We posted about the Australian electro sensation Midnight Juggernauts many times here on APC already. But this post is different. This time we got an exclusive interview with them. We asked Vincent, the guy in the left, about past present and future. Read it all after the jump, plus the band was kind enuff to give us a kick ass remix, what we gently share with you ;)

Cut Copy: Hearts on Fire (Midnight Juggernauts Remix) [mp3] listen it while you read the interview ;)

The Midnight Juggernauts stormed into the international music
scene last year. But if we look at the history of the band it obviously
started a lot earlier. Can you give us a little resume about your early
days from the very beginning till the international breakthrough?

Andy and I have always been playing in bands, basically since we were 13 year olds jamming in our bedrooms. We eventually progressed onto garages then friends house parties and then stadiums, almost. Though back then we were kinda playing more Heavy Metal, ’80s Slayer and the like. Though we’ve always been into all styles of music and eventually it started to venture into stranger terrain. Through this time we’d been pretty underground, only putting out occasional vinyl or remixes on the side but eventually Andy and I decided to take it more seriously. Also about 2 years ago we came across Daniel our drummer who jumped on board. And now we’re putting out our first album and traveling a lot. 

There are many fine Australian bands in the music history, but it was not very common to see bands and producers in the electronic dance culture so far. Can you name few Australian bands act who influenced you or worth to recommend from the past?
And your success opens many doors to fellow bands acts, newcomers. Pls. name few great Australian bands/acts who are also worth to get international spotlight in the future.

There’s a few Australian acts which have influenced me growing up, though most are straight ahead rock bands, like The Clouds, The Easybeats, ACDC etc. Though with the success the Avalanches had when they first jumped in on the scene I remember being inspired by the idea that left-field music from Australia outside of the straight pop and rock realm was able to gain recognition on an international level. These days there’s lots of interesting groups starting up in Australia, such as Damn Arms, 123 Amazing, Knightlife and more.

What are your future plans? What are your working on now? New album, forthcoming remixes etc…

Right now we’re just touring the festival circuit, seeing the world and sleeping in airport lounges. Though while we’re travelling we’re keeping active writing so lots of tracks for the next album are starting to take shape. We constantly get requests for remixes but we’ve been too busy to take anything on, but occasionally if the stars align then we’ll push a new one through.

Lets get geeky for a short while, what kind of instruments, synths, softwares are you using in the studio and what are you using to play live? What is your favorite tool gadget, something what is the most important for you to make music?

We use lots of different toys, like for the album we were using a Poly Evolver, Juno, Motif, Microkorg etc. Actually we always use the Microkorg live as well. Even though it’s quite common I really like it as it’s light and you can fit it in your backpack. When we write it’s good having Ableton on your laptop so you can record sketches down whenever or wherever you may be. Though when we record our songs properly we always record our instruments directly down into Pro tools at our home studio.

You were so kind to give a free mp3 to the APC readers. Its the Cut Copy: Hearts on Fire (Midnight Juggernauts Remix). Can you give the readers a little blurb about this track? Behind the scene info, concept with the remix, special story etc.

Well the peoples from Cutcopy are good friends of ours. We’ve had good times with those guys back home and abroad. This track came about as we wanted to do a remix swap, so Cut copy remixed our track Dystopia and Midnight Juggernauts remixed their track Hearts on Fire. When we remix a tune we like making it different to the original with a totally new chord progression.  Anyway we played it in a club last night and I think it sounded pretty good. Actually the guitarist from Midnight Juggernauts and the guitarist from Cutcopy ended up living with each other for over a year until touring started a few months ago. Though they were just housemates, I don’t think any funny business went down, but I can’t confirm this.

THX for the interview and for you music guys!!

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Midnight Juggernauts interviewed by Simon Iddol
Many THX and kisses to Alexandra @ Magnum PR for helping us to put this together!