This 2017 release was my final album with the Nice Machine. In my opinion, we went out on a very high note with this album recorded and produced by Ken Henslee. The recording sessions took place over a year at Ken’s home studio. Ken was an ideal collaborator for the Nice Machine and we enjoyed many laughs amidst laying down these tracks.
It was also a peak for the Nice Machine’s internal collaboration as we created many of these songs through group jams that eventually crystallized into some of our tightest material yet. Surf and Punk were still at the heart of many songs, but other songs like the title track contained Prog elements and dashes of Melvin’s style sludge.
The album contains a few updates on older tracks as well with Ambulances, Race Ape, and TV Dinners getting a fresh coat of polish.
Many of these tracks were easily translated to the stage and stayed in heavy rotation until I moved away from Georgia in 2018.
The cover art was a conceptual collaboration between myself and Drummer Eric McDowell. The term Science is Real was often bandied about at practice when discussing aquarium setups, musical math, or prehistoric timelines. Some of us felt a little squeamish when it soon became a politicized statement in recent years, but still stand by Science and all of its quantifiable glory!
