Porno for Pyros frontman Perry Farrell (left) and keyboardist Robin Hatch (right). Photo credit: Carlo Cavaluzzi.
Novation, a leading brand of electronic music tools, is pleased to announce that keyboardist/composer Robin Hatch added the Novation Peak Eight-voice Desktop Polyphonic Synthesizer to her touring setup for the Porno for Pyros Farewell Tour.
The Los Angeles-based alternative rock band, Porno For Pyros, began their farewell tour, titled Horns, Thorns en Halos, in 2024. Following a 26-year break from touring, band members Perry Farrell, Stephen Perkins and Peter DiStefano launched a 15-city tour that started on February 13 at the Observatory in Santa Ana, CA. They traveled across North America, hitting cities like Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, and New York City, among others, before concluding the tour at The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ, on March 10. Additionally, Porno for Pyros has released three new singles in recent months, its first new music in 26 years.
Handling the keyboard duties for such a monumental event was Canadian keyboardist Robin Hatch, an internationally lauded composer and highly sought-after touring keyboardist. Hatch has a resume that reads like a who’s-who of the music industry. For six years, she played in the diamond-selling Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace. Later, she spent three years in the indie band Rural Alberta Advantage (Saddle Creek Records), and the last two years in the Polaris Prize-winning hardcore punk band F*cked Up. Along the way, she has performed live with former astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield, as well as Jackson Browne, Andy Kim, Alice Phoebe Lou, The Teskey Brothers and numerous Canadian artists.
For this tour, her latest addition to her keyboard setup was a Novation Peak Eight-voice Desktop Polyphonic Synthesizer. “I was looking for a way to basically reduce my live setup and explained to the Novation folks that Peak had what I was looking for as far as a reduced digital analog synth/analog filter synthesizer, which is a particular sound, but one that I find is coming back into fashion more nowadays,” stated Hatch. “So I took the plunge and started to play around with the Peak as part of my setup, which worked out perfectly.”
For the Porno for Pyros set list, Hatch is using Peak as follows, “It's a combination of pads, sort of organic textures that are modulated,” commented Hatch. “Then for a song like Porpoise Head, I would start with a high lead, but then modulate into a bubbly, atmospheric kind of underscore of the guitars, Peter’s (DiStefano) sort of epic solos. Almost like underscoring live theater, you’re going with what they’re doing and not really necessarily showing off as much yourself, but complementing their solos in a way that is still really engaging to you as a player.”
When asked how the Novation Peak interfaces with her other instruments as far as signal flow, Hatch responded, “I am running the Launchkey as a MIDI controller into the Peak. And then I was able to take out the laptop altogether. I was running samples off an iPad into the Launchkey and routing the MIDI separately so that the pads were sending to MIDI channel one into my iPad, and then the keys were MIDI channel two into the Peak. And I found that really easy to set up, and the interface was really easy to understand. Additionally, each of my synths has a stereo out that goes into a radial Key Largo DI, that keyboard mixer DI. So I can manually adjust my monitor levels on the stage without it affecting the front-of-house.”
She continues, “I really like the way Peak has that delay feature set up that affects sort of a sample and hold, almost like a vintage Buchla synth style effect, which I find unique. I guess the notes change when you use the delay in such a way that it functions more than just a delay. And that effect, I find very unique and unlike anything I've seen on the market today. It’s a very analog sounding, professional modular sound that I don’t think you could get for that price anywhere else. Truly unique.”
Now that the tour is over, when asked what is next for Hatch, she replied, “I’m excited to start using Peak for more of my composing work. Now that I’m back at home, I’m working on podcasts and various other projects. I have an EMS Synthi on loan right now and have been starting to basically run the Peak into my Synthi to process the sounds through that. And I’ve found it an interesting marriage between newer analog digital gear and old vintage gear. I think if you were going to pull the trigger on a synthesizer, for that price point and the size, you can’t really go wrong as far as the Novation Peak is concerned. It just sounds excellent. If you look across the forums, everyone who has purchased one has talked about how frequently they use it, especially in home studio situations. And I agree 100%.”
