Imagery Machine recasts

“We’re going to be releasing a new song every month in 2018,” says Imagery Machine singer Jennie Lynn. “We call the project the Monthly Machine…. The band came to the conclusion that trying to put out higher quality recorded songs with better production would help us more in the long run than playing the same bars over and over again.” The songs will be out on the second Monday of each month, streaming via Spotify and the band’s website.

Tunes being tracked in El Cajon with Sean Tolley at Clarity Recordings feature a revised lineup, with Lynn, Tyler Shimkis, and James Howard now joined by Will Parsons, who recently quit Grim Slippers to play bass for them. Former singer Daechelle Hernandez, who’d only recently returned to Imagery Machine, has left again to pursue a solo career that kicked off with her Geffen Records single, “Fearless,” heard in the film Bratz. Her departure seems unrelated to the title of their first Monthly Machine single, “She’s Gone,” which kicks right in with a vintage-sounding siren torch song, somewhat of a departure from the music they debuted with just three years ago.

“Earlier [Imagery Machine] had a more defined reggae sound, but we’re moving away from that for a modern rock foundation,” says Lynn. “The new songs have more elements of dream pop, with ethereal harmonies and vintage effects.”

The shift away from reggae may seem surprising, given the national press seems to have declared island music to be today’s “San Diego sound,” thanks to local acts such as Tribal Seeds and Hirie recently topping the reggae charts.

“We love reggae, and it’s a very popular sound in San Diego,” says drummer Tyler Shimkis. “Unfortunately, we’re a band that has always ridden the line between rock and reggae, and with that come challenges in meeting expectations live or in recording when you’re labeled as such. A reggae fan who comes to show may not have liked our harder rocking songs, and a rock fan might not be so into the slower, beat-y reggae songs.

“We’re trying to meet people in the middle, so they know exactly what to expect at a show: a vibey, driven, beat-oriented rock band. We’re looking for a sound that can be played on any radio station.”