Describing themselves as a ‘brand new band’, Empty Machines enter the music landscape with authenticity and character. Naturally, we are quite happy about their arrival on the scene. We are always on the lookout for acts and bands bringing something unique to their cultural environment. Empty Machines do exactly that: a two-piece duo from Glasgow, the project showcases a mysterious, haunting sound that seems to be equal part alternative grit and ethereal soundscapes.
‘Luna’ is Empty Machines’ debut single, a rather punchy and fierce piece. Introduced by cinematic hits and large synthetisers, Jodie Helena’s charming and evocative vocals manage to take the listeners to an otherworldly galaxy, a place made up of unmatched energy and cathartic sonic charge.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with Thomas and Jodie to learn more about their artistry and future goals… Interview below.
Hey guys, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
We are a new band from Glasgow, Scotland blending different genres, such as electronic, shoe-gaze and rock.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; How did you meet each other, and what were the musical references you both had in common? Will the project be expanded with newer members too?
Jodie: joining Empty Machines was a bit of an accident! I met Thomas years ago when he was doing live sound. At the time I was gigging a lot around Glasgow playing my own stuff. After Covid, gigging took a back seat for me and I’d only sing and play guitar on the rare occasion at home. Thomas then got in touch before Christmas, last year to ask me if I’d consider singing on our debut single ‘Luna’. At the time his plan was to get different vocalists for each track, and recording a track was great for me because it got me motivated to get back into music again. However, it ended up working so well that we decided to make the partnership permanent, with me providing vocals on all the tracks.
Thomas: I wouldn’t be opposed to anyone else coming in to play different instruments, but I like the way me and Jodie work together. Everything has been pretty seamless and been really easy to produce songs together.
If you had the opportunity to pick any artists in the world for a collaboration, who would be your first choice? (and second choice, perhaps?)
Thomas: As I like experimenting and blending different sounds/genres, I’d like to work with artists such as Hans Zimmer, Bjork, or Fred Again…
Jodie: I love songwriting and incredible shows, so I’d like to collaborate with artists who are inspirational writers and have a huge stage presence – Bruce Springsteen, Brandon Flowers, Mick Jagger.
You recently released ‘Luna’, a fantastic, dreamy and ethereal gem with lots of punch and intensity. A sort of blend between alt-rock and shoegaze, with a certain saturated outlook. What does the record mean for you?
Thomas: To be totally honest, I like it when things are ambiguous and open to interpretation. Luna is loosely based on the Greek goddess of the moon. But people can make what they want of it. It started off with being inspired by that story, but it sort of evolved into its own thing.
Jodie: I think my approach to songwriting is common in that I can really only write songs which are personal to me and which have a main message that I feel connected to. However, Thomas wrote Luna and completely turned my approach to songwriting on its head. As he mentioned, it’s ambiguous – it means something different to everyone that listens, and I think that adds to that dreaminess and uncertainty about what’s going to happen next.
Is ‘Luna’ an accurate representation of your style, and would you say future singles will be more eclectic, at least sonically?
Thomas: The sound definitely changes from song to song. This is due to the fact we introduce different instruments into each song. Some of the songs we’ve been working on have live string sections performed on them, and one of the songs we’ve been recording recently has a Persian Daf drum performed on it. We really wanted to release songs which stand on their own. We didn’t want to release loads of music that just sounds like a repeat of the previous one. Our next single is quite dark and sounds quite a bit different compared to Luna in my opinion, this could be a good thing, or a bad thing, that is yet to be seen.
How does your writing process work? Is it a collaborative endeavour or a solo activity?
Thomas: This started as a ’solo’ thing but our goal is to be more collaborative moving forward.
Jodie: The writing at the moment for the band has been Thomas because it started as a solo project, but with me being a singer-songwriter and Thomas being an incredible musician and writer, I’m finding that he’ll put together a new track and I’ll naturally add the lyrical melody when I first hear it, so I can definitely see much more collaboration happening as we move forwards. It’ll be interesting to see how the differences in our approaches to songwriting will work too.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
Thomas: I think the fact we do everything on our own, has been quite difficult. Especially with the production element of it. It’s much easier recording other artists than it is doing your own stuff as you tend to overthink it. I sent my mix away to an engineer in New York to get a fresh pair of ears on it. I think I will continue to work that way. Also trying to manage full-time jobs while doing all this work doesn’t help either. We literally didn’t exist until Luna was released as we haven’t even played live or anything together, so we had to put extra effort into the self-promotion as we didn’t have a foundation to build upon.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Thomas: We are aiming to release a new single every four to five months. We had been recording non-stop for six months, so we have a lot of releases in the pipeline.
