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| Christie (left) and Perry. Photo courtesy of Madrid. |
Duncan Christie has a message for fans of his electro-pop band Madrid. Although it has been eight years since Madrid's debut, Warm Waters, they did release an EP in 2007 titled First Message. First Message was a precursor to their recently released full length Original Message.
Christie says the time between albums is due to the fact that Madrid, which also features Adam Perry and Eric Lightfoot, chose to make the music found on their new record in a completely different way than the sounds they had previously created.
"We are definitely traveling uncharted waters in a sense that there's no formula for our music," Christie said. "So the recording process takes a lot more time. We're inventing genres and styles as we go. We're not following any kind of traditional way to make music. I think that Original Message has a wider range of influences. Warm Waters, I think was a great album because it was very singular; whereas with Original Message, we kind of opened our song writing process to all kinds of other influences."
The change in Madrid's sound influenced the band to switch labels after Warm Waters. The group started out on Aporia Records but now calls YYZ home.
"Being on Aporia for our first record was perfect," Christie explains. "We were pretty new to the game and they had a roster that was ethereal kinds of music and we fit in to that. Yet we knew that when we started working on new sounds that we had to be in the hands of someone more entrenched in the electronic scene."
In addition to making music Christie is also a prolific player in the Canadian film industry. Christie attended Humber's film program and says he is fortunate he went to Humber during the time period that he did.
"In the film course I was able to make movies on 16mm film; which was great freedom. A lot of people going to film school now don't use the same sort of old technology and learn the basics that way. I feel fortunate that I was in one of the last years that were able to truly call it a film school," Christie said.
Christie worked extensively on the cult show Kenny vs. Spenny and directed the cult film Confessions of A Porn Addict.
"I was working with some really close friends on that project" Christie said of Confessions of a Porn Addict. "Part of our shoot was in Toronto; here we had time and structure. The second half we shot in Los Angeles and the atmosphere was crazy while we were there. It was ultra-guerrilla film making. We had no real structure; we had no real support in place. It was five guys running around the San Fernando Valley chasing after these weird porn people and making a comedy at the same time so it was a ton of fun."
With all of his success in the music and film industries, Christie likens the rhythm that comes with playing music to the rhythm ones needs to edit film.
"I think there are a lot of the same sensibilities. Especially with editing, it's rhythm. It's very musical the way I approach it. I think the two definitely go hand in hand. I've been fortunate that I've never had to choose between the two careers. They just both co-exist side by side. I approach it creatively from the same place."
Out To Sea
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