|
Swedish SynthPop band
Band history:
During the spring of 1988, Richard Johansson and Leslie Bayne, heavy influenced by bands and artists like Yazoo, Human League, DM, Rational Youth and Robert Marlow decided to start a band. With the aim to make electronic music the way it was made during the early 80's, they began to put some songs together.
But the lack of a good singer haltered them in their progress. But then, at a party in the winter of 1988/89, Robert Enforsen came along. After a short audition, Robert became a permanent member and the lead vocalist of the band.
During 1989 their first demo, with songs like Safety in mind and A little sacrifice was recorded together with the producer Jonas Warnebring, a former member of the swedish band French Revolution. At this point they decided to call the band elegant MACHINERY, a name taken from the third album by Data. The previous name Pole Position was now discarded.
This demo was sent to a couple of labels, just to see if there was anyone interested in their kind of music - someone was. The record company Electronic Beat Association (EBA) from Lund in the south of Sweden, decided to release the song Safety in mind. The single, which was made in 500 copies only, and released in January 1991, sold out... Read More ... in one week.
Two concerts in Sweden during the year of 1991, which gave them a small but faithful group of fans. During the same period EBA and two other Swedish record labels decided to unite; Energy Rekords was created.
After a small appearance on the Depeche Mode tribute 'I Sometimes wish I Was Famous', the first album, Degraded Faces, was recorded. The album was released in the spring of 1992. The success was now a fact. A small tour was made in the same year which established elegant MACHINERY as one of Sweden's most popular and well known synthbands.
Things would soon change though. Leslie Bayne realized that he found no joy in live performances, which created some problems for the band. Now when a replacement was needed on stage, Johan Malmgren came along. Johan joined elegant MACHINERY on their German tour together with the EBM-band Poupée Fabrikk during the early summer of 1992, a tour which showed the German audience that this was a band to remember. When back in Sweden, Johan became a permanent member of the band.
At this point a Spanish record company, Kong Records, wanted to rerecord the song Process, taken from the album Degraded Faces, and release it in Spain. The song became an instant success. It reached as high as number 5 on the official Spanish chart.
In August the same year, elegant MACHINERY played at the largest music festival in Sweden, Hultsfredsfestivalen, which gave then the chance to perform their music for a larger audience. It turned out to be a golden opportunity, which gave them a lot of new fans. The concert was also filmed by one of Sweden's, at the time, most famous moviemakers, Staffan Hildebrand, and later sent on Swedish national television.
Although it seemed like things were going in the right direction for elegant MACHINERY, some problems emerged. The planned Spanish tour with radio- and TV-performances was canceled due to an argument between two Spanish record companies. At the same time Richard decided to concentrate on his studies at the University of Lund.
Still disappointed about the failure in Spain, elegant MACHINERY decided to go into the studio once more. During the summer of 1993 the album Shattered Grounds was recorded. Later that year, the song Hard to handle reached number 40 on the official Swedish chart. A big and successful German tour was also made together with the band, and good friends, S.P.O.C.K.
During 1994, Leslie decided to leave the band permanent. Except for a smaller tour in Sweden and Norway, nothing really happened that year. Instead, a new album was planned. Meanwhile, the song Watching you was released together with two new songs. Germany and Hungary was also visited for a couple of successful concerts.
During the spring of 1996, elegant MACHINERY finally went into the studio again together with Anders Eliasson (a former member of the old synthpop band Page); the album Yesterday Man was recorded.
Yesterday Man was released in August 1996 and has so far been their most selling album. After a very successful tour in Sweden and Germany during the autumn and winter of 1997, and a smaller tour in Germany during the spring of 1998, the expectations were higher than ever.
During 1998 the long awaited compilation A decade of thoughts was recorded. This time together with Eskil Simonsson (Covenant). A couple of concerts, and a couple of performances on swedish national television were made. Problems with labels and other personal reasons, led to the split of the band during the spring of 1999. The concert at Virtual X-mas in Lund on the 13th of december 1998, was recorded, and released on video.
Breakup, reunion and breakup:
Elegant Machinery disbanded in 1999.
In 2001, the band temp
|
