Empires in Orbit is the encompassing project of multi-instrumentalist Gary Mann. Every release from Empires in Orbit is all about creating their own world to live in but still keeps true to the rules that Gary sets for each world. The beautiful part of Empires in Orbit’s music is that each world created is a blank canvas that provides the listener with a color pallet to imagine anything that they’d like.
This is especially true in the release “Ghosts of Veronica Mars” off of the ‘Rave of the Damned’ album, this ambient synth of an experience is full of good vibes with a flair of mystery all while keeping an uptempo groove that can send any dance floor into a vivid party. The sound design work of Empires in Orbit really shines in “Ghosts of Veronica Mars”, every element is crafted to perfectly sculpt to fit in Gary’s vision on the rules of that world created. From the ambient pads to the energetic high lead synths to the designed drum elements to the techno groove, this is a release that will take your mind to another world.
Travel the galaxy with “Ghosts of Veronica Mars” here.
Hey there Empires in Orbit! Welcome to BuzzMusic! We loved getting lost in the world of “Ghosts of Veronica Mars”! What was the initial inspiration behind coming up with this release? What story does it carry with you?
Well hello and happy quarantine! My previous two albums are very different and I wanted this record to be more fun. I always default to dreary and melancholic sounding melodies so this time...no no...time for weird dance music. Every song is a reference to different John Carpenter movies and this is a marriage of that and the Kristen bell classic Veronica Mars. It’s stupid but it’s fun too. There’s not a huge back story to this song really, I just didn’t want to get as deep with a plot like my previous record “Doom City Limits”. Let loose and write some crazy sounding shit.
The synths of this release are super dreamy and work well with the detailed drum grooves you created. How were these sounds created? What kinds of synths did you use for this record?
This whole record was my first attempt at programming everything. That was this records challenge...no guitars or physical instruments to lean on...just figure out how to find the sounds I want and paint the picture that way. I come from a heavy metal background so in my solo Empires in Orbit stuff I always find myself defaulting to guitar and acoustic drums. This time I decided on “Rave of the Damned” I needed to commit to writing how Deadmau5 does and deal with it! I’m not deadmau5 but I believe I honored his style of writing.
We love it when artists branch out to create new worlds in their music, what does your writing process look like? Do you ever turn an ambient synth jam into full songs?
It’s completely different every full length. The only constant is that I start out with making rules and I try super hard to not break them while writing and recording. Rave had to be created all within the software. No synths or guitars or theremin...just grinding away at digital details. I really wanted to make the beats unique too. Veronica is probably the most conventional beat on the record but it’s still something I created from scratch and not a stock DAW beat. It’s not jazz fancy but I like that nothing is totally from a can. I loooooooove ambient synth and think that’s partially where I’m going in a future release. Enya and Hammock are two of my top listened to artists and it’s time I figure out what I sound like in that arena.
Each release of ‘Rave of the Damned’ takes us to a whole new world, was this something you had in mind during the album creation or did it happen naturally as you created each song? Is there a story that flows from each song?
The “plot” of the record is shouting out my favorite movie director John Carpenter but that’s kinda the only consistent theme. I kinda just went for it with this one...ha. Find a cool noise or a weird beat and make it work. I had 19-20 songs to choose from and these seemed to fit the best. I’ll probably release some kind of EP or B-side with some of the leftovers but we’ll see. I’m hoping that there’s a song for everyone on the album somewhere in there. There’s stuff on there for ravers, oddballs, gamers, and every electronic fan in between.
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