Rising Stars: Meet Able Machines

Today we’d like to introduce you to Able Machines. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Linus Dotson (p/k/a Linus Of Hollywood) is a songwriter/producer from LA who has been working in the industry for many years, collaborating with a wide-ranging array of artists (such as Puff Daddy, Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick and Bowling For Soup). Through his love of electronic pop, he decided to place an ad in Craigslist (of all places) for a like-minded collaborator and magically stumbled upon Tay Côlieé.

Tay Côlieé is a singer/songwriter/actress also from LA who grew up in the entertainment industry, acting in various films as a child and getting her start in music by writing songs for other artists (such as Ariana Grande and Camilla Cabello). Her collaboration with Linus gives her the chance to step into the spotlight as an artist.

Able Machines is a very self-sufficient unit. Not only do we write and produce our own music, but we also do all of our own visuals (music videos, photography, etc.). With a lot of consistency and determination, our musical footprint keeps growing and our biggest single “Narcissist” has over one million streams — all without the help of a major label, publicity or management. We’ve just begun playing live, finishing up several successful debut shows in Tokyo.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We get along great so none of our struggles are with each other, mostly our biggest challenge is trying to reach our prospective fanbase through the ocean of social media noise. Especially with no budgets or promotional team to speak of. Despite the challenges, we’ve grown a loyal following and continue to do so. It’s afforded us the opportunity to form tight and personal bonds with some of our early adopters.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We create an electropop that is mostly influenced by Scandinavian pop, although other elements find their way into the mix. Linus grew up as a metalhead so there is a bit of a rock element, and Tay loves the more indie songwriting styles of Fiona Apple and Elliot Smith which also gets peppered in. We write and produce all our own music in Linus’ home studio, which has become our creative headquarters for all things sonic and visual. We taught ourselves how to film and edit videos and we’ve gotten quite good at making high-budget-looking productions for next to nothing, oftentimes making common spaces like a kitchen or a living room into our own studio set.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
We’re lucky to have many creative friends in LA who inspire us, although we’re really doing everything ourselves at the moment. It sounds cheesy to say but we really inspire each other and we’re each other’s muses and teammates. We both bring different things to the table and there really would be no able machines without our combined talents. We do have a song publisher in our corner (Jon Rosner at Drive Music) who has been invaluable in helping us with marketing suggestions. We also have a great mixer (Seth Earnest) and mastering engineer (Paul Logus) who have both become a big part of our sound on the backend. We also have a team of emotional support animals (3 chihuahuas and 1 mischievous black cat) that bring us endless entertainment while we create.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/ablemachines
• Instagram: instagram.com/ablemachines/
• Facebook: facebook.com/ablemachines
• Youtube: youtube.com/ablemachines
• SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/ablemachines
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3IJ45FCPcmO7OT5pCp4ZG7?si=vyf2_aewSxutpUoeCBJnAw

Image Credits
Able Machines