Beautiful Machines are re-introducing themselves and are back better than ever with their new project Singularity in the works to come out this year. It’s a highly anticipated album that members Conrad Schuman and Stefanie Ku really put their all into and are excited to release it into the world. They are about embark on a new chapter, which is much more than an album, it’s an experience. Originally forming in San Francisco, the duo traveled around and landed in Europe, where they would be inspired to start working on Singularity. It’s a fresh start for them as they head into this new reboot. Having already released the brilliant “Control” and now The New Division remix of it, 2022 is shaping up to be their year with Singularity.
Hey there! Appreciate you taking the time to chat. For those who may not know who you are, give us a little background on yourself.
First of all, thank you so much for having us here. We’re Beautiful Machines, originally formed in San Francisco, fueled by electronic music, synthesizers, retro-futurism and desirous of cultivating mesmerizing live experiences. Since 2017 we sold our belongings and left for Europe and have been nomadic musicians traversing the world, experiencing cultures, having adventures and writing music along the way. We now mostly reside in Europe and currently in London finishing up our latest album Singularity.
What are some things that have been keeping you sane in these unprecedented times of the pandemic?
There’s a lot to make someone insane, if we were ever sane to begin with. 🙂 I would say we keep each other sane mostly, we stimulate each other’s intellect, try novel approaches to things, constantly learning, and keeping our mind rooted in a positive future. Animals!!! We love animals and they bring so much joy and wisdom into the world. Also trying to get as much outdoor time as we can, we love taking nature hikes and exploring new areas. On the other hand, you definitely you have to regulate your intake of “news” these days, and social media, those things can, if you’re not careful, affect your psyche, make you not trust anyone or anything, but instead we choose to cultivate our mind with trust that way you go through life pleasantly surprised rather than constantly disappointed. Of course, spending time writing music and connecting ideas for the album and other experiential creations we’re developing is where we invest most of our time, and that brings us the most joy.
Since the pandemic the music making process has changed. Would you say you prefer making music from home on your own or rather in a studio with others?
I have to admit, I quite prefer working this way, it’s more focused when it comes to writing and sound-shaping. The ultimate is a home studio with all the outboard gear that you want to be creative. We’re quite minimal and really enjoy the confines of a place that is at your fingertips when you have an idea, or need to spend countless hours to flesh something out. I think the two have really merged and unless we’re tracking a large live band, we can pretty much achieve everything from our home studio.
Your new album Singularity is set to be released this year, what was the process behind writing that one and the inspiration behind it?
We wanted to strive to create something different from what we’ve created in the past and I’ve personally always wanted to create a concept album, rather than a bunch of disjointed songs that you put into an album just because, but a cohesive thought that goes deeper into a subject, idea or expression. We’ve actually been hashing out the idea for Singularity as far back as 2015, when we went to live in Berlin during the winter on writing hiatus. That was the seed that we shelved until we really started getting into it in 2019, and what has since germinated has become an expression of a technological race toward a new epoch where the line between man and machine continue to blur and we explore questions relating to AI, consciousness, technology, spirituality, transcendence, future of work, purpose, control, dream states, questions of reality, quantum states, paradoxes, holographic universes, etc. We ingest a lot of sci-fi (which a lot is now just “sci”), philosophy, spirituality and occult sciences, all which blend together into some kind of conception.
Do you have a favorite track on the album? If so, which one?
This is one of those albums, we think, where there are singles that can exist on their own, but really it works best when you see how they are connected. Remember or at least imagine a time when you would get with friends, lay on the floor, place large speakers around you, close your eyes and just take a journey, or perhaps while you’re driving. However with that said, when performing songs live, it’s really fun to play “Angelica” because toward the end we just start to shred, which isn’t something we ever really do.
What drove you to want to make electro darkwave music? Have you both always wanted to pursue music in this genre?
We never set out to make music in any specific genre. I think genres are something that gets labeled after the fact. There are certain sounds and motifs and writing that we gravitate toward, and each song in the upcoming album could very well be different genres living in a similar universe.
How would you describe your music in three words?
Exploring Inner Worlds
Which song or project of yours are you most proud of?
“Singularity.”
Musically speaking, is there a moment or memory in your life that you always want to hold onto? Or a moment that has taught you a lot?
I tend to imagine a future a lot, and it’s not really a destination to arrive at, but it has a certain emotional and spiritual quality that informs a way of being in the now, like how do you want to show up each day, what kind of a person do you want to be, are you going to slack or going to work as hard as you can to continually strive to become a better version of yourself. It motivates and also informs us of a kind of music that we both want to create together, to push us beyond our limits and experiment and explore.
What music have you been listening to lately? Favorite artists?
Classical music never gets old, even though it is literally the oldest. I mean Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Muzorsky, Prokofiev. But also we do just want to get our faces melted by the likes of Carpenter Brut, and I’ve been.
Lastly, what is a message you hope fans who listen to your music take away from it?
Ecstasy 🙂 We hope people who find our music enjoy it, feel energized by it, maybe get inspired about life in some random way and just feel something that is special and significant to them. Music is one of those things where when you hear the right song or piece of music at just the right time in your life, it can really have an impact on you.
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