The Crystal Method's Ken Jordan (Interview)

In addition to being one of the best selling electronic bands in the world, The Crystal Method is also a dedicated force for environmental good. With the help of Janine Johnson of The Green Girls, band members Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland are working hard to green up their tours and their lives. We talked with Ken Jordan about his explorations into solar power, musical collaborations, and recycling old synths.

Planet Green: So I hear you just installed a bunch of solar panels on your house?

Ken Jordan: Yeah, I have just recently installed, like 76 solar panels. I've got a mid-century modern flat roof home, and I'm on the top of a hill, so I've got a good shot to the sky. Anyway, it's up and we're having a little turning on/off the grid ceremony soon.

PG: So, it's supplemental? You're not off the grid yet?

KJ: It's the spinning backward, selling it back to DWP thing. They're estimating my power bill will go down, like, 78 percent.

PG: That's great. You know the band Cake installed solar on their studio and I believe the new album is 100% solar powered.

KJ: I had thought about that, because our studio actually could take a lot of solar panels. But, I was thinking about it and, you know, especially in L.A. in the summer you've got to keep the studios and gear cool, 24 hours a day. That would be the thing that would be really hard.

PG: Well, I used to have a studio and as you know, with the solar panels you can go with direct DC which cuts down on noise.

KJ: Yeah, that would be a true benefit, because if you had no AC current, all normal buzz is totally eliminated. I'm going to cost out the whole solarizing of the studio. That might be a thing we do in the future.

Right now I'm on just a little slow process of greening this house and doing as much as we can with the band, and all the simple things we can do as far as touring and doing stuff in the studio. We're pretty committed, learning more and more all the time.

PG: So you are in L.A. now?

KJ: We're in L.A., yeah. The band's been in L.A. pretty much since the beginning. My partner and I both grew up in Las Vegas, but we've been here for, like, 20 years.

PG: Okay. I was just wondering. I should have Ed Begley Jr. stop by your house.

KJ: You should have Ed Begley stop by the house! We met him coincidentally. We went to some event out in Joshua Tree, called Water Woman, you know, like Burning Man, but Water Woman. This event was supposed to be green builders and all that kind of stuff. Ed was there shooting his show.

PG: So, here's a non-green question, because I just, I've got to know. How was it that you got hooked up with Jason Lytle of Grandaddy?

KJ: Well, we have the same manager. That's how we knew of him. We just thought he had a really, really great quality to his voice and liked his songwriting. So we brought him over to the studio and played him some stuff. It was basically the first time we had really met. We got along great and he was really into it, and he delivered a great vocal. We really love that track.

PG: So, when you do something like that, what stands out about an artist? Do you ever hear something and think you've got to work with that person?

KJ: It's generally just a vocal quality, something unique and beautiful. The way we generally work is we have tracks pretty much finished or to a point where they're ready for a vocal and then we'll decide, this would sound great with this or with that kind of voice. And then, we reach out to people and see if they're up for it.

PG: How does what's going on around you, in your life, and in the world affect the evolution of what comes through when you're creating an album?

KJ: You know, we're not so lyrically driven. And most of our collaborations with vocalists [they] are writing the lyrics. On our next album, though, I'm going to start funneling some of my frustration with the world in some of the lyrics. But, I think for the most part, outside of a general hard, tough, sort of angry sound that we have, that doesn't come through lyrically from us. But, having said that, yeah, we're both very aware and concerned about what's going on and are very passionate about what is going on in the world.

PG: So, do you guys ever recycle or reclaim gear, like, synths?

KJ : Well, we pretty much never get rid of them. We have a lot of old analog synths and we never get rid of any of those. We buy used ones and use them forever. But, for touring live, my partner Scott has was basically breaking a keyboard a night. We were using old DX7 II's which, you know, hadn't been made for a while.

So, we were in a constant search of buying up old ones. I think the Nine Inch Nails guy was doing the same thing too. So, we have a ton of old DX7 II's in various forms. You know, most of them have got something taken out. And some are just keyboards, just the keys. Some are just a whole bunch of empty shells. Our keyboard tech would have to basically make new ones every night on the road. So, we did a lot of DX7 II recycling.

But for the most part, we don't buy too many new. We're still in search for a Roland Jupiter 8.

PG: Oh, yeah?

KJ: That's the only one we're after right now.

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