Originally a duo made up of Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan, The Crystal Method have become legends for pioneering the breakbeat genre and 90s electronica movement. They were responsible for fostering a unique scene that merged club kids with alternative rock revelers following the release of their now iconic debut album, Vegas. Fast forward twenty-one years, five albums, and a well established legacy later, TCM approached the dawn of a new day. Ken Jordan retired in 2017, leaving Scott Kirkland with sole responsibility to navigate TCM through a very different era of electronic music than the duo had championed over two decades ago.
Having entered a world where streaming services reigned and tracks were produced to satisfy 300,000 person crowds at festival main stages, Scott Kirkland had to make a decision on how he was going to forge ahead as TCM. The result was The Trip Home, a 12-track cinematic story that stands as a culmination of his twenty-five years in the industry. Going back to basics, back to his Vegas roots, Kirkland created a concept album that is as unique as the journey that led up to it. An increasingly rare kind of album that is meant to be consumed as a whole, from beginning to end.
On the night before his Halloween show in Brooklyn, we caught up with Scott Kirkland to talk about touring solo, the driving forces behind The Trip Home, and how he plans to lead TCM through a new era.
RR: You’re in the midst of The Trip Home tour after the album release just a month ago. How’s everything going so far?
TCM: It’s going really well so far. I’m having a great time playing venues and cities I haven’t been to in a while, I’ve been meeting people who are coming to see a TCM show for the first time, but also running into those that have seen us play a dozen times. Fans and friends who come to shows are also bringing their kids now, that’s always a strange one. When you hear the parent say how their child was raised on TCM’s music, you kind of expect to look over at the kid and see a facial expression as if they’re thinking, yeah, I’d really rather be at a Marshmello show, but they seem genuinely into the music and having a great time.
As the years go on, I’ve always found it remarkable that we’ve been lucky enough to continue to make music that resonates with people of all ages, even in today’s massive EDM scene. Twenty years ago, people who typically listened to punk, rock, or even grunge and eventually became TCM fans would tell us how Vegas was their first electronic music album and introduction to the scene. There’s something special about that. My introduction to this world was Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration. That record just sounded different than anything I had ever heard before and changed so much for me. It’s humbling to know that the way Black Celebration was an iconic record for me, Vegas is an iconic record for others.
RR: When you were making The Trip Home, did you have a particular fan base in mind?
TCM: This record was about reconnecting with the earlier years and what the scene meant to those that were a part of it then. I approached it thinking of someone who’s been away from the scene for a while, and now they can listen and think back to a time when they were young, ambitious, and adventurous, sowing their oats and feeling bullet proof – my era of Vegas. That’s the group of people I had in mind for this album.
RR: Were there any other driving forces that went into the making of the album?
TCM: I wanted to go back to the way we used to make music. No rules or having to follow a suggested algorithm for the “perfect” song – you know, no long-winded intros or outros, need to make it catchy quick to avoid skips over the song, all that. I didn’t want to worry about things totally out of my control, which is people’s attention span today. Honestly, the album format is a lost art or seemingly dead. If I wanted to make this a concept album, I had to find a way to connect it to where music and culture is now. The closest format to this lost art is the binge-worthy series like Stranger Things. It’s 8-12 episodes and about 45 minutes long. An album is comparably 8-12 songs and about 45 minutes to an hour long. So, I just thought that if I combined the music and production techniques used in the Vegas era with telling a narrative that had a cinematic delivery, like these Stranger Things series and similar art forms, I could create this concept album that might resonate with listeners today.
This new type of approach to making a concept album also felt like a good way to start over (after Ken’s departure). There was no wrong-doing or bad blood, or any of that nonsense when Ken left. He’s my friend, he’s healthy and happy, and I’m happy for him. Taking advantage of that good will has allowed me to continue on as TCM, focus on getting back into it and finding the best way to establish who I am as an artist now.
And, you know, there’s so many things involved with being an artist this long. People always ask me why I’m still doing this. I’m still doing this because I love it. Working on this concept album has reminded me of that.
RR: Although you are now riding solo, there were several people who you collaborated with on this record. How was that experience?
TCM: It started with my friend Glen (Nicholls) who I’ve known for a long time. He’s old-school breakbeat like myself, but he’s also very fast and not cluttered down by ego, and we get along well. He happened to be in town (L.A.) when this was all an idea, so I invited him over to hang out and played some things I was working on. He had a lot of positive feedback and was into lots of various pieces. I’m a really shy person, so opening those doors and letting people come in to hear what I’ve been working on solo is something that’s been different in this process. I’ve only ever had to share these things with Ken in the past. Not having that equal partner to share my ideas with has forced me to open up more to others and to experiment.
I understand where the scene is now. EDM is really in your face and attention-grabbing, it’s loud, fast and ferocious. Sometimes I find it’s harder to listen to outside of the environments that provide a full experience with the music. I wanted to make an album where there was a narrative story that you could listen to anywhere – kicking back relaxing, zoning out at work or in transit, or vibing out with at a party. Glen understood this vision. He was incredibly helpful with piecing all the parts together to make it the narrative I was hoping it would be, one that could be relevant during various situations for people listening.
RR: Were any of the other producers similarly aligned with this narrative?
TCM: Dylan Eiland (Le Castle Vania) also understood my idea of a narrative. I really wanted to avoid how many albums are curated now, with several producers working on one song and attempting to sequence all of these songs that were produced singularly rather than with the whole picture in mind, but it never really works. It ends up okay though for the artist because that’s how people like to consume music today. They pick one song than skip to another, it’s never about the album as a whole. So, I wanted this album to resurface the idea of each song being an extension of another to create one big picture. Both Dillon and Glen believe in the concept of an album format.
So, one day Glen and I were listening to Vegas in full for the first time in a while, and Dillon, who owns a studio in my building, came over with 16 bars of “Ghost in the City.” I immediately noticed it had this narrative format that you could imagine connecting from one song to another. It reminded me a lot of “Coming Back” on Vegas. There’s this tension built through an innocent sound that sort of drifts, doesn’t feel finished and never completes itself. I also loved the backstory of this girl realizing she wasn’t here anymore, she was a ghost, and then her anger from this realization is released through these riffs that have a Smashing Pumpkins “1979” sound to it. And then that long, beautiful outro. Amy Kirkpatrick’s voice, her presence, disappearing towards the end in the ethos and letting the song drift, blurring the lines a little as it goes into the next song. The end never feels complete, but that’s the point of it. And that’s when “Turbulence” picks up and carries on the story.
RR: How did you go about arranging the tracks to deliver your story?
TCM: I think about the album on two sides, the way it’s going to be released on vinyl in a couple weeks. Side one ends with “Carry On.” This track reminds me of sitting on a subway or train, watching the city go by and you feel yourself zoning out, just drifting. And then you get to the beginning of the next side, which would be the “Drive Inside.” This song is that moment where you’re staring at a blank page, an empty project, and the idea of moving forward seems daunting. Then you suddenly gain momentum and it’s full speed ahead into the next track, “Chapter 1.” This track went through so many versions over the past eighteen months. The “Chapter 2” version to this will be on the next album, The Trip Out.
You know, for a while, I thought about calling this album The Right Amount of Wrong because I didn’t want it to be perfect and I didn’t want any of the tracks to sound like they were produced for a specific effect or for the sake of a single. My intention was always to tell a story from beginning to end.
RR: Speaking of different versions, what made you want to rework the track “Difference” from your last self-titled album into “There’s a Difference?”
TCM: The making of the last record was interrupted by brain surgery on my benign cyst. It was worked on in total for something like two and a half years — way too much time. For me, some of tracks were just left in the oven too long. So, I really enjoyed the idea of revisiting one of those tracks and I just love Frankie’s performance so much that I knew I wanted to rework “Difference” into “There’s a Difference.” Glen and I found this bass player we really vibed with, Tony Buchen, and he came in and added some flavor to it, along with drums from Matt Chamberlain. All of this layered with Frankie’s vocals, I mean, you couldn’t imagine a better set of lyrics to do a rework with, they evoke so much passion and drive.
RR: Were there any other standout tracks for you?
TCM: Towards the end of the project I worked on “Hold on to Something” with Delila Paz from The Last Internationale, who I found out about through Tom Morello. I heard the voice in my head that I wanted on this track for so long, this very strong female voice. I grew up in the era of Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, and Heart, so I wanted to emulate that raw, genuine vocal that could be the voice of reason to pull Teflon Sega back from the edge and bring us home.
RR: Traveling, time, and distance is obviously a big theme for this album. How did you land on a title?
TCM: The title came about after coming home from a gig on the east coast at 4am and having to head straight to the airport at 6am to get back to LA. I was trying to decompress while talking to my wife and said to her, “you know, it was long, but the trip home wasn’t that bad.” I thought that sounded nice and made sense, the trip home. There’s the connection from this physical trip I had just gone through to my actual “trip” of twenty-one years from Vegas to now. It was long, but not so bad at all.
RR: Your next stop on tour is Brooklyn on Halloween. Are you excited about the event?
TCM: Oh, definitely, I have to finish getting together my Angus Young costume, but I’m excited to be back in New York. You know, I’ve always loved DJing. Since I was little I was attracted to the connection you could create with it. My favorite was playing Christmas records. I would put on Frank Sinatra and watch my grandmother all the sudden start tapping her foot and smiling. It’s that connection that people have to music and being able to create those moments for them that excites me.
It’s also so different now because it’s only me. When you’re DJing with two people it’s like you’re watching the show as much as you’re involved with putting it on. Now I can really get into it for the full set. And you can never do the same set twice. The idea of it is so tedious, I would pull my hair out. I enjoy the spontaneity of DJing, getting three or four decks going with all of my current favorite songs and then going to town. People spend the time and effort to get dressed up and come to your event to have a hell of a time and support you. It makes it easy to want to cater to them. The crowd has been great everywhere so far, but I’m really excited for Brooklyn. I’m definitely going to play some Beastie Boys.
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