Much like previous albums, the songs that became Machina were first tracked acoustically at Sadlands (Billy Corgan's house) in late 1998 before the band began recording. The sessions with the band lasted from November 1998 to September 1999 and were conducted with co-producer Flood and engineers Howard Willing and Bjorn Thorsrud.
At first, few understood Corgan's creative direction. Machina was to be a concept album about a fictitious rock band, with the frontman whose life was forever altered after hearing the voice of God. The sonic subtext for this would understandably be just as esoteric. The band wanted to take digital lessons from Adore and apply them to rock, accomplished through tape degradation, synth-like mechanized guitars, soaring pads and effects, heavily-processed vocals, and big drums. Both Corgan and James Iha tuned down their guitars to the "C tuning" which led to the album's thunderously low sound. In total, Corgan used more than 40 different guitars on the album.
They took a break from recording in April 1999 to embark on The Arising! tour while Flood was on holiday. After the tour, D'arcy Wretzky left the band. Corgan recalled, "This put a stress obviously on the full integrity of the project, because it was connected to the band not only bringing the music to fruition fully, but also the public component of being in character. I ended up in a broken band with a half-ass enthusiasm towards finishing a project already started." Flood added that "We pretty much went back to the drawing board."
With the full extent of the original concept becoming unrealized, the new recording process focused more on the song development than on the concept. By the end, many of the songs had evolved considerably. Many refer to the ending of love and relationships (romantic and otherwise), some obvious references to the band. Corgan described "This Time" as "my love song to the band." According to Corgan, the album was structured so that the first eight tracks would be "more poppy", and the last seven "more arty." Generally, Corgan appraised the sound of the album as "a rock 'n' roll approach with pop sensibility."
https://spcodex.wiki/Machina_sessions
Much like previous albums, the songs that became Machina were first tracked acoustically at Sadlands (Billy Corgan's house) in late 1998 before the band began recording. The sessions with the band lasted from November 1998 to September 1999 and were conducted with co-producer Flood and engineers Howard Willing and Bjorn Thorsrud.
At first, few understood Corgan's creative direction. Machina was to be a concept album about a fictitious rock band, with the frontman whose life was forever altered after hearing the voice of God. The sonic subtext for this would understandably be just as esoteric. The band wanted to take digital lessons from Adore and apply them to rock, accomplished through tape degradation, synth-like mechanized guitars, soaring pads and effects, heavily-processed vocals, and big drums. Both Corgan and James Iha tuned down their guitars to the "C tuning" which led to the album's thunderously low sound. In total, Corgan used more than 40 different guitars on the album.
They took a break from recording in April 1999 to embark on The Arising! tour while Flood was on holiday. After the tour, D'arcy Wretzky left the band. Corgan recalled, "This put a stress obviously on the full integrity of the project, because it was connected to the band not only bringing the music to fruition fully, but also the public component of being in character. I ended up in a broken band with a half-ass enthusiasm towards finishing a project already started." Flood added that "We pretty much went back to the drawing board."
With the full extent of the original concept becoming unrealized, the new recording process focused more on the song development than on the concept. By the end, many of the songs had evolved considerably. Many refer to the ending of love and relationships (romantic and otherwise), some obvious references to the band. Corgan described "This Time" as "my love song to the band." According to Corgan, the album was structured so that the first eight tracks would be "more poppy", and the last seven "more arty." Generally, Corgan appraised the sound of the album as "a rock 'n' roll approach with pop sensibility."
https://spcodex.wiki/Machina_sessions
![[1]](https://spcodex.wiki/images/1/1b/Machina_whiteboard.jpg){kind=link}
![[2]](https://spcodex.wiki/images/f/f9/Machina_pedals.jpg){kind=link}