The God Machine - Sunday Velvet

Biography

Ronald Austin (drums & piano)
Jimmy Fernandez (bass)
Robin Proper-Sheppard (vocals & guitar)

(originally by christophe demunter)

SOCIETY LINE started as an afterschool jam session between ronald austin and albert amman during their last year in high school in chula vista, a suburb of san diego, california, usa.

robin proper-sheppard was in the same high school. jimmy fernandez, ron's inseperatable friend, would come watch and hang out while they played. he soon found himself picking up various instruments and joining in. he finally found the bass and things started to click. they didn't really play covers, but just let the music flow... and developped their own sound.

in the summer after high school they started getting serious about playing live. they already had plenty of instrumentals but needed a singer. this is when robin started jamming with them. from the start they clicked and decided to form SOCIETY LINE.

after a few months they had enough material to do a demo tape and put on a local show. the demo, which was recorded at arachnid studios, contained six songs : nouveau riche, homeland, departure, world news, reign and second sun.

after a great response to their sound they started playing various venues around town and continued to write new material. as time went by, they continued to evolve their sound into a harder yet at times atmospheric sound. robin started playing guitar which added to the complexity of the sound.

as all good thing must come to end this one did. robin, unsatisfied with his life in san diego decided to head off to new york city. ron, jimmy and albert continued to play together and looked for another singer.

while in new york, robin spent nights practicing intensely on guitar, partly because he lived in a intense neighborhood which was very unsafe at night (alphabet city). robin came back after six months and proposed to reform and move to new york city. after much deliberation (albert amman decided to stay behind with his girlfriend and finish his degree in psychology), they continued playing and put out some tapes.

so jimmy, ron and robin left san diego for new york city.

when the trio left san diego they travelled across the u.s..

first they stopped in texas for about two weeks, then they went to this small town on the east coast called westminster, which is just beneath washington d.c..

they just hung out not doing much with some friends of theirs. they stayed there for two weeks and then headed for new york city. after a month and a half they left n.y.c. and went to connecticut.

it was in connecticut that they decided to go to england. it was a spur of moment thing. what happened is that when they were in san diego, they met the manager of the HAPPY MONDAYS and it seems that he was really interested in their music. when they were in connecticut they remembered that he had invited them to manchester, england. so they said fuck it and they left.

they left all their things in storage at a friend's house on the east coast and got to london with about a 100 pound between the three of them. the only things they took was two acoustic guitars and jimmy's bass. they tried to get in touch with the guy from HAPPY MONDAYS, but couldn't find him so they left for amsterdam, holland.

they stayed in a youth hostel and played their guitars in the streets for money. they met a guy there that lived in camden, london. he told them that if they needed a place to stay, he could stay with him in a squat. they got there with 50 pounds between the three of them. they started working and they were able to save money so they could buy their instruments. it took them about a year to get situated in london and write all the new material. as THE GOD MACHINE, they played their first gig january 23, 1991 in the falcon of camden.

the rest is history: they recorded some ep's (purity, the desert song) and the first full-lenght album scenes from the second storey.

end 1993 they headed for prague and recorded the basic ideas for the second album one last laugh in a place of dying... in the basement of the obecni dum, the main cultural building of prague.

on may 23, 1994, just after finishing recording and mixing that second album, bass player jimmy fernandez is brought to hospital, gets in a coma and dies that same day... a brain tumor seems to be the cause.

the remaining members decide the band just can't go on without jimmy and break up.

robin proper-sheppard runs a record label called the flower shop recordings and has been busy producing some british bands like ROSA MOTA and ELEVATE, for example.

nowadays, robin lives in london and brussels and is in a band called SOPHIA. they played their first show in london on october 11, 1996. the debut album fixed water was released the same month. in september 1998, their second album the infinite circle was released, again on his own flower shop label. same thing with de nachten (march 2001) and people are like seasons (january 2004). ron austin still lives in london too and is now involved in writing, directing and producing films.

(for further information: an intimate site with SOPHIA)