Local Ska Band 'Heat Machine' Takes on the East Coast

By Nick Eneboe

It was a hot summer evening when we all sat down in a veritable sweat lodge of a loft.  I was interviewing four members of the Lincoln ska band called, ironically enough, the Heat Machine.   

We figured an interview with everyone would be impractical at best, so I spoke with guitarist, Nick Tarlowski, and vocalists Meg Mahannah, Christina Creager and Genni Bachinski. 

While there are technically seven official members, the band has a rotating lineup as needed - especially helpful if one of the members can’t make a show or a tour.  For instance, Christina will be unavailable for the tour this summer, so Genni will take her place.

     
Half of the conversation that ensued was the actual interview.  The other half sounded a lot like a discussion you might have with your friends the morning after a crazy night of partying - the kind where no one can quite remember who did this and who said that, but you all agree it was definitely funny.
     
In the process, I was regaled with stories of drinking on roofs and in vans, sneaking a dozen people into single motel rooms, guys named Fada Dugu buying Nick drinks, etc.  One, some or all of these happened while the band was on tour in Missouri, Arkansas or Texas.
      
When did the Heat Machine form officially?
Nick: Two and a half years ago?

Genni: It was three years ago. The summer of ‘06, because I was a junior in high school.

Christina: Our first official show was Skalaween - Friday, October 31st 2006.

Genni: We (the girls) were dressed up as nuns.  It was great.

Nick: The boys were all preachers, right?

Christina: They pretended to be, but nobody really dressed up! Fake collars and that was it!

Genni: Most ridiculous thing ever.

So you were ska from the beginning?
Genni: Yep. Pop punk, ska.

Nick: I wouldn’t say even pop punk.  We were more like 50’s rock ska.

Christina: We worship the Dance Hall Crashers. We, in a sense, modeled our goal as a band after them.

Any other major influences?
Nick: Oh yeah: the Slackers, the Toasters, the Specials.  You know, like Madness and a lot of the old ska bands.  I know that until I was in this band, I’d never heard of Toots and the Maytals before.

Genni: Oh, love it!

Nick: These guys brought them to life for me and they’re kick a**.  We just wanted to start a ska band, but we didn’t want to be a punk ska band.  We wanted to focus on old music and danceable music - not half dance, half circle pit music.

Christina: You can come to a show and be six years old or 60 years old and still get into it.  It’s not going to be offensive.  It’s not the kind of sound that makes you want to cover your ears.  It makes you want to bob your head.  Shuffle your feet a little bit.  That’s the thing.  We want everybody to have fun and we do.  We have a lot of fun.

Is it tough to have a band with like, I don’t know, 90 people in it.
Christina: Are you kidding me?!

Meg: You can never get everyone together at the same time really.

Christina: It’s the worst!  How many people are here?  One, two, three people that are actually, technically in the band.  Genni is like, you know, a 75 percent member of the band. She’s going in my place this summer. She’s an extra arm, you know?  We basically have like six extra arms.  We’re like a mega machine.

This summer you’re touring the East Coast right?
Nick: Yeah, we’re going to the East Coast on a label that we signed to do a record with.  They’re called Asbestos Records.

I’ve never heard of them.  Is that in Omaha?
Nick: No, it’s in Connecticut.  They’re well connected out on the East Coast.  There’s been a lasting ska scene in Boston thanks to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and bands like Big D and the Kids Table and a lot of other bands in New York, like the Toasters.  I mean, the Toasters are the longest running, still touring ska band.  At least that’s what they claim.  So the East Coast is pretty ripe with kick a** bands and places to play.  People are more into the scene out there.

How did you get hooked up with that label?
Nick: Our friend, Thad Steady, from the Cuterthans.  He used to run the Cog Factory in Omaha.  It was an old punk venue.  He’s an old friend of a lot of ours and he doesn’t play so often anymore, but he does like to put out records every once in a while.

He knew Matt Flood (everyone calls him Flood) from Asbestos Records.  Those guys knew each other through mutual friends, but Thad showed Flood our music and he got really excited and wanted a record. So we did some new songs and some old songs. It’s going to come out as a vinyl LP with download codes inside each one, so you can buy the LP even if you don’t have a record player and get the songs online for free.

What’s your current discography, if you want to call it that?
Nick: We did a four song demo way back in the day that was recorded with no click track.

Genni: We did a lot of covers and the first original song we wrote was called “Seven Minutes of Girls Gone Wild.” We recorded in Nick’s basement.  It was pretty intense. After that, we recorded the Limited Edition EP, which was eight songs, all originals.  We released that on New Years Eve at Duffy’s with the Killigans and that was like f’n ridiculous.  There were so many people there.

Christina: It was pretty much sold out

Nick: The first four songs we did weren’t really a release.  It was more like we were a band that has some songs on the way.  Going into a studio and putting out a good record is something that we know how to go over and prepare for it.  But back in the day, this was really Genni’s first time. She was doing a recording of her own.  Christina hadn’t recorded before, so the four songs were like, “Let’s get them into the studio so they know what they’re doing.”

Tell me about the songs on your MySpace.
Nick: That’s new.  They’re coming out on the LP, “No Coast Dance Party” this summer.

So do you see this tour and this record label as a pretty big step?
Genni: Yeah

Meg: I think so.

Nick: Yeah, it’s important if you have somebody that can get you out there.  I mean, there’s a band called Tip the Van - same label, and they’re kind of the same - half-girl, half-guy.  Definitely different styles of music. We’re more traditional, and they’re more third wave, but they’re from Connecticut, and Flood put them on tour with Reel Big Fish.  They’re like, “Let’s put you on a week or two of dates with like big bands.” 

He’s (Flood) working on booking our shows because he’s connected on the East Coast and there are a lot of good pockets of ska fans out there.  I mean, ska kids are nerds, man. They’re f’n nerds.  And like, we’re all nerds because of it.  They’re the kids that freak out when weird ska bands come to town.  They know all the names, we know all the names; nobody else does. Nobody else gives a s***, but like, they’re so loyal. I can’t even think of another group of music that relates to it.  I don’t think there’s another genre that has a pocket of nerd kids that still wear like weird suits all the time because they’re trying to be Rude Boys.  It’s like we see them at every show.

Christina: They get their female friends to knit them “skarfs.”  Ya know?

So this summer you have the tour and the record.  Any other big plans?
Christina: The week before the three week tour we’re going to be in Denver playing a ska festival and playing a few shows around there.

Is that the thing with the Aquabats?
Genni: Yeah, we’re excited.

Christina: And Nick’s going to be with the JV All-Stars right?  So Lane is going to be playing Nick’s part on that.  It’s just a big effort to keep the music alive because it’s too good to just give up.

Nick: A lot of bands have a lot of members that do this and that.  Reel Big Fish has a revolving group of members.  The Seattlites, the Slackers, even Deals Gone Bad from Chicago – some guy’s brother plays keyboard and trumpet and I’ve seen them more without their actual line up than with.  You kind of just have to understand at some point that with a band this big, you have to just find a large group of competent musicians that can actually pull it off. We’re lucky that Genni knows all the songs already.  She sang with the band for a little over two years.  I mean, we’re trying to train Lane right now.  He’s pretty good. He’s pretty much stand alone; he can do it.

What do you guys do when you’re not doing the band thing?
All: [Wait tables, bartend, etc.]

So food service basically?
Nick: Yeah, Mitch waits tables, Johnny makes tacos at Knickerbockers and works at a grocery store.

Christina: I sling lobster.

Meg: I work at a small, family-owned restaurant and I can wait tables all night – wait every single table during the night shift – and make like 20 dollars.  It’s in Gretna, Nebraska and because it’s a small town, only the regulars ever come in. And they tip really well, but no one ever comes in.  Like today, I waited two tables.

So are they cool with you guys taking off for tours and shows and such?
Nick: That’s why we work sh***y jobs.

Meg: Yeah, the only reason I got the job at the place that I did was that I knew the owners and knew they’d let me take three weeks off this summer. Plus the four days, plus anything else – shows and all that.

So what are your goals for the Heat Machine?
Nick: Just to be sustainable. Your band has to make a lot of money and when you think about the average amount of money you make on, like, a t-shirt, is five bucks, (you realize) five bucks doesn’t feed your band.  Five bucks gets the van another 20 miles.

So you want to get to that point where you don’t need to have a day job?
Nick: Well, that’s the idea. But the fact is that those are so few and far between that you just have to do it because it’s fun.

Christina: It’s becoming a rotating group because if you want to keep the band alive – if you want to keep the music out there – you have to let other people come in and save your a** when you can’t handle it.

What is your favorite show you’ve ever played?
Nick: The St. Louis ska festival, Ska Summit, was kick a**.

Genni: I think St. Louis was probably the best.

Nick: We played with legendary bands.  That show was so f’d up because we walked in and they’re like, “Ok, you’re catering’s upstairs, you get free Red Stripe all night, this and all this, your hotel rooms are booked and paid for, here’s your 300 bucks for playing.”  And we were playing with like the most kick a** dance hall bands that I’ve ever seen.

So what are tours like with the Heat Machine?
Nick: I’ve been a “touring musician” now for five or six years.  I’ve never been on a more f’d up tour than a Heat Machine tour. When we leave, we always take a picture of the alcohol we’re bringing with us.  So it’s like eight of us and we all have a big bottle and a small bottle.  So we basically have a mobile bar.

Christina: And I’m sitting in the back of the van and I’m like, “Dude, this is crazy, I can’t believe we’re doing this.  We’re just out here in the van driving around playing music and getting f’d up.”  It’s crazy.

Asbestos Records will release Heat Machine’s album No Coast Dance Party later this summer and the band will tour the East Coast in July 2009.  To learn more about Heat Machine and to see other upcoming shows, visit the band here.