“In their entire life, The Mekano Set will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.” The Mechanical Contrivium.

 The Mekano Set has been making music together in varous forms since 2006. Our attitude is independent but we're obviously not part of the Indie scene, we're just not interested in that kind of fashion 'sound like everyone else' kind of thing. We like the idea of being an Underground band. 

Milk: we've been like nomads, for various reasons. Everyone we've worked with has been like that. We're all from really diverse backgrounds and parts of the world. 

(Milk's half Welsh half English. Lee was born in Germany, lived in Ireland for a while. Sahara's a mix of Iranian and Japanese. They have also worked with Beth from Wrapped in Plastic, who was born in Scotland and grew in Africa.)

“Slick spiky electronic rock that screams darkness beneath a seemingly delicate exterior.” Natasha Scharf, Metal Hammer.

Milk: I met Sahara at a Flame On gig in London and we got talking about music. She's a bit psychic or something, we're both really good at working out what people are like, what they're after and stuff, as soon as we meet them. So that's useful, and fun.

This journalist guy was trying to talk to Sahara and before he'd even said anything she yelled 'no way!' She knew what was on his mind, and he wasn't after an interview...

Sahara: I never thought about singing, I'm really into the bass side of things, and the sound of the instruments not just the parts, but with The Mekano Set I thought I could really explore sound with my voice as well - in terms of atmosphere not just lyrics or melody, and there are things I can express in our songs with my voice and it fits really well because there is all this space to explore. I always wrote lyrics but it's only now that I can really use them to express myself.

Milk: I was intrigued because Sahara is a bass player, and the bass is really vital to our sound, it's got to be big and deep, but it's a melodic instrument for us too. She also said she was interested in making some 'interesting noises' with her voice. It works really well because our voices are totally different, we can put them together and it's fine because we both leave lots of space. My voice and guitar are both baritone, so there's plenty of room for Sahara to do vocals up there in the high end. We're really interested in doing things with a song other than the same old verse-chorus-verse-chorus thing. Although occasionally we do that, usually by accident. With every song we do we try something a bit different, let the thing go where it wants to go. See where we end up. We kind of see the songs as journeys, or places, not just pop songs. It's something we need to do, have to do, it's not just about wanting to be in a band to be seen. We have a lot of fun, but there's things going on at a deeper level that aren't really obvious. Although we love a good tune and a decent beat. I guess we're not really that interested in melody. The bass is the melody, the beat is the melody. 

Sahara: what we do is shaped by the beat and the bass. You don't really get a lot of that in rock music nowadays. The guitars and voices are the texture, not the main focus of the song. That's how we like it. 

Lee: the Punk and New Wave bands were all about that cool rhythm section thing. That's one of the things we take from that time. That's a part of Punk that never gets talked about for some reason. But feel in this band the influence is there as a starting point and we are running with it.

Milk: you don't get that with live bands much these days, really strong rhythm sections doing something with a groove to it. And it's imaginative without being overly clever or technical. Most bands these days seem to be all about technique and cleverness, without the groove!

Sahara: people think we use loads of gear, that it's all studio tricks and things like that. But we don't have as much equipment as a normal rock band does! We don't use anything special other than the usual guitar effects. We just work hard to get some different noises out them.

Milk: our influences are really really diverse. We're into a lot of Post Punk bands like Magazine, Wire, Joy Division, Pil. But we also love a lot of dance, psychedelic, post-rock, shoe-gaze, drum and bass stuff. I guess that's partly why we make the music we do, we're not just coming from one style of music. It'd wouldn't really work if we just tried to be a rock band or a dance act. We like guitars but we also like beats and basslines. 

“Like some kind of beautiful crime…” Niall O’Keeffe.

Sahara disappears once in a while to write ideas. She'll go and camp out in the desert, live in a cave or forest for a month. Milk hides out in the studio and works on the beats. The Mekano Set's studio is now two rooms full of instruments and noise making toys. They get together to jam out ideas, improvising around the beats. 

Milk: Lee plays guitar and comes up with some really crazy sounds. He's not interested in sounding like your typical rock guitarist, and that's perfect for us. There's so much you can do with a guitar other than just trying to sound like Eric Crapton, music that's 30 years old. 

Sahara: all our different cultures and experiences come together to make this sound. Traditional Eastern sounds, electronic sounds, rock music, dance music, drum and bass, psychedelic and experimental music, all mixed together.

“Brilliant bass-heavy ambiance generated by a (three-piece) gothic trip-hop dub outfit… Sirens luring you toward a dark fate you’ll embrace.” Source Magazine. 

Lee: Everything we've done so far, we've had to do it for ourselves. We've worked really hard to get gigs, airplay, reviews, sell our own CD's. There's just no point in sitting around waiting for someone else to do these things for you. 

Sahara: we never take the easy option. 

Milk: Using drum machines and things like that - it takes you four times as long to put things together than it would if we just used a conventional line-up. But our songs are as much about a really strong beat and bassline as they are about the vocals and the melody. If we didn't use loops (which we program ourselves! Every bar of every song!) we'd need three drummers!

Interview with The Mekano Set by Rollo Kim.

www.mekanoset.net