Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest news from Uncut From the Korean Demilitarized Zone to earthquake-hit Mexico City, Unknown Mortal Orchestra recorded their ambitious new album Sex & Food in some perilous locations – and lived to tell the tale. Tom Pinnock joins creative m...
There’s no shortage of food in Madrid, of course, but vegan dishes are harder to come by, so Nielson and Uncut head to La Colonial De Huertas, a Cuban-Spanish restaurant near the Prado, for pastel de verduras. Over glasses of Mahou – “My new session beer,” says Ruban – talk turns to the current state of America, echoed in Sex & Food’s more dystopian moods. Nielson explains that as a response to the shock of Trump’s election win, and tipped off by a reference in Adam Curtis’s Hypernormalisation, he began reading the Strugatsky brothers’ Soviet sci-fi novels, notably Roadside Picnic.
“Being in America, it just feels nuts there,” he says. “It feels impossible to tell exactly what’s going on, and it’s getting worse. So I think trying to escape that every now and then is really important. It can be creatively inspiring, but you have to read the Strugatsky brothers and think about it as some science-fiction nightmare.”
“Sick of fake democracies,” the singer murmurs, resigned, on “Ministry Of Alienation”. “Can’t escape the 20th century/Handing in my resignation/The ministry of alienation…” But Ruban has a lot to keep him occupied before 2020: in particular, the gigs UMO have planned for this year, uniting the core studio trio for their first full tour.
“I had a meltdown last New Year’s Eve,” Ruban explains. “I got really drunk and wandered around the streets by myself, thinking, ‘I’m gonna stop doing this band, there’s no reason to do it – just because I’ve had some success doesn’t mean I should keep doing it.’ But I woke up the next morning and thought, ‘I should get Kody back in the live band…’ And I started building the band around the idea of having Kody back in.”
“We’re older now,” says Kody, “and I guess I’ve grown up a lot since we were last touring together. It’s not as nuts as it was before.”
After a shot of Arecha Punch Au Rhum, Nielson is on his way to the airport, heading to Brussels. He’s leaving his favourite painting once again, but no doubt they’ll be reunited soon. In the meantime, the guitarist is positive about his next moves.
“Kody and I have these demons in our family,” he explains, “and I thought if we could work through stuff by having a successful year of touring together, then it might give me a reason to go out and play. He’s always been my favourite drummer, since we were kids.
“With the fact that there’s some tension between us, we’re always gonna make better music together than we can apart. If we have a success this year, I want to be able to look at Kody and say, ‘We did it.’”