We've made a change in the band line-up!
But don't worry, all the members remain
. But we've changed things around a little.
Check it out:
Gaz vocals (only, most of the time)
Gibli lead guitar (and backing vocals)
Gordon rhythm guitar (and backing vocals)
Poe bass guitar (and backing vocals)
Tomas drums
As you can see, there's no one playing the keyboards in this line-up. The synths and SIDs will be automated in the background. I've turned over my guitar to Gordon. Now, before you do something crazy, like pretend this is the end of the world, or go out rampaging in the street, raping teenagers and killing policemen, or compare us to depeche mode and say "you guyzzez R nuthin w/o teh k33boredz, plz ffs!!", please do check out my nice little mini-FAQ that covers the questions I was able to predict in advance, mk? thx.
Peace in the IRL
/R
= Q1: Why?There are 5 reasons:
1. Gordon and I prefer it.
We examined what we could improve with our performance, and one thing I felt was crucial was that I get to focus on vocals only - which means I'd have to turn over guitar-playing to someone else. We've had the idea to incorporate automated synth background (and a click-track for tomas) for a year or two now, and we realized that if we did this now, we could pluck away the keyboards from our stage performance, and let Gordon take over my role as rhythm guitar player (being, as many of you may be unaware of, originally a guitarist). This is what he wants, and it is what I want.
...Oh, and so you don't misunderstand me, the rest of the guys are onboard with this also.
2. Better synth output live
One of the main complaints on MaSu live shows have been that the synths are not audible enough. Giving the sound guy a simple, pre-mastered synth output to deal with will make his job easier, as well as ensure the output strength in volume that is needed.
3. More synths, strings and SID live
Yes, it's amazing isn't it? Some songs and parts of songs have more stuff than we can handle in real-time, so live we've compromised and only played some parts in the past. Other parts have a beat-matched rhythm, like some SID arpeggios (Blind Dog Pride, Ninja, etc), requiring Tomas to play after the synths and not the other way around - something above our technical abilities before. This is no longer a problem. Maybe now you can expect to hear some songs live that you never heard before, as well as sounds in songs you've felt were missing (although this could also be because of the problem in the previous point (check above)). ;-) In other words, live shows will be more true to the original material.
4. Better live performance
With our old setup, both me and Gordon were locked in place at our positions on stage, me behind a stationary mic, and Gordon behind the keyboards. This is no longer the case.
5. Logistics
Not something most of you would care about, but for us this makes travelling and gigs easier. We get a nice 20-25kgs cut from the gear we bring and have to stuff into the van when we go to gigs. And they take up a fuck-of-a-lot of space, too.
= Q2: Why now?We've been wanting to do this, talking about it for quite some time. I remember mentioning this idea, among others, to Poe first time I talked to him about joining the band, but we've stuck with our old ways because they were comfortable and we never had a long time inbetween gigs to change and re-learn. Now it feels like we're at a crossroads where we'll be getting bigger and more serious gigs, and we know that _some_ parts of our performance has never really improved during the years, and so this became the solution. Now or never, right? We decided to take this time to make this transition and take time to adjust. We've had to turn down 2 gigs because of it, but it's going to be worth it.
= Q3: "Click-track", "synths automated in the background"... I don't get with it all means???Don't worry. This is music-tech theory and practice and really has no importance in the grand scheme of things, from a fan perspective anyway, and if this stuff doesn't make sense to you, than you're unlikely to care about it anyway. Continue to enjoy Machinae Supremacy music and gigs just like before. But some people will have issues with this, like we've seen so many times in the past whenever we do something new, that it felt necessary to write a little FAQ, more for them than anyone else.
= Q4: But but but... Gordon's always played the Keyboards!?! What does this mean to the songwriting process?The songwriting process doesn't change. We're still making the songs the way we've always made them. With us, it's not about each member fighting to be heard while doing his own thing. We all play several instruments and we make the songs together. We include the parts that fit, and leave out the ones that don't. What you see me or Jonne or Tomas or whoever play live may actually be something written by another member entirely. My point is, who plays what live doesn't matter to the creative process behind the material.
= Q5: So like… This is not just a way for you guys to phase out synths and SID from your musix0rz, slowly but surely like the cr33ping death from above?No. Nevah.
= Q6: "Automated in the background"
Sounds like some sort of playback bullshit that's totally fake and turns you all into posers!!?We've decided that if it's good enough for "In Flames", "Evergray", "Linkin Park", "H.I.M.", "Garbage", "Slipknot", "Rammstein", â€Dream Evil†and "Marilyn Manson", then it's good enough for us.
