Machine Head has only been doing solo performances
In an interview with , Robb Flynn, vocalist of Machine Head, spoke about the band's choice to tour without opening acts and not play at festivals.
“When Bruce Springsteen comes to town, does he bring five opening bands? No. When Paul McCartney comes to town, ‘Hey, I’m bringing Peter Collins, from an English pop band!’? They play solo. We just started doing this and we love it. We didn’t know if it was working, we had no idea if it was going to work (…)
We were doing all the festivals – all in Europe, all in the United States. We analyzed what we had done and asked ourselves: “Okay, this is what we did, but is it working for us?” (…)
We weren't attracting more people. (...) We weren't selling more albums. I'm referring to merchandise sales... I remember a time when a good festival was a challenge for the band. You could sell a lot of merchandise, bring in more people, sell albums, and maybe it's possible, you know? I'm not trying to throw shit at festivals, (...) but I don't think the moment is challenging for our band.”
Flynn added later in the interview that:
“When you’re at a festival, for me, it’s hits and bangers, you know? You’re just trying to get a lot of people going crazy with anything, for 45-50 minutes. You’re not going to play anything soft, you’re not going to play anything to bring down the vibe. And you’re outdoors, in a fucking parking lot and it’s raining really hard and everyone’s standing in the mud, with their fucking rain gear and they’re freezing. I stopped doing that. I was completely over it. I was looking at the people and hating every minute. Just hating being on stage, hating the rain, hating playing in 7-degree weather, just: I didn’t sign up for this shit. When did metal become this?”
Machine Head's new album, Catharsis , will be released this Friday, January 26th.
Watch the video for the track, "Kaleidoscope,"
