Gravity Machine declare It’s Summer with their new single and video release!
They re-release this fan favourite whilst preparing the follow up album to RED.
Multi-instrumentalist Niall Parker, drummer Bob Shoesmith and guitarist Harry Duns make up the band, who combine a huge range of influences, with the cornerstones of heavy rock, progressive rock, electronica and acoustic styles all adding to their distinctive sound.
Niall says: “This song is about a very long road trip years ago – it speaks of freedom, new-found love and how it feels to look back from a great distance and still find something magical to see. It had to have light and shade, both lyrically and musically, so as to reflect the depth of a relationship that started on that road trip; the memories are clear, as are what happened following that amazing trip. There’s a lot going on musically as well- a nod to Niles Rogers here, Mick Karn there, maxed-out fuzzy guitars, big synths…it’s a complex track for something that seems so simple.”
Losing his wife to cancer in 2016 and taking inspiration from Neil Peart’s “Ghost Rider” book (detailing the Rush drummer’s journey through grief), Niall wrote a large canon of material following this- “Creativity seems the best response to events like that- I’d pretty much stopped playing prior to this…but the songs emerged, one-by-one, each one adding it’s weight to their collective demand to be heard” Niall said.
Recognising that the wide ranges of genres and influences that the material covered required outstanding production expertise, Niall contacted Dartmoor-based producer Pete Miles (Martin Grech, Bring Me the Horizon, Canterbury, Architects) at Middle Farm Studios, who after hearing the demos offered to produce the album in a series of session spanning 2018 and 2019.
Performed primarily by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Niall Parker, the resulting album features drums from Bob Shoesmith, contributions from Pete Miles, vocalist Kat Marsh (Bring Me the Horizon, Choir Noir, We Are the Ocean) and bassist/engineer Chris Edney and Niall’s daughters.
“This was not an easy album to make – I knew it had to have absolute, unshakeable integrity and authority- with that in mind, boldly crossing genres, or even using genres to portray specific emotions was an important creative step, liberating the approach to allow that goal to come through. Anything that didn’t serve the goal was ruthlessly discarded,” said Niall.
Gravity Machine released two initial singles – “Dreamtime” (played on BBC Introducing Devon & Cornwall) and “It’s Summer” before releasing the album in March 2020 on their own Zyse Records imprint. A third single, “Lifting Mountains” followed in August 2020, to considerable critical acclaim and considerable airplay, including being playlisted by Planet Rock. The fourth single is a special remix by Pete Miles of the album track “Standing Stones” and has been released with a new video (available on the band’s Youtube channel).
The band will announce the follow-up to “Red” soon, and new material will be released in 2021. They are hoping to play live shows once venues are back open.
Niall and Harry are from Moretonhampstead on Dartmoor, and Bob is from St Leonards on Sea in Sussex.
Socials:
https://www.facebook.com/gravitymachine/
https://www.instagram.com/thegravitymachine/
https://gravitymachine.bandcamp.com/
