Dunedin neo-crust outfit Machina Rex are kicking off a nationwide tour tonight with their Tokyo friends ilill, with whom they are releasing a split record in the very near future. In anticipation of their countrywide jaunt, Matt and Jörg form Machina Rex had a wee pow-wow with our contributor Fluffy. Take a read and then listen to brand new track 'Alles Muss Kaput Sein' below, and of course check out the tour deets...
1. Machina Rex are one of the most prolifically touring heavy/punk bands in the South Island at the moment. In February you made the 14+ hour drive from Wellington to Lake Ngatu to play both Waitangi Wastefest and Chronophonium in the same weekend. Where does this wanderlust come from?
M: Yeah that was quite a drive aye! I guess we get a sense of urgency from the fact that we're doing this now because we can do it, and we really enjoy doing it. We're pretty lucky right now in the sense that the rest of our lives seem to fit around it.
J: You know, you just gotta get yourself out there is what the old blokes at the pubs kept telling me, so eventually, I just went with that.
2. You have a new single coming out this week. Whats it called and what's it about?
J: The song we’re releasing this week is called 'Alles Muss Kaput Sein', which is German for ‘everything needs to be broken / damaged / shattered’. (Sorry, I often find myself unable to pin down idiomatic meanings to a single English terms). At any rate, the phrase is a commonplace German punk slogan as well as the name of a Pascow (German punk band) album as I just found out from the internet. To me personally, the phrase sums up the melancholic realization that the quickest and most reliable way to change is the destruction of everything.
It often seems to me that we’re really just faced with the choice between our stale status quo or complete disassembly of everything we know. Maybe I’m just a cynic but a lot of the time I find completely paralyzed by the current neoliberal capitalist dystopia.
Then, the only way out seems to be complete and absolute destruction.
3. Said single is taken from forthcoming split with Japanese band Ilill. How did you link up with them?
J: The split really came about because my bff from Germany, Johannes, started a band upon moving to Tokyo. He plays bass and does vocals in ilill and both bands though it was a good idea to do a split and tour together.
4. Where was your side of the split recorded and with who?
M: We recorded our side in November last year with Mike Holland. He’s really good. The actual recording took place at Sammy’s, an old theatre and venue with a huge room in the middle where we set up, recorded live, then re-recorded most of it once we had the drums down. Fortunately gats were isolated so this wasn’t too hard to achieve. Vocals were done at Mike’s place.
5. It's nearly tour time again. Where are you off to this time around?
J: We’re hitting up Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch this time around. Ideally we would have liked to do more places, especially playing places that would not be considered main centers as such. But due to time constraint on part of ilill (two of them are skipping school to tour NZ) we had to stick to those dates
6. Any plans to play a reciprocal tour in Japan any time soon?
J: We’re keen. You wanna pay for our flights? I think the cost of getting there is the only thing holding us back. Hopefully we can scrap together the required coin and do it later this year.
7.Who would your dream split be witth, current or defunct bands?
M: This Will Destroy You would be pretty cool because I think we could make a good b-side. Local bands would be Parents, or HollywoodFun Downstairs because I really like what they’re doing right now.
J: I personally have been digging We Came Out Like Tigers a lot recently, also Arafura from Sydney are great. To follow Matt’s lead and also name some NZ bands, I’m really into Love Mess, Old Loaves, Human Resource who we are playing with in Auckland. So doing a split with any one of them would be sick.
Ilill and Machina Rex New Zealand Tour
Thursday 31st March, Whammy Bar, Auckland
Friday 1st April, Biddy Mulligans, Hamilton
Saturday 2nd April, Alternative Entertainment Bureau, Levin
Friday 8th April, The Crown Hotel, Dunedin
Saturday 9th April, Darkroom, Christchurch
