The Ultrasonics are an electropop group from the UK. James, Jon, Cliff and Johanna launched their band in 2007, spending their formative year primarily performing. Notable influences can be heard every where from 80's electrosynth rock to mdoern day pop. The band's first single Perfect Girl will be released tomorrow, August 25, 2008.


We've recently become great admirers of The Ultrasonics and their brand of music, so we were thrilled to have the opportunity to pick their brains a bit. Let's roll!

We're big fans of The Ultrasonics, but our readers might not be familiar with your brand of powerful electropop. How did the four of you meet and/or come to the point where you decided "this is what we want to do"?
James: We formed The Ultrasonics a couple of years ago. James, Cliff and myself were really keen on the idea of starting a new project with an retro, ‘80s electropop sound. We were looking for the right singer to front the band and came across some demo tracks Johanna had recorded. We knew straight away that she was perfect for the band. So we approached her and it seemed that everyone had the same focus and sound in mind – it was a perfect match.

Johanna: When we met I knew this would be a big success and a year on here we are!


Did you have musical roots growing up?
Johanna: I started dancing at the age of three and continued to have a great career travelling all over the world with various shows. Music was always something I wanted to do so moved to London to fulfill that dream.

James: I’ve been working with music for as long as I can remember. I remember sitting down at the piano when I was about five and coming up with all sorts of melodies and ideas. Music has always been a big love of mine. I started off with producing am now focusing a lot more on songwriting. Each songs we write in the band has a very “pop” sound and each one has its own story to tell. A lot of them are quite quirky.

Johanna: The Ultrasonics music is great fun and I knew I could add some of my attitude to make it our statement sound.


Here in the States, there's been brief blips about The Ultrasonics. However, in London/UK, your following seems to be very dedicated with a niche group. How do you break out and plan to make the world aware of your music?
Johanna: We are very pleased with the fan base we have. The more people that spread the word, the more people can find out about us, and that’s great. Of course we would love it to become familiar with people on a larger scale!


What are your ultimate goals with your music career? Is it important to become instantly recognizable or is longevity key?
Johanna: We want to be known as a band with a long shelf life. We have a lot of strong songs that we hope to let the world hear.


Your debut single, Perfect Girl, will be released this Monday, August 25. It's an absolutely fabulously constructed and arranged piece of music, but is there a story behind it? The lyrics seems to suggest someone got burned, no?
James: Perfect Girl was such a fun song to work on. It started as a simple idea which kind of developed itself. As you listen to Jo singing it, you can hear the story starting to unfold.

Johanna: I think it’s a song that a lot of people can relate to as well, where you really like somebody and you think they like you but you find out they have someone else and you “just want to be that girl” that he likes!


How do you approach and pick those to remix your songs: Is it the artist, the song, or how much they're able to leave a distinct branding on the track? You've got great remixers on your single, including Marsheaux and Parralox!
James: Well with this single, a lot of the acts who have done remixes are also influenced by similar bands from the ‘80s, like The Human League, Depeche Mode and Eurythmics. The remixers we chose are all big up-and-coming groups in the electropop circuit, and have had some good support from press like Electronically Yours. It’s definitely important that each act does their own thing with the song and makes it their own, and it was great hearing their interpretations of Perfect Girl. We’re really pleased with the remix package.


Johanna seems to be the face of the group, but there are 3 super talented guys backing her up in Cliff, James and Jon. Is this by design that we only really ever see pictures of Johanna? Does this ever pose problems within the dynamic of the group?
Johanna: It’s never been a problem within the group. Everyone now knows me as the face of The Ultrasonics.

James: We couldn’t ask for a better front girl for the group so of course we’ve got no problem with her being the main focus.

Johanna: It would be good to get a group photoshoot done too, so people can see the other talent behind the band!

Many thanks to The Ultrasonics for making the time to have a chat with us. Buy their debut single, Perfect Girl, here.