In my teens, during the last days of electro, I used to sneak out with a disastrous fake ID to go to Club Bang, an 18+ establishment that all the asymmetrically haired scenester’s would converge at. It was here that I first saw [Ladytron](https://www.instagram.com/ladytron/) DJ. I was already well versed with the band’s evolution from the aesthetic descendance of Kraftwerk with their uniform looks and Vidal Sassoon mops, stoically standing behind giant synths in the era of their first 2 albums _604_ and _Light & Magic_. It was with their breakthrough album _Witching Hour,_ when I had the chance to experience there set up with live instrumentations and the dreamy complexities of new wave, live drums and guitars. After various compilations and remix albums and the continuous acclaim of _Velocifero_ and _Gravity the Seducer_. The band took a hiatus focusing on their personal crafts.
This time apart has allowed Mira Aroyo, Daniel Hunt, Helen Marnie, and Reuben Wu to explore the creative process as individuals. Each taking on solo projects and collaborating with others, Helen released work under the moniker [Marnie](https://www.instagram.com/helenmarnie/), Aroyo produced documentaries, Hunt produced music for other bands and Reuben Wu has found success establishing his name as a fine art photographer. Though many of their contemporaries fell short of releasing works beyond the electroclash movement, February marked their comeback after 7 years with a new self-titled album and darker sound that is still as Ladytron as ever. With hard hitting tracks and grim lyrics the album works as the perfect reflection of what is going on with the world right now. In a moment between touring we caught up with Wu to chat about the band as well as his new upcoming show at [AIPAD](https://www.aipadshow.com/).
**How’s your touring been going? You guys were in Mexico City and you took the photos I can’t wait to see.**
Yes. We did Mexico and then over to LA -- two shows in LA and two shows in San Diego. That was about three weeks ago.
**I really love that all of you have had different professions and work that you’ve done outside of music. How did you find yourself coming back to music after a break?**
Well it was quite a long time. It was seven years of not doing collaborative band stuff. So it was quite refreshing, I think. By 2011, after we had done five studio albums back-to-back, I think we were all pretty tired. We definitely needed to recharge our creative batteries and pursue our own personal projects. We didn’t really intend for it to be this long. But we always knew that we were going to make a new album. I think with us living in different countries now, more than ever, it’s a bit harder for us to get all our ducks in a row and make a new record. It’s definitely exciting to get back into it.
**What was your history with photography? Was it something you really worked on during the initial time with the first five albums, or was it something more developed?**
I actually started out, before I was in the band, I was doing a lot of drawing. And that was my creative thing, as well as music. As we were touring -- because we were touring all over the place, and we were super busy traveling all the time and playing shows -- I realized that I just didn’t have the time to capture and document everything. So I decided to pick up my camera and use that. It began as a tour diary of places we traveled to. Because we toured really amazing places, everywhere from Australia to Hawaii, Mexico, Russia, China. We really went everywhere. So, it was a way of documenting my travels. Then it became more and more involved over time. And it got to the point where I suppose, as we started to take a break with the band, I was getting a lot more interested in photography. I knew that that was the path that I wanted to explore, for the next few years. But, I didn’t give up on music or anything. I didn’t, like, stop making music. I actually started doing music for commercial areas. So, I did some music for GE, and sort of their “cool” social spots, and a few other things. In some cases I mixed photo and video with music. So it was almost like three disciplines which are closely linked, but are never done by one person. It’s always done by two or three people. I was able to do all three, just as one. It allowed me an amount of control which I didn’t have before, which I felt really liberating. It’s quite an involved process, but I really enjoy it.
**And you were actually involved in creating the most recent album’s cover work. I feel like that’s something I really notice about your band’s development, which I really love. The graphics and aesthetics are always changing. Was that on purpose, or did you feel like you grew into more of a different way of viewing the band’s style and design?**
I don’t think there was any kind of overarching direction for how the albums, how the aesthetic or the message of the albums, progressed. I don’t think we see it in that way. It’s more, every album, as the next thing that we do -- We definitely want each album to have its own identity. We have no interest in repeating ourselves. But I think for this one, this album is different because we’ve had such a long time to explore different areas of our lives and to live in different parts of the world. And, we’ve been able to live our lives without being involved with the band and touring. I think we tackled this one. The vision behind this album is the strongest then we’ve ever had before. We’ve just had enough time to not be in a band. It’s kind of funny saying that. We were making an album every two or three years when we were busy making a lot of albums. We were playing, making albums, and touring. Had a bit of a break then start over again - was definitely a cycle. This one feels stronger because we’ve had that much time to explore people around us and be away from the band.
**How much has live instrumentation taken a part of the creative process for you guys?**
It started pretty early, when we started out as a new band we didn’t have any live aspect. We were just playing things off the tape. On some shows the synthesizers were not even plugged in.
**At what point did you place live instrumentation in your performances and live albums? Was it super analogue when you toured the states for _Witching Hour_?**
I’m talking really early on before we even started playing in the USA. By the time we started playing in the USA we had a drummer, we had a bass player. We were live then. Pretty early on we made the step from being a studio band to a live band and since then its actually become a huge influence in how we make the music in the studio and how we make the music and how we compose music.
The first album that really had an impact on us was _Witching Hour_. It has a lot more of a live sound to it. Since then, the live aspect is something we always think about in our studio sets.
**What type of gear do you use, what cameras?**
Of the ones I sent to you there are a lot of Polaroids, which I shoot with original Polaroid stock. Some of it is 35MM. I take a lot of pictures of the crowds so there are a few of the crowds that we’ve played at. Some of them are from... For example when we went to a South American tour, and before that I decided I wanted to go to Chile and basically did a road trip and just take pictures. So for a week or so I got on a bus and went to the Atacama Desert - the driest place on Earth.
Photo by Reuben Wu
**This photo is insane looking.**
Thanks, it’s a really incredible place. It’s almost as if being in a band was my passport. At that point I was getting a lot more into photography and the gear I was using was a lot more sophisticated. Since then it’s been my full time thing. Quite an interesting ride.
**Do your bandmates interact with your photographic work at all? I see a few photos of the girls in the band. Do you guys collaborate in a photographic sense.**
Not really, I definitely see my photography as almost like a solo project, for me. I think from being in the band for such a long time and working collaboratively, you know doing work that only I was responsible for was kind of refreshing. I do like to keep band stuff and photo stuff separate, apart from what I’m doing like the artwork, things like that. Yeah, It’s almost like having two jobs.
**Which gallery are you with?**
I’m represented by a gallery in New Mexico called [Photo-Eye](https://www.photoeye.com/gallery/) and I have commercial representatives who are based in LA, and my next show is actually going to be in New York.
**It’s going to be on the third and fourth of April? Is there a specific kind of work you are focusing on.**
Yeah, there’s one series called Aeroglyphs, which is landscape photos with shapes drawn by drones. So, I go out to the desert and I fly a drone over with lights on it, and it's almost like being able to interact with the landscape rather than just taking a picture of the landscape. I wanted to do something which is beyond just a pretty picture of a landscape
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**I’m looking at some of these, these are amazing. Is this from the series that's called “Over Water,”? That’s amazing these are really cool. It’s amazing that you were able to get the line so precise from the drones.**
Yeah, if there’s any wind then it's pretty difficult. It's difficult to do it, I have to do many different tries and there's a lot of other kind of factors that need to be considered as well.
**And how did you get involved with the use of drones?**
I think I just always wanted a flying camera. From when I was a little boy, I was dreaming of a camera that could fly. So I bought one and started working with a drone company making content for them. And then, I just continued and started working with mounting lights on the drones so that series was really well received by the press. So there's been a lot of interesting phases.
**Are you familiar with** [**Studio Drift**](http://www.studiodrift.com)**, they showed at Art Basel Miami a few years ago.**
Oh yeah, I know that one. That was amazing, it looked like a flock of birds, flying. It was amazing. That was really cool. I love that stuff.
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Ruben Wu will present his new work with Photo Eye Gallery presented by [AIPAD](https://www.aipadshow.com/) April 4 - 7, 2019
Opening Preview: April 3, 2019 Pier 94 New York City
