Machine
Men
Machine Men is a band that
aroused my interest from their debut release! Back then I realized that
I was dealing with a stunning band that composed catchy songs, so I wasn't
surprised at all when I listened to "Elegies" and I found out that it's
a very good album! So, Antony is here to enlighten us on various topics
regarding the band and their plans...
1. HELLO! “ELEGIES” IS YOUR FIRST ALBUM WITH
CENTURY MEDIA, ONE OF THE BIGGEST METAL LABELS. SO, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT
IT? DO YOU THINK THAT YOU HAVE NOW MORE CHANCES TO MAKE YOUR MUSIC KNOWN
TO MORE PEOPLE?
Hello Hello. Yes, Century media is a very
big label so I think we have really good chanches to move on but we’ll
see, I think it depends on how the people will take the new album.
2. SINCE WE TALK ABOUT CENTURY MEDIA, CAN YOU
TELL US HOW DID THEY APPROACH YOU AND WHAT EXACTLY DID THEY OFFER YOU AND
CONVINCED YOU TO SIGN?
We recorded a demo tape last year and we sent
it to our management – they took care of the deal. Century media just offered
the best deal – that’s all.
3. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT YOUR MUSIC IS MOSTLY INFLUENCED
BY BRUCE DICKINSON’S SOLO CAREER AND SECONDLY FROM IRON MAIDEN. DON’T YOU
THINK THAT THIS MIGHT MAKE PEOPLE SEE YOU JUST AS A TRIBUTE BAND AND NOT
APPRECIATE YOU AS MUCH AS YOU DESERVE AS MUSICIANS?
I think they don’t see a tribute band but
of course it sometimes pisses me off ‘cos people compare us to Maiden too
much. It’s just unnecessary to put an ant and a giant side by side and
‘cos our new album is far away from Maiden – we play much darker and heavier
music than they do.
4. CAN YOU TELL US WHICH OTHER BANDS HAVE INFLUENCED
YOU AS MUSICIANS?
Great bands like Queensryche, Ozzy Osbourne
and like you already said Bruce’s solo stuff has been a big part when we
started to play about 8 years ago.
5. WHERE DID YOU PICK THE BAND NAME FROM? IS THERE
A SYMBOLISM BEHIND THE NAME THAT YOU CHOOSE?
I think the name came from Bruce’s album “The
Chemical wedding”, there is a song called Machine Men but actually I don’t
remember exactly where it came… It wasn’t my idea – it was our drummer’s
idea. He always keeps saying that he didn’t take it from the song but who
knows?
6. YOUR NEW ALBUM HAS THE TITLE “ELEGIES” WHICH
IS A VERY SAD TITLE, SINCE HERE IN GREECE THE ELEGIES ARE MOURNING SONGS.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE IT AND HOW IS IT CONNECTED WITH YOUR MUSIC AND LYRICS?
The title is a dedication to a person so there
is no connection between the cover and the lyrics but the cover fits to
the lyrics very well. I really love the cover – it’s brilliant! You can
sense the feeling of the lyrics from it which is the most important thing
in a cover. Thanks to Chris Ruud – you’re a pro guy!
7. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LYRICS? HOW IMPORTANT
ARE THEY TO YOU? CAN YOU TELL US IN A FEW WORDS WHICH THE THEME OF EACH
SONG THAT YOU HAVE INCLUDED IN YOUR NEW ALBUM IS?
I write all the lyrics and they are very important
to me of course. I’m not sure whether has another band member tried to
understand them or tried to understand me! (laughing). I write things about
this world – I mean, how I see this world – my thoughts – my opinions –
my feelings –my experiences etc. stuff like that. The stories are sad ones
– not happy at all. We come from the dark Finland so please, understand
me! :)
8. IF THEY ASK YOU TO COMPARE “ELEGIES” AND “SCARS
& WOUNDS” CAN YOU TELL US WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND THE DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN THOSE TWO?
If I think of “Scars & wounds” album –
it’s getting darker and darker song by song so I think the last three songs
from the album are of quite the same style like the new album but “Elegies”
is much darker and heavier than the first one. But if I have to find some
similarity I think it could be the lyrics and a feeling in a couple of
songs. It’s hard to say… I think the listeners could say it better.
9. FOR YOUR NEW ALBUM YOU HAVE COOPERATED WITH
THUNDERSTONE’S NINO LAURENNE. HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO COOPERATE WITH HIM
AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS HE? DID HE PARTICIPATE IN ANY OF YOUR SONGS?
DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER GUESTS ON YOUR ALBUM?
Nino is a great guy! We talked about our new
album in some festival where we played last summer. He was interested in
producing the album but he had recording sessions with his own band just
before we entered the studio so he didn’t have the time to do it. But he
was kind of a vocal producer in the album. We have a couple of guest guitarist
on the album – they play just two solos.
10. ON YOUR EP YOU HAVE DONE AN IRON MAIDEN COVER
AND ON YOUR NEW ONE YOU HAVE A BRUCE DICKINSON COVER. IS THERE A CHANCE
TO DO A COVER FROM ANY OTHER BANDS? HAVE YOU THOUGHT TO RELEASE AN ALBUM
FULL OF COVER SONGS? IF YES, WHICH BANDS WOULD YOU SELECT TO COVER?
Actually we didn’t have much time to think
of the cover for the new album so we decided to put “Freak” into it. We
used to play it with our tribute band so it was quite a familiar song.
But the album was too short without the song so it’s there… If we record
a cover song in the future it will be a totally different song than a heavy
song – I mean the original version.
11. IN YOUR BIO I SAW THAT YOU WILL PLAY IN MANY
BIG SUMMER FESTIVALS ACROSS EUROPE. SO, WHICH ONE OF THOSE IS THE ONE THAT
YOU FEEL THE MOST ANXIOUS TO PLAY? IS THERE A CHANCE TO COME HERE IN GREECE
FOR A LIVE SHOW?
Of course we are excited about the festival
gigs but I think Earthshaker fest is the gig I’m most anxious about ‘cos
it will be our first gig outside of Finland so I’m nervous, in a good way
of course. We’ll see, hope we get a change to come in Greece this year.
12. DO YOU HAVE ANY CONTACTS WITH GREEK FANS?
I think we’ve got some messages to our guestbook
from Greece… I’m not sure.
13. IMAGINE THAT YOUR LABEL GIVES YOU A BIG BUDGET
TO CREATE A VIDEO – CLIP. WHICH SONG WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO VISUALIZE AND
HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?
First we had an idea to put the video to the
album but we didn’t have the time to do that so the whole video process
moved to the next album. But we would have made it for the song called
“Back from the days”. I think it could have been a war theme with lots
of smoke – dust – flames – water – blood – sounds very original! (laughing).
14. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR
NEW ALBUM! CLOSE THE INTERVIEW AS YOU WANT AND LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS
OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE…
Thank you very much. Maybe we’ll see someday?
Wine is fine but vodka is quicker, Cheers!
Antony / Machine Men
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
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