Upclose with Immaculate Machine

HK Magazine: Your album “Fables” was a big success; why did you change the formula with the new album “High On Jackson Hill?”
Brooke Gallupe: No artist I respect tries to recreate the same album over and over again. To me, what makes a band good is their ability to always do something new and interesting. The recording process on “HOJH” was more raw and spontaneous, which made it the most fun album to make. On “Fables” we spent hours trying to be perfectly in tune, on the new album we spent that time exploring different recording environments like kitchens or bathrooms.

HK: But why specifically record it in your parents’ house?
BG: We wanted to record somewhere with no stress. In studios, you have someone who has a job to refill your water, which makes it less OK to screw up. At my parent’s house, which they kindly abandoned for a month for our use, there was no pressure at all—lots of room to experiment.

HK: How does it feel to have five members in the band now?
BG: There is so much more you can do musically and dynamically. When it was just a trio, all three of us were concentrating on doing as much as humanly possible. Now we can have more fun. However, five people on tour is a different matter. All of a sudden, it’s harder to fit in the van, and you wait longer for a turn in the shower.

HK: Tell us about the wonderful Immaculate Machine cover art.
BG: The cover art is painted by my little sister, Caitlin. She’s now joined the group on bass, which is awesome. She is a very talented visual artist.

HK: What’s the story behind the Mandarin song “Wo Xiang Tan Bai”
BG: We did an album of translations into French because I studied French at university. When a national radio broadcaster heard this, he thought it was funny and said, “What’s next? Chinese?” As a practical joke on him, we had our friend translate one of our songs into Mandarin and teach it to us phonetically. The DJ was blown away when he heard it! We had no idea what we were singing of course. We are trying to learn a bit more of the language before we get to Hong Kong and China, so we can at least understand our own song.

HK: What do you expect from your first China tour?
BG: I am hoping at least a few panda bears turn up to our shows. That is high on the priority list. I think the exciting thing about this tour is that we have no expectations. We know we’re going to be confused a lot of the time, and we’ll have to eat some things we don’t recognize from our planet, but otherwise we are just looking forward to a new experience.