photo by grace oh

Rainbow Arabia – Without You by Kompakt.

Rainbow Arabia has been signed to a techno label. Tiffany and Danny Preston sure don’t make techno, but they are making a new kind of electronic music that is not really like anything else, and that is why people will say it sounds like all kinds of things. The world is in for a futuristic look at pop music and it’s called Boys and Diamonds. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

How do you make beats?
Danny Preston (keyboards/beats): The beats on the computer—we have a sample library of tons of sounds, of actual individual percussion sounds, kicks, snares, and compile our own kits and then play them. We’re not just playing a sequencer, we’re making it from scratch. You know MPCs? A virtual MPC. We’re putting our own sounds into it and make stuff.
Tiffany Preston (guitar/vocals/beats): On our first EP it was, literally, we hit a button on Danny’s Arabic keyboard so it was like drrrrrr! So much easier.
DP: ‘Omar K’ was the name of a sound. They’re unique sounds. You don’t know where to find those 1990s Arabic keyboards. But then I moved on—that was that.
The new beats are pretty intricate. Does this make it difficult to pull off live?
TP: We play with backing tracks, so it’s easy for bass and drums. But it was complicated to make. When you have members to play with, one person is in charge of beats. It takes a lot of time when you want to change a part—
DP: —versus electronic guys. They perform and they sit there with their laptop. They know what they’re doing. They know these programs really well. They’re creating loops and manipulating them live and tweaking stuff. But it’s a different mentality. They’re just creating this energy and they’re tweaking it whereas we’re trying to deconstruct and create a new song and pattern rather than a constant driving thing. We’re trying to make some room for improvisation. Making some space in songs. Her singing, her playing guitar, me playing keyboards … it can be different every time. We play stuff that has to be performed live and trying to stick it exactly where it’s supposed to be—we’re trying to get away from that a little more with our live set.
TP: There’s still so much to do. For us, electronic music is a new thing. That was something we were trying to get across.
DP: I think people get we’re not ‘electronic artists.’ We’re this new hybrid of electronic music.
Maybe knowing less about something brings something new to the table.
TP: True. Working within your limitations can work for you.
DP: Or having less knowledge. ‘Oh, that sounds like a house techno track.’ ‘Well, what’s that? What’s dubstep?’ All these genres, I had to research what makes each genre and elements of it.
Did you figure it out? I can’t sometimes.
DP: Well, the main ones—techno, drum and bass, house … but there’s a hundred subgenres under each one. Someone has to show me the right stuff. Being on Kompakt is cool because we got to really listen to some great techno.
TP: It was awesome getting signed by a techno label. They took a risk with us because we don’t really fit on their label. Danny did a remix for Pictureplane and they really liked it. It was funny because it was kind of techno. When he was making it I was like, ‘Oh my god, I feel the bubble machines.’ They got a hold of it and asked us to do a reinterpretation of a Field song and they liked that too.
What caught their attention?
DP: ‘Blind,’ probably—that sequenced four on the floor.
TP: We started getting into straighter beats with the kick—kch kch kch. We’re still going in a pop direction. That’s where my head was.
What do you mean by writing songs now?
DP: We weren’t writing songs before. We were just going for this vibe or attitude or energy with the first two EPs. It wasn’t about the song, it was about the music. The energy and the sound more than songs. But now we’re looking at songs. Our inspiration has always been Sublime Frequencies—that attitude. It’s so awkward and punk and dancey—all this at once. That’s what we were going for. But now we’re thinking more—rewriting and coming up with more hooks.
How do you guys communicate when you’re making a song?
DP: That’s our worst times together.
TP: Usually Danny will start on a song and then when he’s at work and I’m off on a day, I’ll work on my part. Then he’ll come home—
DP: —and we’ll argue about it. We have to work together sometimes because we have to agree and compromise on things.
TP: We become a slave to the song. That happens a lot. We’ll be working on a song for so long and we just can’t trash it because we worked so long on that beat but the song’s not coming together and we’re trying to save it. So I’ll just sing whatever or do whatever and it comes out halfway decent. There’s a couple like that on the record. But a few happened quickly and naturally.
DP: ‘Without You’ was a long harsh journey. We reworked that song so many times but I knew that was a good song. She went through hell with that song. ‘Papai’ was a song and then we threw the vocals out and just jammed on it. The song in the middle that’s this dark thing … it went through so many incarnations. Then we did that end part that ended up being the coolest. It’s a journey.
TP: The reward is when it’s done, it’s finished and we can move on and wait for the critics to get bent out of shape. Do we need to change up our vibe? I feel like we’re being negative.
DP: No, we’re not—we’re kind of explaining our journey to the record. Because it was dark, right?
What do you think he’s trying to do with music? What do you think she’s trying?
TP: We have the same goals in a sense. Danny is trying to develop his skills and getting all the technology under his belt. He always has this aesthetic to his music and his playing but he’s becoming more solid at a style.
DP: She’s making it more interesting than what I would do. Making it more edgy, making it more approachable to everybody with her vocals and guitar playing. I lay down the element of the thing and she puts all the extra flavor that grabs people. The voice that makes everyone a part of what we’re doing. You’re going to be the front person in the magazine and I’m going to be in the back corner, which is how I want it to be.
Let’s say ‘MTV Unplugged’ came back into vogue—could you do these songs acoustically?
TP: I’ve thought about that. It’s kind of a bummer because we’ve become slaves to our computer. I look at those bands that can bust out their guitar and play a song. That doesn’t really work with our songs. It wouldn’t come across the same for sure.
DP: You’d have to play it differently, that’s all.
TP: But we don’t have the kind of song chord progressions in our music. It’s filled with a lot of percussion and arpeggiations and hooks, unless you have another guitar player.
DP: We’re more composers than singer-songwriters.
TP: Totally—the way we write a song is completely backwards. The vocals come last. The progression comes last where we’re worried about ‘what kind of cool sounds can we put in there that would be like a percussion sound?’
DP: Layering things—that nails it, right there. Rather than singer-songwriting ‘A SONG’ and then having a band play it, we’re composing a whole thing.
TP: It’d be really hard to do a cover. That’s a step we want to go—working on our progressions.
Do you think there’s nature in technology? Has technology become nature or natural in a way?
DP: I think there’s a naturalness to it. More so than it was because it gives you more tools and more ability to be creative. Instead of being limited you can flourish—anything can grow out of it. That’s natural—that’s spiritual because your mind can be limitless in a way. That’s what’s amazing about it. Endless possibilities what you can do with technology.
TP: The challenge is learning how to use it right.

RAINBOW ARABIA WITH SPOEK MATHAMBO PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS ON FRI., MAR. 25, AT THE ECHOPLEX, 1154 GLENDALE BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $10-$12 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. RAINBOW ARABIA’S BOYS AND DIAMONDS IS OUT NOW ON KOMPAKT. VISIT RAINBOW ARABIA AT RAINBOWARABIA.COM.