Clattermouuuth’s Music of The Week: Q&A With Lead and Machine

By Andrew Kohler

Welcome back to Clattermouuuth’s Music of the Week, curating Rockaway’s music taste one week at a time. Today, I thought I’d share with you an interview I had last year with the experimental, indie folk rock band Lead and Machine.

Q: Describe the sound of your music for unfamiliar listeners​​​.

A: We mash electronic psych sounds into mellow folk songs. All run through warbly tape decks, written to themes of loss and longing. End result is something like if Boards of Canada produced Nick Drake.

Q: How and when did you get into music?

A: I picked up guitar in 8th grade and started making sound collage tracks and beats at around 16. Making new things and collaborating drew me in. I’d build prog-rock songs one layer at a time with my friend Kyle. Put vocals on flying lotus style tracks that my brother, Jesse, was making. Leaf and Machine is three of us working together, threading a line between all those early experiments.

Q: Describe your creative process.

A: Starts with me writing something on guitar and singing ad-libs over that to figure out what the song’s about. Then Kyle brings in more layers of instruments — guitar leads, drums, whatever. Jesse plays producer and tears it open with production effects, synth lines, and some other stray parts. That’s where things get really spacey, usually.

Q: Where do you find inspiration?

A: Just sitting around playing guitar, usually. I find a little riff or chord progression that catches my imagination, like transports me somewhere in my head. And then it’s just exploring what that sound wants to grow into. Usually, when it’s working, the song leads you where it needs to go​.

Q: What song/project should unfamiliar listeners start with?

A: “Cyberfriends.” It has a little bit of everything we do in it.

Q: Any new projects soon? Anything you want to promote?

A: We’ve been working on an EP of super lo-fi, slow-core tracks. Jesse fixed up an old Tascam 388 8-track tape recorder he found at a thrift store. We’ve been coming up with these stream-of-consciousness, fuzzed-out tracks straight to tape. We have a release of our favorites from those sessions coming out in a month or two.

Q: What music have you been listening to lately?

A: Stephen Steinbrink — he writes some of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. Kind of music that makes life feel really small and giant at the same time. Listening to a lot of Jerry Paper too — he’s super inventive with how he approaches songwriting and production and has this lovely whacked-out bossa nova sound.