Bryan Reesman recently caught up with MACHINES OF GRACE members and SAVATAGE alumni Zak Stevens (vocals) and Jeff Plate (drums) to discuss the official MOG debut. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: How do you take something that’s 20 years old, finally record it and make it fresh and not a piece of personal nostalgia?

Jeff: "The answer we’ve been giving for that is that we never had a chance to record the stuff back then. When we were writing it we all felt very strongly about the music. It was four of us in a rehearsal room writing this stuff, recording it on cassette tapes, listening to it and trying to do some demos. In effect, the saving grace is that Paul Hager used to be our sound man back in the club era. Paul has gone on to do bigger and better things with the Goo Goo Dolls and Avril Lavigne. When the idea came to re-record the stuff, we called Paul and he was all for it. He was able to take something that we had all originally grown up together with, and everything he knew as far as production, recording and engineering, and brought that to the table and put a sheen on it. At the time we were a little harder edged, maybe a little more abrasive, so he cleaned up the edges on that and made it a little more polished and a little more accessible to more people. As far as the nostalgia thing, I loved this stuff ever since we wrote it and have always listened to it. It was unfinished business. We had some very good material that never saw the light of day. As everything seems to come full circle, we knew at the time we had something fairly unique, and to this day when you listen to the newer rock this music stands out from that. It leans toward it a little bit, but it also leans toward the old-school kind of music."

Q: You guys are doing so many different projects, so artistically how does Machines of Grace fit in with everything else?

Zak: "You have to give us time. It’s going to play out in time. I think to answer that question right now, we’d probably be guessing at best. The way things are rolling right now, if they keep rolling this way I think it’s going to be good."

Jeff: "For me personally, from Savatage on I was always the drummer. With Machines Of Grace I was involved with the arrangements, working out the songs, going over the riffs with Matt and piecing things together. Zak and I did some of the lyrical work together. For me, this fills the void of being hands-on in the band. Metal Church, Savatage, Chris Caffery, any of that stuff I have input in, I’m not such a hands-on part of writing it."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

(Photo by Bryan Reesman)