Present yourself to the readers
Hi there good ppl from Rock Your Underground, this is John from the Dutch metalband 3rd Machine. We just released our album “Quantified Self”, which features 9 awesome modern metal songs and guest vocals by Mark Jansen from Epica/Mayan.
Who composes ?...How does it work in the band ?
Most of the basic ideas for songs originate from the homestudio (and the head) of our lead guitarplayer GertJan, the album Quantified Self consists of (approx 75%) his ideas combined with (25%) riffs and melodies which we wrote in our rehearsal bunker while jamming.
Who writes the texts ?..What are they talking about ?..How does inspiration come ?
Most lyrics on the album are written by John, but Finus and Ronald contributed largely with lyrics on our album. Main subject on the album: how to deal with the perils of modern day society. Does technology makes us better humans and where and when will the aid of technology stop? Can someone with an individual opinion still play a significant role of importance in our current society? Our lyrics continuously change from point of view. On the song System Idle and Petrified I describe a certain period in my life in which I felt disconnected from the rest of society since I sat home without a job... The songs 1953 and Reboot Initiate are about the fact humanity can be considered a virus. How we take the hand that feeds us (ie. earth) for granted, while it has its way of exterminating a virus (action/reaction)... Every song is inspired by different means, 1953 was written after I saw a documentary about the flooding disaster in the Netherlands that happened over 60 years ago. Curveball on the other hand discusses the way politicians manipulate the media to justify the invasion of Iraq. Every song has its own inspiration.
Why the name 3RD MACHINE ?
Good question. What happened to the first and second machine..? To make a long story short, The invention of steam powered machines started the industrial revolution. The changeover from manual labour to machine operated production meant a huge change in how people lived and viewed life in general. We consider this the first machine. The second one happened in the 20th century where computers made their entry in everyday life. The integration of personal computers (together with the internet) gave us the means to have direct contact to each other, the world as we know it became smaller and much more accessible. In both cases the lives of people changed considerably. So how do we go from there? We consider the 3rd Machine as the era where people don't need to think for themselves anymore. With the fast development of selflearning machines combined with Moore's law (every two year calculating capacity of computers is doubled) this future doesn't have to be science fiction or unbelievable. We like to use this concept from the point of view of the learning computer. This gives us the opportunity to use subjects as small individual human doubts or feelings, but also to use larger subjects in our songwriting (religion, technological progress, humanity, etc.). Using this concept as starting point, gives us total freedom in songwriting and subjects to use.
What are your personal musical tastes and your influences ?
For every member of our band this is a different story. Names that everyone in the band likes: Devin Townsend, Fear Factory and Opeth. Ronald has a predilection for 90's deathmetal, but is also considered a fan of Paradise Lost, Finus is more into Progressive (Haken, Leprous, Redemption), Stefan is more into the 21st century metal (KillSwitch Engage and Diablo), GertJan comes from the Heavy Metal side (Judas Priest / Savatage), and for myself, I like almost everything as long as it contains some thought behind the music (doesn't have to be strictly metal though).
Generally, what's the reaction of the public during your concerts ?
You should ask them, but we certainly have an awesome time on stage. ;-) But so far, reactions have been great. The combination of stage props like gasmasks and dynamic visuals really gives our music an extra edge.
What's your best live memory ? And why ?
Many to mention... but the one that stands out for me was our 10 year anniversary last year in our local venue . Also because it was the first time we played Quantified Self songs (while we were still recording it) and the venue was packed with people, even some coming over from Germany and Belgium.
What would be the festival of your dreams ?(with you playing in it of course !!!)
For me this would be a line up with the combination of legendary bands like Fear Factory, Machine Head and Ozzy during a one time resurrection of the legendary Dynamo Open Air festival here in The Netherlands. And also with some bands that we consider friends like Hibakusha, For I Am King, Spartan, etc. Too many to mention, it will probably be a 10 day festival! ;-)
What are your future dates ?
September 17th we are asked to perform on Haerlemsche Helden, a big local festival in our hometown. Since this is more of a showcase festival and metal didn't get much attention in the past editions we asked some local metal singers to help us out. We will be doing a special show with 3 extra vocalists... total mayhem on stage! In december we will also do a show on the Anthology metalfest in the Netherlands and currently we are working on a promotional tour for Quantified Self. So more dates should follow asap.
