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This 'history'-part of the God Machine website is mainly based on two
mails I received, one from Albert Amman (who was the fourth member of
Society Line, the previous band of the three God Machine members) and
one from Franky Carbonero (Jimmy Fernandez' nephew).
Of course lots of thanks go out to them !
Society Line started as an afterschool jam session between Ron
Austin and Albert Amman during their last year in High School in
Chula Vista, a suburb of San Diego, CA.
Robin Proper-Sheppard was in the same High School. Jimmy
Fernandez, Ron's inseperatable friend, would come watch and hang out
while they played.
He soon found himself picking up various instruments and joining in.
He finally found the bass and things started to click.
They didn't really play covers, but just let the music flow ... and
developped their own sound.
In the summer after High School they started getting serious about playing live. They already had plenty of instrumentals but needed a singer. This is when Robin started jamming with them. From the start they clicked and decided to form "Society Line".
After a few months they had enough material to do a demo and put on a
local show. The demo, which was recorded at Arachnid Studios, contained six
songs :
Nouveau Riche, Homeland, Departure, World News, Reign, Second Sun.
After a great response to their sound they started playing
various venues around town and continued to write new material. As time
went by, they continued to evolve our sound into a harder yet at times
atmospheric sound. Robin started playing guitar which added to the
complexity of the sound.
As all good thing must come to end this one did. Robin, unsatisfied with
life in San Diego decided to head off to New York City. Ron, Jimmy,
and
Albert continued to play together and looked for another singer.
While in New York, Robin spent nights practicing intensely on guitar, partly
because he lived in a intense neighborhood which was very unsafe at night
(Alphabet City). Robin came back after six months and proposed
to reform and move to New York City. After much deliberation, Albert Amman
decided to stay behind with his girlfriend and finish his degree in
Psychology, continued playing and put out some tapes.
So Jimmy, Ron, and Robin left San Diego for New York City.
When the trio left San Diego they travelled across the U.S.
First they stopped in Texas for about two weeks, then they went to
this small
town on the east coast called Westminster, which is just beneath D.C.
They
just hung out not doing much with some friends of theirs. They stayed
there for two weeks and then headed for New York City. After a month
and a half they left N.Y.C. and went to Connecticut.
It was in Connecticut that they decided to go to England. It was a spus
of moment thing. What happened is that when they were in San Diego, they
met the manager of the Happy Mondays and it seems that he was really
interested in their music and when they were in Connecticut they remembered
that hehad invited them to Manchester, England.
So they said fuck it and they left.
They left all their things in storage at a friends house on the east coast
and got to London with about a 100 pound between the three of them.
The only
things they took was two acoustic guitars and Jimmy's base. They tried to
get in touch with the guy from Happy Mondays, but couldn't find him so they
left for Amsterdam, Holland.
They stayed in a youth hostel and played their guitars in the streets for
money. They met a guy there that lived in Camden, London. He told
them
that if they needed a place to stay, he could stay with him in a squat.
They got there with 50 pound between the three of them. They started
working
and they were able to save money so they could buy their instruments. It
took them about a year to get situated in London and write all the new
material. They played their first gig January 23, 1991.
The rest is history : they recorded some EP's and the first full-lenght
album "Scenes From The Second Storey".
A few years later, they headed for Prague and recorded the basic
ideas
for the second album "One Last Laugh In A Place Of Dying" in the basement of
the Obecni Dum, the main cultural building of Prague.
On May 23th 1994, just after finishing recording and mixing that second
album, bass player Jimmy Fernandez is brought to hospital, gets in a coma and
dies that same day ... a brain tumor seems to be the cause.
The remaining members decide the band just can't go on without Jimmy and
break up.
Robin Proper-Sheppard now runs a record label called "Flowershop"
and has been busy producing the British bands Rosa
Mota and Elevate.
Nowadays, Robin lives in London and Brussels and is in a band called Sophia.
They played their first show in London on October 11th 1996, the debut album
"Fixed Water" was released the same month. In September 1998, their
second album "The Infinite Circle" was released, again on his own Flower
Shop label.
Ron Austin still lives in London too, and is now involved in writing,
directing and producing films.
Loads of thanks go out to Albert Amman and Franky Carbonero.
Suggestions, corrections, additions and reactions : please send an e-mail to
christophe demunter.