MASCHINE

Michael Haifl16. November 2016

Interview mit Luke Machin

Die Herrschaften von MASCHINE sind alles Absolventen des ´Brighton Institute of Modern Music´ und haben trotz oder aufgrund einiger Umbesetzungen ein tolles zweites Album im Stile des Modern Prog auf den Markt gebracht.

Ein Interview mit Mastermind Luke Machin stand also auf unserer Agenda. Im englischen Originalwortlaut. Bitte sehr:

What a year… First the Brexit and now The Donald. Do you see a silver lining between the clouds except your new album?

It’s hard to tell to be honest. I tend to not get caught up in the whole world of politics as it can really be a drag and derail my train of thought.

Do you think the Brexit can still be avoided in any way?

I think it will happen but not as forceful as people may think it will. I hope it won’t.

Your new album will be out on November 18th. How big is your excitement?

Yes, hugely excited for the release! I have been working for a very long time on this album and I’m extremely happy with the way it turned out. I can’t wait for people to hear it and get the good vibes I had creating it.

You have great new band members. How did it come?

Firstly, we needed to audition a new drummer so we had a bunch of guys come down and play with us. James was the outstanding musician from the bunch and just fit straight into what we were doing. James is an incredibly versatile drummer, he understands all the different genres and sections within our music so it’s great that I can trust him with whatever I compose.

All the band including the two new members (James & Marie) are all from ´Brighton Institute of Modern Music´ which is the music college where we all studied. After my degree I joined the house band for BIMM and Marie was a student of the class I was playing for. I heard her sing in the class a few times and was blown away by her tone and compositions. I then found out she played piano and flute also, so we met up a few times and she came to a few MASCHINE concerts and when our previous keys/vocalist left I immediately asked her if she would like to be a member of the band and we went from there.

Was this the reason why it took you three years to come up with the second album?

No, I had a brief health issue that held me back from singing on the album so I had to recover and get my voice back into shape before recording. This pushed the album back a year more than expected but it was a blessing in disguise as it gave me an opportunity to really fine tune everything I needed to on the album.

How much did your own studio improve your skills as a producer?

I’ve been heavily immersed in the world of production for a few years now and been trying to improve all the time and to have MASCHINE as a kind of ‘test subject’ has been great. I could try out all the different things i’ve learnt and wanted to test out. Watching and listening to many online tutorials and trying them out for myself with my own music has been great fun, hard work but great fun!

Your technical abilities have also increased, haven’t they?

I think when playing instruments, producing or composing music constantly you are always going to improve so I guess my technical abilities have improved as well. Recently, I tend not to lean towards the technical but more toward the tasteful.

If it’s tasteful and fits best with the song I’ll be more inclined to like it. I guess now and then I would let off some steam jamming/shredding over some backing tracks but when it’s serious business it’s all about the song.

Did you change your method of songwriting with the new members?

I didn’t really change my methods as such but I had more scope to work from as both new members have brought lots of new elements to the band with their influences and abilities. For example with James I don’t have to hold back on my writing style for coming up with drum parts. If I want to write a technically demanding drum pattern then I can because I know James can handle it.

Your sound is not so vintage compared to other progrock groups. A conscious decision?

We like to create fresh, new music but still have a framework of the vintage progressive rock groups at our core.

We don’t see the point in repeating the past but creating the future. We get inspiration from everywhere, to electronic music, to metal, to Indie. It really doesn’t matter what style it is, if it sounds good it’s good. There’s bad metal music and there’s good, you’ve just got to understand what’s right for you and we like to take the same feeling that we get from what good music we hear, fusing it together to create something new and fresh.

What can you tell us about the lyrical concept?

´Naturalis´ is a loosely based concept album about natural events. The first encounter that snowballed this concept off was the Japanese 2011 Tsunami and hearing the stories, watching the news that affecting thousands of people. It’s something that really interested me those human emotional journey’s that some people experience and have to go through. It’s such a strong, personable subject matter that I had to write about it.

Who is the luminous figure in today’s prog world?

There are a few in my opinion. True pioneers in the progressive world are in my opinion people who progress, push forward with their ideas, always come up with fresh, innovative music and never cease to move the boundaries. People such as Francis Dunnery (It Bites), Daniel Gildenlow (Pain Of Salvation), Andy Tillison (The Tangent), Steven Wilson. These guys are really opening doors with their music and always have done for many many years. I only hope to continue to have consistent success in this area.

Can the guys you mentioned be role models for the scene?

If that means progressing, pushing forward with ideas, always coming up with fresh, innovative music and never cease to move the boundaries then, yes! But of course not to follow them doing it in their way, I’ll do it my own way 🙂

Are there any tour plans for MASCHINE?

We are currently in talks with some venues and promoters but nothing set in stone in terms of a tour yet, but we do plan on it in the UK and in Europe soon. We are playing HRH Prog festival on March 17th which is in North Wales so that is somewhere to see us play the new album. We hope to get out and play the new record as much as we can.

Thanks a lot, Luke!