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System 7 raise the phoenix with Rovo ahead of The Orb's 25th anniversary tour

Reported by Tara / Submitted 01-10-13 23:18

Always the innovators, System 7’s new album Phoenix Rising sees Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy collaborate with Japanese band Rovo. Lead by former Boredoms guitarist Seichi Yamamoto, Rovo features two percussionists, funky bass guitar and keyboards as well as an incredible electric violinist. In short, it is undoubtedly their most groundbreaking work yet and over a career that’s spanned the entire inception of what we now call dance music, that is indeed no small thing.

With System 7 supporting The Orb’s 25th Anniversary tour at Manchester Academy 2 on Saturday 12 October and at London’s Forum the following Saturday 19 October, we spoke with Steve about the new album, its connections with the Fukushima tragedy, his links with Alex Paterson and their forthcoming travels…




Hi Miquette and Steve, thanks for taking some time out to answer some questions for your fans. How’s life treating you at the moment? Have you had a good summer and did you make it to Burning Man yet?

No, not yet made it to Burning Man. Would still love to go although some people tell us that it’s got too big and it’s lost some of it’s magic qualities – but then people say that that about many festivals, don’t they....

You’re about to release your new album, Phoenix Rising, a collaboration with the Japanese band Rovo. How did this come about and what drew you to the project? Do you see it as a one-off or something you might do again?

Kind of a one-off – but we’re going to be doing quite a lot of live shows with Rovo so we’ll have to see how we feel next year. The project grew out of a live tour we did with Rovo in 2011 where we played a combined set. It went so well we decided to do an album.

The main man of Rovo is Yuji Katsui, who plays electric violin. I already liked playing with him and the sound we make when his violin and my lead guitar play together, and I had invited him to play on some of our records as a guest collaborator. The first tour we did together came out of that, and it went so well that we decided to make an album together.

What I found personally exciting was that here was a project that bridges my world as a techno producer and my world as a psychedelic rock lead guitarist. It’s also great for Miquette and she has made a strong impact on the writing of the new tracks. She loves playing with Rovo’s synthesiser player Masuko.



When we last spoke in 2011 you were very much on a techno trip, defining your sound as “kinda like between techno and trance”. Yet Phoenix Rising sees you morphing electronic sounds and techno beats with your distinctive live guitar and percussion and other live instruments from Rovo, creating even more of a psychedelic rock feel – and the track ‘Cisco’ (Phoenix Rising) is being compared to the Krautrock spirit of Can and Neu. Would you say you’re heading back to your roots on the new album… or further fusing the bridge between electronica and live music?

I wouldn’t say Phoenix Rising has much bearing on where System 7 is heading in pure dance music terms. We’re working on some new System 7 material at the moment and we’re still very much grooving in our personalised tech-house/tech-trance way.

The project with Rovo is more of a parallel project and yes, it definitely works as an interesting and original way of integrating our psychedelic rock past with our techo/ambient/trance present. Yes it’s more of a rock album, but there’s nothing retro about it at all. And in terms of fusing electronic and live playing I would say that it’s pretty groundbreaking.

The Japanese national symbol of the hinotori (the phoenix) is especially poignant given the tragic earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 and the ongoing issues left behind. Recording the album in Tokyo must have been an emotional time for you both, given your long connection with Japan? Is your Japanese better and was it difficult co-ordinating so many different musicians after working more with electronic artists over the last few years?

Unfortunately I’m still not good with the Japanese language, although we have quite a few Japanese people around with us who speak good English and who can help with translation, including the guys from our Japanese label. Rovo themselves are quite connected with the dance music and festival scenes in Japan and our musical communication with them is really excellent. Indeed without the strong musical bond between System 7 and Rovo this project could not have happened.

As well, Miquette and I have a strong spiritual connection with Japan and the hinotori mythology. During our upcoming one-month tour of Japan in November we will be finding the time to visit some important shrines.



There’s a lot of mixed messages in the media about the current situation at Fukushima plant, yet very little about the number of people left homeless by the disaster and how they’re surviving. If people reading this would like to help, what would you suggest?

There is a massive media cover-up going on about Fukushima. It’s not just Japan – there is a world-wide nuclear mafia that doesn’t want people to realise how bad the situation is. The plain fact is until they can find out exactly where the melted cores have got to, and remove the fuel rods from the spent fuel pools this thing is a massive crisis. It’s not under control and the people that say it is are lying.

A lot of our Japanese friends go to Fukushima to do voluntary work to help those made homeless and organise ceremonies and concerts to raise awareness of the tragedy, but unfortunately I don’t think there is much for people outside of Japan to do to help. Perhaps the best thing to do is just to help keep people around the planet aware of this serious threat to the planet as a whole. http://enenews.com is good for daily snippets of useful information.

Last time we spoke you were in love with Franscesco Tristano. Who or what are you finding inspiring at the moment?

Ahmet Sendil. Some of his tracks really fit our DJ style at the moment.



You’re supporting the Orb at their 25th anniversary shows at Manchester Academy 2 on Saturday 12 October then at London’s Forum the following Saturday. With this being your first gigs in the two cities for a while, what are you looking forward to the most? Will you be playing tracks off the new album?

I think the key thing is that it’s great to play the shows with The Orb on their anniversary event, as we were quite closely associated with them at the start of System 7. In fact the first ever Orb live show was me playing live guitar with Alex in 1990, and it was also in fact the first ever live System 7 show.

We’re going to be playing after The Orb, so it’ll be full throttle party time vibes from us! We won’t be playing any Phoenix Rising tracks on the Orb shows, because we need Rovo to play them with us, but we are of course hoping to use the October shows to spread the word about the March 2014 shows with Rovo and System 7.

When I first interviewed you in 2008 you described meeting Alex Paterson as a key moment in your lives, when you walked into the chill-out room he was running at Spectrum to Heaven and he was playing one of your tracks. What have been the highlights of the last 25 years of collaborating with Alex for you?

Many highlights – including the time he turned up at our studio on Sept 11th 2001 in an agitated state telling us to turn on the radio, and we discovered to our horror that terrible things were occurring in New York. But we decided nonetheless that we simply had to make some music in order to put some good energy into the troubled world, which we then proceeded to do for a couple of hours, after which we succumbed and went off to watch the unfolding events on TV.



Next March you’re playing two concerts with Rovo, which will include 30 minute solo sets from you both followed by a 75-minute System 7/Rovo Phoenix Rising set where you’ll be producing some of the most groundbreaking combos of live sounds and electronic beats known to humankind. With eight live musicians involved, this must take incredible skill! How much of this is planned in advance and is any improvised? Will you try and fit everyone in the same tour bus?

The tracks are mapped out but there is plenty of space for improvisation. The beauty of it is that the live sections are completely live – no click tracks or playing in headphones – and yet the live sections blend into and out from the techno beat sections really smoothly. I’ve never heard a band play like that before. Also, as I have a radio mic on my guitar, I can move around the stage, sometimes right out front for the live solos and sometimes at the back with our System 7 rig. And yes I think we can all fit in a tour bus – we’ll have too anyway otherwise the budget’s going to get really out of hand...

November sees you touring Japan and Taiwan, will you also be playing the full live showcase or will that depend on the gig?

The formula of the two short solo sets followed by the long combined Phoenix Rising set works well, and we’ll probably stick to it for all the shows.



You’re also in the process of cooking up new System 7 and Mirror System albums, due to come out next year. How are they going? It must be difficult to fit in time in the studio alongside so much touring!?

Yes it’s a bit hard to fit in time at the studio for these but we are making good progress. The current plan is to make the next Mirror System and the next System 7 albums in parallel and release them around the same time, like we did with the Fire album and the Water album. If fact if we get these new albums released in Autumn 2014 it will indeed be the 20th anniversary of Fire and Water!

Finally, as pioneers of what we now call dance music, and having sold over 250,000 albums, 60,000 singles and played at some of the world’s biggest festivals and events, do you have a favourite track to get the party started?

Our recent System 7 track ‘Passion’ is pretty reliable... We expect to rock the room with this and other tracks of the same ilk at the upcoming gigs with The Orb!

Thanks so much Miquette and Steve! Looking forward to seeing you in London next month!



Steve Hillage is one half of System 7 who have just released their new Phoenix Rising album with Rovo on G-Wave Records. System 7 are also special guests on The Orb’s 25 Anniversary Tour on Saturday October 12th @ Manchester Academy 2 and on Saturday October 19th at The Forum, London. Click here for tickets.

Rovo and System 7 present Phoenix Rising Live at the Manchester Ritz on Friday 7 March and London 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Saturday 8 March 2014. Tickets plus free download of the Hinotori EP on sale now from: http://www.musicglue.com/rovoandsystem7/

For news and updates, follow System 7 on FaceBook and Soundcloud.

Images and artwork courtesy of Nicky Trax and System 7. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Tara:
Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast!
Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project
A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden
Telling Cosmic Tales with DJ Strophoria
Tom Psylicious aka EarthAlien takes 50 Spins Around the Sun: Raising Awareness Through the Power of Music
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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