Interviewing a band immediately after seeing them play live for the first time has its challenges. The interviewer’s adrenalin is pumping after the show and yet they have to quickly gather themselves to produce a coherent conversation! The Decibel Decoder found themselves in this situation with Maquina interviewing the Portuguese trio after their sold out gig at Edinburgh’s Sneaky Petes. Once João (guitar), Tomás (bass), and Halison (drums, vocals) had loaded their gear, the conversation began, naturally, about the show.
You have such a presence on stage which was thrilling to experience in such an intimate room. How did you come together to form Maquina?
Halison: I met João in 2017. I had been living in Portugal for a few years because I am from Brazil. Basically, we were playing together, and then we met Tomás through a good friend of ours, who lives in Switzerland now. We had a studio where we were playing, but we spent a lot of time playing together as friends, without even thinking that we were a band. 2021 was the year when we started to play just jams in the studio. I think that was the year when we consolidated a little bit, our thing as musicians together.
Had any of you been in bands before?
Tomás: Before Maquina, we were playing together as well in different projects, projects that we took more seriously thinking that they maybe could be something more easily. And I think Maquina, before it became Maquina, was this playground where we could just spend time in the studio with no intention and pretension. We were just having fun, spending that time playing together. And out of those playground jams, some people, I think even before us, noticed that those jams were “Man, this is a band!”. Some friends booked a gig for us. And after that gig, there was beautiful feedback from everyone, and we felt really good with the show,.
Halison: You can tell when people are excited for it. You’re playing in other bands and some people say “good concert“. But with that time, it was really special and you could see something’s there, you know, the way that people were coming up to us.
And isn’t that interesting that it’s the project that you thought was just for fun, and yet it’s the one that got this genuine response.
João: Yeah, it’s the most natural, you don’t expect anything. It’s not fabricated. It was just jams and after that we found our recipe. It couldn’t be like that if we were starting to plan how we will do it, it wouldn’t be pure from our hearts,
That’s incredibly special for the three of you to have found each other and for this to happen.
Halison: If you separate what each one is doing. It’s crazy, you know, it doesn’t make any sense, but then you put it together, and that’s it, this is Maquina, and we were doing just what we were comfortable doing. But it’s also challenging a little bit to try to find something different.
Can you share a little about the inspiration behind your music? I know that you don’t have electronic kit such as synthesizers, it’s just guitar, bass and drums.
Tomás: I guess the mindset is pretty electronic, like a party. I think we all have a little bit different backgrounds, but we can unite very well, we have very similar taste in music in general. So we all have the same references and enjoy the same bands. And then I don’t know. I think in the beginning, we didn’t think at all about that. Maybe now we try to maintain this electronic mindset more and more. And maybe going to the future, it doesn’t mean that we’re gonna bring electronics into it, but the mindset will probably become more and more electronic.
Halison: It was just because we had no money to buy synthesizers and drum machines! Let’s do it with what we have. It wasn’t a choice, actually.
Did you play a lot live together initially in Lisbon?
Halison: When we started, before the release of our first album, I think we’d done five or six concerts.
Tomás: It was all pretty quick. I think since we understood we were a band until recording the first album, I think was six months. And in those six months before recording it, I think we did, like five gigs, and then after releasing the album, then we played a lot more.
Halison: Then we started to say yes for every concert and took offer possible around Portugal, every opportunity was a good one. We didn’t know how to say no! Even crossing the whole country for 100 euros or something!
But that was the right attitude to have, grasping these opportunities.
Halison: Every day there can be releases from 100 bands, and Portugal is also now generating a lot of good music. In our case, our formula was playing as much as we can all over Portugal. If we conquer this place, and people like us it will give us the boost necessary to go outside. When we started to go outside, I remember a lot of people from Portugal supported us, especially on social media, to show this different side to Portugal. And it’s crazy, at the concert today a lot of Scottish people said: “I’m spreading your word. I’m spreading the words of Maquina”. This is beautiful.
And social media between the fans is so powerful.
João: People can follow your journey, not just inside the concerts. People want to see the backstage, this kind of stuff. So many people writing comments. We are having a lot of luck. Everyone, is embracing us, 100% it’s really privilege to say this. It’s not every day that happens. You play and then suddenly BOOM. We are here in Edinburgh, and we’ve been playing together for just three years. This is only our third tour, it’s such a privilege.
The first album came out in 2023, Dirty Tracks for Clubbing followed by Prata in April 2024. What was the difference in creating the two albums?
Tomás: One was just purely out of ingenuity. With the first one, we had no idea of what we were doing, then we discovered something, and in the second one we had already more ideas.
Halison: For the first one, we spent a lot of time in the studio and the second one, we were more on the road. It was a different thing, making music while on the road, like jams during a sound check, or trying a new song during the sound check, and taking this time to do something different, rather than be in the studio as much as you can which is what we were doing for the first album. We had not so much time for the second album in the studio. So when we get to the studio to record the second album, we had only four songs out of six ready, and two we just figured it out in the studio! Let’s do it! Let’s play and see what happens!
I loved this quote I read from you “Pushing sounds together to make noises. Pushing noises together to make sounds.” For some bands its about the lyrics and their meaning but for Maquina it’s the visceral energy. You could see that in the Sneaky Petes tonight.
João: It’s all about the senses, you don’t need to think so much, not so much structure, chorus now following with the verse.
Halison: People can just let their thoughts flow during the concerts. Get out from this world for a little bit, get away from their problems. Its the same for us, we are doing the same on the stage.
João: This exchange of energy.
You’re on your debut UK headline tour and you’ve played Newcastle, Todmorden and Glasgow so far. Did you enjoy the Golden Lion (in Todmorden)?
Halison: It’s a special place, it was a great show, people loved it and it was a nice party.
João: We could hang out with the locals after the show. Its not like other concerts when the show ends everyone leaves. It doesn’t feel so much like the environment of the city. It was 10 out of 10.
Halison: They had an open mike afterwards, people beat-boxing. We’re so used to that in Portugal where we stay one or two hours after the gig and the people are still there with us.
And after this tour which finishes in London on 22 February at Strongroom Bar, what are your plans for the rest of the year?
Tomás: Many tours and a bunch of summer festivals. I think this year too we’re trying to find some gaps to focus on building what’s coming next.
João: : Our first album is one year old, it’s time to do another one!
Finally, how did your debut album Dirty Tracks for Clubbing get a vinyl release?
Halison: When we released for the first time it was just on CD because it was super fast. A local label got in contact with us, and they were like, “What do you want?” We wanted to release on vinyl only but that was going to take time. So we produced CDs. We never expected that they would sell. Everything was more innocent, you know. Let’s just do it, we weren’t raising so many questions. It was a mindset. We were very excited for the CD, and it sold out. And during this time Fuzz Club got in contact with us. We had the material for the second album, so we started to talk. And then we just said, maybe one day we would love to have the first one on vinyl.
After the release of PRATA, we had this window open with Fuzz Club. When they offered (to release the first album on vinyl) it was magic, you know, finally we can have the first album on vinyl as well as the second. And with the design we thought about when you buy techno vinyl, they always have just the sleeve like copies of vinyl Test Pressings which always came without a cover. And then we tried to convey this idea of a techno album for Dirty Tracks For Clubbing.
For more information on Maquina please check their instagram and bandcamp.