The Spiritual Machines aren’t so much a band as a fun diversion for a few dear friends with overlapping passions and careers. Leader Evan Frankfort is a Los Angeles-based composer who’s seen considerable success as a TV music producer. His small-screen credits include Rules Of Engagement, In Plain Sight, Swingtown and 90210. In the rock world, he’s worked with Liz Phair, Plain White T’s, Rancid and others.
Taking their name from The Age Of Spiritual Machines, a prescient 1999 book by computer-science pioneer Ray Kurzweil, the group also includes Future Aaron, who handles bass and keyboards and pitches in on vocals. Frenchman Matt LeChevalier plays drums, and keyboardist Craig Owens is the guy behind the Dance Moms theme song. The band’s self-released LP, Lockhearted, is available August 16.
The first single, “The Mirror And The Dancer,” finds its happy place in the gray area between prog rock and the more classicist ’80s new wave of bands like Tears For Fears. As it turns out, there’s plenty of room for experimentation in that zone. Frankfort’s daughters were the inspiration for “The Mirror And The Dancer.”
“I have two girls who started dancing when they were toddlers,” he says. “My fingers were crossed that they’d tire of it quickly. They didn’t, and almost 10 years later, I can say it will be the greatest thing that will have ever happened in their childhoods. We can spend all our energy trying to bend nature to our will, or we can spend nearly none and just float downstream. My kids taught me this.”
We’re proud to premiere the Spiritual Machines’ “The Mirror And The Dancer.”
—Hobart Rowland
