Interview with Machinae Supremacy.

INTERVIEW WITH MACHINAE SUPREMACY

Spinefarm records are known for fostering successful metal acts including Sonata Arctica, Children of Bodom and the massive operatic metal sensation, Nightwish. New blood recently injected into the label from Sweden’s SID-metal outfit Machinae Supremacy, who have already made waves through the underground becoming known as one of the first bands to successfully embrace and utilize the internet and file sharing to create an incredible fan base before even so much as a sniff of a record deal.

The whole Machinae project began in 2000, when three of the band members came together, after leaving previous bands with a view to starting something new. It took them two years before they took to the stage playing a grand total of four gigs, for two of which they ventured outside their home turf to play London, England and Helsinki, Finland.

“In the years that followed we kept making songs, released a lot of them online as well as recorded 2 studio albums on our own. Now our website’s had over 3 million unique downloads, we have signed a record deal with Spinefarm, and everything is very exciting!”

In the beginning, the band created a very basic website designed to inform friends and family of goings on and share music with them online. Still, as primitive as this may be, it was clearly enough to attract an extraordinary amount of hits. Eventually, a website was designed by two German fans of the band, which was recently touched up in compliance with the record label. Robert Stjärnström explains why he thinks Machinae Supremacy have got that winning formula which has made them a roaring success in a relatively short amount of time.

“I think by experimenting with something old we discovered something new”Robert explains.“We found a sound that hit the spot for a lot of people with romantic notions about old-school game music and video games, while at the same time making music that was good enough for any metal or rock fan to enjoy”.

Indeed one thing that makes the band truly unique is their use of the SID-Station, which for those who are unaware, is an instrument made up of Commodore 64 sound clips. For little more than this reason, the band were seemingly able to instantly strike a chord with metal and rock fans in the gaming community. So how does a band make the decision to use such an unconventional instrument to polish off their sound?

“I’m not really sure how that happened, but I remember Jonne bringing his guitar over to my place in the beginning. He was shredding and riffing to some electronic (SID, among other) stuff I’d made, and it sounded cool. I already had a Sid Station then, so it simply became a part of our song writing process.”

The Machine Supremacy sound has an almost nostalgic appeal to fans of gaming, as well as having a fresh sound able to captivate rock and metal fans. Robert continues to tell of another factor in their success.

“I think by providing our music for free without bothersome banners or some kind of registration or any other tedious punishment for online visitors, people who would’ve otherwise not even bothered came to our site to explore our music”.

The website contains everything any Machinae Supremacy fan would want really. Content is updated regularly and the visitor can find photos, tour dates and all of the usual stuff. Upon my first visit to their online community, instant thoughts were “These guys are for real!!” 8:00AM and perhaps my sleepy eyes were playing tricks on me but there appeared to be at least two dozen members browsing the forums. This only confirms any belief that this gaming inspired metal machine do have an exceptionally loyal fan base, and a level of forum interaction usually reserved for bands that have been around for twice as long and with twice the stature.

There is no debate that file sharing has been one of the reasons for their success, as the band are clearly one who have become known for providing their songs on the internet for free.

“We are definitely friends of file sharing” Robert asserts. “We don’t facilitate it, but we openly support it morally and I believe a lot of our fame today is thanks to file sharing, even despite the fact that most of our music is available for free.”

Visitors to the Machine Supremacy website can find a webography of the band which allows them to download their back catalogue, including a cover of Mel C’s “I Turn To You”. Robert tells me the reason for covering that song was that he considers it to be a great song, and they wanted to see if it would sound even better as a metal song. You can also listen to the soundtrack for the computer game “Jets ‘n’ Guns” which was written and recorded by the band in 2004. I ask Robert how they came to write the soundtrack for the game.

“They contacted us and asked if we were interested in doing some music for it since our sound was a good match to the feel they wanted. We accepted, but instead of making just a few songs, we ended up making 28 customized songs especially for Jets’n’Guns.”

An interview with a band who is so into their gaming would hardly be complete without asking them about their favourite games. I ask Robert if they prefer modern games or if they are fans of the retro gaming consoles.

“We prefer modern games. We look back at the old days with nostalgia, of course, but it just doesn’t feel as good as you remembered it when you play them now. Tomas plays WoW like a mad man and Poe mostly plays PS2. Jonne and I tend to favour Nintendo games like the Metroid Prime-series and PC games like Half-Life2 and Doom3.”

Having knocked back record deals on more than one occasion, in 2006 the band released an “underground edition” of Redeemer, whilst searching for the right offer. Once Machinae Supremacy were picked up by Spinefarm, the album Redeemer was remixed and remastered ready to be put out there by their new label. Machinae Supremacy had previously been offered a record contract although soon lost faith due to poor communication on the labels part amongst other reasons. The idea for the rehashed track listing remained in place and was suggested to Spinefarm when they ultimately got in touch to re-release Redeemer.

“We released the underground edition while we were waiting for a suitable way to release our album “for real”. We’d been finished with it for some time and wanted to get it out to the fans. The idea to release our own DIY-“untweaked” (or “director’s cut”) version of the album, for already-fans in particular, was suggested by a label that wanted to sign us before Spinefarm contacted us. That label was then to release their version, a shorter more optimized version for worldwide distribution.”

As Robert continues to explain, 14 songs each clocking in at around 5 minutes, is too much for an album, so a few of the original tracks had to be cut for the official release.

“The new one feels more like a real album, as 2 long intros (2 of the tracks that were cut) have been removed, the track order optimized and complete remix and remaster of the original material from scratch.”

With a third release already on the horizons, Machinae Supremacy certainly look to have a bright future ahead of them. As the interview comes to a close, I ask what the plans are for the year ahead.

“Our main objectives now are getting a booking agent, and/or teaming up with some other band(s) to tour Europe, at least. We hope to get a lot of festivals, this summer, but it’s too soon to tell now. Meanwhile, we’re working on material for our third album, totally juiced by the fact that we now for the first time know what’ll happen to the songs when they are done. We never had that before.”

Machinae Supremacy will end 2006 on a high note as they support Amorphis in Oulu, Finland on New Years Eve. Hopefully we will see them on our shores in 2007!

As I thank the vocalist for his time, he adds a few final words.

“I’d like to shamelessly plug our official web shop. It’ll be getting in some awesome new prints soon, so be sure to keep an eye out for that! Peace!”