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Citing chef Heston Blumenthal as an influence, The Mischief Engine seem different from the start. One band member lives in Germany. Another in Canada. And the others in Australia. Their debut album Soul Delay took 5 years to make, was recorded on 3 continents, using collaborators from 7 different countries. So where does Heston come in? Songwriter and guitarist Stuart McBratney attempts to answer. "Heston Blumenthal wants dining to be an amazing experience, filled with wonder, excitement, and surprise. We treat music the same way. Rather than declaring ourselves to be rock, electronica, folk or hip-hop, we've discarded genre classifation, instead combining whatever elements suit the song. As a result, we'll have one tune that rocks out like The Prodigy meets Metallica, followed by a song consisting entirely of finger-picked guitar and vocals, ala Nick Drake." One example of The Mischief Engine's genre-defying concoctions is Firegirl. It starts out like a bubblegum pop rendition of