As so many times before, the story of Statemachine kicks off against a small town setting, where two young men get together to form a band to rebel against some popular opinion or other. "Every chance we had we'd go on stage, and do all we could to make the music totally incomprehensible to others than fans of the genre," reminisces lead vocalist Mårten Kellerman.
Once Mårten and keyboardist Rikard Lindell (the other founding member of Statemachine) came by a studio they ended up writing the first official Statemachine song ever. Being so excited about it, they continued to write a third of what was to become their debut album "Avalanche breakdown". Statemachine were soon signed to October and started recording the rest of the material for their debut.
Then things happened a bit faster than both the band and their record label
had expected. "None of us were prepared for the attention and pressure.
Having success with a band may look great on paper, but in real life it's
just damn hard work. And it sure has taken its toll.
It's not easy maintaining any kind of social life while spending six days a week working with the band," Mårten explains. "It's very nice to be appointed best electronic pop band of the 90’s, or named as one of the most prominent hopes for the future of alternative hi-tech pop, but if you’re not happy with what it's doing to your life, it won't make you feel any better about yourself."
Rikard left Statemachine and Rickard Gunnarsson was announced new official member in 1997.
After contemplating the situation, the duo started working with "Breakdown", the so-called American version of the debut album. However, Mårten and Rickard refused to just throw something slightly different together, and insisted on spending four months in the studio, re-working all but one of the original tracks. Unfortunatley, nothing much happened on the other side of the Atlantic.
In 1998 Statemachine left October and SubSpace Communications was announced
new official label.
Drafts of the follow-up album "Short & explosive" were soon presented and everything seemed to work really smooth for the Stockholm duo. The first single "Battered and bruised" was released in 1999 and the fans went bonkers. At the same time - without warning - the band got stuck in a dead end, incapable to finalise the rest of the songs.
Thankfully, Jörgen Josefsson, showed up and joined Statemachine in 2001, pushing them in the right direction and in next to no time "Less than perfect ep" was ready. Coming up next - in fact - is the album, preceded by the brand new single "I’m love".
The way to the new album certainly wasn’t Short, but the outcome on
the other hand is Explosive as hell!