Immaculate Machine climbs the indie charts

by Annie Meikle

Local band Immaculate Machine will play a homecoming show this Friday night to celebrate their return from a six-month cross-Canada tour. After releasing their latest album, Transporter, in May, keyboardist Kathryn Calder, bassist Brooke Gallup and drummer Luke Kozlowski set out on tour to “play as much as possible” and delve into the Toronto indie music scene.

By living out of their van and “staying on random weirdos’ floors,” the band sprinkled its musical talents all the way to Halifax. They played more than 90 shows, including North by Northeast, the Pop Montreal festival and, of course, a make-out party. Immaculate Machine charted on a few university radio stations, even hitting number one in both Halifax and Victoria.

Toronto doubled as home base in July and August. There the band networked with up-and-coming Canadian groups like The Constantines and Jim Guthrie, and even managed to do a recording session with Mike Olsen of The Hidden Cameras.

While the grassroots nature of the tour meant the three long-time friends made their own CD, booked all their shows and did their own promotion, Gallup maintains they are pleased with the results.

“We’re not on MuchMusic or selling songs to ads or anything,” he says, “but we played lots of shows, sold lots of CDs, charted high on several college stations and made great contacts.”

Gallup claims the tour also helped future goals become less blurry. “I think now that we’ve done the seat-of-our-pants indie touring, we are starting to understand some of the subtleties of the business.”

Over the next few months, he hopes to focus on the behind-the-scenes aspects of making music and play shows that are closer to home. One such show will include the infamous Nardwuar and the Evaporators. “We’re going to talk to people we’ve met and start thinking about producers, record labels, and that type of thing,” Gallup says, “but we won’t call our van home for a while.”

Musical pursuits won’t see Immaculate Machine settling permanently in Toronto either. “The distractions of the big city make it hard to spend as much time writing and practicing. Plus, we only saw it in the summer,” he jokes.

Transporter shows that all the writing and practising definitely pays off. Calder’s sweet melodies and Gallup’s strong baritone blend together to seek out the listener and lend a personal edge to the music. Poppy angst frustration with knowing “what it is to search for meaning in the meaningless” is juxtaposed with heartfelt, melodic snapshots of dark affliction and secret longings. The compilation ends in a poignant affirmation of friendship in “Tell It To The Ones Who Care.”

Sway, dance and eat free cake at 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22 as the Fifty-fifty Arts Collective (2516 Douglas St. at Bay) hosts an all ages, ’50s-style homecoming dance. Vancouver band Cadeaux (ex-Operation Music) and local synth-pop band The Ray Gun will set the tone for what’s sure to be an immaculate evening. Tickets are $7 at the door.

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