Here’s a concept: band forms, gets good, works hard, ends up on a prominent national indie label, lands tour with one of the country’s biggest indie-rock acts. Not exactly scandal sheet material; any future biographers are going to have to do some digging to unearth any intrigue.
“Nothing really has happened to us that’s been shocking… we worked pretty hard, and everything’s happened pretty gradually,” says guitarist/singer Brooke Gallupe.
Victoria trio Immaculate Machine’s journey to the threshold of success is a straight one, but lucikly they don’t have to rely on a rocky history for artistic credibility. The three wide-eyed pop enthusiasts make sterling, bittersweet 80s revival rock and sing together with a stunning harmonic sensibility.
Though the band’s three-year history may seem fast-paced when compared to the plight of other struggling artists, Immaculate Machine packed enough labour into a small span of time to make their evolution seem perfectly natural.
Longtime pals Gallupe, Kathryn Calder (vocals/ keyboards), and Luke Kozlowski (vocals/drums) formed Immaculate Machine in Victoria in 2002, releasing two albums independently before signing to veteran West Coast indie label Mint Records last year and recording their new Ones and Zeros album with John Collins and David Carswell (better known as JC/DC, the production team behind Tegan & Sara, Destroyer, and many others). They spent most of the past few months touring across the U.S. with labelmates The New Pornographers, and now they’re touring on their own again, with a few extra notches in their guitar straps.
“It was really kind of a dream come true-the tour was really great; it was really low-stress because everything’s already planned for you, and everyone takes care of you and all the shows are busy, but… I kind of miss the unpredictability,” Gallupe admits, which is partly why the band chose to book their current tour by themselves.
“Putting too much difference between us and the people that put on the shows, and the people that go to the shows, doesn’t seem like the greatest idea to me,” he notes.
Reaction to Immaculate Machine’s music from both critics and audiences has been quite positive, but it seems like no one can describe the band without placing indie supergroup The New Pornographers at the centre of the discussion. After all, lead singer Kathryn Calder is head Pornographer Carl Newman’s niece, and she sang on their record and has been performing onstage with that band. Familial bonds aside, however, there’s no real reason to staple one band to the other.
Gallupe says that plenty of reviewers have likened their music to that of The New Pornographers, which is (if it may be interjected) a real cop-out. Immaculate Machine have their own sound, and time to polish their own identity: “We’re kind of the young upstarts at the label, for sure,” Gallupe notes, adding, “I love it. It makes me feel hopeful.”
Their sound is as darling as their precocious reputation might make it out to be, but it’s far from twee or trite. Imagine The Organ with a sugar rush, or The Cure if they could harmonize.
The trio (all students at the University of Victoria when they’re not on the road rocking out) is fortunately endowed with a whole lot of good sense. They made their own plans in the past, and currently deliberate about the future with dreams anchored in reason. However, reason seems to be giving their dreams some leeway these days. They’ve finally obtained a little financial recompense for their efforts, which in turn has nourished their ambitions.
“This is the first time that we’re kind of making enough money that we can actually sort of survive,” Gallupe says, “and it kind of makes us realize that it’s totally what we want to be doing.”
Immaculate Machine play the Cameron House tonight (Nov. 10) w/ the Postage Stamps, and tomorrow (Nov. 11) at O’Grady’s w/ Spitfires & Mayflowers and The Guest Bedroom (part of the Pitter Patter Nights concert series). Both shows $5.
