Fission accomplished

>> Permission to board Nuclear Ramjet's spaceport granted

by KRISTA

Space: the final frontier. Scientists have been trying for half a century to figure out a way to get us there on at least a semi-permanent basis, to no avail. Enter Nuclear Ramjet, local electronic music trio, specializing in uptempo, tripped-out soundscapes likened to psy-tech trance. They seem to have broken the sound barrier, so to speak, and created a way for humans to reach the great nothing with only the aid of their latest album, Music for Spaceports. And all one needs to make the journey to the outer limits is an open mind. Montrealers will have their opportunity to take the trip this Friday when Nuclear Ramjet's Felix Antoine Richer and Max Chapados will recreate their album live on stage at Sona (Nivoc, the third NR collaborator, will DJ a set afterwards). The Mirror queried Felix about Ramjet's purpose and just how close to space they want to get.



Mirror: Where does the name of the group come from? What is a Nuclear Ramjet?

Felix Antoine Richer: It is actually a bastardization of something from a book by Carl Sagan. In the book there was a space station called something-Ramjet, and I liked it, but I changed it to Nuclear Ramjet. I just like the way it sounds, it seems fitting for the kind of music that we produce.

M: Would you say that a fair bit of the group's inspiration comes from things having to do with outer space?

FAR: Definitely. Though it's more to do with films, or the ideas associated with space science fiction. I am certainly influenced by films like 2001 or films having to do with the atomic age. It's the idea of being so close to a machine or being inside a machine for a long period time, like you would if you were living on a space station. I think the music we make is the perfect thing to listen to on a long journey when you have nothing to do but think--say, if you were going into space.

Plugging in

M: I know you guys are a bit averse to using the term trance, so what do you want to call the music you make?

FAR: There are certainly trance elements there, but it's not the same as the kinds of things you hear today that are called trance music. That term has been overused to the point where calling what we do trance would confuse people, make them think it is something it isn't.

M: What then would be a fitting description?

FAR: It's more like, "What is techno?" Techno is technological music, right? So what we make, then, is techno. And our sound is very cinematic. We always create in layers, using many elements, so that if you took away one or another of the elements there would still be a song there. I want people who listen to our music to hear all of that, I want them to listen to a song and be taken somewhere either inside the music or just to another place in their mind. I guess that's where the "trance" part comes in.

M: So you make tunes with a specific intention for specific people?

FAR: Not necessarily. I think people who are able to not worry about labelling music and just let themselves get into it, in the sense of in their mind in general, will appreciate music more. But personally, when I'm sitting for hours in front of this huge console, this great mass of machinery, I think a lot about other people who work in a similar manner, like computer programmers or people who are really connected to their machinery, like I am, and what they would want to hear.

Zero-G cabin fever

M: What's the Nuclear Ramjet group dynamic? Of the three members, who's the main man?

FAR: Production-wise, it's really 50-50 between Max and myself. We each have things that we are good at individually, and when we come together to build something we generally round each other out. Nivoc comes to us with ideas from things he's DJing at the time or that he has heard. It's not always easy coming together on a particular concept--we have been working together for a long time and there have been moments when we each wanted to leave. It has been a bit like being on a spaceship for three years with only two other people. There's something military about it--you have to keep your emotions in check and think about what's really important.

M: Are you a spiritual guy?

FAR: I like to think that I try. It is kind of important to me. Not really in a religious sense, but I'm curious about things--I think I'm looking to find that level or place that some people are looking for. Sometimes I experience what I think might be that inner peace for, like, a moment, and I want to put that in the music as well.

With Felix Da Housecat, Cash Money, Nivoc and Mark Scayfe at Sona on Friday, April 20, 11pm, $20