After twelve years of radio silence, most fans of The Secret Machines thought their time had come to pass. The last time they’d put out new music, George W. Bush still occupied the White House and both iPads and Instagram were yet to exist. It’s important to understand how much the world has changed since the Pseudo-Psychedelic Sci-Fi Rockers last released new music because it’s a big part of what makes the release of Awake in the Brain Chamber so exciting. The group is back with an expansive, precise, lyrically-driven album that’s as close to drinking absinthe as listening to music will get you.
The group was founded in Dallas twenty years ago when brothers Brandon (keys/bass/vocals) and Benjamin (guitar) Curtis teamed up with Josh Garza (drums) and made their way to New York City where in 2004 they released Now Here Is Nowhere, a masterpiece debut record that is arguably the most underappreciated album of the 21st century.
The trio quickly developed a reputation as a formidable live act whose place opening for groups like Oasis and Kings of Leon made the job of those respective bands that much more difficult. Bono adored them. David Bowie raved about them to the press whenever he got the chance, and industry insiders began expecting big things from the Secret Machines.
Their sophomore release, 2006’s Ten Silver Drops, had a catchier vibe and got them more radio play and following an “In The Round” performance that brought arena-scale production values into night clubs across the country, it felt like their trajectory was stratospheric. But things change.
Benjamin Curtis left the group to form School of Seven Bells with Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and after replacing Benjamin with Phil Karnats, work on their third LP was complicated by fraying relations with their record label. By the time the self-titled album was released in 2008, School of Seven Bells had taken off and the Secret Machines were playing in smaller rooms than they had in years. That was pretty much the last we’d heard of the Secret Machines until recently.
Brandon Curtis teased the release of an album called The Moth, the Lizard and the Secret Machines in 2010, but it’s existence more or less became a myth. In 2013 Benjamin Curtis passed away from lymphoma at the age of 35 and between that tragedy and the underwhelming results of the groups most recent work, most folks assumed after a few years that although there was no formal break up announcement, the Secret Machines were a band that only existed in the past tense.
Years passed, but in early 2018, Brandon Curtis posted a cryptic message to his twitter that featured video of Garza playing drums in the studio. Their fans were stoked, but alas, eighteen months passed without so much as a cookie crumb of a clue as to what the future would hold. That all changed in June when they announced their first new album in over a decade from the group, now a duo, which featured contributions from numerous musicians including Brandon’s late brother.
A few days before the release of their new album, Glide conducted individual zoom interviews with both Garza and Curtis to get the story on how this album came together, what had been transpiring over the last twelve years, what their expectations were for their new release and what folks can expect from them in the future. The second half of this two-part feature will provide some insight from Brandon Curtis on how the album was produced, what the experience has been like rebooting the group after all these years and how the loss of his brother impacted his past, present and future as an artist.
But right now, we’re talking with Garza from his home in Los Angeles. He’s a father now and naptime is almost over, so we’re keeping our eyes on the clock. But he was eager to talk about an exciting moment in the bands history with days to go before the world got their first listen to the entirety of Awake in the Brain Chamber.
How far back does this project go? I know it’s been 12 years since the last record but when was Awake in The Brain Chamber born?
Brandon started working on these songs in 2010 after the third album cycle [finished]. He got a gig playing with Interpol so that started the hiatus. We didn’t mean for it to be a hiatus it just turned out that way. I moved out to California and one thing led to another.
Brandon kept making music and it was going to turn into his solo project, Cosmicide, but then Ben passed away and that threw a lot of his momentum off. These songs have been trying to come into the world for a long time. Life happened to these songs. Ben’s [death] happened and Brandon dealt with that and then last year was very difficult for my family and that put a pause on stuff. I guess near the end of last year, that’s when we were kind of lost because we weren’t in a position to play a show right away but were ready for the world to hear the songs.
People couldn’t figure what to do with this album, but then the pandemic happened and it took a lot those concerns off the table. It took a lot of pressure off of us. We love to play live and are somewhat known for our crazy live show, so it was cool that just for a minute the planet wasn’t going to talk about touring and shows. That made it so we could put the album out without a lot of pressure. One thing led to another. It kept snowballing to the point where we did things in a way we feel good about… Or at least relatively so with respect to the fact that there’s a pandemic going on.
The Secret Machines had always been a trio. Is this material you can play live as a duo or is that not something you’re even thinking about?
We have another added level of logistics which is that I live in Los Angeles and Brandon lives in Vermont. There’s a group of guys, two guys and a girl, and they’d kind of be our band, and they’re in New York City, so the plan was to get in the same room and rehearse to do shows. In today’s day and age, with everyone doing these acoustic zoom gigs maybe we could do something like that but what we really want is to put on a rock show which is what we’re good at. With loud speakers, lights and a full experience.
Would you guys do some kind of concert film or video? A show without a crowd so people can further experience the new songs?
We’ve thought about it but we’ve been trying to figure out how to do it since we both live so far away. We have a lot of ideas about how to do it. We want to do something really cool. Most bands write a song and then record it and that’s the song and the way it will live. But for us, recording the song is just a part of the evolution and it keeps growing with the way we play it live. Tempos change. Endings change. The songs keep growing and that’s something I’m excited about for these songs. Right now they’re on a pause. They’re not continuing to grow because they aren’t being played live. We’ll definitely be able to play these songs live but right now there are other things to worry about.
I’m trying to understand the Secret Machines as a duo and how you’d play the old material. Am I understanding things right that it’s kind of like The Black Keys, which is a band with two formal members but there are still more people in the band that play with them and record with them? Like it might be a five-person live act and they have multiple performers on their albums but the band is technically just two dudes.
I think that might be a good way to think about it right now, because things change. You meet the right group of guys and suddenly they’re in the band, but we haven’t had a chance to get to that point. For all intents and purposes it’s just me and Brandon. We’re the Secret Machines and once we do play we’ll see where that goes. We don’t want people to feel like hired guns because the part of the Secret Machines that makes it special is the musicians have a hand in the sonics and are involved. They’re risking it on stage. So people in bands won’t go for it if they feel like a hired gun.
They just play what they’re told.
Yeah, and we don’t want to do that to people. Obviously there are songs we need to play, so we want to find that middle ground where people can be themselves.
It makes me think of how Bernie Worrell was never “in” the Talking Heads but he was such an established synth player, when he performed with those guys, they all saw him as so much more than just a hired gun and he really got to contribute creatively. Is that the dynamic you’re looking for?
We haven’t figured that out yet because we haven’t even had a chance to play. We’re open to everything but right now it’s kind of cool that we don’t have to figure it out [laughs]. It feels good to be like, “Yeah man nobody can tour.” I’m not going to any shows. It’s hard but it’s a good time for artists to do music however they can. Look at My Morning Jacket, they released something they had in the vault because they decided now is the time. Why not? It’s exciting, fun, and people are less inclined to review things on that pre-Covid vibe. I feel like reviews have a different vibe because people are just excited to see what bands are doing. It’s almost like times are too fucked up to be ripping people a new asshole.
What happened to Phil [Karnats]?
Nothing. Phil is a good friend. I think the same thing we were talking about, when we got to the end of that cycle for that last record, he was a member of the band, and it felt like we didn’t make a decision not to include him or to exclude him on this record, just these particular songs had gone down a certain path. Phil is a great guy. We go way back to before Secret Machines from our days in Dallas. I love that guy. We did another record with him, The Moth, the Lizard and the Secret Machines, this other record we did after the self-titled album, and eventually that’s going to see the light of day.
So that album is done?
It’s pretty much done. Brandon just has to mix it.
But you’ve already laid all the tracks?
Yeah, they’re all there. Phil is going to have his moment when we release that album. He’ll obviously be a big part of that because he was involved in the writing and production. He’s a part of the scene, just not on this particular album because it didn’t include him. But it wasn’t even a decision [to exclude him].
I don’t know how aware you are of this but The Moth, the Lizard and the Secret Machines has taken on mythical stature amongst your fans.
I know [laughs]! I’m telling you it’s great! It’s going to be 180 degrees from Awake in The Brain Chamber. This album is contained and not as experimental, but The Moth album, everything about it is insane. The way we recorded it, tracked it, put it together, the way it came together. When people hear those songs they’ll hear that we went as far out as possible as a space rock band while still making sense. We wanted it to be the next release [after the self-titled album] but it just never worked out.
I’d call “Dreaming of Dreaming” your most spaced out song. How do these songs compare?
I think [The Moth is] more out there. I think it’s similar in that it’s got this rockin’ groove but it takes that and keeps going. “Dreaming of Dreaming” was maybe a sign of where we were heading because that was one of the last songs we did before The Moth. It’s on that end of the spectrum because you can just put it on and zone out and have it take you on a journey into the depth of space, you know? That album, when it finally comes out, I think people will really appreciate it.
I always hear bands say they try not to do what they did on the last album but, man, I can’t even remember what we did on our last album, so this time around it helped us to say, “We are the Secret machines, but aren’t beholden to a vibe or tour or something that happened a year and a half ago.” There’s enough time and space for folks to know it’s us but to know we’re not just rehashing. We’re not trying to make Now Here Is Nowhere: Part II.
It’s not 2004 anymore.
No dude! it’s 2020 and there’s a global pandemic.
What else is on the agenda?
Well, we’ve re-released our first two records on vinyl and we still plan to do the same for the self-titled album. We’ve got The Moth album, and we’ve got an EP of songs we’ve recorded that didn’t really fit in on Awake in the Brain Chamber so they’re an EP of their own. We have a lot on the horizon that people will be excited about. They’ll get new music, reissues, and this Moth album which is probably a 2021 thing. That’s our plan for the next year.
Is there anything that you wanted to say that I haven’t given you the chance to discuss.
I hope people really hear this album and don’t just listen to just one song. We try to give you a vibe and I know people don’t listen to albums anymore, but I do. Brandon and I felt like it would be cool if people listened to this as a whole album. There’s no hit single, not that we ever had hit singles, but we’ve always thought of our albums as something to be played in its entirety.
I forget the name of the last song on the new album but it really sounds like it was made to be the last song of the album.
Yeah man. We put a lot of thought into sequencing and for me, I feel like that’s why we’re talking, because of this new music. I know there’s a history with us and we’ve been gone for a while, but I want people talking to us because of this new album. It can hang with what’s going on today and not lose who we are. We didn’t compromise.
Visit here for second part of our feature on the Secret Machines, featuring a one-on-one interview with Brandon Curtis.
