Professor Ricardo: It has been three years since Find Me Before I Die A Lonely Death.Com. What have you been up to?
Ryan Beehre: Music
Paul Dodge: Cooking
Ruth Carr: What?
PR: It seems you are in high demand these days. Where in the world have you been performing?
RC:
We have been hiatusing it up for the last wee while to get the new
album finished. But really we'd been using the band as an excuse to
visit some kickass places...St Petersburg and Viet Nam were no
exceptions.
PR: How would you compare Last Night You Saw This Band to your previous records?
RC: I like it the best.
PD
: For an "electronic" act, it has an awful lot of non-electronic sounds
on it. Previous albums have been about bass and beats, this one is much
more about rhythm and songs. I like it.
PR: Tell us about the writing and recording of the album
RC:
I wrote a lot of the songs while I was working in Rarotonga, so I think
there may be an unashamedly 'chilled out' feel to a few of the numbers!
PD:
A few of them, sure. But equally there's this underlying menace that
ripples through most Minuit stuff. That classic Ruth-way of matching the
heaviest of lyrics with charming sentiment.
RC: Good times, bad times - kinda like real life, right??
PD:
There seems to be a lot of about adventure, and the album has a gypsy
brass band, pacific rhythms, kids from a Haitian orphanage - there's
even a harmonica in there...
PR: Is there a meaning behind the album title?
RC:
It's simply about experiences - seeing a band, feeling the joy of that
moment, letting it inspire you and maybe it's kinda a tribute to people
who go to live gigs.
PD: It's punters who make the live scene what it is, even more than bands themselves. Go to lastnight.co.nz and post a pic of the band you saw last night!
PR: Find Me Before I Die A Lonely Death.Com toyed
with a few new ideas such as the acoustic track 'Vampires'. Are there
any new musical avenues you would like to pursue in the future?
Ruth: I can't see us making a rap album anytime soon. If you haven't got those skills - you haven't got them.
PR: You are known for your energetic live performances. When/where are you touring the new album?
RC: Why, thank you very much.
PD: The album release party will be at Dux Live in Christchurch (NZ) on Saturday December 22nd.
It's a special place and city for us, back in the day, Dux was the
first place out of our hometown to give us a gig, and the return gig is
gonna be massive. Can not wait! Minuit also headline the electronic stage at HomeGrown (also NZ) in March and will be touring round that time.
PR: You performed at this year's WOMAD (World Of Music And Dance) festival with Wellington's Gamelan Taniwha Jaya. How did all of that come about?
PD:
It's a fiery percussive style of music with it's own tunings and
timings, so it was a surprise to everyone when the Minuit tunes they
chose converted seamlessly. We had a ball. Wrangling 22 people on stage
when we're used to only three was a hilarious mish.
RC:
We have a friend who is a member of the gamelan and had often talked
about a collaboration, and we finally got around to doing it! We played
WOMAD and Homegrown and it was truly so much fun, that we are planning
some overseas excursions with them. The gamelan peeps are all brilliant
people, but we can't play with them too often however, because, man,
they can REALLY party, and I gotta protect my head a bit!
PR: Is it an indicator of some strange future collaborations to come?
RC: Lets bloody well hope so!
PR: As an electronic act what is the best part about performing live in front of a crowd?
RC:
Just the same as for any band I reckon - we aren't the kinda electronic
act that just pushes play then stands back to watch it all happen. It's full immersion.
PR: How do the audiences in NZ differ from those on your European excursions?
RC:
Other countries have fun accents when they sing the words of our songs
back at us, but other than that, people who love music, love music. Oh,
excepts Germans, they're quite different, they stand there looking very
intently at what is happening and you can't tell if they wanna pash you
or slash you and then you finish the set and they come up to you and
rave about how good you were and how much they loved it!
PR: As a respected act with four albums under your belts, how do you feel about the state of New Zealand music?
RB:
In the 'dance/electronic/dj/club' scene...wow, so much going on. And
people should push it harder, seriously. Get crazy, don't just copy.
We've got mad talent doing it overseas, taking their stuff and serato in
a bag and blowing some minds.
RC:
NZ is a very little country so it is very hard to make a living from
music unless you are a more mainstream sound, and even then, I suspect
it's not all peaches n cream. But diversity of genre's and sounds and
mish-mashes gives us strength, so long may it scatter and grow.
PR: Thanks guys (and gal) for your time
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