Eat Static have been heavy hitters in the live electronic music scene since forming in the late 80s, present since the beginning of the acid house revolution, and their production style of is an unmistakable blend of techno, trance and psychedelic rhythms. But there’s another influence from which they draw heavily from: both Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton have had a close encounter with a UFO! Taking place near a military base several years ago, it’s been a theme that’s been constant in their work ever since, particularly the cover art of their new album De-Classified.

They’ll be here later this month for the Rainbow Festival, so ITM had a chat with the band to find out what exciting new additions they’ve recently made to their live show, as well as to find out once and for all whether they had actually been abducted and ‘probed’ as the rumours have suggested…

So you’ve recently released your new album De-Classified on Solstice Music. Care to tell us a little about this?

It’s an album that found us going back to our roots and doing what people expect from us for a change! We have experimented with many genres with the last few albums and it felt like the right time to leave all the organic/live sounding instruments behind and go back to having fun on the analogue synths. It was also a good excuse to go for the alien theme again.

You both claim to have seen a UFO! The theme of which has been worked into the title of many of your releases. Where has this come from, and have you been abducted and ‘probed’ at some stage in your life?

Ha ha! It was some years ago, coming home late from a gig just before the sunrise. It happened on the edge of a huge empty plain that the military use for practice. My car went dead so I got out to investigate… Joie was a couple of miles behind me in another car. This craft came towards me, hovering in the sky and moving horizontally in total silence. Joie drove straight past me as he was having the feeling of being chased by it. He thought I was some nutter by the roadside pointing at the craft. It was pretty scary at the time! The craft then hovered off and the car started up and worked again. Very bizarre, not sure if we were probed though!

Your style is mainly focused on techno, trance and psychedelic… Who were your main influences earlier in your career and who are your influences now?

The main influence was acid house, which we heard loads of due to our DJ friends. We liked the fact that the artists were obscure and tracks were appreciated for what they sounded like, not who they were done by. We also loved the sense of humour in that stuff, the fact that you looked for wacky funny sounds to trigger people on the dancefloor. Music should be fun and make people smile.

When dance music first started taking off here, we had the advantage of already having played and experimented with analogue synths so fusing that with the dance beat was a natural thing. We have both always had a vast and diverse taste in all music, so each album has been influenced by what we are listening to at that time. World music has always had a major effect on our stuff.

You’ve been doing the live performance circuit for quite some time now, what does your live show involve and what can we expect to see?

It involves running everything live, giving us the chance to change and jam out the tracks… Usually the crazier the crowd, the more extreme the versions get. Expect to see lots of sweat and machines being abused!

After all these years involved in music production you have built up quite a synth rack over the years. What kind of synths do you own and do you have a favorite?

We haven’t bought anything new in a while as we still get plenty of inspiration from the ones we have had for years. If you get to know that stuff well, you can get it to do anything. These are the main ones we have collected over time. The SH5 is probably the favourite… It still shocks us everytime! And it was Joie’s first synth, bought new in 1977….

Some of our gear includes… Aviator Modular; Modified Roland SH 2; Roland Juno 106; Roland Jupiter 8; Sequential Circuits Pro One; Korg Poly 6; Korg Wavestation; Roland SH 101; Roland TB 303 Bassline; Oscar; Ensoniq Fizmo; Yamaha Motif; Roland SH 5 (x2); Korg Radius; Waldorf Wave; Quasimidi Quasar; Yamaha FS 1R; Yamaha WX 7; Roland W30 Sampler; Akai 3200XL Sampler; Waldorf Wave.

Merv, what can you tell us about your side project Dendron?

Dendron is a solo project of mine, exploring breakbeats, drum n’ bass and electronica. It’s one way I choose to deliberately get away from the general dancefloor full-on tunes. It’s kind of futuristic funk, with a starkness to it… More of an urban sound, influenced by my city experiences worldwide.

You are both very busy working on side projects with side with the likes of members from Tangerine Dream, Propellerheads and Hallucinogen. Can you tell us a bit more about these projects?

I guess there are quite a few now! Hi-Fi Companions was a project with Steve Jolliffe from Tangerine Dream where we explore a lounge/exotica/world fusion. A mixture of electronics with live midi sax and flute. Flexitones is with Will White from The Propellerheads. Eat Static meets Propellerheads, big beats mixed with 60s and 70s kitsch, cop films and Latino.

Metal Sharon is an experimental electronica with Si Posford. All styles on the forthcoming album, from mutant jazz to robots gone mad. Here and Now is where Joie and I play keyboards and drums respectively. A good way of getting away from the computers and sequencers, good old fashion jamming.

You produced the soundtrack for the video game Conquest Earth. Is this something you would normally do and how did this come about in the first place anyway?

Love doing projects like this. One of the graphic programmers working on the game was an Eat Static fan and put our name forward to his boss to get us onboard. We have also done a track for the Playstation game Grand Turismo.

Will you be touring? When and where can we see you play?

My life is one long tour! We play almost every weekend somewhere or other. After we come and play the shows in Australia, we go back to the UK and go on tour with System 7 and then off to Israel in March where I will probably have a small break! The summer is usually festivals worldwide.

You have recently compiled and released your own sample collection. Care to share a little about it.. What kind of sounds are on it and what was used to produce it?

We used all the equipment you see listed above. There are masses of different sounds there and a lot of them are ideal for inspiring original creations instead of the boring normal stuff that’s on the majority of them. We went for a futuristic world music feel, including lots of different tempos and all original creations.

So what was your biggest and best gig of 2007?

Hmmm, tough one. One of the best, probably because of the adverse weather conditions, was the Glade Festival in the UK. Torrential rain and flooded site, and a total nightmare to get the equipment in there and set up and working. Somehow we did and there were 9,000 people there waiting in over 12 inches of mud. Typical English, determined to have a good time! Mental vibe…ferocious gig!

What does Eat Static have in store for the world in 2008?

We are well into recording a new album for Interchill, which is all more downbeat and chilled. People have wanted us to do one of these for years and its a pleasant change from the dancefloor stuff…. I have also almost finished a new Dendron album and am working on a heavy psychedelic rap album with the ex singer of the Headrillaz. Plus we’ll be out gigging here and there so watch out for us!

You can catch eat Static doing their thing live at the Rainbow Serpent Festival in Beaufort, Vitoria on January 25th. And keep your eyes to the skies!