By now you have probably heard about Daniel Machado’s new project “The Restoration.” David threw a write up on the site a couple of weeks ago, and the band has performed two low-key shows. However, their show Friday at New Brookland Tavern is being billed as the “big debut” performance featuring a lengthy set and of course the new signature sounds that will blow your mind. This project is quite large in scope, so I decided to get a hold of Daniel himself to get the real story. One thing I’ve learned in doing this job is that musicians love to talk (or write), so I will be splitting this thing up into two entries. Look for the next part later this week!
Stephen: So, what of “Themes in American Friction”? Should people still buy it? Is Guitar Show still together?
Daniel: Yes, people should still buy Themes in American Friction. I’d also love to talk to any potential benefactors who would be interested in giving me a yearly stipend so that I can quit my day job. Just kidding – I’d at least love for people to still listen to Themes. It’s true that I started the Restoration because I was dissatisfied with my rock music and felt stuck in the 90’s, but Themes and the other albums I’ve written since starting this dumb hobby in 2001 are all my little babies. Fortunately they aren’t sentient creatures with feelings, so I can criticize their quality in public press outlets, however I’ll always love something about each of them. So yes, please give Themes in American Friction a listen if you haven’t heard it. And track down my other albums too, I promise the futher back you go, the more ridiculous they get. Guitar show is still together too. We’ve been rocking in complete obscurity for about eight years, so why end the party now?
Me: Where did you get the idea for the Restoration?
Daniel: Well the name is something all the current members voted on a few months ago, but the contextual frame, the narrative and the sound aesthetic grew from the songwriting experiments I did right after finishing Themes. There were a few basic ideas that I knew I wanted to explore early on. Musically, I knew I wanted to explore some of my first favorite types of music: classical, country, bluegrass — lyrically, I knew that I wanted to try fiction – and I knew that I wanted to establish a setting for the new music, rather than ambiguously pretending I wasn’t from the South. Instead, with Southern critic/loyalist William Faulkner as inspiration, I decided to claim my roll as a life-long Southerner by discussing both the beauty and evils of the South in my new music. Instead of letting my embarrassment in the South’s problematic social history stop me from having a cultural identity, I decided make those issues a main topic of discussion for my music, juxtaposed to the elements I love about the South (family ties, a deep connection to nature and the land). I often found myself asking “where in pop culture is the voice of the conflicted folks who both love and hate the South?” I hope that The Restoration can help add that voice to the mix of artists who belligerently praise the South, those who flat out condemn it, and those Southerners who move to L.A. and assimilate into mainstream culture. (Resistance is futile! Sorry, just a little Star Trek joke for you).
Adam Corbett, Lauren Garner, Sharon Gnanashekar and Eddie Lord have taken my original concepts and songs and added themselves to the project. The final recordings and images that you see are the result of all of our efforts. Not to mention that I have a great group of confidants — Adam included — that I’ve been bouncing random ideas off of for the past year, which has helped me to shape the conceptual part of the project.
…look for more of the interview later this week!!