BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [May 2018]

JUCY
THE CRYSTAL METHOD
back to a ‘90s future
BY JONATHAN CRANE
This spring marks the first year of Scott
They then set out finding lodging in the area put out a record in ’97, that was Vegas, and the “There’s radio stations that play nothing
Kirkland reviving The Crystal Method, just outside of L.A.
rest is history.”
but ‘90s rock now. But for the electronic scene
synonymous with the electronica boom of the “We found a little two bedroom house in La This early era, from the creation of The Bomb for the ‘90s, for people like you and I who got
‘90s, now a solo act following co-founder Ken Crescenta, California, which is up in the foothills Shelter to the release of Vegas, is what Kirkland is into Prodigy, and Massive Attack, and Portishead,
Jordan’s retirement.
and it wasn’t much. It was the only that we hoping to recapture with TCM’s forthcoming release
and Chemical Brothers, and Daft Punk,
At the time of Jordan’s departure there were could afford. Actually, it was the only place that
The Trip Home. He compares it to a painter and Leftfield, and Orbital, and The Orb, and
no hostilities or tensions. He left Kirkland with would rent to us because we had such bad credit
going back and rediscovering old methods that Crystal Method and all these different bands,
words of empowerment, urging him to continue
because we had sort of eaten into our savings they once used.
there’s not really an outlet for us unless it’s on
their quarter-century legacy that so far has come trying to be producers,” says Kirkland.
“There’s certain [times] that you remember the internet.”
to include five studio albums and original productions
The place in question had a two car garage, how you did things. That to me was what I
Although TCM’s DJ sets contain new music,
for multiple games and film projects. and the pair set to work on drywalling it to turn wanted to get into, not remaking Vegas, but just being able to cater to this nostalgia is important
“He basically said just keep going, you love it into a studio.
remembering the ways that we made Vegas. to him. The aim isn’t to capitalize off a past era,
it and I’m proud of you,” relays Kirkland. “So it’s “We put a little storage area between the And the way those early years were ours, and but rather to expand it into the present day.
not like there’s any residual damage from some garage door and the wall that would have they were not anybody else’s,” says Kirkland. “I think there’s something magical about
fallout, something that would weigh down been the studio wall, and we put all our junk As he explains, during that period they were being a part of a scene and then being able to
my creativity or in any way sort of change the in there so the landlord wouldn’t know that able to make electronic music in the way that continue that scene forward,” says Kirkland.
narrative. The narrative is still the same. I’m now we had converted the garage into a room they saw fit.
As the conversation draws to a close Kirkland
continuing on as The Crystal Method, proud of because she would have kicked us out probably,”
“I like the idea of being able to go in and not reflects on how it’s not only TCM’s composition
all the things that we’ve done and the albums
says Kirkland.
give a shit about what’s going on right now in that’s changed, but the fans as well. In recent
that we’ve made.”
They named the space The Bomb Shelter EDM. Not that I don’t find some of it really cool, years he’s noticed a second generation of fans
To give an idea of how far the two came as a because there was an actual bomb shelter in the but there’s a perfection to some of the stuff that appearing that are just as eager for the music as
group the conversation shifts to the late 1980s. front yard that had been installed during the I think it’s a little bit too surrealistic sometimes. I their ‘90’s predecessors.
After meeting at a grocery store in Las Vegas and Cuban missile crisis.
kind of like the idea of doing things a little bit of “There are kids that are showing up that have
bonding over music, they moved to L.A. and Despite the group’s humble beginning in a different way,” says Kirkland.
been turned on to the music either by siblings
began exploring the emerging rave scene. their ramshackle studio the rest of the ‘90s was The fact that the forthcoming album is or cousins, or just the fact that the craziest thing
“We were thinking we were going to be followed by a series of sequential milestones that driven in part by nostalgia for the Vegas era is their mom or dad said, ‘Hey, you like so and
producing bands, so we started gathering gear catapulted them to the center of pop-culture. has also fueled Kirkland’s desire to return so. Maybe you’ll like the Crystal Method?” says
and going to these raves and realizing that we “We released a 12-inch in ’94, Now Is The to the road and tour. As he explains, the Kirkland.
didn’t need a singer, we didn’t have to work with Time. And then we did a version of “Keep Hope electronic music boom of the 1990s is one
a rapper, we didn’t have to be the producers, we Alive” that came out in ’95, and then we got a of that decade’s cultural pockets currently The Crystal Method performs in Calgary on May
could be the artists,” says Kirkland.
deal signed in ’96,” says Kirkland, adding. “We lacking modern nostalgic outlets.
12 at the Marquee.
JUCY BEATROUTE • MAY 2018 | 43