Hyperbubble

HYPERBUBBLE Interview

Bionic Bubblepunk duo HYPERBUBBLE made a rare visit to the UK recently when they were invited to play cult indie queen HELEN LOVE’s ‘Does Your Heart Go Boom?’ all dayer at The Lexington in London.

It was their first gig in the capital and in front of an audience more used to feisty indie pop, they won over the audience with their quirky electronic performance art. HYPERBUBBLE arrived on stage with Jess attired in a black sequined blouse while Jeff was in full Texan state costume including matching ten gallon Stetson… those watching were convinced they were about to witness a mutant Country & Western duo but synthpop’s own CARTER & CASH launched into their calling card ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ for a 45 minute performance of quirky electro. With the wacky manner of THE B-52s, HYPERBUBBLE soon had the crowd smiling and eventually bopping away to fun uptempo numbers such as ‘Synesthesia’, ‘Bionic Girl’, ‘Non Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal’ and ‘Chop Shop Cop’.

With some finely tuned robotics, Jess even found time to play Theremin and venture over to Jeff to give him a good spanking during ‘Girl Boy Pop Toy’ as his larger than life personality charmed the crowd. And as a tribute to their host HELEN LOVE, HYPERBUBBLE also did an affectionate cover of her song ‘Better Set Your Phasers to Stun’ from 2000 which was appreciated by all present including ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ team captain PHILL JUPITUS.

After their enjoyable set at ‘Does Your Heart Go Boom?’, HYPERBUBBLE kindly chatted to The Electricity Club about Synths, Justice and The American Way…

So how do you feel after your first gig in London?

Jess: I’m ecstatic, I’m giddy! *laughs*

I woke up this morning and had this visual of what it was going to be like and it was better than what I thought.

Jeff: The same… we have played other UK cities like Lancaster and Manchester but we were really excited when HELEN LOVE asked us to play London.

It was quite an eclectic line-up for this event so I had the impression some of the audience hadn’t heard a synthesizer played in a pop context for about 20 odd years! What did you think?

Jeff: Ours was the only music that had space between the notes! Instead of the strumming, there was suddenly all this airiness in the room! *laughs*

Jess: I actually think we fit more with HELEN LOVE’s aesthetic because there’s some punk in there and bubblegum pop… so we chose our set with her in mind.

Jeff: We were banking on the audience not knowing what to expect, we threw in a few things to throw them off…

Jess: And, as Jeff likes to say, “guitars are retro…”

Jeff: Whenever anybody plays a synthesizer, the ‘80s’ comes up and the word ‘retro’ gets used. But we’re believers in what we’re doing is a continuance of something that may have stopped a little too prematurely and that hasn’t been explored as much or as often as it should be. So there’s technology today which does things that couldn’t possibly have been done back in the 80s…I mean, aren’t those guitars and the style of music most often played with them retro? But with electronic music, there’s always been a sense of looking forward, of building upon something instead of looking back.

There were a lot of smiles in the audience during your performance?

Jess: We definitely play upon that because we see ourselves as part-performance art, kitsch cabaret pop…

Jeff: We were taking band photos and coming up with costumes as part of the art concept before we bothered doing the songs… HYPERBUBBLE is very much an art / music project.


So what would you say to observers who might say “it should only be about the music, it shouldn’t matter what a band looks like”?

Jess: I have to say, and not being too irreverent here, but I’m so tired of ‘sincerity’… people say music has to be sincere but art can be anything. And it can be humourous, it can be dark humour, it can be political commentary like our song ‘Non Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal’… when you put limitations on what art or music can be, then you can miss a whole lot.

Jeff: I think the bands should be the ones making up their own rules and not having someone else making them.

In the US at the moment, EDM is popular… is that helping or hindering HYPERBUBBLE?

Jeff: EDM gives the potential audience something they can relate to and creates an open-mindedness. So our music has a point of reference now for people who didn’t understand it. Little do people know but they have been weaned on electronic music since the 60s with television commercials and movie soundtracks so there has finally been a breaking down of barriers that this wasn’t music. People are recognising that “yes, this is a valid art form now”!

Jess: I have this memory when I got my first synthesizer, my sister who played French Horn said “you can’t make real sounds on that thing! You can’t make the sound of a saxophone or French Horn” but I told her “I’m not trying to, I’m making new sounds”… flash forward to 2014 and she’s HYPERBUBBLE’s biggest fan, you’ll find her all over Facebook liking everything we do.

Jeff: When we were in Glasgow a couple of tours ago, I was in an elevator and there was this guy in there with a mandolin case and I was holding my microKorg case. He said “what’s that?”. I replied “a synthesizer” and he said “when the electricity runs out, you’re f***ed!”. I was thinking, when the electricity runs out, the last thing I’m going to be worried about is where I can plug in my synth! *laughs*

You went to Moogfest 2014 which featured KRAFTWERK and GIORGIO MORODER?

Jess: I didn’t go, Jeff went with his brother who’s in the band NITE RISK…

Jeff: Oh, it was like a disciple going to The Sermon On The Mount, it really was. KRAFTWERK were a band I first heard when I was 13 with this otherworldly sound…I listened to ‘Autobahn’ daily! In my mind, they are this perfect combination of music and art concept. To see it played out… I was actually weeping during ‘The Robots’! But the most poignant moment though was when they had a technical issue and you saw human beings behind the keyboards having to deal with an error… they were so graceful about it. And instead of sending out some flunkey to tell the audience to hold tight, Ralf Hütter took responsibility and came out to apologise. I think we were lucky to see the human part of this band. I think we saw one of the best KRAFTWERK shows ever because we got a little peek behind that mystique that has been built up.

Likewise, attending a seminar with GIORGIO MORODER and watching him perform live laid to rest the mythology of him being a cold, robotic producer. He was warm, and actually quite funny. Also, like seeing KRAFTWERK, hearing Moroder speak about monumental singles like ‘I Feel Love’ and the soundtracks from ‘Midnight Express’ and ‘Cat People’ brought those early HYPERBUBBLE influences full circle.

Your main project this year has been the soundtrack for the film ‘Attack Of The Titans’, and you’ve won an award?

Jeff: Yeah, the award was for ‘Dee Dee Rocks The Galaxy’, a film that was made by the same crew as ‘Attack Of The Titans’. It won ‘Best Soundtrack’ at the 48 Hr Film Festival. It’s going to be coming out next year, because we’re trying to pace the releases a little. With the soundtracks, we’re going back into what got us into this kind of music in the first place, listening to those TANGERINE DREAM soundtracks like ‘The Park is Mine’, ‘Sorcerer’, ‘Risky Business’ and ‘Thief’, which, by the way, worked great while riding the London Underground this trip. We’d done ‘Drastic Cinematic’ which was a make-believe soundtrack, and it led us to being invited to do actual soundtracks. I just love being given a concept and a visual and asking myself “what are you going to do that suits this?” – ‘Dee Dee Rocks The Galaxy’ is the next step forward for us, because it’s a mini-synth rock opera which required us to work with singing actors.


Jess: Speaking of concepts, our costumes tonight are foreshadowing what’s to come… we plan to produce, mix and create the first electro Country & Western LP *laughs*

Jeff: Actually, ‘Switched On Nashville’ may have been the first! *laughs*

With our stage clothes, we’re playing up to people’s expectations, then throwing in a paradox… looking like their pre-conceived idea of what a Texan is and then sounding nothing like it! So now we’re going to flip it all the way over. Synthesizers with their pitch bend and portamento really lend themselves to that country twang! And the first three letters of “Moog” spell MOO! *laughs*

It’s been four years since the ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ album and you’ve been doing these soundtracks and EPs. Has that been conscious? Do you think albums are an outdated concept?

Jess: My first thought is that we keep trying to do something new each time and not repeat it.

Jeff: Also, when we try to do something, we try to do the best version of that concept we can and we were really satisfied with ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’… it was like “let’s do an electronic pop rock opera with a theme and a storyline”. A lot of what we like about electronic music came from the ‘song’ bands that wrote pop tunes but much of it has also come from soundtrack and experimental music. Those first three albums were about establishing ourselves enough to have room to stretch out a little bit more.

Although Texas has a great crop of electronic based acts such as FEATHERS, ELEVEN: ELEVEN and IRIS, do you ever feel that being there that you’re out of sorts in terms of location as far as electronic music is concerned?

Jeff: Well, Texas is the home of NASA and you can’t get much more technical or electronic than that *laughs*

Jess: I think San Antonio has come along way since its heavy metal days, there’s a lot more up and coming bands who are duos or have a minimal set-up. But of course, we’re close to Austin which is the state’s music capital so it’s a great place to be. And our biggest supporters have been the visual art community in Texas so we really cross over into that realm.

Jeff: San Antonio actually has a secret synthpop history. Shortly after THE SEX PISTOLS played at Randy’s Rodeo in our hometown of San Antonio in 1978, you had this explosion of bands that were inspired by that, but who also listened to FAD GADGET and THE NORMAL. As a result, in the early 80s, there were actually a lot of San Antonio synth-driven acts like DEM VACKRA, BA SYNDICATE, INNOCENT X, CHARLES ATHANAS, MANNEQUIN, LUNG OVERCOAT (of which I was a founding member) and GET REAL. We tip our ten gallon hats to them. Yee-haw! - The Electricity Club

We sure dig Hyperbubble. The band's music is decidedly out-of-synch with almost everything that's out there and yet...instead of altering their course of changing their music to suit a wider audience these musicians stick to their guns and maintain their original focus. That focus being...writing and recording upbeat danceable synth pop that recalls early classic electronic pop artists from the 1980s. The band's songs might best be described as techno bubblegum...because they seem to incorporate equal elements of both. This time around the Hyperbubble folks deliver the soundtrack to the film Attack of the Titans. Because these songs were created as a soundtrack they waver a bit from the standard Hyperbubble approach...but not by much. The rhythms are still addictive and those groovy vocals still sound as cool as ever. So much modern music is way too complex and overblown. That is perhaps why these folks succeed whereas so many fail. Their music is simple, direct, and instantly lovable. Eleven classy cuts here including "The Devastation Was Incredible," "Sky Smasher," and "Condition Red." As always, highly recommended music from this wonderfully clever band. What we're wondering now is...how long will it be before these folks team up with Twink to record an album together? Now that would be something. TOP PICK. - BabySue

Early MTV-era pop meets a Casio keyboard with this digital-age duo, a giddy, sci-fi take on Saturday-morning cartoon bubblegum.

- Gilbert Garcia - San Antonio Current Magazine (US)

Retro-techno-bubblegum pop for robots and the kids who love them! It's happy feel-so-good-lucky joyousness that loves drum machines and microkorgs, like The B-52's doing New Order Devo on a minimalist scale. It's like robot love machines playing 80's wave to seduce the kids until everyone is dancing in binary.

There are nifty pop blips and rock beeps, and cuteness abounds in a robotic way. It's like The Cars crashing into The Faint and taking them back in time to give them happy pills. Or Freezepop jamming on a version of M's "Pop Muzik" with Ladytron in the back seat of a spaceship, but there's only two of them. It's like that Pulsars song about the Silicon Teens, but it's about Hyperbubbles instead.

The Humans are dead. - Big Takeover Magazine (US)

In 2008, the machine has become self-aware. Synth-and-keys duo Hyperbubble partially assembles its songs in the proud tradition, passed from Kraftwerk to Daft Punk, of musicians pretending to be robots. Unlike many of those bands, however, Hyperbubble's Jess and Jeff seem to be in on the joke, taking the android artifice to intentionally over-the-top extremes, then undercutting all the sci-fi hokum with flashes of genuine humanity.

"Welcome to the Hyperbubble late-late show," says synthesizer player-vocalist Jeff, taking the stage at nearly 1:30 a.m. The show was running an hour behind schedule before the preceding band spent 30 minutes sound-checking, but this joke is the only indication he might be getting tired. From the first notes of opener "Mom Dad Unit" onward, he's rocking out with near inhuman speed and efficiency, his hands blurring as he karate chops the synth keys in quick herky-jerks.

Though Jeff often runs his vocals through a digitized evil-computer filter, lead-singer-keyboardist Jess's voice is too organic and expressive to be convincingly inhuman. She pauses every few minutes to strike unnatural vogue poses, but her stage presence is more often fluid and personal, providing a nice contrast to her husband Jeff's mechanical-man shtick. While stone-faced Jeff fist-pumps, Jess wiggles out from behind her keyboard to dance with her back against him, or playfully slap him on the Ass-illator 5000.

And in a post-Matrix, post-9/11 world, the fiction of depicting a human as an unfeeling, immortal machine benefits from the meta glitches. "Leon," a goofy ode to "close encounters of the kitty-cat kind" loses the joke when Jess adds, "and then she died," and pouts. And the bit of hope betrayed in their voices when Jess and Jeff duet "we are the ninja kids, too young to die" cause the posturing on "Indoor Kidz" to ring deliberately false.

Then, Jess slumps over at the waist, mimicking a femme-bot, powered down. "That takes a lot out of you," she says.

- Jeremy Martin - San Antonio Current Magazine (US)

On its first album, the duo known as Hyperbubble went ahead and proved that the breakneck pace of punk could be applied to straight-up synthpop. In the process, Jess and Jeff (who comprise Hyperbubble) crafted an addictive little sugarshot that stuck in your head and never, ever threatened to be taken seriously. Now they’re back, with another pile of tracks known collectively as Airbrushed Alibis, complete with cover art featuring neon rainbows and waterguns. Clearly, not much has changed. The little that has changed, however, is for the better—rather than simply taking ‘80s cheesepop and speeding it up to great effect, the duo has opted for an occasional foray into more sinister territory. Tracks like “Reversible” and the fantastic title track opt for the sparse percussion and synth work of Front 242, while the lyrics drop the ironic style of the more upbeat (read: silly) tracks. Even so, it’s obvious that not too much of a shift has taken place when things like “Rollerboogie Babydoll” ("It’s so exciting I like when we’re skating away! / There’s no escaping the mating call the DJ plays!") and the delightfully meta “Bonus Track” are the norm. Still, when the end result is as fun as this, who really needs change anyway?

- Pop Matters (US)

Having demonstrated on their debut that they know how to make peppy synth pop par excellence, Jess and Jeff DeCuir keep at it with their second effort, a dozen delights as dayglo-entertaining as the album artwork. Unlike so much of the almost too-apologetic neo-keyboard-new-wave, the DeCuirs actually sound like they want to hit a dance floor, and one overseen by the self-knowing wryness of Devo at that. So opening "Synesthesia" is a full-on celebration of their artistic approach, detailing all the pieces of equipment needed to hit the beats and bleeps in traded-off then shared vocals, all with the kind of weird and wonderful nagging synth lines that make listeners of a certain age want to hit the arcade to play Pac-Man or Defender right this second. (The concluding unlisted "Bonus Track" does much the same thing with the very concept of such a song.) Jess's delivery is again the kind of witty ice-cool warmth that could almost be a solo cyborg Shangri-Las, while the two create perfectly in sync arrangements of tense and brisk such as "Hyperdome" and the slow-crawling ballad that's the title track. It's no surprise that Jeff in particular has such a sharp eye for sheer froth given his roots in an act like Pink Filth, and song titles like "Rollerboogie Babydoll" and the ultimate mouthful of "Non-Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal" further demonstrate it. (Meanwhile there's even a subtle Queen nod in the title of "I'm In Love With My Clone.") Perhaps the cherry on the sundae is a classic disaffected anthem-of-youth, "Indoor Kidz," simultaneously a tribute to any number of generations chilling in front of some sort of screen (the music may be early eighties, but the mentions of laptops are newer and the quote from the Who rather earlier) and straight-up herky-jerky dance delight.
- All Music (US)

Hyperbubble's Airbrushed Alibis is one of my all-time favorite new wavey releases of 2007. I have it on good authority that some of these songs have over 100 layers to them, and you can hear tons of nifty sonic surprises buried in the mix in tracks like "Nervous System" and "I'm In Love With My Clone". This is headphone music all the way, but if you do listen with conventional speakers, make sure to turn up the volume so you can properly feel that massive bass synth pulse coming through you on "Nervous System" and "Synesthesia". Very nice stuff indeed, New Wave goodness of the highest order. I can think of few other albums in this genre that stayed in my player as long over the summer. None, in fact. You can not go wrong with Hyperbubble as a Blondie fan, Devo lover, Ladytron junkie, or even Dee-Lite groove addict. I can't wait to hear what comes next. - Gearwire Magazine (US)

Hyperbubble's sonic approach is what really brings back the fun in electronic music. "Airbrushed Alibis" is one of those albums that can pretty much make your day if you give it a chance. You can choose to take it seriously or just drop your music defenses down for a while and just enjoy it for what it is. Upbeat and lighthearted, Hyperbubble manage to bring some pop sensibility into their electronic machinescapes without rendering the final result blatantly mainstream, and it's just so much in-your-face you can't really avoid it. "Airbrushed Alibis" kicks off with "Synesthesia", a well produced song that'll immediately take you off your feet. Most of the songs in "Airbrushed Alibis" are quite short but nonetheless quite complete, they just deliver what they have to while keeping it smart and simple. Next, there's the ironic, almost sadistic and more wavey "Nervous System", which paves way for "Hyperdome", which is sort of a bridge to what is to come next. And what comes next, may you ask? Well definitely much more intelligent electro powerpop, and "Indoor Kidz" makes a good run for it, keeping it almost innocent and yet somewhat sexy. "Rollerboogie Babydoll" is probably going to drag you along into madness with its sharp lyrics and crazy electronics, which can only get crazier when you get to tracks such as "commuter", which is very fast-paced and almost underlines the stress of actually commuting, wherever to, right before unexpectedly dropping you off at "Non-Biodegradable Waste Disposal" which is much more of a moody and almost dark song that will get you ready to slow down to the title track, "Airbrushed Alibis" and (almost) lay you down to peace with the soothing last track on the album, "Teen Dream". Oh, wait, let's more. "Synesthesia" makes a cameo appearance later again on track 13 and if it wasn't quite what you wanted, there it is! A bonus track, curiously titled "Bonus Track" which actually now gives you EXACTLY what you were looking for, oh yes, and absolutely free. Brilliant! "Airbrushed Alibis" makes it out as a pretty good collection of songs which will undoubtably get you tuned on. Yes, like a switch, get it?
- Connexion Bizarre webzine (Portugal)

Hyperbubble are from Texas and consist of Avengers-loving Jess (vocals, keyboards and bionics) and Jeff (sequencers, synthesisers and vocals), the latter owning up to a Bee Gees lunchbox as most prized possession. Hyperbubble live in a world where you make music to have fun and don’t ever take yourself too seriously. That said, the music is not just slung together. It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the melodies, the rhythm and the spot sound effects utilised during each track. The album kicks off with the bouncy Synesthesia, filled with Jess’s sultry vocals, whooshes and echoed hand claps before Jeff’s monotone vocals let us in on the secret: “Casio Synthetic Strings, 707 drum machine, a D4, a mixing board, a microphone, a MicroKorg”. 2 ½ minutes of synth perfection. And then we’re off again. The vast majority of tracks on this album are quite short, lasting anywhere between just under a minute up to 3 ½ minutes. This means that no tracks really hang around long enough for you to get bored of them, in and out as quickly as possible.... ...There’s a little Jean Michel Jarre cameo at the start of Polyurethane, which may seem a little odd but also fits in quite well. I swear that Reversible was considering breaking into the theme from Top Gun as well at one point before deciding better of it. The band’s influences are clearly early 80’s with a modern twist, but they don’t go for the icy cold harshness of the now departed electroclash style. Hyperbubble are about feeling warm and fuzzy inside, harking back to the likes of Buggles in particular (for those who know Living In The Plastic Age album rather than just the classic singles from it). Lyrically the duo serve up a mix of futuristic messages along with bubblegum teen life, from the Dilbert-esque Commuter to disco rollerskating tribute Rollerboogie Babydoll. The final nice touch is the bonus track called , wait for it, Bonus Track. Can’t recall anyone else pulling this trick before and actually it again works well. I’m sure Hyperbubble are a blast live, but I’ll make do with the album seeing as they’re on a different continent and several light years ahead of me. I have to say that some may well dismiss this album as forth or cheese, but that is really not giving it a chance. Sometimes you just have to lighten up and just go with the flow. There’s time for angst later, have some fun for a while. This album has been on repeat for the last three weeks (which is why this review is a little late, trying to work out what I was going to say but too busy just having a blast…).
- Synthpop.net webzine (UK)

It's always nice when a band immediately delivers on its promises, and the album title says it all, really -- this is very solid pop, derived from a merry never-neverland set somewhere on the cusp of the 1980s. Jeff and Jess DeCuir's pop-friendly impulses from the early-'70s celebratory Pink Filth translate excellently into Hyperbubble -- if the coordinates are a decade forward in time, their abilities to work it well are beyond question. There's plenty of humor throughout -- "Mom Dad Un!t," which kicks everything off, plays around with the 'I am a robot' trope to envisage a happy domestic situation among machines in orbit -- to go with the crisp, lovely and low-key arrangements. If there's not quite as much of the immediate 'take it to the dancefloor' impulse found in first album. Like Depeche Mode, say, Hyperbubble exists as the cleaner sounding contrast to Ladytron's revivalism -- less grimy and cold, more perky and upbeat. Not that there aren't exceptions to this -- "Psych!c Connect!on," a solid revamp of the glam swing of Chicory Tip's "Son of My Father," has a wonderful, glowering lead synth line, offset by the rest of the arrangement. Then again there's the merrily ridiculous "Pep Rally Blues," which feeds snippets and bits from what sounds like, indeed, said typical high-school event, into a giddy collage. Jeff's singing is almost always filtered through vocoders to lend that extra amount of alienated groove, so hearing him singing straight-up on songs like "Vend!ng Mach!ne" is always an unexpected treat. Jess, meanwhile, has a perfect voice for the material, wistful and fun at the same time, able to make songs like "Leon" -- specifically about a pet cat, who contributes guest vocals in a way -- a gentle treat, and "B!on!c Girl" a completely hilarious one.

- All Music (US)

If you're looking for a dose of retro electro pop with a hefty mélange of thumping beats, snappy synths and melodies so addictive you'll need medical attention, then say hello to Hyperbubble. This Texan electro pop duo will intoxicate you with B52 Martinis (served with a with a slice of Blondie and a sprig of Sigue Sigue Sputnik in a Rezillos glass), seduce you and leave in the morning without asking your name. Take a listen to 'Psychic Connection' and beat me senseless and call me Nancy if it doesn't sound uncannily like Blondie's 'Call Me' put through an electro mixer. 'Another Ride' sounds like "New Life" period Depeche Mode if Dave Gahan had been born Divina.
- The Devil Has the Best Tuna webzine (UK)

HYPERBUBBLE Interview

Bionic Bubblepunk duo HYPERBUBBLE made a rare visit to the UK recently when they were invited to play cult indie queen HELEN LOVE’s ‘Does Your Heart Go Boom?’ all dayer at The Lexington in London.

It was their first gig in the capital and in front of an audience more used to feisty indie pop, they won over the audience with their quirky electronic performance art. HYPERBUBBLE arrived on stage with Jess attired in a black sequined blouse while Jeff was in full Texan state costume including matching ten gallon Stetson… those watching were convinced they were about to witness a mutant Country & Western duo but synthpop’s own CARTER & CASH launched into their calling card ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ for a 45 minute performance of quirky electro. With the wacky manner of THE B-52s, HYPERBUBBLE soon had the crowd smiling and eventually bopping away to fun uptempo numbers such as ‘Synesthesia’, ‘Bionic Girl’, ‘Non Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal’ and ‘Chop Shop Cop’.

With some finely tuned robotics, Jess even found time to play Theremin and venture over to Jeff to give him a good spanking during ‘Girl Boy Pop Toy’ as his larger than life personality charmed the crowd. And as a tribute to their host HELEN LOVE, HYPERBUBBLE also did an affectionate cover of her song ‘Better Set Your Phasers to Stun’ from 2000 which was appreciated by all present including ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ team captain PHILL JUPITUS.

After their enjoyable set at ‘Does Your Heart Go Boom?’, HYPERBUBBLE kindly chatted to The Electricity Club about Synths, Justice and The American Way…

So how do you feel after your first gig in London?

Jess: I’m ecstatic, I’m giddy! *laughs*

I woke up this morning and had this visual of what it was going to be like and it was better than what I thought.

Jeff: The same… we have played other UK cities like Lancaster and Manchester but we were really excited when HELEN LOVE asked us to play London.

It was quite an eclectic line-up for this event so I had the impression some of the audience hadn’t heard a synthesizer played in a pop context for about 20 odd years! What did you think?

Jeff: Ours was the only music that had space between the notes! Instead of the strumming, there was suddenly all this airiness in the room! *laughs*

Jess: I actually think we fit more with HELEN LOVE’s aesthetic because there’s some punk in there and bubblegum pop… so we chose our set with her in mind.

Jeff: We were banking on the audience not knowing what to expect, we threw in a few things to throw them off…

Jess: And, as Jeff likes to say, “guitars are retro…”

Jeff: Whenever anybody plays a synthesizer, the ‘80s’ comes up and the word ‘retro’ gets used. But we’re believers in what we’re doing is a continuance of something that may have stopped a little too prematurely and that hasn’t been explored as much or as often as it should be. So there’s technology today which does things that couldn’t possibly have been done back in the 80s…I mean, aren’t those guitars and the style of music most often played with them retro? But with electronic music, there’s always been a sense of looking forward, of building upon something instead of looking back.

There were a lot of smiles in the audience during your performance?

Jess: We definitely play upon that because we see ourselves as part-performance art, kitsch cabaret pop…

Jeff: We were taking band photos and coming up with costumes as part of the art concept before we bothered doing the songs… HYPERBUBBLE is very much an art / music project.


So what would you say to observers who might say “it should only be about the music, it shouldn’t matter what a band looks like”?

Jess: I have to say, and not being too irreverent here, but I’m so tired of ‘sincerity’… people say music has to be sincere but art can be anything. And it can be humourous, it can be dark humour, it can be political commentary like our song ‘Non Biodegradable Hazardous Waste Disposal’… when you put limitations on what art or music can be, then you can miss a whole lot.

Jeff: I think the bands should be the ones making up their own rules and not having someone else making them.

In the US at the moment, EDM is popular… is that helping or hindering HYPERBUBBLE?

Jeff: EDM gives the potential audience something they can relate to and creates an open-mindedness. So our music has a point of reference now for people who didn’t understand it. Little do people know but they have been weaned on electronic music since the 60s with television commercials and movie soundtracks so there has finally been a breaking down of barriers that this wasn’t music. People are recognising that “yes, this is a valid art form now”!

Jess: I have this memory when I got my first synthesizer, my sister who played French Horn said “you can’t make real sounds on that thing! You can’t make the sound of a saxophone or French Horn” but I told her “I’m not trying to, I’m making new sounds”… flash forward to 2014 and she’s HYPERBUBBLE’s biggest fan, you’ll find her all over Facebook liking everything we do.

Jeff: When we were in Glasgow a couple of tours ago, I was in an elevator and there was this guy in there with a mandolin case and I was holding my microKorg case. He said “what’s that?”. I replied “a synthesizer” and he said “when the electricity runs out, you’re f***ed!”. I was thinking, when the electricity runs out, the last thing I’m going to be worried about is where I can plug in my synth! *laughs*

You went to Moogfest 2014 which featured KRAFTWERK and GIORGIO MORODER?

Jess: I didn’t go, Jeff went with his brother who’s in the band NITE RISK…

Jeff: Oh, it was like a disciple going to The Sermon On The Mount, it really was. KRAFTWERK were a band I first heard when I was 13 with this otherworldly sound…I listened to ‘Autobahn’ daily! In my mind, they are this perfect combination of music and art concept. To see it played out… I was actually weeping during ‘The Robots’! But the most poignant moment though was when they had a technical issue and you saw human beings behind the keyboards having to deal with an error… they were so graceful about it. And instead of sending out some flunkey to tell the audience to hold tight, Ralf Hütter took responsibility and came out to apologise. I think we were lucky to see the human part of this band. I think we saw one of the best KRAFTWERK shows ever because we got a little peek behind that mystique that has been built up.

Likewise, attending a seminar with GIORGIO MORODER and watching him perform live laid to rest the mythology of him being a cold, robotic producer. He was warm, and actually quite funny. Also, like seeing KRAFTWERK, hearing Moroder speak about monumental singles like ‘I Feel Love’ and the soundtracks from ‘Midnight Express’ and ‘Cat People’ brought those early HYPERBUBBLE influences full circle.

Your main project this year has been the soundtrack for the film ‘Attack Of The Titans’, and you’ve won an award?

Jeff: Yeah, the award was for ‘Dee Dee Rocks The Galaxy’, a film that was made by the same crew as ‘Attack Of The Titans’. It won ‘Best Soundtrack’ at the 48 Hr Film Festival. It’s going to be coming out next year, because we’re trying to pace the releases a little. With the soundtracks, we’re going back into what got us into this kind of music in the first place, listening to those TANGERINE DREAM soundtracks like ‘The Park is Mine’, ‘Sorcerer’, ‘Risky Business’ and ‘Thief’, which, by the way, worked great while riding the London Underground this trip. We’d done ‘Drastic Cinematic’ which was a make-believe soundtrack, and it led us to being invited to do actual soundtracks. I just love being given a concept and a visual and asking myself “what are you going to do that suits this?” – ‘Dee Dee Rocks The Galaxy’ is the next step forward for us, because it’s a mini-synth rock opera which required us to work with singing actors.


Jess: Speaking of concepts, our costumes tonight are foreshadowing what’s to come… we plan to produce, mix and create the first electro Country & Western LP *laughs*

Jeff: Actually, ‘Switched On Nashville’ may have been the first! *laughs*

With our stage clothes, we’re playing up to people’s expectations, then throwing in a paradox… looking like their pre-conceived idea of what a Texan is and then sounding nothing like it! So now we’re going to flip it all the way over. Synthesizers with their pitch bend and portamento really lend themselves to that country twang! And the first three letters of “Moog” spell MOO! *laughs*

It’s been four years since the ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’ album and you’ve been doing these soundtracks and EPs. Has that been conscious? Do you think albums are an outdated concept?

Jess: My first thought is that we keep trying to do something new each time and not repeat it.

Jeff: Also, when we try to do something, we try to do the best version of that concept we can and we were really satisfied with ‘Candy Apple Daydreams’… it was like “let’s do an electronic pop rock opera with a theme and a storyline”. A lot of what we like about electronic music came from the ‘song’ bands that wrote pop tunes but much of it has also come from soundtrack and experimental music. Those first three albums were about establishing ourselves enough to have room to stretch out a little bit more.

Although Texas has a great crop of electronic based acts such as FEATHERS, ELEVEN: ELEVEN and IRIS, do you ever feel that being there that you’re out of sorts in terms of location as far as electronic music is concerned?

Jeff: Well, Texas is the home of NASA and you can’t get much more technical or electronic than that *laughs*

Jess: I think San Antonio has come along way since its heavy metal days, there’s a lot more up and coming bands who are duos or have a minimal set-up. But of course, we’re close to Austin which is the state’s music capital so it’s a great place to be. And our biggest supporters have been the visual art community in Texas so we really cross over into that realm.

Jeff: San Antonio actually has a secret synthpop history. Shortly after THE SEX PISTOLS played at Randy’s Rodeo in our hometown of San Antonio in 1978, you had this explosion of bands that were inspired by that, but who also listened to FAD GADGET and THE NORMAL. As a result, in the early 80s, there were actually a lot of San Antonio synth-driven acts like DEM VACKRA, BA SYNDICATE, INNOCENT X, CHARLES ATHANAS, MANNEQUIN, LUNG OVERCOAT (of which I was a founding member) and GET REAL. We tip our ten gallon hats to them. Yee-haw! - The Electricity Club

Early Eurythmics meets Josie and the Pussycats! Drum machines and resonant analog squirts form the basis of this duo’s unapologetic anthems to the golden age of electropop. “Girl Boy Pop Toy” even admonishes “synthesizer haters” to come to a gig and be converted. The vibe is all about having too much fun to care if you look like a dork, and if you’re too cool for that, the joke’s on you. - Stephen Fortner (Editor) - Keyboard Magazine