Sex & Machines Interview
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How did you come up with the name of the band?
The bands name is Sex and Machines. S&M for short....How did you come up with the name of the band?
The bands name is Sex and Machines. S&M for short.
Nick Sex: ; I came up with the name with another original founding father of the group, Arturo Machines. The group started out as a sexy guitar duo and the band name was simply our last names yet it seemed to have a magical ring to it like Hall and Oats, Heckle and Jeckle and Y&T. I eventually moved on to the group that we are now and the name came with me, though Arturo went on to other ventures. Now it means something slightly different, more along the lines of the amalgam of organic and inorganic to create an alchemy of sexy, funky hard rocking, head bopping, jaw dropping ass shaking music.; Plus I loved that the acronym was S&M.
What does music mean to you?
For all of us I think I can say music is everything. Music is the ocean that floats our boats. Music is the thread that makes up the complete fabric of our being. It seeps into every aspect of our lives. It inspires and drives, heals and remedies. The mass of my (quality) relationships are based or brought about through music. You have music in your car, music on the bus, music in your house, music when you F@#%. Everyone loves music and how different kinds of music can make you feel or time travel to other moods and memories. The power of music is amazing, how music can affect a crowd with the slightness of melody and harmony will manipulate emotions. You can rev people up, you can bring people down, you can make people laugh and you can make people want to fight.
Best of all music can make people simultaneously remember and forget. Most of all its sexy.
How do you feel your music inspires people today?
They must dance!
Our music is fun, it rocks on one level, its funky on another level it has some serious cerebral moments but it always has an undertone of humor or a subliminal ‘wink , wink so to say. We are all here to enjoy ourselves and make the best of whom and where we are and we are just trying to make the whole trip more enjoyable and sexy.
What town did you grow up in?
Nick Sex: Sin City, U.S.A.
Chocolate Supreme: Hershey, P.A.
The Velvet Squirrel: Cuernavaca, Mexico
What are some of the hardest thing you have come across being who you are as an artist?
One thing is our name kind of sets off the alarms for some people at first, especially venues and bookers. They think we are going to be x rated, dirty sleazy guys with obscene lyrics and banter and play with our genitalia hanging out, well; we are and do but the music is great and crowds usually succumb after the first few songs.
More seriously the venues around here are few and far between. The ones that are available are very genre specific or are trying to cater to the ‘money. There are only a handful of all ages venues. Age has nothing to do with music and we would love to play for anyone who wants to listen regardless of their age. I think the desire for a great all ages music venue/night club/gallery in the downtown area of our town (Santa Rosa) is extremely large among music goers/listeners yet the city is stifling this for many reasons most of which have to due with paranoid rich geezers and their fear of anything that doesnt have a commercial name brand on it. The problem is a catch 22 there are great venues in San Francisco, the East Bay and Marin but if you are from Sonoma County it is hard to bring your friends/fan base all the way to these venues. Its even harder to gather a fan base in these outlying areas on a Wednesday night gig. It is a very slow difficult process to break into the scene and it is a cut throat too cool for school popularity contest. Its a good thing we are so sexy.
Where do you see your productions in the future?
Far more elaborate. As of now we strive to make every show better than the last. As of now we incorporate some theatre and performance art into our live shows. We have theme shows that involve costumes, characters, personas, sketches, audience participation and such but would like to get even more involved in theatrics during our shows. We have some plans for live video projection, sampled triggers and cues to embellish the theatrics, some additional players and even a drunken party clown to rile up the audience. We are working on a machine that projects an ultrasonic wave into the audience, synchronized with our music it will stimulate the crowd into a frenzied lustful state to point of orgasm. The downside, if you will, is passer-by-ers and bartenders will feel as if they have been mind raped by a guitar solo. It still has some bugs and no one likes bugs.
Name Some artist you have worked with on stage.
Arturo Machines, Chris Taylor from Shark Bait, D.J. Paul Timberman. The Pink Triangle, The Hot Topic, The Gimp.
Have you ever gotten stage fright?
Only when the stage is really, really tall. But thats just because I have a fear of heights.
What are some of you favorite Artists/Producers?
The short list: Nick Cave, Frank Zappa, Gogol Bordello, Leningrad, James Brown, Ween, Talking Heads, Tom Waits, Snakefinger, Primus/Les Claypool, The Birthday Party, Crispin ‘Hellion Glover, Sly, Snoop, Jimmy, Barry, Eazy, Meatloaf, and that guy that rides his bike in my neighborhood screaming Journey songs.
What artist or producer is you inspiration to do what you do?
Hugh Hefners early productions really inspired me.
Artist, musician Zack Davis.
Bukowski always brings a smile.
Dante.
Whoever paints those sexy velvet rugs with dogs playing poker.
Huell Howser
And of course Cher is an inspiration to everyone who believes in life after love.
Oh and J.T. because he is bringing sexy back and thats good.
When is your next show?
This month we have a few great shows.
October 24th we are at Jasper OFarrells with Blushift and Stereo T.Y.P.E. This should be a humdinger.
On October 30th we are in Fairfax at 19 Broadway with Slow Motion Red and Scene of Action And on Halloween we are at one of our favorite haunts The Black Cat Bar in Penngrove with The Flyover States. This should be an awesome show as well.
Name your shout-outs.
Hey you kids get off of my lawn!
supersonic
