Renowned pioneers of the UK music scene, Soft Machine, recently released their latest opus ‘Other Doors’.

After a five-year hiatus since their last studio release, Soft Machine returns with ‘Other Doors,’ a dynamic blend of fresh compositions alongside two timeless classics from their extensive catalog.

Featuring a lineup including John Etheridge on guitars, Theo Travis on saxes, flutes, Fender Rhodes piano, and electronics, Fred Thelonious Baker on fretless bass, and John Marshall on drums, ‘Other Doors’ also welcomes back guest appearances from retired bassist Roy Babbington. Recorded at Temple Music Studios during July and August 2022, the album captures the band’s vibrant energy and showcases their knack for spontaneous improvisations, a hallmark of their legendary sound. With a mix of new arrangements and revisited classics, ‘Other Doors’ pays homage to Soft Machine’s illustrious history while also embracing the talents of new members like Fred Baker, whose fretless bass adds a fresh dimension to the band’s sonic palette.

As Soft Machine bids farewell to longtime drummer John Marshall, ‘Other Doors’ serves as a fitting tribute to his remarkable career, showcasing his virtuosity and musical prowess. Bold, vibrant, and brimming with innovation, ‘Other Doors’ reaffirms Soft Machine’s status as trailblazers of the music world, promising audiences an exhilarating musical journey unlike any other.

“I would say Soft Machine presents itself as a rock band”

The last time we discussed, you had just finished recording ‘Hidden Details’. How would you compare the latest album with it?

Theo Travis: I think the albums have clear similarities and also clear differences. The musical concepts are similar in that they are very broad-ranging Soft Machine music! We all come musically from a jazz and improvising background, but I would say Soft Machine presents itself as a rock band. Fred Baker replacing Roy Babbington on the bass has had a big impact on the way we play and the overall sound of the band too. Fred and Roy are very different players and characters.

I think I would say ‘Other Doors’ is more introspective than ‘Hidden Details’ generally and more textural. It is perhaps sonically richer though there are big rocky numbers like the title track ‘Other Doors’.

There was quite a lot of preproduction on the ‘Other Doors’ album and I was very involved in that, with the textures and multi-layers of sound. Probably more than on ‘Hidden Details’. For example, ‘Maybe Never’ is a track I composed and produced entirely in my own studio. It is very electronic and experimental with processed sound wave synthesis, low-frequency oscillators, and layers of audio effects. ‘When Snow Melts’ (a bonus track on the vinyl edition) is another sonic experiment taking layers of minimalist Fender Rhodes lines and using sound processing techniques and audio effects like delays, oscillators, and filters to mutate the sound of the electric piano into more strange and interesting complex sounds. But all the sounds and playing are from a Fender Rhodes piano. ‘The Visitor at the Window’ starts with an otherworldly echoing drum pattern, before looped and layered alto flutes join in, leading to the band entry and the build-up to the tune played by the whole band towards the end of the piece. Again, an atmospheric and cinematic short piece with a strong sense of direction, build, and flow that required pre-production.

The opening track ‘Carless Eyes’ is also very filmic and atmospheric, with beautiful reverb-soaked bluesy guitar lines exchanging phrases with a wood flute over psychedelic echoing phrases on the Rhodes piano. This was carefully designed to give the sound I was after. The playing itself was all live and pretty quick.

So much of ‘Other Doors’ is very atmospheric and laid-back, with some almost three-dimensional sounds. But then there is the rocky title track ‘Other Doors,’ the playful ‘Joy of a Toy,’ and the psychedelic band workout on ‘Back in Season’. To some extent, the musical ideas explored on ‘Hidden Details’ are developed further and hopefully deeper.

Both albums were recorded in Jon Hiseman’s studio in Surrey, UK and then mixed by the excellent Andrew Tulloch, and both have bold brightly colored cover images by the amazing visual artist Lasse Hoile. These similarities give continuity to the two albums and a consistent “feel” to them, despite their differences.

<a href="https://softmachine-moonjune.bandcamp.com/album/other-doors">Other Doors by Soft Machine</a>

How much time and effort went into writing and recording ‘Other Doors’?

A lot of time and effort went into the writing of the music for the album. I can’t speak for John Etheridge, but for me, I was working on compositions and arrangements for the album on and off over a period of 2 years, since the ‘Live at the Baked Potato’ release and during the Covid pandemic. During that time, there were no gigs, so there was more time to spend at home and in my own studio writing and recording music. So, I did spend a lot of time on demos of pieces that I thought might work for the ‘Other Doors’ album. This includes a couple of pieces that we did not, in fact, record. I would compose and record a sketch of a piece, then leave it for a few days, then return to it next to see what I thought. Sometimes I would like an idea and develop it, and other times I would discard ideas altogether. I spent a long time on pieces like ‘Back in Season,’ ‘The Visitor at the Window,’ ‘Crooked Usage,’ and the arrangement of ‘Backwards/Noisette’. Sometimes I would spend a period of days altering one or two notes until a piece felt “just right”. As mentioned above, ‘Maybe Never’ was written and recorded wholly in my own studio. I do think it is an important part of the writing process to live with drafts of pieces for a while, to see how you feel about them over time.

The recording process with the full band was pretty quick. We had 3 studio days booked, then a gap, then another 3 days several weeks later. John Marshall played great on the first 3 days, but then was taken ill so could not make the second lot of recording sessions. As a result, we used that time for some trio improvisations (without drums), recorded the guitar solo piece ‘Whisper Back,’ recorded some overdubs, and did some additional production. And that was it.

“Soft Machine has a certain way of making music, a jazz approach”

Would you like to talk about the overall vision and the concept behind it?

Soft Machine has a certain way of making music, a jazz approach. We play together live in the studio, rather than “assemble” tracks recording one instrument at a time, replacing a recorded multitrack demo with the real instruments. We are improvising musicians who have played free jazz, straight-ahead jazz, experimental music, and that informs most of our music. But we also play rock music and various crossover musics. And the ‘Other Doors’ album reflects a lot of our different musical areas and experiences. But at the same time, it needs to sound like a band with a consistent vision and approach. Otherwise, it could end up sounding like a compilation of unconnected tracks by different bands – like a bad mixtape! So the idea was to keep the album focused and like a Soft Machine album, which is like a genre in itself.

Would love it if you could share some further words about the recording process, which was done at Temple Music Studios, a facility owned by the late Jon Hiseman.

Each recording day in the studio, we would set up, check we could hear ourselves and each other, and then play through a track to rehearse it. It is basically an ‘old school’ approach like people might have done in the 1960s. People playing together in a room. We would usually record 2 or 3 takes. In tracks where there is improvisation involved, different takes might have very different flavors and moods. We would choose our favorite take. If there was no consensus as to which take was best, the composer would get the final say. On some tracks, there are overdubs. For example, I play all the keyboards on the album as well as saxes and flutes, so these would be recorded on separate takes after the rest of the track was recorded. Sometimes there will be an extra layer of guitar also.

I think the band is quite relaxed and very cooperative in the studio, and for me, the whole album recording was a very enjoyable process. There were no artistic tantrums, big egos, or artistes storming out of the studio in a huff, slamming doors!

Would love it if you could share some further words about the recording process, which was done at Temple Music Studios, a facility owned by the late Jon Hiseman.

Each recording day in the studio, we would set up, check we could hear ourselves and each other, and then play through a track to rehearse it. It is basically an “old school” approach like people might have done in the 1960s. People playing together in a room. We would usually record 2 or 3 takes. In tracks where there is improvisation involved, different takes might have very different flavors and moods. We would choose our favorite take. If there was no consensus as to which take was best, the composer would get the final say. On some tracks, there are overdubs. For example, I play all the keyboards on the album as well as saxes and flutes, so these would be recorded on separate takes after the rest of the track was recorded. Sometimes there will be an extra layer of guitar also.

Mr. Hiseman was a very special musician. Do you have any particular memory of him that you would like to recall for our readers?

Well, Jon sadly died in April 2018, so while we recorded ‘Hidden Details’ with him, he was not around for ‘Other Doors’. The recording engineer for that was Ru Lemer, who had worked extensively with Jon, knew the studio well, and was great. Jon was an amazing character, a huge talent, and was very inspiring. He knew so much about so many things, both in music and generally. It was a privilege to have spent time with him, seeing him work, and listening to his stories!

Along with new compositions, you also revisited the very first album, originally released in 1968. Would love it if you could share how you first heard that album when you were not part of the Soft Machine yet. Did it bring any particular highlights hearing it for the first time?

I actually heard the first Soft Machine album many years ago as my brother Sandy was a big fan of the album. I have recollections of us playing chess in our parents’ house, listening to it! I did not really know it though. I became much more aware of it later on after I joined the band and was looking into its recorded history. There is a charm and an air of whimsy to it as well as a big dose of English psychedelia that really appeals to me.

And I love what you did with ‘Penny Hitch’…

Thank you. I am a fan of Soft Machine ‘Seven’ and think it is often underrated. I think it is a great album. I like the band lineup, all the music on it, and also think it has great sound quality. Lots of lovely Fender Rhodes piano and a really clear, crisp recording. ‘Penny Hitch’ is a strong composition by Karl Jenkins and when we tried it out it just seemed to work well. It has a cool melody, a hypnotic feel to it, and the build towards the guitar solo and explosive drum solo at the end of the track make it very satisfying as a piece. So, having played it live for a while, we thought it would be good to record our version of it.

What’s next for you beside a massive tour coming up?

Everyone in the band is involved in lots of different projects. For me, my own band Double Talk band has gigs in early 2024 and I have written some new music for it. Also, I am constantly writing and recording in my home studio. I recently released a solo album on Bandcamp called ‘The Dark Hours‘, which is an album of slow, atmospheric jazz noir tracks. I am very pleased with it, and there has been a great response to it. I also have my YouTube channel and I’m writing and recording tracks for that. I have just come back from a festival in Sardinia playing with David Jackson (saxophonist from Van Der Graff Generator), David Cross (violinist from King Crimson), and Alex Carpani and his band. We played Alex’s excellent music but also tracks by the Davids from King Crimson and Van der Graff Generator. We also performed ‘Back in Season’ from ‘Other Doors,’ which the band played really well. But the big Soft Machine tour is our main focus for the next year.

Are you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

I am mainly busy with Soft Machine but yes, I always have lots of projects going on and have to juggle them all. The main other gigs are going to be the Double Talk gigs in 2024.

Do please come along to one of the Soft Machine or Double talk gigs and say hi!

Klemen Breznikar

Headline photo: Mariia Korneeva

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