The Secret Machines have drawn comparisons to everyone from the Flaming Lips to Pink Floyd, but the New York trio brings plenty of its own space-rock noise on its major-label debut, “Now Here is Nowhere.”
Before hitting the road again, opening up for fellow NYC hypes Interpol, the Machines’ Brandon Curtis spoke to RedEye about his influences and raiding the company closet for cool music.
You have the songs divided very specifically on the back of the CD, something that’s been lost in the digital age.
When we were making and sequencing the record, we thought of it as three movements, three segments. There’s even space and some silence between those segments. It just made sense for us that way, not so much conceptually, but when you’re listening to it and you get to a point where you need a breath, that’s what it is.
It’s a right of passage that signing to a major label gets you access to the label vaults. What were the first free records you got from Warner Bros.?
All the Neil Young. We basically got his whole catalog. And then we ordered from [Warner/Elektra/Atlantic] Japan the whole Boredoms catalog. Those were the big two. But they haven’t been completely forthcoming with the whole WEA things here, especially Elektra and Atlantic. They’ve been a little tight. I’d like to get some Zeppelin, Jesus and Mary Chain, and the Pixies. Right before we signed with Warner Bros., we were also talking to Capitol, so we got to go through their vault too. We got the Band, a bunch of Beatles and the Beach Boys. Pretty awesome.
Like a kid in a candy factory.
Yeah! What we learned, though, is that different people are in charge of the different closets, so it’s really a matter of their taste. If you find someone who’s into the catalog, they’ll have an awesome closet. Someone else might have the Linkin Park b-sides, and I’m not that interested in that.
Your band inspires a lot of comparisons, and you haven’t been afraid to acknowledge your influences, either.
I think we’ve been a little naive about it up until this point. I love music, and I like to talk about it. I feel indebted to a lot of people that went before us. At the same time, talking about any influences really doesn’t do anybody any justice. We started talked about Krautrock, mainly because I felt like it was underrepresented in popular culture. Now you read a review and it says we sound like Can. I love Can, but I don’t think we sound like Can.
You’ve done a lot of touring, and sometimes you’re billed with a similar band, and sometimes you’re billed with someone completely different.
We’ve played with some bands I really look up to, like … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Blonde Redhead and Spiritualized. It really makes you focus, since the stage gets wiped with your ass every night on the tour until you figure out how to do it right, learning how to deliver that level of intensity and power.–joshua klein is a redeye special contributor.
Secret Machines
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 17
Where: Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave.
Tickets: $21
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Compiled from news services and edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Chris Courtney (cdcourtney@tribune.com)
