The latter half of 2009 will be coated with The Crystal Method. Two pioneers since the inception of big beat electronic music, Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan are set to release an album of new material this May, and have a full schedule of touring ahead of them. Before their sweltering Friday night set at Coachella, Crystal Method talked to MetroWize about the jitters, their new album Divided By Night, and doing karaoke.

MetroWize: Is Coachella the first big show of your tour?

Scott Kirkland: We just came in from Pataluma on a bus. It’s north of Frisco. We did a show on Wednesday night. —It was the warm up show. It was our first live show in five years. This is our second live show. We’ve been DJing around but haven’t done live in a long time.

MW: What does “live” entail?

Ken Jordan: We’ve got synths and samplers and a bunch of gear with us on stage. We’re going to try and execute the songs in all their glory but bring some madness to it.
SK: We usually play live when we’re supporting full lengths, and we seem to have all these other projects between our full lengths, so it takes us a while to focus in and put them out. The live has always been about faithfully playing all our own material. Us as a cover band just doesn’t work out.

MW: Have you tried playing any covers?

KJ: I think we should pick one big cover to do on the big tour. “Feeling Hot Tonight” or something like that! [We hope he means “Feeling Hot” by David Coverdale.] Wait, there’d be singing involved, hold on…

MW: Are you karaoke fans?

KJ: No, but, I think I’d do it at home. I would do it at home in privacy. No one could watch. Maybe…no. But, then again, it can be more a drunken party event.

MW: What was it like being back on instruments in front of an audience?

KJ: It felt good! It felt like everyone was there to see our songs, and we were there to only play our songs. It’s a real different feeling from DJing. DJing is fun but it’s great to play live.

MW: Do you find a lot changed with equipment and production styles over the last 5 years?

SK: Oh god!
KJ: Everything we’re touring with now is like completely different from how we toured five years ago. So that’s totally new and different and that is also challenging and exciting. The biggest change that we’ve had is in the studio. We changed from one system to another. We went from Digital Performer to ProTools. But live we’re going with Ableton Live. It’s all new and interesting stuff going on.

MW: How did you prepare for your Coachella performance?

SK: Doing the big show so early on in the tour cycle has been a challenge, because playing to Coachella is a much different energy than playing anywhere else. There’s a limited amount of time to put together a set that’s going to be good enough to blow that whole thing apart and leave everybody feeling satisfied not only with our show but overall with the whole Coachella Friday. We’ve put a lot of energy into redoing the classic stuff, reworking some of the old magic into today’s flavor. Just wanting to get it all right and getting reacquainted with the gear. There’s a little bit of stress, a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of happiness to be back out and doing it. Overall, at 12:30 tonight I think we’ll be able to reflect and piece everything together. Maybe…maybe not ‘til tomorrow morning.