In the colorful primordial soup of the Rhine Graben, concentrated in a Free Castle on the edge of the Black Forest, particles came together from the ruins of past entities that had once joined, repelled, and finally rejoined to form a noisy construct of rusty metal and plant tissue. Gears grind, delicate blossoms unfold their luminous beauty, and mighty roots unite with electric cables to form a pulsating network. At the center sits the mighty heart of pure energy, at odds with space and time and in constant battle with itself: Orchid Machine
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
The interview was conducted with Nikolas Ziefle, a member of the Orchid Machine band.
Hello Orchid Machine. What strengths do you have that you believe make you a great musician?
Well, I think I can speak for all of us in saying that none of us considers himself a 'great musician'... We have all spent a lot of time practicing our asses off and are trying to give our best to make the music sound great at least. One of our biggest strengths is probably that we are open to being inspired by all different styles of music. We all listen to a lot of different styles of metal, rock, jazz, flamenco, latin, classical music, country, fusion, electronic music, and so on. And when composing, we try to keep our minds open for all the different sounds and vibes from all these styles we love to listen to. So this reflects in our music and makes our sound very colorful and dynamic.
Who inspired you to make music?
Wow, a lot of great musicians, producers, and other artists... Lately Claude Debussy, Jojo Maier, and producers like Joe Baressi.
Musicians that have influenced us are, for example, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Buena Vista Social Club, The Doors, Tool, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jeff Beck, Enslaved, Disturbed,
New Keepers Of The Water Tower, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, David Bowie,
just to name a few...
Your latest release is 'Answers To Questions Never Asked'. Can you share with us the background of its creation and did any unusual things happen during its creation?
I think it says it all when I tell you that the first studio session was planned for December 2019... The pandemic caused the recordings to be delayed and delayed and delayed...
But when we finally made it to the Overload Sound Garage in Muggensturm, we were well prepared, and it was an enriching and intense process to record the songs.
We choose to record live without clicking, all together in one room, to capture the organic, emotion-driven vibe of our music. This was, of course, a very challenging way to do it compared to overdubbing instrument after instrument.
Each one of us had moments of feeling completely lost and barely being able to play along with the great sound the other three guys were creating.
Can you shortly describe each of the tracks that are on the album?
1. A Little Thing - Our Metal Hit;-) Very heavy with some cool progressive spice, still psychedelic, and with a surprising ending.
2. M Fckng Hd Xplds - Danceable, groovy, crazy shit with Fusion influence and weird sounds. Great vocals by the wonderful Bella Nugent; check out her new album, "Waiting For Arabella"!!
3. Payback - An angry, dirty, punky outburst against this fucked-up world ruled by perverted capitalism. But within there are some dreamy vibes, and as reward for not skipping comes a beautiful guitar solo.
4. I Don't Wanna Be A Man - A statement against growing up too much and taking life too seriously. Also very angry, groovy, and dirty, with a beautifully psychedelic bridge and an almost radio-like chorus... Almost...
5. Eine Gewisse Menge An Zeit - A sad, deep, emotional poem spoken by our former drummer and accompanied by noisy improvisations, leading to a broken funk loop made for torturing your ears!
6. Flapirhynth - A melodic and melancholy rock song with lots of dynamic variety and a furious ending. The topic is total confusion in space and time.
7. Gods Own Favourite - Our party song! Country Rock with jazzy kicks and a blastbeat-ending;-)
8./9. Wurzel - An epic tale without words. Dark, doomy, and intense. After this, there must be silence...
How do you stay up-to-date with the latest musical trends?
Not at all... I forced myself to listen to some of the German Top 40 recently. After that, I had to blast my ears with the most evil and dirty black metal I could find to wash my soul clean again.
What makes you different from others?
Our stylistic open-mindedness, our trashy nonsense humor displayed at our live shows, and our non-conformity with the latest musical trends.
What’s an average day like for you?
Working in two different jobs to make a living, composing, practicing, organizing band stuff, hopefully finding time for sports, playing complex boardgames, or going out and drinking beer:-)
Please discuss how you interact with and respond to fans.
We mostly meet people at our concerts, love to hear their reactions, opinions, and criticism, have fun interacting with them during the concert, and celebrate with them after the show. First we make them drunk, and then we sell them overpriced merchandise to make as much money out of them as possible!
What advice would you have for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Don't do it. Hehehe, no, really, I think I am the wrong person to ask...
What are your plans for the future?
Composing, going a few steps further on the path of developing our own sound, exploring the never-ending cosm of sonic creation...