{"id":540218,"date":"2024-01-31T11:37:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/?p=540218"},"modified":"2024-01-31T11:38:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:38:40","slug":"unknown-mortal-orchestra-interview-v-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/features\/unknown-mortal-orchestra-interview-v-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Unknown Mortal Orchestra: &#8220;I Needed to Get Off the Road Because I Was Killing Myself&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/feeds\/unknown-mortal-orchestra\">Unknown Mortal Orchestra<\/a> released their fifth album, <em>V<\/em>, in March 2023. Band leader Ruban Neilson worked on the record with his long-time companions, brother and multi-instrumentalist Kody Neilson and bass player Jacob Portrait. <em>V<\/em>, the band\u2019s first official LP since 2018\u2019s <em>Sex &amp; Food<\/em>, also features contributions from the Neilsons&#8217; father, Chris Nielson, who plays trumpet, trombone and saxophone on a number of tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UMO spent the bulk of 2023 on the road, playing shows all over Europe and the Americas. They&#8217;re back in Australia in January and February 2024 for a slot on the <a href=\"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/news\/laneway-festival-announces-2024-set-times-and-last-minute-line-up-additions\/\">Laneway festival tour<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/news\/steve-lacy-unknown-mortal-orchestra-announce-laneway-sideshows-at-the-sydney-opera-house\/\">headline dates<\/a> in Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne. Ahead of the visit, <em>Music Feeds<\/em> spoke to Ruban Neilson about travel, his writing and recording methods, and the sprawling nature of <em>V<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-unknown-mortal-orchestra-that-life\">Unknown Mortal Orchestra &#8211; &#8216;That Life&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"--aspect-ratio:1.7777777777778;\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UJXccBGs_IY?si=gld29HSTmFrKeYmp\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Music Feeds: You were recently in South America. Had you played many shows there before?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban Nielson: <\/strong>This was our second time there ever. In Brazil we\u2019ve done three shows. This was our second in Buenos Aires and our second in Santiago in Chile. We\u2019ve been to Mexico quite a bit though. We played <a href=\"https:\/\/coronacapital.com.mx\/lineup.html\">Corona Capital<\/a> [in November] and I think it\u2019s the third time we\u2019ve played it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MF: Do you enjoy spending time in Mexico?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban:<\/strong> Oh yeah, I love Mexico. It\u2019s real chaotic, especially Mexico City and Guadalajara, the two biggest cities. [Mexico City] is like New York but even more chaotic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The longest time I\u2019ve ever stayed there, I stayed there for a couple of weeks and did some work on my recording and writing. I don\u2019t know if it was just the neighbourhood I was in, but there\u2019s just extremely loud motorbikes hooning up and down the street at any time of night and there\u2019s always people yelling, and that part of it actually I really like, even though it disturbs my sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it\u2019s like, growing up in New Zealand, one of the things that always creeped me out about New Zealand was it\u2019s just so quiet and isolated. The whole reason I went out into the world was to be in those places that are actually always alive. And Mexico City, I don\u2019t really know the difference between the day and the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MF: It\u2019s become a habit of yours to travel to far-flung places to work on your albums.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban: <\/strong>I think I started doing that just because I was so addicted to being in my basement all time. And then as the band started to get a bit more successful, I would always hear about, you know, everybody was recording in some crazy place or recording in these really nice surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve never been interested in recording in a studio really \u2013 I haven\u2019t done that much recording in studios even though I\u2019ve been putting out records for 20 years. But I thought I should get out of my basement, if nothing else just for fresh air and so I\u2019m not breathing in mould my entire recording career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of the day, I still save incredible amounts of money when I record, so I can kind of spend my recording budget on just going somewhere and hanging out. So, I ended up doing that a bit more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MF: Are you over the addiction to the basement? Or do you still long for the basement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban: <\/strong>I think in general, if I get set up in a place at home then my tendency is just to work and work and work. I think the other thing is my kids are now teenagers. When they were little, I could do 14 hours in the basement and get tonnes of work done and it wouldn\u2019t feel like 14 hours. And now, with them being older and they have all their activities that they\u2019re doing, I can\u2019t lose myself in the recording process like I used to because there\u2019s kids skateboarding in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MF: When you travel, are you still getting lost in the recording process for 14 hours at a time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban: <\/strong>Yeah, that\u2019s my preference. It just feels like a normal amount of work but then you look at the watch and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh wow.\u201d I think the other part of it is I get really focused in on particular details that maybe take longer than they need to. But it\u2019s just the way I like to do it. It\u2019s just a natural thing that makes it fun for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MF: Are the demoing, recording and mixing processes all entwined for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban: <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s not until I got older that I started to see any differentiation between any of the writing or recording and demoing and stuff. I think the thing is that I just demo. That\u2019s all I do all day, is just demo, and then I release the demo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m definitely one of those people that when I hear the demo version of a famous song, I\u2019m always just like, \u201cMan, this is so much better.\u201d I\u2019ve always been of that mind and I think you just have to be willing to pay the price, which is I think that only certain musical sickos find that rawness more important than polish and finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be honest, I\u2019m always surprised that as many people like my music as they do. I feel like I\u2019ve been lucky. So I haven\u2019t strayed very far from that [process.] I don\u2019t write the draft version and then go, and now for the big single, it\u2019s going to really hit. I just release the charming little demo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MF: There is a bit of polish on <em>V<\/em>, your latest record. You must have been working on this album for several years given \u2018Weekend Run\u2019 and \u2018That Life\u2019 were released as singles in 2021. Was this a more drawn-out process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban: <\/strong>Yeah, I think it was just because of the pandemic. It just kept going. I\u2019d always had, like, a lot of the releasing and writing and recording was all based around my tour schedule. There was always that constraint that was quite useful because it was a way of just getting me to hurry up and added a bit of urgency, got me out of bed in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then when the pandemic hit, I really just needed to get off the road because I think I was just killing myself. And so I think the idea was that I was going to go have a big break and maybe try and learn about what it\u2019s like to try and be healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MF: How\u2019d that go?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruban: <\/strong>Um. I think it was just basically not successful. But because the pandemic kept going, I just kept fooling around. I bought a new place in Palm Springs and the point of that was to \u2013 well the original point was I was envisioning my kids having memories of growing up partly in a place like that, and then the justification for it was, \u201cOh, this is my new studio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was like, I\u2019ll go there and I\u2019ll hang out, but then when the pandemic hit, I found myself stuck there for three months at a time, just by myself and just fooling around. But it was good for me. I didn\u2019t have all my gear that I\u2019d set up in Portland so I was buying the bare basics and returning back to my early days when I didn\u2019t have that much equipment. So that was good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think being trapped in a little house and then having to pare right back to the bare essentials was good for me. But just the amount of time made the project sprawl and sprawl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"--aspect-ratio:1.7777777777778;\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-nEVvka6jgw?si=EYIjxt6Oy0hR5gtq\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Unknown Mortal Orchestra 2024 Australian Tour<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tuesday, 30th January \u2013 Sydney Opera House, Sydney NSW<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thursday, 1st February \u2013 Odeon Theatre, Hobart TAS<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Friday, 9th February \u2013 Forum, Melbourne VIC<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiertouring.com\/umo\">Tickets<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Further Reading<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/news\/laneway-festival-announces-2024-set-times-and-last-minute-line-up-additions\/\">Laneway Festival Announces 2024 Set Times And Last-Minute Line-up Additions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/news\/a-complete-list-of-2024-laneway-festival-sideshows-steve-lacy-raye-faye-webster-more\/\">AJ Tracey, RAYE, Faye Webster + More Announce Laneway 2024 Sideshows<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/musicfeeds.com.au\/news\/steve-lacy-unknown-mortal-orchestra-announce-laneway-sideshows-at-the-sydney-opera-house\/\">Steve Lacy, Unknown Mortal Orchestra Announce Laneway Sideshows at the Sydney Opera House<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unknown Mortal Orchestra released their fifth album, V, in March 2023. Band leader Ruban Neilson worked on the record with his long-time companions, brother and multi-instrumentalist Kody Neilson and bass player Jacob Portrait. V, the band\u2019s first official LP since 2018\u2019s Sex &amp; Food, also features contributions from the Neilsons&#8217; father, Chris Nielson, who plays [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2451,"featured_media":540219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"long-form.php","format":"standard","meta":{"xe_is_sponsored":false,"xe_sponsored_img":0,"xe_sponsored_url":"","xe_sponsored_start_date":"","xe_exclude":false,"xe_exclude_from_yahoo":"","created_by_alias":"","just_watch_slug":"","just_watch_year":"","just_watch_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[1173679],"tags":[1095783,1178101],"class_list":["post-540218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-interview","tag-unknown-mortal-orchestra"],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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