Interviews

A Quick Chat With The Urban Voodoo Machine

• 11th May 2016

London’s bourbon-soaked gypsy blues, bob ‘n’ stroll band The Urban Voodoo Machine are back with their 4th album ‘Hellbound Hymns’ and a UK wide tour to match – we caught up with them recently to find out more about this hard drinkin’ hard playin’ bunch:

When we first started playing music together…
We had a plan of bringing an original form of Rock’n’Roll to the people called Bourbon Soaked Gypsy Blues Bop’n’Stroll. That was 2003 and we’re still doing just that!

If we had to choose a new name for the band it would be…
Why on earth would we chose another name? It’s the best band name ever!! The ‘The’ is not optional by the way, I have to tell people off for just calling us Urban Voodoo Machine – I guess some people think it’s long enough without ‘The’ !

We knew we were on to something when…
The electricity went and we still sounded great!

Our biggest non-musical influences is…
Love, Drink & Death which is also the name of our 3rd studio album

We’re most proud of…
We just keep going, we’ve got no time to stop and be proud of things really! We are of course very proud of our latest album HELLBOUND HYMNS.

Our ideal support slot would be…
The Stones, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits springs to mind…

Something we haven’t achieved yet which we’d like to is…
We really wanna tour Japan!

Our favourite places to hang out are…
Bars and churches – ideally a church with a bar! Which The Tabernacle in London have and we’re playing there 10 June!

We can’t stop listening to…
Rock’n’Roll, Ska, Country, Jazz, Punk, Blues, Gypsy, Cajun, Latin, Soul….the good versions obviously!

We’re not ashamed to admit that…
we really love what we do!

If we could wave a magic wand and make anything in the world happen it would be…
World peace and the option to smoke wherever you go!

Someone you might not have heard of that you should check out is…
Los Plantronics – the finest purveyors of Mariachi Death Surf!

UK Tour Dates:

Sun 15th May – Leaf (Liverpool)
Fri 20th May – The Black Market (Warsop, Nottinghamshire)
Sat 21st May – Fac251 (Manchester)
Fri 27th May – The Cluny (Newcastle)
Sat 28th May – Westgarth Social Club (Middlesbrough)
Sun 29th May – Fibbers (York)
Thu 2nd June – Chapel Arts Centre (Bath)
Fri 3rd June – Rainbow (Birmingham)
Sat 4th June – Red Rooster Festival (Suffolk)
Sun 5th June – Fleece (Bristol)
Fri 10th June – The Tabernacle (Notting Hill, London)
Fri 17th June – The Donkey (Leicester)
Sat 18th June – Margate Rock & Blues Festival (Margate)
Sat 16th July – Once Upon A Time In The West Festival (Wiltshire)