Interview: The Love Machine

I had the chance to sit down with 3 of 4 members of the The Love Machine at the Horseshoe Tavern before playing a free Nu Music Nite gig. The day also marked the release of Sweater Weather on vinyl, which was originally released in August of 2010. Guitarist/vocalist Sean Prescott admits that the re-release is partially for selfish reasons and Allan Gauthier, also on guitar and vocals, said the release day felt like Christmas morning.

Although this is the band’s first vinyl release, The Love Machine dates back to 2004. Bassist/vocalist Jordan David says, “We were in former bands and we started writing for fun. We wanted to write poppy music. That was the intent at first, to write poppy music. Then it kind of just evolved. Both bands kind of fizzled off and the remains are what you see now. Yeah, It started from just wanting to write music together. We were big fans of each other’s musical abilities and it just came together. And it’s been going strong ever since.”

Gauthier adds, “Since roughly 2004, we’ve just been hanging out and playing. Maybe the last couple years we’ve actually been trying to be a real touring selling band.”

Well, the guys have certainly been making a name for themselves recently, particularly with their Live 88.5 Big Money Shot win.

Before the finale, the guys weren’t very nervous and were more anxious to have the competition come to an end, as it’s gone on since about March.

Gauthier describes the competition a little bit, which started with 75 bands, but emphasizes that a major change in the competition was that bands were required to submit a business plan.

The final 6 bands all received 20,000 dollars, but the top prize at stake was 50,000 dollars. Just days after officially releasing Sweater Weather on vinyl, The Love Machine took home the grand prize, which is meant to go towards the band’s development.

Certainly a factor that has made The Love Machine turn heads is the band’s live show. David says, “It’s been described to me as a party with friends.”

Gauthier continues, “We want everyone to have as much fun as they can. I think the 4 of us, the whole machine aspect, the 4 of us on stage interacting with each other, laughing and joking all the time. Visually, I’ve been told, it looks like we’re fun to watch and we look like we’re having fun. You’re supposed to have fun at a show.”

David adds, “It’s really nice when people get involved with it, because that’s when the shows really come together.”

“It’s a commitment to come to a show. We want to show that we’re giving it everything we have. We are gonna leave the stage bloodied, battered and we’re going to leave it all out there,” Gauthier says.

Prescott chimes in. “It’s true. I hit Jordan in the face with my guitar in PEI 2 days ago.”

David jokes, “I was lucky I didn’t lose any teeth. But yeah, things happen on stage.”

While the band had just come back from Atlantic Canada, Gauthier agrees that the band has a great relationship with Toronto. “I think it all started when we made a relationship with Dan Wolovick from Rancho Relaxo. I find that a lot of bands are getting their breaks because he’s taking a chance on bringing bands from out of down. You know, it’s hard to bring a band from Ottawa or anywhere to play in Toronto, but he really gives bands opportunities to play.”

The band has, since breaking the ice with the help of Wolovick, played several other venues and they feel like they’ve been picking up some steam as they keep playing shows.

Gauthier says, “It’s personally my favourite city, tied with Ottawa because it’s our hometown.”

David adds, “There’s something about playing here. There’s a mystique about playing Toronto.”

Gauthier agrees, “Memories. We’ve got so many good memories here.”

While the guys all agree that Toronto is a great place to play, Prescott also emphasizes a love of Fredericton. Gauthier agrees and adds Halifax to the list of favourite places to play.

The guys aren’t playing too many shows for the next bit, relaxing a little after the push from the Big Money Shot. Instead, the band is looking to release some videos.

Gauthier says, “We’d like to have 2 videos ready to go for “TV,” if TV is even playing videos anymore. We’ve only filmed one video, a professional one, in our career and I think that’s something we’ve wanted to do. And now we have a little bit of downtime, so we really want to continue the Sweater Weather release. We’d like to release 2 more songs as singles, I guess you can say, and release videos for them. And plus we want to make a whole bunch more DIY indie-style videos. We want, in our heads, a video for every song off this record.

“We put so much work into this record that we took a step back and we said, “Before we do anything else, let’s get as much out of Sweater Weather.”

Prescott adds, “We kind of felt it was a little overlooked just because we didn’t really know the means to put it out when we put it out.”

“It deserves one final push,” Gauthier says.

But that’s not all the guys will be up to in the next bit. Prescott says, “And also a lot of writing for the next 4 or 5 months. We want to get in the studio soon.”

Gauthier then says, “We have a new single that we just released from the Big Money Shot itself. Part of the new contest was to write a new song with a producer. It’s worked it’s way into the set and it’s kind of inspired us to write more new songs and we want to release something very soon.”

When pressed for a drunken story, Gauthier volunteers a story from the tour they just finished.

“We got to Fredericton on a Thursday. We drove all the way from Ottawa. It was about 9 and half/10 hours. We’ve been on the road for probably 2 or 3 of the last 5 weeks, so we’ve all financially been really hit hard. So getting there, personally I’m fighting to pay rent, so I said, ‘I can’t spend money that much on booze this weekend.’ We hit up the New Brunswick Liquor Store and I decide I’m going to get some wine. And I didn’t eat anything all day. And I’ve been up since 5 in the morning driving. So I haven’t eaten anything other than Tim Hortons breakfast. We get to the grocery store, and, for some stupid reason, I get a salad. I get a Caesar salad and some Mister Noodles. I was trying to be healthy. So I have a salad. It was okay. It wasn’t that good.

“We start the drinking process. We’re going out to see friends of ours play in Fredericton, so I only planned to drink one bottle. Next thing I know I’m finishing the second bottle and we’re walking to the bar. It’s rainy and there’s a whole bunch of puddles. There’s this courtyard where all the bars are and it’s all tile. It’s all a giant puddle, but I didn’t know that. I’m kind of tipsy, walking and having a good time. I’m the drunk guy, but I haven’t proclaimed that I’m the drunk guy. A guy in front of me hops over this big puddle and I’m like, ‘Alright, here I go.’ This is right before I black out. I jump, middle of the puddle, head over heels, completely flat out in the middle of the puddle.”

Already this story doesn’t sound good, but then Gauthier continues.

“The next thing I know I’m doing shots at the bar. The band we go to see, it’s like 30 seconds in, and I turn to one guy and I say I’m walking home. We’re in Fredericton at a friend’s house, 10 minutes from the house, and I have no idea where they live. I start walking and I call Mike, our drummer, and I say, ‘Do you know where I am?’ He said, ‘I’ll come find you.’ He spent like 10 minutes walking around Fredericton trying to find me. He finally found me, gets me home and I pass out. Apparently I was passed out 5 minutes when I get up, I shoot out and all I vomit was leaves from the salad. All I have in my stomach is wine and salad. There was like dirty salad all over the floor. And then I fall asleep and then the rest of the party comes home.”

At this point, Prescott takes over. “We go to wake Allan up, mainly because he’s sleeping on the couch in the main room and there’s people coming home just hammered. They’re trying to wake him up. Nothing. The guy’s not moving whatsoever. So we kind of pick him up and they’re yelling in his face. As soon as we pick him up, his eyes kind of open. He looks around and goes, ‘Whose van is this?’ which is funny because of how much we sleep in vans. All of sudden we pick him up, but he’s not having it. We thought for sure he was going to take a swing at somebody, but we got him into bed.”

Gauthier takes over again. “I wake up, no idea where I am, whose bed I’m in. I try to move and I can’t move my arm and my back. I had no idea what happened. I realize I fell afterwards. My jeans were just soaked. I’m bruised and battered.”

He pauses and says, “This is the first night of the road trip. We hadn’t even played a show and I was blackout drunk.”

We have a bit of a laugh before the guys offer up their shots of choice. Prescott says Jager is his shot of choice. Jordan first says he likes a surprise, but then says that he had the tequila worm and since then tequila has become a favourite. Gauthier admits that Jack Daniels used to be a favourite, but now it’s a shot he can’t even stand to smell. He ends up choosing tequila.

The Love Machine played a holiday show in Toronto last night, but doesn’t have any plans for another show in the city just yet. However, they will be playing a holiday show in their hometown of Ottawa on the 23rd. They’ll be joined by Amos the Transparent.

While you wait for more tour dates from The Love Machine, keep your ear to the ground on what these Big Money Shot winners have up their sleeves for fans. They’re bound to make it worth the wait.