On the eve of their first gig of 2023 and following a series of much talked about gigs towards the end of last year, I caught up with Water Machine to talk about the band, their music, gigs and their upcoming plans. The band were in high spirits when I met them, after a rehearsal prior to their gig with Bikini Body in the Hug and Pint, their good humour and infectious sunny disposition entirely contagious and a much needed tonic, so I was keen to find out more about the band members and how the band came together.
Introducing the Band
Jimmy: I did this solo thing for years called Passion Pusher, we done an album, I wasn’t happy with it, we did a tour and only played one song from the album, I took a long break from music and now I do this and I’ve just started a band called Goodbody with Rachel and we’re going into La Chunky at the end of the month with Paul Thomson to do tape loops and stuff. I play the guitar and noodle!
Hando: I started the band with Jimmy, (to Jimmy) you’d post riffs on Instagram and I’d be like, that’s sick and then I’d send you lyrics, and we realised we both 2anted to start a band with each other for a while, then it all came together. I also play in Goth GF, the first band I started in Glasgow and I’ve recently started playing in Lung Leg as well, I’ll be doing more stuff with them soon, but my main focus just now is with Water Machine, cos we’ve got a lot of things coming up.
Flore: I’m the old auntie of the band (Jimmy – “Flo’s my mum”), I used to play bass in a band called Wet Look, it was really fun, but I only played bass on two songs, which gave Jimmy the impression I could actually play the bass, and this band was looking for a bass player and couldn’t really figure out why they asked me. Jimmy asked me when I was bringing round Pat (Flore’s lovely dog)Jimmy and Slice are Pat’s second parents, so I said sure, I can’t play bass but why not. I’m also in a band called Brenda who are about to take over the world, we’re fucking amazing.I am in such a lucky position to be in two bands that are both really exciting and fun. Fun is the common denominator. I’m lucky to be in two bands that don’t take themselves too seriously and are quite fun, don’t take themselves too seriously, not too earnest, and I’m just happy to be here! I just feel old sometimes (*interviewer immediately feels deflated at the mention of age in the presence of youth…)
Goda: I’ve known Hando for quite some time, I used to be in a band called Soursob before lockdown and we played a couple of shows with Goth GF, our last ever show was with Goth GF, we were always very close, and Hando was always someone I really wanted to do a music project with. It was always difficult to replace Lisa when she went back to Australia (from Delivery) (Hando: This is Lisa from Delivery by the way, we’re playing with Delivery when they come from Australia to tour here – I stepped into her big boots!) Yeah, you (to Hando) posted something on Instagram, like can anyone play drums, nothing too complicated (Flore – you’re my favourite drummer – so many cowbells!) (Jimmy): I got a free set of cowbells from a mans garage in Shawlands, he pulled up the garage door and there was like amps, drums and stuff and I was hoping he’d offer something else for free, maybe a nice 70s Marshall cab if you’re not using it, so we got cowbells and that was like our “sound”. (Flore) Facebook marketplace created our sound! (Hando) yeah the keyboard I play was free too…
I Quit!
Cue convenient call from Lewis and a whole animated conversation about quitting jobs and writing the song I Quit…leading into a conversation about who writes the bands songs and wher their inspiration comes from, obviously from friends then…
Hando: It started off with me and Jimmy, we wrote a couple of songs,
Jimmy: Hot Real Estate came from me and my girlfriend doing the Artsy Vice Show, I recorded the the simple intro riff on my phone, trying to rip off Uranium Club and Devo and it came from there, most of our songs come from a noodle from me…
Hando: you do a noodle, Flore does a little tune
Flore: it’s all very on the spot, we’re very quick at writing in this band, and we all come from very different places which is good, me and Jimmy are similar..
Jimmy: yeah we kind of work things out, I’m like that sounds like Million Tears by the Pastels and Hando is like, who are the Pastels?
Flore: we were supporting Gerry Love at the sold out Mono show and Hando was like we’ll probably be the main band as were the only full band
Jimmy: yeah, I said Gerry Love was in Teenage Fanclub and you were like, who’s Teenage Fanclub?
Flore: that’s what makes the band really good, Hando then pushes it to the max and plays some crazy time signatured punk stuff, so everyone gets pushed and pulled out of their comfort zone a wee bit
TGQ: that’s one of the things I like about you, you can’t pigeonhole your sound.
Jimmy: I don’t think I’ve heard an accurate description of our sound yet
Goda: I’ve never found it so easy to write songs, Jimmy will play one thing and suddenly we’ll all be right, yeah – I’ve never had it that quick in any band
Hando: we literally wrote the song, waiting for Goda while we were waiting for Goda arriving for band practice
Flore: it’s a very creative band which is really nice, it’s really nice that we’re constantly writing. I love that already we’ve got stuff we’ve swapped out for other songs
Hando: yeah, people are alrad6 asking for old songs, like we’ve played 8 gigs or something. I’ve already been asked to play Pat a bunch of times (about Flore’s dog)
Flore: it wasn’t our best song, but the audience participation was amazing.
Jimmy: it went on for like 7 minutes and it sounded like the Foo Fighters, we try to design our set so it runs like soft/hard/soft/hard/soft up and down and we had this big ended that was very Foo Fightersy. It was fun, we did some gigs though when people just weren’t into it.
Hando: It’s a singalong, we have to get everybody into it singing along or it sounds really awkward. A couple of gigs people were really into it, then one gig people were just folding their arms…
Flore: it’s because they were too cool for school, people need to get into it, proper lighter in the air stadium rock, people were just too cool for it!
Gig Night
I wondered there and then what I could expect for the gig in the Hug and Pint…
Jimmy: to make our gigs as fun as possible we try to go with a theme, a colour, we’ve done cowboys…We’re doing farmhands and animals (the mind boggles!) you’re cow (Hando), you’re snake (Goda) and we’re the farmhands… I’ll be wearing Dickies dungarees with no shirt (Hando: very The Hills Have Eyes)…
Flore: it’ll be fun
Goda: we might play a new song too
Hando: we’ve called it At the Drive In cos we can’t think of a good title for it, I just really wanted to write a song like them…
Jimmy: we’ve had this song lying around for like a month
Flore: I didn’t like it that’s why, all I said was I wasn’t feeling it yet, then it became “the song that Flore hates” – I quite like it now!
Somehow the conversation turned onto Red Hot Chilli Peppers…
Jimmy: No-one will be bored! We get a constant stream of comments from people, even if you don’t like the music, people seem to have a great time
I brought up the second gig the band are playing in January supporting The Cool Greenhouse, which prompted the first of several mentions of LA and a certain band that Flore may be a member of recording a video there…
Glasgow music scene
As an aging music fan, I’ve experienced several scenes I’ve the years, bringing the Glasgow music scene to the fore. It feels like there is a great buzz and vibrancy currently around loads of bands from Glasgow. I was interested in finding out what it felt like to be part of that.
Goda: Post lockdown it definitely changed a lot. One of the nice things about Water Machine is that we bring people together from different scenes and backgrounds.
Flore: I agree it’s definitely fun just now, we joke about it, with all our different backgrounds we bring different people along. We’ve got a bit of everything which is fun .
Goda: there’s still a lot of people to meet too. I work in the Hug and Pint and since we started putting on gigs again, I didn’t know most of the bands that popped up, lockdown bands.
Jimmy: We still haven’t met some of the lockdown bands like Bin Juice, Wife Guys of Reddit – we haven’t played with any of them yet (Flore (tongue firmly in cheek) – well Brenda plays with all of them constantly – we were years before!)
Flore – (after another Brenda plug and maybe a mention of LA) Gigs need to be fun – have proper fun.
Jimmy: yeah you don’t want to be too self serious – like that was really impressive, but all you guys look like you’re really mad. They look like they hate each other!
Everyone was in agreement that Water Machine have fun when they play, it’s more than just the music, it’s a show.
Tapes
I was curious in the modern world of streaming why the band released their music on tape (the first format this interviewer owned music on – ABBA’s Super Trouper for the record)
Jimmy: because it was cheap and Gary asked us! I’ve released everything I’ve ever done on cassette. (Others chipping in) tapes are making a big comeback. They’ve been selling well – we’ve got a repress coming…
What’s Next?
Apart from Flore going to LA to record a video with Brenda, did I mention that? I wanted to know more about the bands plans for 2023.
Hando: I’d like to headline Glastonbury. That would be nice this year
Flore: I’m really excited about this year for Water Machine, it’s been a steep upwards journey so far
Jimmy: We’re going to record 4 or 5 songs on Sunday, release it on cassette and call it Water Machine plays Raw Liquid Power, it’s gonna be a black cassette with sparkles, all black and white artwork. Release that the …
Flore: A tour would be fun
Goda: yeah a Brenda/Water Machine tour
Jimmy: I’ve talked to Bikini Body about doing a weekend Glasgow/Edinburgh double night, Friday in Old Hairdressers, Saturday in Harmonium, we headline Glasgow, they headline in Edinburgh.
Goda: I’m really looking forward to the Delivery show, I’ll be seeing my really good friend Lisa after three years, that’ll be really good to bring full circle.
Flore: it would be nice to do an album at some point
Jimmy: I’d like to re-record all the songs we’ve done on the demo tape for an album
Flore: The possibilities are endless!
The conversation turned to a discussion about playing gigs in the Hug and Pint, Jimmy’s desire to play Barrowland with his “cheap gumtree amp” and, believe it or not Brenda/video\LA may have got a mention…
Is it wrong to be a 50+ music fan and be absolutely buzzing for this gig? If you’re up for a night of great music and a lot of fun with a capital F, I’ll see you downstairs in the Hug and Pint later…
Water Machine – Bandcamp – Instagram
Water Machine play with Bikini Body, Jock Fox and Sacred Noise TONIGHT (7th January) as part of The Hug and Pint’s First Footings gigs.
If you miss that you’ve got another chance when they support Cool Greenhouse later in the month (21st January) in Stereo.