Machinae Supremacy pour l'album ''Phantom Shadow''

1. Hello Robert and thank you for according me this third interview for Thrashocore. "Phantom Shadow", your sixth album, just released a month ago. I suppose you were quite busy these last weeks. How are you at the moment?

Splendid. Awesome. You? :)


2. My last interview was for the release of "Overworld" in 2008. It's a bit far now and that's why I have a few questions about the evolution of the band during the last 6 years if you don't mind. At first, I must say I was surprised when I heard "A View from the End of the World" for the first time. I found your style changed for something more rock'n roll, less metal. Did you feel that way? Did anything change in the writing process?

We actually feel the opposite. We feel that album really landed where we want to be. It feels metal, but obviously not generic/standard metal but something quite different. It does have a lot of stuff going on that most people wouldn’t consider metal, but when we play those songs they sure feel heavy, hard and full throttle, so... No changes, we write and compose as we always have. We’re simply getting better at it.


3. Always about "A View from the End of the World", you tried a lot of new ideas, especially in the second part of the release. Did you need to give another approach to your style?

We let our inspiration and what’s in front of us guide us. If some songs take us in another direction then so be it. You’ll find that our album Redeemer, as well as the new release, Phantom Shadow, does this as well. We are not bound by much in what we create. I believe our band transcends genres more than 99% of metal bands out there. We are not afraid to have fun or go pop in the middle of everything, because we don’t really need to belong to a genre. It has no purpose to us. We feel that we are a metal band because most of what we do feels that way, but we are not bound by that in any way. We go where our vision takes us.


4. Contrary to "A View from the End of the World" and its 60 minutes, "Rise of a Digital Nation" sounded more straight to me with its 10 songs for 40 minutes. How did you get into the writing of this album?

We were preparing to do Phantom Shadow and thought let’s make a really solid, simple and hard-hitting album with the material that we already have, and really break out the experimental, progressive and transcending for Phantom Shadow. It was designed to be simple so as to contrast what was to come.


5. The music video of "Rise of a Digital Nation" is a compilation of short fan videos. Can you tell us more about its creation? How did you get the idea and did you asked anything to get this result (like a contest or something)?

The song itself is about reaching out, traversing the distance and coming together because we share something, we are the same, and even though we are far apart we are united by heart, passion and what we believe. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to let the fans create the video. And it is my favourite video of ours, no contest. I love watching our amazing fans bring out their performances for this song. They did an amazing job. We simply asked them to do it. We gave them the song and said, perform for this. And be brave, because only the best ones will be used. And the result speaks for itself. I absolutely love it.


6. 2014, "Phantom Shadow". One new release every 2 years since the beginning, that's what we call an impressive regularity. Not tired nor dried?

It seems to be the amount of time it takes to make a really good album. :) Need some rest in between, some time to ideate and create, and some time to finalise and post-produce. It works.


7. The line-up have welcomed a new guitarist Tomi Luoma who used to play in Kill the Romance (among others). Was he an old friend of you? How did you think about him to join the band?

We met him when KTR supported us in Finland for a few years. We loved him (and really, most of his the KTR guys) and he was the obvious choice when we recruited a new guitarist.


8. Compared to your previous releases, "Phantom Shadow" counts a lot of endless excellent guitar solos. Did Tomi lead you that way in the writing process?

Probably rather the fact that we now have not only one but two excellent lead guitarists that inspires more of that element. There is so much room to play and so much will, so why not?


9. I listen to your music for 8 years now. I might be wrong but the more I listen, the more I can't stop thinking you're a bit nostalgic about how we made metal music before. Sure there's a lot of electronics in "Phantom Shadow" but for me it's all about guitars and Swedish melodies like we could hear in the 90's. What defines Machinae Supremacy to your mind?

I think Machinae Supremacy is freely defined as in we don’t need to be one certain thing. But what we create is of course a product of who we are and how we grew up. Classic metal and Swedish melodies are ingrained in us just like video game music is. It’s part of the recipe for how music is made in our minds. We were teenagers in the 90s, so obviously most of our music influence happened then.


10. I always wondered how you integrate electronic sounds. Is it the last part of the composition after guitars or is it thought in the same time? For a song like "The Bigger They Are the Harder They Fall" for example, how do you end to such a result?

It’s sometimes the first part. Rarely, but sometimes, the last. "The Bigger They Are..." was pure electronic at first, sequenced in a computer, then a full song was produced around it. It’s hard to say anything other than it is what it becomes when we create.


11. I read that "Phantom Shadow" was a concept album. Can you tell us more about that and the lyrics?

It’s a story from start to finish, and the lyrics explore the perspectives of 6 characters in this story, and events that occur throughout.


12. "Europa", the softer moment of the album, is quite different from what you've done before and if I'm right it's the first duo you do all along a track. Is it something you wanted to do for a long time? And who's singing with you? Is it the same person we could hear occasionally on your previous releases?

The singer is Ingeborg Ekeland, and she has not been with us before. She is a fan and a friend who we found incredibly talented. She also does the voice over in the first track of the album, so she effectively plays the role of the main character in both song and narration. It was not really planned to be this way. It became what it was supposed to. We were creating it and we felt that this is what the song needed.


13. The first time I heard "The Second One", I immediately thought about "Indiscriminate Murder Is Counter-productive" from the "A View from the End of the World" album regarding the swing and the opening riff. Is it a coincidence or something conscious? Or maybe I'm totally wrong?

The name of the song really says it, "The Second One", as in this is the second song in the same theme. The lyrics continue with an obvious reference to "Indiscriminate Murder..." and the main riff is the same. We call this a motif. Like in movies, certain themes reoccur as the same mood or action repeats itself. We often think of our music as not just music but more, a non-visual storytelling vehicle that benefits from many of the same techniques as movies do. Motifs are one such technique, and we do this frequently, in both lyrics and music.


14. Have you some touring plans for the near future?

We’ve just finished the first half of a European tour which will continue in spring. We’re going to Russia in November and the USA in January.


15. Do you live now from what you earn with your albums and touring?

We take no money from the band, no salaries. We all have day jobs. What little we earn we use to buy gear and things like that. We’re a very unknown band, still. You should tell your friends about us. :)


16. When I asked you 8 years ago about (illegal) downloading, you told me you were grateful for its existence because Machinae Supremacy wouldn't be anything without it. Did you change your mind about this subject now that the band has evolve to something more professional or is it always the same spirit that leads your way?

No that is still true. We are who we are and what was true 8 years ago doesn’t change just because we do. :)


17. What do you have in your playlist at the moment? Any recommendations for our readers?

Recently discovered Destiny Potato, which I think is pretty awesome. :)


18. Thank you for your time, hope it wasn't too boring. The last words are yours!

Don’t fall for clickbait. Do the world a favour and never ever click a “you won’t believe what happens next” link ever again. :) Thank you.