Time to flip the planet upside down and take another trip Down Under for today’s Band of the Day. I have good memories of Adelaide – I bought Machine Head’s The Blackening there when I was visiting…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from Adelaide, South Australia.
How did you meet?
This line-up of the Machines of Creation was put together after cherry picking from some of our cities best musicians primarily for a couple of tribute bands we put together, firstly an Ozzy Osbourne tribute (The Aussie Ausborn Show(!)) and then a Deep Purple tribute called Burn. Paul (Kaiser) then pooled the guys together to rehearse and record his songs for what became the debut album for this line-up, Flowers and Lies.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Paul and Steve Anderson the bass player have been working together since 2011, with the rest of the line-up being Matt Redmond on keys and grand piano, and Simon Timoshenko on drums and percussion, coming on board in 2018.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Put simply, KAISER and the Machines of Creation is used as the name of the project as it’s the brainchild of guitarist, singer, songwriter – Paul Kaiser with the “machines of creation” being either his studio tools and instruments or in this case, the band members themselves.
What are your influences?
There are such a wide range of influences that make us who we are. Could be everything from artists such as Bowie to Ritchie Blackmore, to soundtracks or small snippets of music that may stick in the head, heard somewhere during the day.
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Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We think our uniqueness comes from pulling together such a wide range of genres. We’re not a metal and as such, we definitely aren’t a pop band but we draw in such an eclectic mix of styles that we have found there is something for everyone, particularly on this latest album, Flowers and Lies. Hooky songwriting backed with some excellent musicianship. Everyone who has heard the album seems to have a different favourite track, which is a very good thing.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Just life in general, observations on relationships but also commentary on current world affairs and the role the media plays in shaping the perceptions of these events.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
At this stage the line-up has done one ‘live’ show which was a live to air radio broadcast on an Adelaide radio station. We put all our early efforts into rehearsing and recording the album and then just when we were about to go into rehearsals to tour the release, COVID struck and has put the whole thing on ice until we are able to move around freely again. For us, it couldn’t have came at a worse time. Lockdowns and then limitations and restrictions on crowd and room sizes have at this time stopped any live shows dead for the band. We have built an image we want to present to the fullest and want to be able to put on a large production (lighting, video screens, props) to complement the music and as it stands at the moment – it’s not possible. Lucky there is the internet and we have a fresh album to promote.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We try to use the best equipment we can get our hands on. Our drummer has a TAMA kit, we use Fender and Ibanez guitars, and top notch keyboard, hardware and software. We recorded the album at GhostNote studios in Adelaide which was brilliant because they had a huge range of instruments – vintage and unique guitars from which we could get a wide range of sounds to complement different passages etc that were called for in the songs, a Grand Piano, different drums we could drop in and out of the kit, as well as a host of outboard vintage and contemporary effects, as well as a huge range of guitar pedals to experiment with so we could really go wild and have such a plethora of tools (machines of creation? :) ) to use on the recording.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We are plugging the release of the album, Flowers and Lies – finally coming to fruition as both a physical CD release or digital download from Bandcamp, where the songs are presented in the intended running order for the album, as well as having the album packaged with the artwork, lyrics etc – all together in the way we want this album to be received.
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What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
Well, we hope the world situation changes, or at the very least the situation here in Australia, so we can move around freely and be able to put together the live show we have in our heads to promote the album. That failing we already have done one video for the title track [see below! – Mosh] so we would love to do a few more, as we think the songs have a very visual aspect that need to be capitalized on.
This album took a very long time to get together and was very stop/ start and songwriting has been ongoing in the background so we will record again, soon hopefully, whether that be dropping individual tracks here and there or perhaps an EP.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
That’s such a hard question! We’d just love the opportunity to play at this point! With anyone, but for the sake of an answer, perhaps the band Ghost as a headliner would be really cool and we’ll say fellow Adelaide lads, Audio Reign as the opener!
Check out this month’s BotD Playlist on Spotify and YouTube
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