The Capsules Plug Back In With Analog Power on “Machines”

After years of quiet, The Capsules return with “Machines,” a track that feels both like a tribute to their tools of the trade and a statement of revival. Julie and Jason Shields have long thrived on the textures of analog gear: pedals, processors, amps, and instruments that not only shape their sound but also become companions in the creative process. With this new release, those machines become more than background equipment. They are the heartbeat of the story.

“The silence breaks / the circuits pulse / reverberate,” sings Julie Shields, her voice blending relief with urgency. It’s not just about cables and pedals. It’s about finding your way back after time away. “Machines” celebrates connection: between the musician and their gear, but also between the artist and their art, silence and sound, and absence and return.

Sonically, The Capsules have leaned into a darker, more immersive palette. Longtime fans will recognize their synth-driven dream pop core, but the edges have been sharpened. Shades of shoegaze, darkwave, and post-rock swirl through the mix. Overdriven amps hum like living creatures, while vintage pedals add grit and unpredictability. The result is nostalgic yet modern, intimate yet expansive.

The accompanying video further develops the theme. The band members dissolve into static, morphing into jagged human-shaped signals on a black background. Handwritten words flicker into existence above them, shaky at first before coming into focus, echoing the way music emerges from noise into clarity. The visuals mirror the song’s sonic tension: fragile yet powerful, mechanical yet deeply human.

At its core, “Machines” isn’t just about gear. It’s about endurance. It’s about returning to what makes you feel alive and acknowledging the tools that have helped you get there. The Capsules aren’t the same as before, and that’s the point. Their sound now carries the weight of time and distance, charged with new electricity, buzzing with defiance.

With “Machines,” The Capsules prove that analog still matters, and so does the band itself. The track hums with energy, ready to reverberate through anyone who plugs in.

What inspired you to frame "Machines" as both a love letter to analog gear and a metaphor for renewal?

The original idea for "Machines" stemmed from imagining what it would be like for our analog gear to come back to life. The feeling of electricity and sound pulsing through it all again. Our last two albums featured more synths and electronic drums, and this new one we're working on, which "Machines" was created for, is definitely more organic.

When writing the lyrics, we noticed a parallel between the gear and ourselves, as we were coming off a brief break from releasing new music. It felt like not only the pedals and analog gear were coming back to life, but the band was too.

How has your time away from releasing music shaped the sound of your return?

We're actually more fearless than we were in the past. And we are trusting our instincts more and letting the music take its own course. The sound is a little darker overall, reflecting the challenges life has presented since our last album. Especially the loss of some important people in our lives, very close to us, that we each experienced during that time. 

The visuals are striking. How did you come up with the static and handwritten elements?

The idea for the music video started with trying to think of ways to make the band members appear as some sort of visual depiction of the music. It started by capturing the song's visual representation through a wide variety of audio processors. And the shapes that make up the interior lines of our silhouettes are actually screen captures of the song through a particular style of audio analyzer. 

We were originally considering taking more of a traditional "lyrics video" approach with "Machines," but ended up with kind of a hybrid of an interesting visual for the band, mixed with some animated text in order to give the video some additional life and movement. 

What role do vintage pedals and amps still play in your creative process compared to digital production?

We use a lot of vintage gear when we play live and often write and record with a lot of that same gear. It's true that the recording has become pretty much a fully digital process, but capturing some of that analog magic, be it with guitars, pedals, synths, etc., on the tracks is fun for us.

How do you see "Machines" fitting into the evolution of The Capsules' overall sound?

It's interesting because the earlier albums that we released were a bit more on the organic side, and over time, swayed more towards synths, electronic drums, and loops, and now we're getting back to more guitar, bass, and live drums again. 

We're still using plenty of synths, but I think they're less of a focus on most of the new material and are used more as textures. I think "Machines" is a good representation of some of those newer ideas of where we're heading.