Issue 14
Liverpool
By Alex ZamoraPhotography By Rebecca Miller
Ladytron
Formed in 1999, in their own isolated pocket away from the traditional guitar bands of the city, Ladytron has emerged as one of Liverpool’s most internationally recognized names in music, touring extensively around the globe.
Having neatly sidestepped the death of the Electroclash movement, which had embraced and championed their distinctive electronic sound, Ladytron returned to prominence in 2005 with Witching Hour, an album chronicling their evolution into a richer and fuller sound. While their beloved synths remain uncompromised, the incorporation of guitars and drums has seen the band shift from blips and beeps to the peripheries of rock, producing some of their most commercially successful work on the way.
A visible marker of their renewed success, the band’s touring duties have come to dominate their schedules for the past two years including a recent opening for Nine Inch Nails around Europe at the personal invitation of Trent Reznor, but it’s their ever-increasing U.S. following that sets them apart from their British contemporaries.
“The U.S. is probably the closest thing to home for us,” says Daniel Hunt, who makes up the quartet alongside Rueben Wu, Mira Aroyo and Helen Marnie. “The more we play there, the bigger the shows get. Some bands go over there; they play New York, L.A. and Chicago and think they’ve toured the states. They come back patting themselves on the back.” Instead, Ladytron opts for the harder approach, taking in city after city with gusto. “We’ve struck a chord with kids over there,” explains Wu. “I think they see us as quintessentially British.”
When not on tour Aroyo and Marnie spend their time in London while Hunt and Wu reside in Liverpool, overseeing the running of Korova, a bar, kitchen and music space inspired by the band’s long-running Evol club-night and designed in collaboration with Liverpool graphics studio BURNEVERYTHING. A haven for the city’s less commercial club-nights, Korova has established itself as a main player on the city’s music scene.
“We mostly operate hands-off now because we’re on tour a lot of the time,” says Wu. “So we can only advise on which bands to put on. When it comes down to what should be on the menu, it’s quite interesting to get involved, even with stuff like flyer and poster design.”