ROUND MEN ALTOGETHER

He’s soaking up the sun on a continental beach when I speak to him, but you can’t blame Phil Hartnoll for cramming in as much relaxation time as possible. The Orbital man has a busy few months ahead of him. Since he and brother Paul decided to reform their seminal dance/electronica act for a spin around the live circuit, it’s been full steam ahead. What’s more, he’s relishing the prospect of playing to an Irish crowd for the first time in years at Electric Picnic.

“I’ve heard so much about it,” he enthuses. “I reckon it’s gonna be one of the highlights of this year for me. And I love coming over there. We get such a warm welcome.”
The Hartnoll brothers’ decision to reform for the first time since 2005 came as a shock to many. Although megabuck offers came through during that period, it wasn’t until the organisers of UK festival The Big Chill threw their cap into the ring that it felt right to regroup. One gig turned into 28. And now the pair have even added dates in South America this winter.
“I know my brother missed it a lot,” Phil says of their decision to split. “But he’s always had this burning ambition to work with an orchestra. So I told him to go off and do it on his own, and he went away and did it (releasing his solo album The Ideal Condition in 2007). I don’t wanna sound spoiled. When you get into the cycle of tour/album/tour/album, you start losing your way a little bit. All you’re doing is living in the future. You’ll be touring all your new stuff, but while you’re doing that, you’re thinking ‘What’s next, what’s next? We gotta start a new album now…’ We were in a brilliant position. However, it gets to a point where you start questioning what you’re actually doing it for. You never get to actually enjoy the present. Which is what we’re all about this time.”
This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the duo’s first single, the timeless ‘Chime’, which was also a deciding factor in their reunion. Needless to say, things have changed quite a bit over the past two decades.
“Do I feel old? No, I stopped feeling old after about 25, I think I gave up on that one,” he says with a howl of laughter. “No, it has changed, definitely. I’ve got my mates bringing their kids to see us now. I’ve got 19-year-olds coming up and saying ‘Aww yeah, I like this track. My mum played this one when she was giving birth to me!’ That’s lovely, innit? My mum played ‘Belfast’, when she was giving birth! Fucking brilliant!”
The ‘digital versus analogue’ debate is one that could run and run. Returning after a lengthy sabbatical meant that Orbital had to rejig their set-up. They’ve replaced their digital synthesisers with analogue ones, giving some of their songs a “fatter, more unruly” sound. Phil also talks excitedly about the new sequencers (a panel of buttons that can be pre-programmed with the sound of various instruments and samples) they’re using, giving them more freedom to read the crowd and gauge their reactions. What’s more, they’ve even had new lightweight glasses made for them, which means that the days of heavy-duty Maglite torches strapped to frames with gaffer tape are over.
“They weighed a ton, so we had sore noses like boxers every time we came off stage from jumping up and down, but now we’ve got these posh ones, we’ve gone all lightweight and dynamic,” he laughs. “Yeah, we’ve changed the whole brain of the way we play live, which was a bit of a risk at the time, because we didn’t know whether it’d work. We only had about four months to sort it all out, but luckily enough, the gamble paid off. It looks a bit weird, because you’ve got keyboards on stage beside you but they’re not actually being played, they’re getting information from the panel to play whatever sequence you’ve programmed in there. You can manipulate the sound as it’s going in, too, so there’s a real element of playing with the instruments and the sound, and you’ve got your mixing-desk in front of you as well, which means you can introduce all your effects. So there’s a lot going on, and even moreso now that we’ve updated it.”
Perhaps one of the biggest factors that makes Orbital’s performances legendary is their willingness to connect with their audience, rather than be methodical about playing their music. With no immediate plans to work on new material, the Hartnolls are focussing all of their energy on creating a live show for their fans to remember.
“For us, it’s not an ‘us and them’, it’s an all-encompassing ‘us’, with arms open, dragging the audience in,” he says. “You’ve got to allow for the element of chance, and randomness and mistakes. I don’t wanna sound corny, but the connection with people is the important thing. I can earmark a few great gigs here and there, but if it happens that I come off stage and go ‘Oh, that was fantastic’, it’s usually not the place, it’s the people. And that’s why I’m looking forward to coming to Ireland, because every time we’ve been over there it’s been wicked, one of the best audiences we could ask for. So you lot better not disappoint us!”