Warmachine is Authentic to the Core

Through networks of friends and nights on smoking decks at Boston house shows, Warmachine climbed the ranks as one of Allston’s most recognized bands. Lex (guitarist/ vocalist) started Warmachine as a new project with Brendan (drummer) who she worked with in another band. After she hit it off with X (bassist) through a drunken conversation about fuzz pedals outside a venue, and met Ethan (guitarist) at a party in Mission Hill, she formed connections that would evolve into a family. Approaching the release of their second EP, Warmachine is adamant about keeping their brand and music authentic.

We spoke to the band to learn more about their journey through the DIY scene, and how they found their sound in the middle of a creatively saturated city.

From your Instagram to releasing tapes with Candlepin Records, the media you create emulates nostalgic themes from 90’s grunge bands. Why do you consistently post content with these motifs and does your social media presence matter to you?

Lex: I would say the content I create is what comes the most naturally. When I’m editing a video and I choose specific moments, I do it because I want to be able to watch the video in the future and laugh or think fondly of it. And I think that’s probably why they look like that because I want it to look as natural as possible. We’re not trying to be something we’re not. I love the feeling of authenticity, and I think that’s what the 90s were kind of all about. A lot of bands that were making rock music were very authentic with the music and the content they put out. 

And the tapes from Candlepin are great because I think every band should have a form of physical media, whether it be tapes, or CDs, or vinyl. Unfortunately, we can’t afford to make vinyl, so we chose tapes, and we hope to burn CD’s for this next project and be able to distribute it at our shows.

X: I think Lex just has a really good grasp on a visual version of how our music sounds. Because we recorded the first EP kind of crudely. We were given lot of freedom in the studio, and we mixed a lot of it just like by hand with no experience with the machine prior to showing up. Andy over at Submariner set us up and let us go for it. And I think that’s been a big part of the ethos of the entire thing.

You guys have shared venues with local bands like Videodays and Jimrat and have become close. For those who don’t live in Boston, could you describe your journey in the Allston scene and what you love most about it?

Ethan: I think the music scene here is like the coolest thing in the world. And I remember being an undergrad and seeing bands play and feeling like, ‘Oh, that is so sick. I really want to do that someday.’ And being able to do that now and make a lot of friends through it is really great. And it’s very supportive. And I think it’s also a very good size for like, making friends and not feeling overwhelmed with how big it can get. 

Brendan: It’s just like, it was just so crazy and mysterious in a way, and now kind of being on the other side of it, I think you just see how much work goes into everything that everybody does. You can just tell how many people care about the community. Obviously, every scene everywhere, whether it’s music or anything else, it’s never going to be perfect. There’s always going to be some messy aspects of it. But Boston is very incredible in the sense that it does feel like the vast majority of it is filled with such genuine people. And just people work so hard and care so much about what they do and about other people. It feels like it’s never necessarily about making connections it’s about making friends.

The video diary on your YouTube channel War feels like we are invited into your band’s life. Do you think your friendship dynamics have influenced your band dynamics? How important do you think friendship is to your process?

Lex: I definitely feel like the people you’re making music with should be the people that you’re closest to in life, the people that you can be totally honest around. I feel like if you’re in a dynamic where you feel like you cannot be yourself, or share your ideas in the most authentic way, then you may not be with the right people. 

Even in the previous project I was in, I felt extremely close to Brendan and the other guitarist of that band. At some point, there were creative differences, and we had to go our separate ways. But at the heyday of that project, we were so close, like totally platonically. It felt like I was making music with and soul mate of mine, you know?

Brendan: I think what I find engaging about Warmachine and what I think other people might find engaging. Like, what we talked about with the videos. There is a lot of footage of us just hanging out and just being ourselves. I’m really glad that we do that and that we present that to other people. And, I don’t know, Warmachine does just feel like a friend group to me at this point in the best way possible.

X: I agree that if you don’t feel like friends, if you can’t like, hang out, you will kill each other if you try to record, or go on tour, or write a song for longer than three hours.

When making “coolest hell,” you wrote, recorded, and produced the track all by yourselves. What made you guys want to do this completely on your own? What does the songwriting process look like from start to finish?

Brendan: The reason that we did everything ourselves the first time around is because both Lex and I were still at Northeastern and we had access to all of the Northeastern resources, and I had Ableton Live on my laptop. We did not really have any other connections aside from that. 

For us, we just recorded drums at, like, the studios at Northeastern and then recorded some guitars in one of the other studios. Everything was kind of recorded separately. And then I just like, did all of the production on my computer. And it’s funny because I feel like our most DIY songs, which was the first single we released with ‘holyoke’ and ‘coolest hell,’ I feel like it is our most overproduced sounding music, in kind of a cool way, because I didn’t really know how to produce rock music. I started producing with EDM back when I was in middle school and high school. So these songs are kind of mixed and produced like electronic songs, but they have guitars and real drums too.

X: If the lyrics don’t happen right when I write the instrumental for something, then they happen while we’re recording. There’s no in-between option for me. And I think it’s the same for you, Lex. It’s either right there right away, or it’s too late and I gotta hope that I come up with something that I like because that’s there forever.

Ethan: It is a very emotional process. It feels like it is you. The process of writing a song is not like ‘Alright, we’re building a table now so you get the legs and I’ll get the top.’ It’s more of like ‘You’re killing my child. What are you doing?’ But we all kind of dynamically work it out. 

The best compliment we ever got for ‘coolest hell’ was when some guy came up to us after a show and said ‘I listened to that song and I could hear how each and every one of you has an influence on that.

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Lex, I understand that you are an EMT. What do you do outside of Warmachine, and how has this influenced your creative process? Is it hard to balance?

Lex: I would say my EMT life has no influence on the things I do musically. It’s pretty divorced from all of this stuff. But my outside life just consists of me hanging out with other musicians and friends. A lot of it sometimes negatively influences my way of making music. When you surround yourself with constant music, it should be a good thing. Which, sometimes it is. But for me when I hear so much music all at once I get too influenced sometimes and I don’t know where to go. If I’m listening to a lot of music, or going to a lot of live shows, I feel inspired by so many things at once that there’s a part of me that wants to write a song that includes all of these influences all at once, and it totally helps me in writing. I am inspired the most by our friends in music. To name drop Jimrat, Main Era, Videodays, and Walk Me Home. All of our lovely friends that we’ve made here. 

Your new Ep “soulmurder” comes out March 7 at midnight. With your single you can hear that you have really found your sound and are starting to experiment with different vocals and effects. How was the process differen’t making this EP than your first? What do you hope for the band going forward?

X: Last time it felt very fragmented and like a work shift. This time we were up at Spicy World Studios in Vermont just sleeping there. Lex and Ethan slept in the isolation booth in the basement. I slept in the synth lab and Brendan slept on the eagle’s nest on the third-floor balcony. And so we would get done recording and we would go out to eat. There was this great pizza place by there and we’d get too much beer and then we’d pass out somewhere in the building on either a sleeping bag or a comforter that we brought. I just had a sleeping mat and a comforter and my jacket as a pillow I think. And then we would wake up and keep going. Three days almost nonstop 12 hours and not giving ourselves the option to leave until it was completed.

Ethan: I have started to think about the new EP as one big song. It’s funny because the songs were not all written intentionally, you know? but they just flow so well and I think a lot of that is Brendan blending it.

Lex: Looking forward we hope to continue making music in the best way possible and as most authentically as we can. I think we will continue to combine our styles in a way that is true to what we really want to do.