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| w/ FLO VELTEN |
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| Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: How has Machinemade God evolved from a demo outfit to a fully functioning band with a record deal? Flo Velten: We all have been in bands before and when we started Machinemade God, we all had the same goals and took the band serious quite from the beginning on. All the experience we had from our former bands, from touring, playing live, working as a band really helped us to act quite mature for a young band. We also found our sound quite fast, which really helped us to get a mature songwriting. The songs on the demo are also re-recorded on our debut full-length. But, you can totally tell that we evolved from the demo songs to the album. There are more details in the songs, better harmonies and stuff. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Can you give us the significance behind the tracks Losses to Lessons, Teeth vs. Curb and Friendster Is Soo 2 Months Ago because there seems to be a lot of anger behind those lyrics and I’m glad I’m not on the reciprocating end of them? (Laughs) Flo Velten: Well, Teeth vs. Curb is just a song about when you get hurt really bad in a relationship or when you realize that all this was for nothing and that it was just a waste of emotions and time. It hits you like a hammer when you realize something like this. So I was thinking about a title that is kind of brutal to describe the feeling. I remembered that scene from American History X and I really liked the idea of using this one as a title. Losses to Lessons is actually the follow-up to Teeth vs. Curb. As the title says, turn your losses into lessons and fuck your regrets. When you get to that point, everything else can just get better. It doesn’t make sense to cry or to regret things. You can’t change it anyways, so learn from it and keep going. Friendster...Well, the title should actually be “soo 3 years ago”. (Laughs) This song is about all those stupid kids that just follow their so-called leaders, without thinking. People that have no own opinion. You can find people like that everywhere, in the scene, in other scenes, at work, school or whatever. Fact is that those people just suck. So, get the fuck up, start standing your ground, say what you really want, believe, and do your own thing. Just be yourself, that’s all. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Speaking of tracks, what prompted the instrumental Butterfly Coma? Flo Velten: Butterfly Coma was actually not really planned as a song on the record. Sky was jamming and recorded it at home. He sent me an mp3 of it and I totally liked it. When we hit the studio, Max was done with the drums after one day, so we had more time than we planned. I remembered that track and we decided to experiment a bit and record it. When I heard that one the first time, I had some electronic drums in my mind. Max played the drums and we added some distortions to it. In the end, we are really happy that we put that one on the record. First of all, it shows another side of us, it’s an unexpected song and goes into another direction, but it´s still us. It also makes the next song sound even harder (Laughs) Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Why the name The Infinity Complex as an album title and how do you feel it best sums up the record as a whole? Flo Velten: I don't know, it just popped up and got stuck in our heads. We liked the fact that there is not just one right way to interpret the title. One is explained by the artwork. The booklet shows different steps of the life of a moth. First the eggs on a leaf, then the caterpillar, the metamorphosis and then, on the last page a light bulb, which is a symbol for the death. This whole story is a picture for the human life. We´re born, we grow up, we go through different phases and change a lot and when we think that we’re fulfilled we just die in the end. That’s something that has always been like that and probably will always be like that. Still there are a lot different ways to lead your life until you reach those steps, so it’s pretty complex and blah. I guess you got the idea. Since this is not a concept album, we didn’t feel that the album title really had to sum up the album (Laughs). Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: How did the guest appearance on vocals by Jacob Bredahl from Hatesphere (Steamhammer/SPV) come about and what made you know that he was the right person to achieve the sound you were aiming for when having him produce the album? Flo Velten: When it came up to go out and record our album, we wanted something fresh and new. Most bands have worked with Tue Madsen for example. He does a good job, but we thought his sound was kind of worn-out. We heard that Jacob has his own studio and that he was looking for bands to work with. Our friends in Zero Mentality have worked with him and told us that he is cool dude and that he does a good job. We just wrote him and sent him our demo. He was totally into our music and we set up a date. Jacob is a totally cool dude and funny as fuck. We really had a good time while working with him. He is also a really good producer and very precise in his work. He also gives every band a unique sound, a sound that the band wants and that fits. What really impressed me was that he told us from the beginning on, that he just records stuff that we are able to play. No tricks, no copy-paste or other fake-recording stuff. Since he was into our music, and we all like Hatesphere, it just happened that he did guest vocals. The other dude is Laurits from As We Fight. We played a couple shows with them and they are from Denmark, so they came to hang out with us. We definitely had a good time there. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: How did writing for this album differ from the last demo you recorded? Flo Velten: The songs on the demo were actually written by Holger. Sky joined in 2004 on second guitar and he also played on the demo, but he just added the second harmonies and some new stuff in the songs. On the album, he was totally involved in the songwriting. I think that the newer songs are definitely more mature. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Are you pleased with the final result of your first debut? The album has a nice transition from song to song. Flo Velten: Yeah, definitely! Especially because the sound turned out to be much better than we ever expected it to be. It’s our debut, some songs are really old, but still good, so we re satisfied with the result. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: How is Machinemade God live compared to Machinemade God on CD? Flo Velten: There’s a lot more energy at our live shows. We enjoy every single show and you can tell that we have fun while playing. It’s hard to capture all the energy in a studio recording. I guess that’s the reason why many bands are really outstanding live, but not that good on CD. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Who are some of your musical influences collectively and individually? Flo Velten: There’s probably wayyy too much to mention. We are all pretty open-minded when it comes to music. Of course, our main subject is metal and hardcore. We also listen to Depeche Mode, Morrissey, The Cure or The Bravery. From Maiden to Integrity, The Misfits to Kill Switch Engage and In Flames. I think that everything you listen to is influencing you in some way. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Congratulations on your first effort and thanks for taking the time out to do this interview. With that said, do you have any final words for The Metal Web!? Flo Velten: Thank you for the interest in us and for the interview. We hope to get our asses on a tour in the US pretty soon. OFFICIAL SITE "MACHINEMADE GOD": http://www.machinemadegod.com HOME |