Heading from Sicily to the heart of any music lover, Human Machine took over the scene with their EP ‘146‘ on Connaisseur Records in no time. Torture the Artist had the chance to speak to Musumeci, Sisio, Simeone and Pavi about the start of the group, how they flow the Sicilian way and about Take That.
Torture the Artist: Human Machines consists out of four members. How did the idea of founding an electronic music group with four members come about, as it’s rather unusual in the scene?
Human Machine: We’re just friends with a common passion, the music. Everything started in a very natural way – we met one night in the studio to have fun together and we ended up with some ideas for a first EP, Black Mechanism.
Torture the Artist: Are there some tasks one of you always does, or does everyone work on everything the approximately the same amount?
Human Machine: There are no rules, every drum pattern, melody, chords progression or programmed arpeggio is welcome. What we do is just working on the more promising and inspiring material coming from one group member.
Torture the Artist: Do you have a specific creative process that you have learned works best for all you?
Human Machine: Most of the time, because it’s not easy for all of us to be together, we develop the basic structure of the ideas on our own. This way the moment we enter the studio there is already music to listen to. When we feel there’s something interesting then we start working to improve the idea and make it happen.
None of us could compare to Robbie Williams.
Torture the Artist: Since you have four members, one could say you are the ‘Take That’ of eletronic music. ‘If you were to compare Human Machine to Take That, who would be Mark, Robbie, Owen and Gary and why?’
Human Machine: We never thought we’d be compared to a pop band . We feel like the number of us could be the only factor in common with Take That.
It’s not about the music in general, but it’s a fact we are no superstars and we don’t aim to be anything like that. Being serious we also must say none of us could compare to Robbie Williams.
Torture the Artist: Was the ‘146 EP‘ on Connaisseur the most beneficial move you made to further your career?
Human Machine: 146 EP was a good three tracker we played to Alex and he was excited to release it on Connaisseur. It went well and there is no doubt that most of the people know us for this work so far.
Torture the Artist: Talking about your productions, how do you know when a track is finished?
Human Machine: If everything flows right and you need to listen to it again and again, this is a good sign. We also use to test the tracks for a while, if they keep on giving us the right feeling each time then we start thinking they might be ready to be released.
We love music and we like to express the music inside our hearts.
Torture the Artist: What are the four different musical roots and skills that you try to mix into one identity with Human Machine?
Human Machine: We’ve all been dj’ing for almost two decades, and in all this time we felt in love with very different kinds of electronic music and this is probably the common factor in our formation. We have different approaches, of course, but when we talk about music we speak the same language. Actually we don’t try to merge one to another with a particular process, we are merged already probably because of the very similar roots.
Torture the Artist: Did you receive any musical training or education during you childhood, either formal or informal?
Human Machine: Unfortunately we can’t say we were studying and playing piano at the age of 5 or listening to the great classics at age 7. Our approach is completely informal; we love music and we like to express the music inside our hearts while trying to not offend anyone’s ears.
We are Sicilians, we do what Sicilians like the most: eating, talking and having fun.
Torture the Artist: In your description on Facebook it says ‘The sound of humans merging into machines is here‘, which is quite a futuristic approach to music as scientists assume that humans and machines will merge completely at the end of this century. To what extend do you consider your sound forward-thinking and hence differing from the current sound in the scene?
Human Machine: Our music is not futuristic or forward thinking in the sense of any innovative approach in the making or using particular amazing machine that will be released in some years. We use possible scenarios as inspiration. Music is also visual suggestions and our way to compose is strongly influenced by this kind of imaginary, places somewhere in time and space.
Torture the Artist: You recently released your track ‘Elena‘ on the Engrave Ltd Vol. 1. Do you have any other releases or tracks planned for 2017?
Human Machine: We’re working on some new tracks; a couple of them are already in the test process. We’re not in a rush to plan releases; we only produce music when it is ineviteable.
Torture the Artist: When you have a night out with the boys, what do you guys do together?
Human Machine: We are Sicilians, we do what Sicilians like the most: eating, talking and having fun.
Torture the Artist 