INTRO
Ghost Of The Machine’s vocalist discusses his latest project, Age Of Distraction, and plans for some pulse-racing gigs.
Since joining Ghost Of The Machine in 2022, Yorkshire-based vocalist Charlie Bramald has kept himself busy. He’s also released music with ambient proggers Nova Cascade, alt rock/prog hybrid Shadows On Mercury and Nine Skies, which has helped him leave an indelible imprint on the scene. Now he’s joined forces with former ex-This Winter Machine guitarist John Cook for Age Of Distraction, although he explains this was “in spite of myself, because I was already quite busy”. Originally intended to be a Cook solo project exploring the guitarist’s heavier side, it quickly evolved into an exciting new band that melds together melodic and progressive metal. He gives us the lowdown.
How did the Age Of Distraction come to fruition and who’s in the band?
John [Cook] founded it as an outlet for material that didn’t fit into This Winter Machine’s canon and it’s ended up as a full band project, with myself on vocals. You’ve got Mark Gatland [Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate] on bass and keyboards, and Dom Bennison [ex-This Winter Machine] on drums, keyboards and production. We figured it would be a band when we went into the studio last year to record the first single, Compromised. It’d been really collaborative, writing had been really easy, and when you’re all on the same page you just want to go with it.
When did you and John connect?
We started talking a little over a year ago on social media and we really hit it off. We’re both big Pain Of Salvation and Devin Townsend fans, and appreciate the heavier end of the progressive spectrum. He sent me some tracks and I ended up penning vocals for what became Compromised. I didn’t think I would have time for another collaboration, but I enjoyed the music so much that I couldn’t refuse it.
They’re two heavy bands, but they’re theatrical too…
I think that’s where we approached it from: Dom wanted to sprinkle in these Devin choirs to give some of the tracks a big, beefy sound. Peter Gabriel is my all-time favourite rock singer, I’ve always been inspired by his theatrical approach and how he gets his stories across with more than words. But there are a lot of dynamics, we all come from melodic prog backgrounds, so we bring that to the project as well.
How collaborative was the writing process?
We’ve all been able to put our own individual stamp on our part of the process. That’s in no way to diminish John’s massive influence, because the vast majority of the music comes from him, but we’ve all come in on top of that. Mark’s added really tasteful
