The Trip Home Brings The Crystal Method’s Scott Kirkland Full Circle

The sixth full size record is filled with nuances through cinematic storytelling intended to generate memories that are individual to the listener.

“It’s almost as if I’m dating again.”

You understand, I wasn’t likely to be this man to bring the”Ken situation.” However, The Crystal Method‘s Scott Kirkland is comfortable with the fact that his longtime collaborative partner, Ken Jordan retired from the music business and Scott has now begun to utilize another group of collaborators. These adventures have been wonderful for Scott but he has never forgotten everything he and Ken seasoned together. In a sense, Scott is property again and again ready to start a new chapter of the musical career. 

“It gives me the opportunity to find people who grew up on and have the same passion for things that I do,” explained Scott. Glenn Nicholls (UNKLE, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy) co-produced The Crystal Method’s sixth full-length record, The Trip Home together with both Scott and that he enthusiastically praises Glenn as”confident, fast, creative and hungry.” Scott added, “We’ve been friends for a long time but didn’t really start to work together until 2017. It was good to have him in the studio with me.”

With glistening, full-length productions not as common as they once wereScott supposes the tv show and soundtrack into Stranger Things as a inspiration to make The Trip Home the way he did. “That show and record made me believe that there are still people out there that are willing to take the time to listen to something without the distraction of someone telling me that I had to do listen to it in a certain way,” Scott cryptically mentioned.

The Crystal Method – The Trip Home Album Art.   Courtesy: The Crystal Method. 

“For instance, in the streaming world, the last thing you want is for someone to skip through your song halfway into it, but that soundtrack is meant to evoke something in people without limits, and I wanted to get back to making music the way I want without being distracted by things that I’ve never been distracted by.” Scott continued, “No one has ever told me that I needed a chorus 37 seconds into my song, and if I don’t do those things then I’m going to fall back into the things that I do, do and it feels right.” 

With The Trip Home, Scott also wanted to focus on the side of this business and the tendency of individuals saving their cash to find the huge productions but’ve lost sight of their local clubs that have events during this week. “The grind needs to be a coming back of going to your local club where you know a DJ is going to throw down. I wanted to this record to be almost like a coming back from Vegas.”

2018 celebrates the anniversary of the launch of Vegas and also Scott described the making of it was comparable to this fruition of The Trip Home. “How we put together Vegas was 5 or 6 real songs but brought other elements to it that made it come together. Trip Like I Do was actually two different songs,” shown Scott.  “Tool does it, too. They may only have 6 or 7 songs but they have all these strange, wonderful segways that are personal in some way or envoke something that brings the whole thing together.” Scott continued, “You’re not being bombarded with first chorus, first chorus, middle, bridge, out. You’re being treated to this nuance of cinematic storytelling with music that doesn’t always have lyrics. With Vegas and The Trip Home, you can listen and enjoy it in several situations which bring memories that are multi-circumstantial.”

The Trip Home was mixed and recorded via Sound City studios’ Neve console – not the same one used on Nirvana’s Nevermind; Dave Grohl has that one – Scott relived a story on how Holy Arp became the mold that would give the record its ultimate sound:”That tune stood without any harmonica for about a year since we had been working on anything else. I knew there was. My agent, Laura Engel arrived in 1 afternoon and found that I had purchased some pins from a store in Cleveland, one had been a New Order snare and the other a Donna Summer. She noticed the New Order snare and a dialogue immediately ensued about a man named Jimmy, who we both knew. He did the harmonica sessions in their record, Drive. Well, he had only done a remix of Blue Monday to Trevor Horn and also this thing circled back around to the fact that Donna Summer’s tune, Our Love was the template for Blue Monday! So, within a span of 2 minutes, I said,’Get Jimmy in here!’ He came in, utilized a bullet microphone and laid down the harmonica basis for Holy Arp. I ended it up since I didn’t want you (the protagonist ) to learn that it had been a harmonica!” It’s little stories like this that show that The Trip Home is just that – a reminder of the early years of grinding it out with Ken and things falling into place at the right place at the right time. 

“Recording Holy Arp seems somewhat like the very first song we recorded,” remembered Scott. Moment of Truth goes back to the early days of the techno club scene in Los Angeles with the big pulse vibe and you also have these moments where the song opens up. The Trip Home is sort of like that moment before taking off on a plane where you’re gripping the armrest and then you hit the airstream and you’re just like, ‘Ahh!'”

Scott also believes that there are people like him who enjoy the character of electronic music. With also the dynamics of the pressure of being published, drums, both aggression and also the huge beats, there’s a vaporizer of kinds in the tunes Moment of Truth, Turbulence or the rear end of Ghost in the City. Scott said,”With Ghost in the City, I was going for the idea or visualization of a girl that’s no longer here. Then, panic ensues like,’What the fuck happened?’ Then there’s a little bit of understanding anger which leads to her dealing with it followed by a lift in the song where she takes advantage of this opportunity to see things differently and in the end, the spirit of her and the song organically deteriorate like a sunset.” 

The Trip Home is the first of a 2 record project. The second, which will be entitled The Trip Out, currently has a collection of different songs that are thought to be timeless pieces that shun away from the present trend of songs becoming’now.’ From that, Scott implies,”You know, I couldn’t tell you the genres of some of my favorite albums and songs. They’re all different and that was the goal with The Trip Home where there’s really nothing repeated, all the songs are of a different format. If I were to release these songs individually you could still pick a time and place, no matter what your age now, and do your thing whether it’s relaxing, working, driving, etc..

A lot of the music that Scott refers to as timeless is also done through the thought process of scoring. “You see it much more in the way that music is made and seems today,” explained Scott. “It’s a method of producing that story and cinematic scale much like Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration or Violator albums and the understanding of how scoring is utilized to bring the listener to another place each time they hear it. ”

“I appreciate the pinpoint accuracy of a lot of the songs available right now, but my songs are supposed to allow you to pull back and rethink things to allow it grow more than you, to not be consumed and thrown out like soda cans. So, I hope that my music does hold a cinematic trip for individuals,” proclaimed Scott. An example of this comes again Through the lump at the back end of A Ghost in the City. Scott explains,”You think it’s likely to go away but you tug back and think’Ahh,’ you just listen to it, hear it and since it is a sound that’s warm you just let it grow you over and when I’m able to do this enough, maybe I can be this diversion for a person for an instant.”  With doing more scoring, Scott has been able to incorporate these sorts of visions into his songs which make them more about what he feels like rather than what the songs sound like.

Scott wants to make sure that this record and The Trip Out do themselves justice by positioning them well and the team he has built around him are solely focused on that. “I wish to make sure that it gets at the hands of folks who understand the consequences I have, Scott emotionally stated. “I’ve been fortunate to have worked and support my own eyesight for 25 years. People don’t realize sometimes the number of individuals it requires to maintain TCM going. Yesit’s my title on the record, but it wouldn’t have been possible.  

Scott’s production setup for the remainder of the tour will probably get back into the standard style of DJ’ing with three or four decks in front of him flying by the seat of his pants! Not ever to do the same show twice, Scott will bring the same enthusiasm each night providing the attendee with a cinematic show through his music, not a scripted cinematic show with visuals. “Sometimes I can play for two or three hours and because its only me who controls the story today, I’m likely to make the most of it and meet the folks who appreciate my songs.”

The Crystal Method 2018-2019 Tour Schedule.   Courtesy: The Crystal Method. 

In the end, The Trip Home is really part one of three with a new live show experience being brought together in the summer of 2019 that will bring the two new albums together coupled with the old. “There are many things that are occurring after the launch of the record that it really does feel as though I’m beginning again,” Scott enthusiastically said. “The day this stops being fun for me, I don’t even know what I’ll do!”  

The Trip Home is going to be available for sale on September 28, 2018.

BONUS: The Crystal Method’s world premiere movie of Raze can be seen under: 

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