Glasgow’s Water Machine today share new single ‘River’, which follows last month’s announcement of debut album God Park out 20 June via Fatcat Records. The five piece will also perform at The Great Escape in a little over 2 weeks. Flooding out of Glasgow in 2022, Water Machine have quickly gained a reputation for their weird and wonky art-punk, winning hearts with sing-along songs about dogs, struggling artists and the housing crisis. God Park takes a collection of disparate influences and distils the disjointed into something new. Explaining further on the new single, vocalist Hando Morice said:
“‘River’ is a song we wrote about a hostile relationship between you and your neighbour who you’re convinced is trying to steal your boat. While none of the band have ever owned a boat, we can only imagine the stress this would cause. The song is an exploration of how seemingly futile disagreement with a neighbour can take over your life, becoming the only thing you can think about.”
The video was recorded on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow because they needed a setting to match the theme of the song. They wanted it to be silly, fun and lo-fi – a homage to indie videos of the 90’s and early noughties. With a loose theme of fishing/glamour, 2 fish teddies and Flore’s fishing equipment they took to the canal with their film crew and a handheld camera. Taking influence from everywhere, their music is always on the verge of falling apart or breaking down. Their world is a swirling eddy of melodic bass lines and volatile guitar sliding between jazz chords and punk riffs, all the while narrated by sardonic social commentary, silly stories, and pop sensibilities. This group of young Glaswegians recognise that they owe something to the city’s rich musical history, in particular the 1980’s scene captured so brilliantly in Grant McPhee’s documentary, Teenage Superstars.
Tired of listening to songs about gloom and heartbreak, Water Machine, instead, want their lyrics to provide a “realistic escapism.” Their words, while rooted in the day-to-day-maybe-mundane, are spun into what the band call “hyper conceptualised allegories.” So while they might sometimes sing about love, this is hidden amongst copulating clouds, car crashes, housing crises, rabies outbreaks, toxic jobs and unrequited office romances.
Everything on God Park packs positive, punk energy. As Henry Rollins put it “Water Machine is a very cool band”.
For more information on Water Machine please check their bandcamp and instagram.