were able to sit down and chat with ADULT. to find out about their relationship with Ghostly International, Movement Festival, and upcoming art exhibits.
How did ADULT. get involved with Ghostly International? Nicola Kuperus: We've known Sam Valenti, who started Ghostly International, since 2002 and we released a track called "Night Life" on a compilation he put out called Disco Nouveau. We run a record label called Ersatz Audio that's sleeping right now, and when Sam was starting Ghostly, we met and had a lot of conversations, so we've been long time friends. Our first album Resuscitation had been out-of-print for quite some time, and we didn't want to re-release it, but Sam mentioned that he would. So, for a couple of years, we would get these emails that would ask, "When can we re-release Resuscitation? When can we re-issue the album?" and finally one day, we were ready to do it! Have you guys ever played Movement before? Nicola: Yes, the very first one when it was called DEMF! This is my first time attending Movement, and I thought it was really cool to find the "Made In Detroit" Stage. How does it feel to be part of this festival? Nicola: I think what's nice is that we're really outsiders. We don't really fit into any specific genre, and with Detroit, it’s Techno and Garage Rock, and it's like, where do the two meet? We're kind-of like this weird middle man, especially since we played the very first festival. Carl Craig was the curator for that, and he has a very eclectic sensibility about him, and it's very nice to be back here playing. You may ask, "How does ADULT. fit into all this?" but we do because we've been doing this since 1997 and that's a long time!
I wanted to ask about the album cover for The Way Things Fall. Nicola, did you take the picture? Nicola: Yes, but it actually originates from an outdoor video and light exhibition in Detroit that was six panels of video, a piece Adam and I made together called "Rise. Fall. Repeat." The photo happens to be one of the panels, so it's actually a production still. Adam Lee Miller: Nicola is always really good at doing production stills. We were playing around and we thought we had the title of our record, and since we both went to art school, we are both pretty visual people. Nicola always mocks-up the photo, whether it's old or new, to see if we like the title, but then she picked that picture and the funny thing is, the title got thrown away, but the production still stayed. Nicola: I think we just fell in love with the idea of that being the album art, and I feel like in a way, looking at it and with the content of the album and also just thinking about the last six years of our lives, what it encompassed totally makes sense. Are you guys working on any remixes? Adam: We just did a remix trade with John Foxx and his album Metamatic. It was released in 1981, and was an absolute major record for me. He was the original front man for Ultravox.
Do you guys have any art exhibits you’re working on? Nicola: We have one in September in Pittsburgh at the Mattress Factory and one in Detroit opening at the Central Gallery.
Movement Festival and Ghostly International recently teamed up to curate a stage for St. Jerome's Laneway Festival, in its first year ever in Detroit and Adult. was one of the performers to grace the stage. The live pictures above are from their performance at the festival! Other performers included Matthew Dear, Shigeto, Beacon and Heathered Pearls. The Laneway Festival originally began in Caledonian Lane in Melbourne, Australia in 2004, and now has spread to seven cities internationally, with Detroit being the only American city. The festival also included the reunited Dismemberment Plan, Deerhunter, Washed Out, Sigur Ros, and so many more.
When you're a band as big as Pearl Jam, do you really need to do interviews? Nah, probably not. What if you've got a new album titled Lightning Bolt, due out October 14th on their own label Monkeywrench? Well, okay, fine then.
