The Aliens (John Maclean) Interview

The Aliens just released their second album Luna. By all standards it's an psychedelic tour-de-force. We had a privilege to have a short chat with one of the aliens himself, mr. John Maclean!

After releasing an amazing debut album "Astronomy for Dogs", the Aliens are back with the new album. So "Luna" is your second album. Has it been traditionally difficult?

No, I think the second album is only difficult for bands that only have 10 songs. Gordon has enough for many albums. We recorded the second album in a house in Scotland, so very relaxing apart from the arguments about who should do the washing up

After listening to "Luna" for couple of times we noticed that it works brilliantly as a whole. It's a true psychedelic epic. Where did you draw inspiration for "Luna" and is it in a small way a concept album?

It is, we tried to make a journey, and one song flowing into another, so no a very grand concept, & not just one song plonked after another. "Luna" sometimes sounds like there are 30 people playing it. How do you plan to pull that one live?

With great difficulty, but we're working on it now

2 albums are now behind you. Do you reckon that being in "Beta Band" and "Lone Pigeon" has been a blessing or a curse for "The Aliens"?

Probably a blessing, I'm proud of The Beta Band, so it's not a bad heritage What is your opinion on all the release schemes going around these days (Radiohead, NIN)? Do you think the future of music is online or that these are just clever marketing plots that work in a certain moment?

At the moment all we've had are clever marketing plots from other bands. We're working with boffins to make very high 24 bit downloadable files of our album, which actually makes the music sound better, don't think it will halt free downloading, that battle is lost

Thanks,
John Maclean (THE ALIENS)

kris // 02/10/2008