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More Machine Than Man
Satan has sent them for our children!
More Machine Than Man’s follow up release, ELECTROLUST, is over the edge. This CD is very intense and features hard tracks with powerful guitar hooks and killer electronics. This is totally industrial chaos that really ignites. Next to this, and as usual with MMTM, we of course get both male and female voices that give the CD much cyberfetish flavor. We talked with this unconventional hard edged industrial combo who were preparing the re-release of the previous ROBOT CD with the addition of several remixes and updated cover art! The revolution has just begun… Mind the sound blast!
How is MMTM different then most mainstream industrial acts?
Tech: Well, there is a sound that’s very common in the industrial scene right now and we do differ quite a bit from that blueprint. Our vocals are much more prominent and important to the songs. MMTM songs are more emotional than the strictly dance floor oriented tracks that are being pushed right now. More Machine experiments with beats that swing a little more than the industrial quarter note stomp.
It’s not that our material isn’t kinetic or dance-oriented, I just don’t think it is limited to that. We are drawing from different influences than others are right now. I feel that there is more of a direct correlation between MMTM and KMFDM, Garbage, Ministry, Meg Lee Chin, or NIN. Most acts right now sound more like older Front Line Assembly or Front 242.
Why is it important for you to have this style over the mainstream industrial acts?
Tech: I hate to sound cliché, but we are just doing what comes naturally to us. We could strip away the guitars and half the synth work, bury our voices, make all the beats one dimensional, and stretch everything out to six minutes to be just like everyone else. That wouldn’t work for us, it would have no emotional integrity if MMTM did that. I honestly believe that we can all feel when music and art is like that.
How do you go about making your industrial, cybergoth/electrofetish sound?
Tech: We sacrifice synths, SCSI cables, and Gibson novels to the Electro-gods in my basement.
Seriously, Tasha and I tend to write in spurts. We create several new arrangements or lyrics at once, and then nothing for a while. We are both constantly writing and recording ideas in our studio as we develop them. When we are mixing one recording we already have tracks for the next release in pre-production. Though it is a great deal of work for us, we must love the creative process. We never even consider taking a break.
What makes More Machine Than Man who they are?
Tech: Years of neglect and abuse as children.
I just wish our parents would understand that their children wouldn’t have grown up to be MMTM if they had just scrambled the cable TV porn channels. Keeping us away from Blade Runner, Godzilla movies, Star Wars, and Terminator might have helped also.
How do you feel you have grown with Electrolust over Robot in Jan 2000?
Tech: I think that the song writing on Electrolust is more focused. Robot might have been covering too much ground musically, but I am still very happy with it. The production is much cleaner and punchier on Electrolust. Tasha and I are still engineering and producing everything ourselves, so our technical abilities improve with each release.
MMTM is a young enough project that we are still trying to discover exactly what our sound is. The goal is for us to develop a sound that is More Machine Than Man and not just a reflection of our influences. I think Electrolust and Robot have both been advancements toward that goal.
When going in to make Electrolust what did you want to do different from Robot?
Tech: We were actually planning to have the vocals much more effected and lower in the mix. But when it came time to mix-down, the songs worked better with the vocals on top. I believe that is just who MMTM is.
I think that Electrolust has a much more menacing and sinister feel than Robot. This wasn’t intentional on our part, but it doesn’t surprise me. Tasha and I were in a very dark place when we created much of this material. We had experienced several personal and professional betrayals, and that rage showed through. It is amazing how personal art can be, even when you think you’re creating something based around an external inspiration.
How has promotion for Electrolust been different?
Tech: Using the reputation that Robot made for MMTM, we have been able to organize a much more extensive promotional push.
There has been a large number of CD Release/Listening Parties in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. We have been touring goth/industrial/fetish events to support the release. There has been a vast amount of coverage from print/web publications. CD sales have been able to finance print ads.
Right now we are shopping Robot and Electrolust for a record deal. We have been operating effectively on our own for so long, that we are being very careful about what we commit ourselves to.
Besides music, where does your film play a part for the band?
Tech: We consider MMTM a multimedia project. The three of us are just as interested in expressing ourselves visually as we are in expressing ourselves sonically. Tasha, Boy, and I all have art/communication backgrounds, so working in film and animation seemed like a natural medium for us. Every facet of the project is very important and personal. It is very satisfying for us to perform incorporating our visuals. It is amazing to see the culmination of our collective efforts.
I think people will really enjoy the visually enhanced portion of the Electrolust CD. We put that together ourselves. It gives everyone an idea of what More Machine performances are like.
Can you give us some more background information on such songs as Slave, God, and Self?
Tech: The lyrics to Slave were developed after the basic structure of the track was assembled, which is unusual for us. The lyrics were inspired by two things; The verse was built around a satire of a Rolling Stones’ lyric and the chorus was inspired by the Blade Runner sample in the chorus.
God is my response to zealot-ism. It is tired subject matter in this genre, but I thought we should release the track anyway. God is a response to certain people in my life, and that makes the song powerful for me. It’s also a subject matter that MMTM has never address before, so it is unique for us.
Self is one of Tasha’s interpretations of a B&D relationship. I think it is very beautiful and intense. The way she turns a phrase is really brilliant, and her synth parts at the end just kick.
Where have you drawn your main influences from?
Tech: I think that our influences are very obvious. KMFDM has been a huge influence. I’m glad to hear that they are recording again. I really hope that En, Guenter, and Sascha work together in the future. The MDFMK and Slick Idiot albums are both amazing. If you could meld the two together we would have another Symbols or NIHIL, and that would be perfect.
Ministry, Girls Under Glass, NIN, Chemlab, Depeche Mode, Garbage, Meg Lee Chin, Rob Zombie, Pitchshifter, Snake River Conspiracy, Lords of Acid, Razed in Black, Chainsaws and Children, Curve, and the first Filter album have also had an impact on our work.
We have many influences outside the goth/industrial genre also; like the Police, Bjork, Peter Gabriel, Prince, U2, the Eurythmics [Annie Lennox solo work], the Cars, Tool, Danny Elfman, the Chemical Brothers, Alice in Chains, the Sneakerpimps, Smashing Pumpkins, the Crystal Method, and Tricky.
Many of the songs are fairly short, why is that?
Tech: We always try to make our LPs work as one seamless, piece of music. There is no particular logic behind this it is just part the MMTM aesthetic. Some of our short instrumental tracks are intros or segues for longer tracks.
Over all, our tracks are shorter than standard industrial fare. We average about two to three minutes, where most industrial acts average five to eight minutes. MMTM is definitely short attention span theatre. We like to be high energy, end it while people still want to hear more, and move on to the next high impact song.
Goth, industrial, and punk are considered permanently linked. I think there is little about MMTM that people would compare to punk, but the one thing we obviously borrowed from punk was the seventeen songs in twenty minutes, ‘kick the audience in the nuts’ style of attack.
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