Secret Machines – Now Here Is Nowhere

Unfortunately, Benjamin Curtis of Secret Machines is no longer with us, he died a few years ago. I met the band in 2004 when they came to Germany and I was fascinated. They did a version of ‘Deluxe’ by Harmonia that I thought was charming because they tried to sing German with their American accents. They were lovely lads, really great musicians and I joined them on stage when they did a promo gig in Hamburg and then a year later Benjamin joined me and Josh Klinghoffer at my first ATP festival at Butlin’s in Camber Sands, which was a very important episode for me.

He was a really wonderful guy, I considered him a good friend and a very talented musician. I was looking for my choices for your piece and I put on that track ‘Nowhere Again’, and I had to stop because I was a bit overwhelmed. The positive energy of that track and the knowledge that he’s no longer around was a bit too much. Strangely enough his brother sent me an email this morning. We are connected, sort of, but I hope to meet him again and talk about his brother. The list is getting longer unfortunately, Dieter Moebius, Jaki Liebezeit, Klaus Dinger, but especially in the case of Benjamin Curtis it was terrible, he was a wonderful person.