MALICE MACHINE

Pennsylvania's MALICE MACHINE have just unleashed their long - awaited album, Act Of Self Destruction - the follow-up to their previous effort, Chemical Voilence.. A significant stylastic shift, the new album leans toward more of a cyber punk/electro arena. We're pleased that the duo took some time to chat with us today to talk about the album and alot more.

Hello and thanks for answering the interview for our blog today. We usually like to start off by asking for a brief background for the readers that might not be familiar with a particular band. Would you kindly do so?

We started off in a number of industrial and goth bands as a drummer and bass player in Long Island NY, eventually we both moved to NYC and formed the first incantation of Malice Machine, under a different name. After trying out quite a number of other potential band mates, we came to the conclusion that we were best as a duo, with Syn taking on the role of singer/front man. From there we self-released 3 albums under our current name.

Scenario: You are stranded on some island but you had the capability to put a flash drive with three of your most important songs into a sealed bottle and send it out to the world. These are songs that mean the most to you and best represent your legacy. What are they and why did you choose them?

It's hard to pick since every album has evolved so differently but from our first album “Digital Scars” it would be “My Virus” as this song was one of the first we ever wrote and it set the standard so to speak. “Restrict” from “Chemical Violence” represented a lot about our music at that stage and is a perfect bridge between our styles. “Hyena” from our latest album “Act of Self Destruction”, encompasses the full spectrum and attitude of the music we really wanted to express. They all have a similarity in their aggressive dance sense, hooks, and angst and are generally songs that we enjoy.

Talk about the genesis of this new album, ‘Act of Self Destruction’ if you don’t mind. It’s vastly different from the last album. What kind of changes did the tracks go through before you were happy with the final product?

We actually wrote and completed a full album a number of months ago but after listening to those songs we felt they were just a continuation of the previous album's style. We really sensed the need to do something different. It's very hard to come up with a new style of music that isn't so avant-garde or experimental that it would still attract a wider audience. After all, everything has been done. We decided we wanted to do shorter songs in a punk realm combined with heavy electronics and heavy bass and drums. So we scratched what we did and wrote 9 new songs in this new style. Before we released the album we played it out a few times and people mentioned they heard some aggro-tech influences hence the style we coined as Aggro-Punk.

Could you give us some insight into your studio, your “tools of the trade” so to speak? How much is hardware/physical instruments and how much is based on softsynths and the like?

Our studio consists of both hardware and software. Of course ultimately the DAWs are the most important factor. Ableton Live is the main tool but we also use Presonus Studio One, Bitwig Studio, and FL Studio and sometimes Reaper. As far as mixing goes, it's all in the box. There's a number of softsynths we use and there are far too many to list here. As far as hard synths go, we use a Moog Subsequent 37, Nord Lead 1 and 2X, Access Virus TI, Dave Smith Pro 2, and a Roland System 8. We also use a number of drum machines. As monitors we have Adam A7s and Yamaha HS8s and the audio interface is a Focusrite Scarlett i8120.

Some artists often engage in certain rituals when composing in the certain studio or before performing. Ex: They may like to have certain items around, They may do certain pre-show preparation, They may do things like meditation. Are there any particular rituals you do before writing or performing?

For a long studio session, Syn always brews a big cup of coffee and wields a vape. For live Syn will sit and think of all the first words of the songs. Julie-X does have a couple of charms on her drums, a Companion Cube from Portal and a skeletal kitten doll.

Some artists have resorted to using AI for the likes of cover art and even videos. What’s your feeling on that? Do you think that it’s already gotten out of control and maybe is an excuse for lack of creativity? Or do you think people are still inserting a bit of human/organic quality into what’s being produced?

In our case everything we do is organic or done in a hand-crafted way. For instance, with our song writing, all our music is written from scratch. We don't just rely on loops grouped together and call it a song. For us that would be a bit cheesy. To address the question directly, our artwork and videos are put together by hand and nothing is generated artificially. We think there's still a number of artists in the electronic field that rely on creativity to express their art, but it would be disturbing to think very soon an AI can write a song or create a video. If that could be done, then everybody would do it and it would no longer be a talent.

The latest album is ‘Act Of Self Destruction’. It’s vastly different than the last release. What kind of genesis did the songs have to go through before you were happy with the final product?

We actually wrote and recorded a whole other album that was basically a continuation of the previous album. But then we felt it was time to do something a little different and scrapped it. It took some thought but we decided a stripped down, straight-to-the-point style was the way to go. The new songs just sort of fell together once we started writing this album.

Do you think that you’ll adopt a release plan that is perhaps less full-length albums and more singles, remixes and Eps?

It seems like you read our minds because that is exactly what we plan on doing. We have some remixes coming up by some notable artists and looking to publish more videos and release singles very soon.

What do you anticipate for the coming months? Side projects, shows, more releases?

We have shows shows coming up and will also be working on building our online presence. We plan on doing several side projects as well which include a second more traditional Cyber-Industrial project, an Industrial Metal project, and a Goth project. Syn has been working on a stop motion project for over two years that will showcase our music and a number of other Industrial artists.

William ZIMMERMAN
15/07/2024