By Kieran Webber
Wax Machine is the brain child between saxophonist and vocalist, Freddie Willatt and guitarist/Brazilian wizard, Lauro Zanin. When bored in the Sussex countryside, there was little else to occupy the flourishing imaginations of the two boys when they first met at a young age. Since then they have developed into a full band and progressed their music into a spleindid fusion of Calfornian psychedelia and pulsing 70s rock, their latest release ‘Red Room’ boasts the bands psychedelic prowess and their far out imagination.
Watch/Listen here:
Clunk also managed to have a chat with the psych princes to get to know more about them and their music.
CLUNK: Firstly, I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, how have you been and what have you been up to?
Lauro: Hey yeah thanks, we’ve been getting up to all sorts… like jammin’ under the pier and keepin’ it queer for Pride this year.
CLUNK: How did you all come to meet one another and at what point did you decide to create Wax Machine?
Freddie: Mutual friends, music and a desire to create something and experiment were probably the key elements that pulled all of us together. Ellis and Lauro had already been in a couple of bands before. We just got a kick out of playing together. One day I get a call from Lauro with the idea for Wax Machine, the next minute sweet rock ‘n’ roll had us on this merry trip. I don’t think we’ve looked back since.
Lauro: Yeah, we managed to persuade the one and only Milky Joe to come get bassy with us and then we were set to go.
CLUNK: How did you come up with the name and why?
Lauro: I guess we always have candles knocking about, all the wax must’ve got into our heads… I’ve had loads come out of my ear, man.
CLUNK: How do you think brexit will effect the creative industry and effect bands like yourselves?
Freddie: Brexit has certainly left a bad taste in muso mouths, it could pose problems for bands and promoters as the passage overseas will likely be more difficult. However, like the good ship she is, music can weather any storm. I’m confident that musicians will keep doing their thang regardless and that we’ll ride this one out. Politics and music ain’t never been the best of friends anyway, I’d be worried if they got all cosy together.
CLUNK: I find your videos so intriguing and hilarious, so I am curious how do you go about creating them?
Lauro: We try something new every time depending on what each song asks for. its interesting to add another dimension. For the Red Room video we got our friends Wolfgang and Abi to do some far-out stop motion, and we went to Charlie’s (from Strange Cages) and luckily got his brother Todd to help us with the green screen.
CLUNK: Do you share a collective influence or does it vary between each band member?
Freddie: It’s definitely an unusual cocktail, the closest analogy I could give would be like a web of styles and genres – at the centre there is Psychedelia (in all its many incarnations), Glam Rock, Folk, Country and Blues – outside of that each member brings their own flavour to the mix. This allows us to scuttle around and build new parts here and there, providing us with a flexible and organic structure to work within.
CLUNK: What are your top 5 most played records of this year?
Lauro: king gizzard -nonagon infinity, bowie – black star, ty segall – emotional mugger, cat’s eyes – treasure house, blank tapes – ojos rojos.
CLUNK: Talk us through how you write your music and go about recording it?
Freddie: Again I’m going to be a right nuisance and say there’s no definitive answer to this. Lauro and I have been writing and recording together since the Machine’s early days, but that’s not the whole story. Sometimes one of us would just come up with a riff or have a basic idea and bring that to the band, from there it might take off and become something beyond what we’d imagined. Alternatively, we might write something independently with a strong conceptual design – that is to say harmonically, lyrically etc. Ultimately each member will be a part of the process and leave their mark on how the song sounds, at its heart or on more subtle levels. No two songs are written the same – except that our ‘wizard’ Lauro handles most of the production and I write the lyrics – but hey I don’t see that set in stone for the future either.
CLUNK: What can we expect from you from the rest of 2016 and beyond?
Lauro: More music, more vibes, more betterrr