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The New York band known for their explosive concerts took a break in 2010 and lost a limb to lymphoma in 2013. A new album digs them up in a new rock scene.
By Jeremy Gordon
In the fall of 2004, an amateur music blogger named David Bowie connected to his to discuss the debut of a promising band called Arcade Fire. “Nothing else (and yes, I heard the new U2) coming,” he wrote. before adding a warning: “Maybe ‘Secret Machines’ and your CD ‘,’ Now Here Is Nowhere'”.
At the time, New York City was full of fashion bands, but Secret Machines stood out for its desirable blend of rock’n’roll propelling, buzzing textures and winding arrangements. , vocals) and Benjamin Curtis (guitar), and drummer Josh Garza, who had first met in Dallas, would settle in a hypnotic rhythm before suddenly jumping into the stratosphere, a concert-multiplied delight.
“I literally felt it as a non-secular delight,” Said Paul Banks, Interpol’s lead singer, about Secret Machines exhibits in an interview with Zoom. “It has a lot of value, many concert tickets to be able to delight in something so visceral. “
It sounds smart, but smart sound has rarely dictated a band’s intelligent fortune on its own. His most productive songs were melodic, but not catchy, and they never made the obligatory stylistic or behavioral commitments to get into the mainstream. discovered the airy synthetic rock band School of Seven Bells. After 3 studio albums, Secret Machines took a break off off unofficially in 2010.
Much has replaced in the last 10 years. Rare and fashionable rock bands have declined as a cultural force. Bowie, who then interviewed the band for their online page, “You don’t intend to meet David Bowie,” Brandon recalls admiringly. He died in 2016 and after a short war with a competitive form of lymphoma, Benjamin died in 2013, was only 35 years old and, in the months leading up to his death, participated with Brandon in new music.
“Until then, deep down, deep down, I think we’d do anything with him again,” Garza said, in another interview with Zoom.
Brandon Curtis and Garza are now back with “Awake in the Brain Chamber”, Secret Machines’ first album since 2008, released friday. The band, now necessarily a duo, other musicians have played on the album, has abandoned their messiest trends on the album, recorded just a decade ago, without wasting sound density. Dreamy harmonies float in the unresolved air in traditional structures; guitars sizzle and crackle with a hectic energy; Crystalline synth lines pierce the noise like projectors shining through the fog; Garza’s harsh drum sounds capable of crushing an elephant in submission. They still don’t seem suitable for rock radio, however, they are less topical at a time when “conventional rock” is necessarily an oxymoron.
Although the album ended in 2019, the band had no plans to release it until it hit the pandemic. “We didn’t have to respond to the program inquiry about their long-term plans,” Curtis said of Zoom. “Possibly it’s just about the music. “
That wasn’t the case in his first round. Despite critical acclaim, two albums recorded for Warner Bros. Entertainment. have not been released and the band has introduced their own label for their third album. A fourth planned album titled “The Moth, the Lizard, and the Secret Machines” was abandoned when, in the merger process, Brandon made the decision that it was too depressing, reflecting his broader emotions about the band’s fortunes.
At the time, he was invited to the traveling keyboardist of Interpol, one of secret machines’ contemporaries, who had become a world-renowned professional rock band. Garza moved to Los Angeles to be with the woman who had become his wife. “I thought, “Well, I’m not going to be without my band and my daughter,” she laughs.
Soon after, Brandon began performing a number of original songs, some of which would end in “Awake in the Brain Chamber”. But in early 2013, Benjamin learned that he had lymphoma.
“His technique to death, the way he lived his life, astonished me,” Curtis said, avoiding ordering his thoughts. At one point, he apologized for wising his face. ” It just gave me so much love. trust and trust. ” After his brother’s death, Curtis wondered if he had finished writing music, but gradually the artistic desire returned: “It’s not like the pain is fading, but you feel more comfortable and maybe it gives you some energy,” he says.
Curtis had been playing with a psychological rock band called Cosmicide for a few years, and Garza in town with his wife when the band had a residence at The Lower East Side Piano’s Club in 2016. After a break from Secret Machines, Garza had played with other bands in Los Angeles and did painting sessions for manufacturers in his orbit without locating a permanent musical focus.
“I was just hoping to see him play, because I heard I could do a Secret Machines song,” he says. Instead, he was invited to perform this song, a 2006-area song called “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned”. The experiment opened a slow verbal exchange about reviving Secret Machines, and the following year, Garza re-recorded his drums with Curtis’ existing hardware.
Turning those Cosmicide song recordings into Secret Machines songs required some adjustments. Garza is a drummer of a rare force – he described his taste as “a mere denigration” – and the band’s experimental instincts left him room to fill the air with his playing. “If we give everyone else this space, this magic works with this group,” he says.
Some of the original mixes ended when Benjamin was still alive and contributed, and “the verbal exchange component with Josh when they started with Secret Machines songs was, “I can’t lose that component that represents his contributions,” Curtis said. In addition to the large number of main sound points that make up a record, Benjamin’s guitar game appears in “Everything Starts”, a brilliant track in which Brandon necessarily does a duet with himself about the uncertainty of loss and the passage of time: “When all you see are photographs / And everything moves so slowly / Everything starts, I don’t know.
Production of the album was based in part on pain (and was encouraged through Bowie’s last two albums), but Brandon’s writing flourished from the open attitude needed to settle for a significant loss. “I think he’s one of the other people who spent time in a meditative state: they made an effort to elevate their minds to a higher point of Zen,” Banks said.
After gaining momentum for an official return, the duo mocked their return in 2018, but in early 2019, Garza’s wife, Jessie, was diagnosed with breast cancer. While accompanying her to the remedy while caring for her newborn daughter, the meeting was suspended.
He recovered at the end of the year, and Curtis and Garza’s shared delight in a deeper adult frivolity, which had evolved beyond the fiery tribulations of youth. “When you’re young and you’re rock’n’roll, things take if you do it fast, you say things you obviously wouldn’t say otherwise,” Garza said. “But then you slow down a little bit. “
From there, the way forward is optimistic: there are plans to nevertheless finish and release the discarded album “Moth”, with an original EP of the songs left through the new album. They intend to reproduce exhibits and eventually paintings in newer ones. Two decades after their friendship and musical collaboration, achieving this point without any specific expectation is their own reward. “Life is a struggle, yes, but a positive and healthy struggle,” Garza said. “When we meet, we’re somewhere else. “
Curtis agreed, “I talked to Benjamin about his plans for the future,” he said, and his brother replied, “I just need to be a place, be happy, make music. “»
“I was surprised, ” said Curtis. I feel like I have to do any kind of press release; I’m releasing this record because I need it and Josh needs it. It’s a difficult position. “
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