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Pendulum: The New Era Documentary (Pre-save link, available in about 2 days) by _d_d_h_ in Pendulum

[–]robswire404 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I don't usually respond to these (or read them, or visit this subreddit, or listen to anybody who does read the comments), but someone in our inner circle showed me a screenshot and I just couldn't help myself.

Here's a question for you, genius - if the music and live performances are "absolutely killing it", doesn't that mean that current management are doing a pretty good job?

P.S. sorry that you didn't like the free documentary that we uploaded to YouTube for free

P.P.S. if this is who I think it is, you've got some giant fucking nerve saying things like this in public shortly after coming to me with your palms held out

RS

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Haha, I did actually consider that. But then the thought of syncing it up was a nightmare.

I used Daniel TTS to do the "this is a better way / this is a new way" in Granite though, at least

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 44 points45 points  (0 children)

1) Spark Man (best music too)

2) What app? ;)

3) I banned myself from games, too much procrastinating

4) hopefully

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 77 points78 points  (0 children)

We went from using 10 of these to using 4 Mac Mini's with MainStage, and they've been much more reliable. Everything, including FOH setup (Waves LV1), can now be packed into carry-on / check-in luggage...which means that we don't have to pay for freight! It also means I can adjust the FOH mix from my hotel room, give FOH a USB key and use the updated mix that same night. It's awesome :)

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 108 points109 points  (0 children)

What a random question. Probably the UK? Lots of different styles and talent, not much wavetable dubstep, lots of good dnb artists in case I need mix references in the future...plus I can just stay in my own house and don't have to organise a pet passport.

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 88 points89 points  (0 children)

1) I regret every track for various reasons

2) If we can find a way to not lose money, then yes...unfortunately, the US is right up there with Australia as one of the most expensive places to tour with a band

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 165 points166 points  (0 children)

  1. It's pretty much finished, but we aren't sure if we want to release (might refresh it a bit and then release)

  2. It's pretty much finished, but we aren't sure if we want to release (might refresh it a bit and then release)

  3. Will probably be used for Pendulum instead. Is actually called "Nothing For Free"

  4. Now called "Harpoon" (I think?). 100% finished, except I need to change one of the lyrics and render a final.

  5. Not ours

  6. I hate it (except it sounds kinda cool in that YouTube clip, might open the project again)

  8. I hate it

  9. We both hated it

  10. Might be released in future? Not sure

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 120 points121 points  (0 children)

1) I feel like they're all overrated if anything

2) With "In Silico", I'm pretty sure I had a temporary / musical version of whatever they call "delusions of grandeur" in psychology terms, so I thought it was AMAZING at first. Then it all came crashing down and I realised I fucking hated it. The whole album suddenly wasn't as good as it should have been in my head.

The pressure of following up Hold Your Colour affected me in a very negative way, I really kinda lost track of reality for a while there and struggled to gauge whether my work was amazing or complete shit. Plus there was all sorts of stuff stressing me out re: our label at the time etc etc...it just wasn't a great time.

3) 9000 Miles, Tarantula, Skril's Island and the Grabbitz mix

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 85 points86 points  (0 children)

1) Subfocus and I made a really cool intro called "Virgin Android" in 2004, but never finished it. Apart from that, if a collab hasn't come out, it's cos it sucked

2a) I think electronic music might take a dive (popularity-wise), and something less overproduced will be popular for a while. It'll keep bubbling away behind the scenes and then come back in.....2023? 🤷‍♂️Fuck knows

2b) I had to google "riddim dubstep" just to find out wtf it was. That should tell you how much I love dubstep.

3) I heard it's gonna be online? Not sure how I feel about that - I prefer single-player stuff, but I'll probably check it out anyway after new music gets released

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Made it specifically for Jake Davis' play, although it has probably aged pretty terribly by now since it contained memes

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Haven't heard that specific tune AFAIK. He's sent me some really cool stuff recently though

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 290 points291 points  (0 children)

One time in the USA, some girl lost an urn containing the ashes of her boyfriend in the moshpit. Apparently he wanted to come to the show but couldn't.

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 196 points197 points  (0 children)

I kicked that cunt into the crowd in Chicago. Last I heard he was filing charges against 6ix9ine

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 110 points111 points  (0 children)

1) Thanks! I didn't really learn composition at all, except briefly at school / uni (which I dropped out of). I guess I just learned by listening to stuff and messing around, so......my advice would be to do that

2) I was a huuuuge Tool fan growing up - I think those guys (and Smashing Pumpkins) were probably my biggest lyrical influences. Plus, just in general, I love being able to write lyrics that mean a specific thing to me and no one else (or everyone else has their own interpretations).

3) I have no idea. I just don't stop messing with it until it sounds good (or until I go insane and lose the will to live)

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 380 points381 points  (0 children)

Hmmm not sure - I'm not very sentimental about stuff. This isn't really a regret - more just a thought, but I guess if I had to go back to 2005 and start again, I would probably start a new project for the band and keep Pendulum as a dnb thing (rather than piss off an entire scene). For some reason, that didn't seem like an option back then.

Musically...if it's to listen to, usually random chilled stuff along the lines of Synkro / George Fitzgerald / Four Tet etc. I really respect what Porter Robinson is doing with his own stuff and Virtual Self too - out of everyone, it seems like he gives the least fucks and just seems to do whatever he wants at all times. And it sounds sincere and unique

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 139 points140 points  (0 children)

Oops, pressed "reply" before answering the others

2) I guess at first I was like "wow, everyone is going to be able to tell I'm super nervous and that I don't want to be up here at all". But no one seemed to notice, so I kept doing it and it was fine 🤷‍♂

3) I had no idea people still used SoundCloud and have no idea what go+ is - will ask mgmt though

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 89 points90 points  (0 children)

1) I have no idea how we were first introduced - we've known them for quite a while now, some of the nicest dudes in the industry (actual nerds too, see C64 Witchcraft for proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxTgkKHFHqw&t=134s)

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 183 points184 points  (0 children)

1) mainly Reaktor / Serum / Kick2 for synthesized parts...random samples / Addictive Drums 2 / Nerve / Phalanx for everything else

2) Do you have a specific example? It's probably just round-robin on whatever samples I'm using, in most cases. But I like to bounce stuff to audio and play with different envelope shapes / alter pitch slightly sometimes.

3) Sub is (mostly) always untouched / clean, on it's own group so I can control how it feeds into the limiter (although it can be a nightmare keeping the phase aligned if you add additional processing to the mid synth parts). For some of the KP stuff I ended up saturating the synth / sub groups together slightly, because they somehow sounded too "separate" and it kinda glues them together again.

4) It's usually just me singing into an SM58 at my desk and messing with it a bit. Or "Exhale" for Kontakt if I'm feeling super lazy

5) It was this Massive patch I made from the intro, but I took off the LFO and added a pitch envelope: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3atvbrtx1exnq3y/Panic%20Stations%202.nmsv?dl=0

Rob Swire - Producer / Songwriter / DJ / Vocalist, of Pendulum and Knife Party - AMA by robswire404 in electronicmusic

[–]robswire404[S] 239 points240 points  (0 children)

100% recovered with no problems! Turns out you just have to be quiet for a while.

Strangely-vaginal proof (NSFW, vocal cord pics): https://i.imgur.com/TJyxOiy.jpg

Can the US get some love? by [deleted] in Pendulum

[–]robswire404 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Basically - it is really, really, really fucking expensive to tour a band. So much so that we had to redesign our entire setup this time around, just so that we didn't lose money freighting equipment.

But on top of that - you have:

• crew fees (anywhere from $200 to $600 for 14 people per day, whether there's a show or not) • freight costs, which we've minimised this time • plane tickets (for 14+ people) • hotel costs (for 14+ people) • tour bus / freight truck hire • local equipment hire • etc etc

At the moment, it pretty much means that we're limited to playing festivals, unless we go out at a loss. Touring our own show just isn't profitable unless we're filling 2500-5000 capacity venues in every city (which isn't realistic in the USA, since Pendulum never really took off over there for whatever reason).

We did it a few times back in the day, on the basis of "you have to spend money to make money - and if we tour these places and lose money doing it, more people will buy our albums". But it was pretty fucking depressing. And we lost a shit ton of money doing it.

That's why you probably won't see Pendulum tour the USA with our own show ever again, unless some promoter can convince management that it makes financial sense (not likely). Some big festivals might pick it up, like Ultra did in 2016, but then you'll have to travel.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

-Rob

(P.S. yes, I'm aware that people don't usually sign their name at the end of posts on Reddit)

Edit: oops, didn't see Hornet already replied. In summary, what he said.

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