We caught up with orchestral, experimental electronica & industrial trio NEW OPERA HERO ahead their exciting multimedia live performance at Koko this weekend…
Hi there, how are you and what are you up to today?
Packing the guitar to escape the first signs of winter and make some music for 2 weeks at an artist retreat in India.
To those not familiar with you, how would you describe your sound?
Guitar infused electro-pop that veers between alternative anthems and upbeat electronica- (and whenever we get stuck we go back to our roots and throw in a bit of classical.
What are the 5 albums and artists that have influenced you the most?
We usually discover a new artist every few weeks and then play them to death until the next one hits us in the face. Important milestones on this journey were:
Cornielius – Point
Venetian Snares – Rossz csillag alatt született
Apparat – Walls
jon Hopkins – Immunity
James Blake – James Blake
What other artists do you really like at the moment and why?
Son Lux – because he is has exactly the elements on stage that we are into:
Very clever electronic production with catchy melodies and classical elements and all of that performed as an energetic live band with drums and guitar.
If we gave you the budget to put a line-up together for a mini fest, who would you book and where would you play?
We would repeat our first show at the Royal Opera in Liege. A big opera house is a fantastic location after you cover all the seats with a dancefloor because you can fly in sets and have a lot more creative options than on a concert stage.
Starting slow and ending with a party:
Nils Frahms
New Opera Hero
Son Lux
Prince (just because we can)
Mr Carmack
If you weren’t a musician what would you be?
As we spend as much time on our show technology, visuals and interactive projects as we do on the music that term probably doesn’t apply to us in the first place. Creativity will always be our main focus in life. In what medium that materialises is less important. As long as we manage to escape the routine.
Do you enjoy playing to an audience or working in the studio?
Both is great. The first time you create a new loop in the studio and play with it through the night is a total high – often followed by a massive low the next morning when you realise that it was actually crap. Still that time of ‘birth’ is probably the most special moment.
On stage it’s the energy from the audience and the chance to travel that make it enjoyable. Both compliment each other perfectly.
What are some of the key pieces of gear you use to write your tracks in the studio? Or do you prefer to use software and plug ins?
Because on our bigger shows we slave the visuals, interactive projections and even part of the light show to our laptop, the whole show is custom programmed in VVVV with ableton wired in and when we compose we use softsynths that work live inside that set up. Mainly ableton native.
The one piece of hardware that we would love to have if it wasn’t so heavy to take to gigs is a Prophet.
Has your arsenal of equipment changed much since you first started?
Yes we have a very chaotic workflow. The first ideas and arrangements are usually done on the piano or guitar but afterwards the recordings will go through different DAWs quite randomly until something interesting happens. I started with Fruit Loops, then switched to Cubase with Reason wired in and now we mainly work in Ableton. All original sketches are done in Sony Acid.
Do you have any information regarding upcoming releases, projects, DJ mixes or collaborations in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?
We are very happy to be part of the great line up at KOKO London 23 January supporting amongst others Com Truise and Jackson and his computerband, Our next single EatWorkSleep will come out on 26 Feb on Burst TV. This spring we will finish our EP and do two small tours around Italy and Poland while we organise a big one with a 360degree dome stage together with our friends from Isphere in Barcelona.
NEW OPERA HERO social links:
Website: www.newoperahero.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NOHband
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NewOperaHero
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/newoperahero
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/newoperahero
