NEWMARKET, NH – A band curating their own festival isn’t a new concept, but it’s a cool opportunity for a few things to take place. It’s a time for fellow musical entities to get a spotlight shown on them that they probably haven’t experienced while performing in front of new potential fans. It’s also a prime way for a band to get a bunch of their friends together to essentially throw a party. For Boston funk-rock dynamos Strange Machines, “Strange Days” is exactly that. The two-day event is taking place at The Stone Church in Newmarket on October 10 and 11 with the first day starting at 7:30 p.m. and the second day starting at 4:30 p.m.
I had a talk with keyboardist Christian Perron ahead of the festival about how the idea for it came to be, a new album that just came out, and a selling point for those who looking for something to do this weekend.
Rob Duguay: This “Strange Days” festival is the third edition of it, so who initially had the idea to do this type of thing where over the course of two days, you guys are playing multiple sets with a bunch of bands you’re friends with?
Christian Perron: The initial idea between Mike MacDonald and myself years ago where we had thought about doing a small festival somewhere. The Stone Church has always been a special place to us. I’ve been going there since I was 19 and I’ve seen huge names in that room. I’ve seen Lotus there, I’ve seen Soulive and I’ve seen The Wood Brothers in that room. We had a great relationship there, so we brought the idea to the talent buyer, who loved the idea. This was back in 2017 or 2018, which was the first time we did it and it was a huge success.
We basically sold it out for the two nights and for the first year, we had Litz from down in the Maryland area. We had West End Blend on the bill, we had Afterfunk, who are no longer a band, but they were great. It was a mix of regional players and local bands and it was a lot of fun. We were trying to come up with names and themes at the time to make it something interesting. With The Stone Church being a place that we play at once or twice a year and we do pretty well there, so we wanted to give our fans something memorable and special.
We came up with the name “Strange Days” and during that first year we actually did a set of music by The Doors, but we made it in a Strange Machines style with funk, progressive rock and electronica. It was a blast and it all came to fruition with Mike being the driving force through a collaboration with him, myself and The Stone Church talent buyer at the time for a fun, successful event for that first year.
RD: For the upcoming edition, I know the lineup features The Edd, The Hot Chocheys, Residual Groove, Fox & The Flamingos and Lee Ross, so when it came to the vision for this installment, what did you do to make it different from the others?
CP: We had tossed around the idea of bringing it back when we were working with The Stone Church talent buyer, and he’s been talking to us about “Strange Days” since we came back after a little bit of a hiatus. I left the band for a bit, but we decided to do it again even though it’s during a different time of year than the previous two. Those took place during the summer in June during the height of the festival season, so with this one being in October, there’s going to be more of a fall feel. I’d say that’s the biggest difference, and I think the other difference is we’re much more relaxed about it these days. It’s going to be a great lineup with all friends and the other difference is that we just released a new album.
It’s a revival of a successful event that both the venue and ourselves wanted to bring back together, and we got a new album to celebrate at the same time.
RD: Awesome. I alluded to earlier how you’re playing three different sets throughout the two days, so when it comes to performing this many times in a short period, how do you sort out the setlists? You obviously want to make sure that you’re not playing the same songs twice or playing the same set twice.
CP: In terms of the setlists, any of our fans who collect setlists will tell you that we rarely fully play the setlist that we write, but we do have enough material to play three sets. We’re definitely going to have some surprises in there that I’m not gonna talk about yet, but we just spent a weekend together practicing some new music and some choice things that are ours and aren’t ours. We want to try to have the weekend flow and for that Saturday night set we’re going to have something special and a little different. We’ve done different themes in the past, and this one is going to be part of a really fun set on Saturday, so we’re definitely not going to repeat songs. We’re going to write a fun set for all three sets that flow and really peak with fun surprises on Saturday night to close it out.
RD: You just mentioned a new album, which is titled “Playing With Fire” that came out on October 7, so what was the songwriting process like for it?
CP: The songwriting process we have isn’t consistent with every song. For many of the songs, Mike comes to the band with the bulk of the pieces, and then we piece them together while working on the melodies, bridges, interludes, etcetera. There’s also a few songs on the album that were musical ideas that either Craig Holland or myself brought to the table and formed into a song while writing lyrics after the fact. There’s definitely a collaboration with Mike being the driving force for most of the songwriting, but there’s also the musical writing influence of Craig and myself on the album.
RD: Very cool. Going back to “Strange Days”, there’s going to be someone in Newmarket looking for something to do that weekend and they’re either not familiar with you guys or maybe they’ve only gone to The Stone Church a couple times. What would you say is the biggest selling point to that type of person?
CP: “Strange Days” is a high-end community rock and funk party with a friendly and laid back crowd. I think that all of my friends and the people who come to see us love the energy that we bring musically, but we also have a very friendly and down to earth crowd that’s down to have a good time while being welcoming and open. I’d say come down for a funk, rock, electronic show with a bunch of fun bands and a bunch of fun people.