Making How to Destroy Angels

A 3:39 second video Making of How to Destroy Angels video was released on 15 April 2013.

Release

On the How to Destroy Angels facebook page:

Here's a behind-the-scenes video Coachella put together about the making of our tour, with rehearsal footage and commentary from us. Find tour dates at http://tour.destroyangels.com/

On the Rob Sheridan's twitter feed:

A behind-the-scenes look at our @destroyangels tour with comments from @trent_reznor, @mariqueen, Atticus & me: http://tmblr.co/ZcgEWyiqhzne

On HTDA's twitter:

A nice video @Coachella put together about the making of our tour, with rehearsal footage and band commentary: http://tmblr.co/Z8SqJyiqb2aI

Transcript

[ The Wake-Up plays]

[On screen: How to Destroy Angels]

TR: From a creative stand point it was fun to kind of start with a—a pretty blank slate and figure out how we wanted to do this thing. Atticus and I had been talking about working on something that was pure to the course of pure electronics, rather than kind of being a rock band with an electronic setting. I'd always kinda said I wanted to work with a female vocalist to try to experiment. Mariqueen's voice was a tool that we really were able to use in a lot of different contexts rather than just her singing the track. There's a lot of her droning away woven into things that really developed into something we—we couldn't have predicted initially.

[ The Believers plays] [On screen: ShowBiz Studios | Van Nuys, CA]

We started by kinda saying fuck guitars and drum. We'd modeled ourselves much more after early sound of Sheffield [A 2000 album by Scooter]...early sequencers being kinda out of sync plugged-in together. Exploring a subtly and restraint and mood which I think is what we did on the record a lot. And it wasn't a violent, Nine-Inch-Nails, ear-ringing assault. It was more about not doing that and leaving space and leaving silence. It feels much more like it has its own identity now, being unpolished and not Pro-Tooled [A music processing software] to death and not hi-fi.

[ Parasite plays]

We thought a long time about how to put this on. How to pull off—if we were gonna play live how we'd do it. We were never gonna be the kind of band that toured in a van for a year, ya know? I've played 'em all...Coachella the coolest festival of all of them. How could we transform that into the coolest fucking weirdest thing ever. Ideally you'll even go "Fuck that was great!" So we've essentially spent over a year experimenting with different materials to try to present this in a way that felt cool to us. A lot of effort for just a few shows.

[On screen: Voice of Rob Sheridan]

Rob Sheridan: It started with an idea of making something that was very sculptural, the idea there being that it almost feels more like a, an art installation and had a large physical presence than a traditional stage.

[On screen: Voice of Mariqueen Reznor]

Mariqueen Reznor: It makes me feel a lot more comfortable being on stage seeing as how there's a visual barrier and then sometimes it will, ya know, open up and you'll get to see a peek.

[ The Space in Between plays] [On screen: Voice of Atticus Ross]

Atticus Ross: I think the trend has become something where people bring it. It is a beautiful setting. Do I feel changed in this experience, that's what we're hoping...you'll go there, you'll get lost.

It, it's a different experience and the energy you get back from that type of crowd plays in to the experience of the whole thing. It's not just that is sounds great, and it's not just that it looks great. It's that collective energy feeding back into itself. The potential for an amazing show is much higher than if you just played club X or theater X. We're trying to do some things that maybe you haven't seen before. There's been a high level of anxiety that I can't wait to show this to the world.

[On screen: YouTube.com/Coachella]

External links

Video