Austin, THE GOD MACHINE's drummer, is not talking lightly. On a rainy night in King's Cross, he and his fellow Californian exiles Jimmy (bass) and Robyn(sic.) (vocals/guitar) talk nervously about their future, and why their new "Purity" EP may also be their last.
"Life can change overnight," says Robyn ominously, "so we're just being realistic. We don't have some big juicy label that's supporting us and helping us live. Hopefully, we'll get through a whole lot more, but all the time and energy that went into this was looking as if it could be the only recording we ever made. We have to get everything right, because this could be it."
The God Machine's words are as wilfully enigmatic as their music. This darkly intense trio have been building up a sizable London following since hitting Camden with 50 Pounds to their name last year, largely because they play the kind of shows that spin the mind off its hinges. In the way the Loop used repetition to hypnotise, TGM draw you into a throbbing, pulsing tunnel of sound that can spin you in any direction your imagination chooses to take.
"I think we're very intense individuals," nods Austin, "and it comes
across in the music as a lifetime's worth of intensity."
"It's confrontational," adds Robyn. "We confront you with things
that people maybe aren't used to being confronted with so maybe the emotion
in the music is more extreme than the context of the music itself."
Fear not though, readers, TGM are not the kind of people who
want to
bash you over the head with their tales of woe. Rather, they just open up -
from the churning slipways of "Home" to the whispering solitude of "Blind
Man" - and invite you in.
"I like music that gives you space to move through it on your
own"
Robyn expounds. "Rather than the music that says, 'follow me, I'll take you
there'. That's what we try to do - let our music come to it's own
conclusions. When we're playing live," he goes on, "I'm off somewhere else.
And what's coming through my fingers is a representation of that. And when
you get the people out there into that, you can feel the connection."
"We have this song called 'The Desert Song' that is really
rhythmic,
and it requires a lot of communication between us and the audience," offers
Austin.
"If you get it right you get really high."
"It's a circle," says Robyn. "Everybody's in it"
"That," adds Austin, with the flicker of a smile, "is the God
part of our music."
Slipping between worlds of metallic power and sonic grace,
The God
Machine themselves are at a loss as to where their music comes from.
"We can't say what influences our music," Robyn admits. "We
sit up
talking about it till two o'clock in the morning and we still don't know!"
Austin laughs. "It just comes. You should see us when we try to write music."
But all who have witnessed this machine in action have come away
drunk on it's axle grease.
"I think it's because it's true," Robyn muses. "We don't try
to get
anything across. We let the music speak for itself. We put it out, and if
you accept it, then the circle is complete. When music is really straight
and incisive it just tells you everything at once; and if you can't get into
that, it'll never have any meaning for you. But if those areas of emotion
aren't shaded in, so people can put their own feelings into it, it's always
going to effect you differently. The music might be really sad but there
might be something in it lyrically that makes you think that maybe there's a
little hope at the end of it. The things that aren't said usually mean more
than the things that are."
The most to hope for from this band is that their spectacular debut will not really be TGM's only vinyl testament.
"What the record is saying," Robyn intones, "is that nobody's made us but ourselves. It's not exactly a fuck you energy, but it is in a way. We take everything in life fuckin' serious. We can't make wrong moves. We're constantly taking chances."
"And we've been hit in the face by reality more times than you can count!" Austin chuckles.
"But," Robyn raises an eyebrow, "it's better to die on your feet than live on your knees."
CATHI UNSWORTH
"Purity" is out on October 28 on Eve Records. The God Machine play London Borderline November 12, Tauton de Style 16, Trowbridge Psychik Pig 19, Blackpool Frim Fram 23, Salisbury Art Centre 28 and Stoke Wheatsheaf December 4.