Immaculate Machine Call It a Day

BY Josiah HughesPublished Feb 11, 2011

Victoria, BC rockers Immaculate Machine have been inactive for more than a year, but they have only now officially thrown in the towel. The time commitments caused by Kathryn Calder's role in the New Pornographers and her budding solo career, alongside various other reasons, have made the project impossible to continue, according to the band.

Earlier this week on February 8, they posted this lengthy farewell statement on their blog:

You may have figured out, from our extended absence from the internet and touring, that we are no longer a band. It took a while to admit to ourselves that we had broken up, but we have all shifted our priorities to other projects.

Immaculate Machine began in Victoria, BC in 2001 with Brooke Gallupe, Kathryn Calder and Luke Kozlowski. As young students with time on our hands, we practiced 6 nights a week after hours in a ballet studio rented from Men Without Hats' keyboardist. We took every gig that came our way. We toured Canada tirelessly for a few years before anyone took notice, then we signed to Mint Records and toured some more. We spent so much time together we became siblings, finishing each other's sentences and playing together effortlessly. We travelled countless times across North America and Europe, generating an abundance of lasting memories.

In 2008, while planning a new album, Kathryn learned of her mother's terminal illness. She bowed out of touring in order to be a full-time caregiver. Luke decided to go to school. We recorded the album, High On Jackson Hill, and Brooke took it on tour with a hired band to Europe, China and around North America. With the fracture of the original lineup, the motivation to continue Immaculate Machine waned. It was time to redirect our efforts to new things.


Though they're no longer operating as Immaculate Machine, the members are keeping busy with other projects. Aside from Calder's solo work and key-tinkling for the New Pornographers, Kozlowski fronts a band called Aquitania and Gallupe is at work on a new yet-to-be-named project as well.

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