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Music

Behind the Mask: Catching Up with Black Tiger Sex Machine

Bonding with BTSM about their newest release “On the Run,” their new live show and Kannibalen Records.

We had the opportunity to catch up with Black Tiger Sex Machine before they left for their latest European tour, which kicked off in Angers, France on April 17th. Obviously we couldn't pass up the opportunity to kick back with Marc, Julien and Pat to discuss their new single "On the Run," Kannibalen Records and their new live show. I figured it would be the best time to get behind the masks and learn more about one of the most interesting and hardworking electro trios to hit the scene in a while.

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Thump: So tell me about your new release "On the Run."
Julien: What we're trying to do right now with "On The Run" is to create a link, which will define what's going to happen in the upcoming months. It links with our live shows, our tours, and things that are going on with the label. We're trying to create this bridge between electronic music that we like and festivals. We're trying to find a way to be accepted on a bigger stage at different kinds of festivals. We also want to play in clubs and in Europe and Asia. So I think "On the Run" is kind of closer to what could be possibly played during a festival. It's got that bass heavy, big room feel, and then we also incorporated stuff that we like with a rock vibe, this '80s 8-bit, vocals and all that. So we're just trying to play around with both aspects because that helps us to mix both worlds.

We're going to be touring in Europe, and we have a lot of opportunities in the upcoming months in the States, so we're going to get our work permits and finally go there at some point. They're different markets but we're just trying to find the right sound for both markets.

Pat: I think it's trying to take a bit more of a conventional crowd pleasing side and marry it more with… maybe not an experimental side, but definitely sounds that could be a bit unconventional in that genre and taking it from our influences. We wanted something that we thought had a certain originality and to give it our own flare.

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That's a really great way to approach it. Now, I want to know… Where did you get the inspiration for the theme behind your new music video "On the Run"? Where you're trying to obtain the mighty Tiger mask?
Marc: It was Julien's idea, which turned out to be really good. I think it was his best shot at story telling from A to Z.

J: When we first started, I don't know if you remember the music video for "Drama" that we did a few years ago?

Yeah, with the Space Queen?
J: Yeah, that's the only video we didn't direct. It cost us a lot of money, and we weren't completely satisfied with it, but it gave us a lot of recognition at the time. I always wanted to direct something, so I started making videos with Karel and now we have a little team.

The first time Pat showed me the synths he put together and the break for "On the Run" I said, "This is something I can work with for a music video." I was trying to find the right thing—something different from the Clockwork Orange video. We wanted something very linked to what we have, like the helmets, which are non-violent and fun for all ages. We wanted to incorporate this kind of Atari, Gameboy vibe in the track as well.

M: It takes a lot of skills from the record label. Karel is Karluv Klub, but Snails did all the visual effects, and Apashe, who is also on the label, did all the sound engineering. So all the special effects and the audio are made in house, which is a pretty cool accomplishment.

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What's next for Black Tiger Sex Machine and Kannibalen Records?
M: Well we're going on tour; we're releasing four tracks in the next three months, the live show is being built up and it's going to be pretty crazy in Europe. After that we have about twelve releases for the label—free downloads to full EPs, and then after that we're going to be tackling the American market.

J: It's going to be hard work but everything is set up and we just have to keep pushing. It's not always easy because sometimes you have to invest money here and there. I think the fact that we've worked really hard instead of being satisfied in the past four months since being back really made a difference.

What do you think the differences will be between that first European tour and this one coming up?
M: This one is going to be a full live show, whereas last time it was only DJ sets because we didn't have all the gear with us and we couldn't afford to bring all the gear around and get bigger venues.

J: And we're bringing Karel with us for two weeks. He's going to be working on a documentary based around our tour.

What does this perfect "Kannibalen World" consist of?
P: Just a lot of good times, making music and people doing what they want to do. Really pushing sounds that go beyond boundaries and conventional structures. Also doing something that at its most basic level to just make people dance and bring joy to their lives.

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M: Wow, Pat. So well spoken.

J: A "Perfect Kannibalen World" is probably based on the fact that the past couple of years we were just trying to find music to release and now we have really established this family vibe. Everybody is working together; it's more like people working on different stuff all the time. Music, sound engineering, editing, acting, directing—everything. We want to create something where people feel comfortable to try out new things. We go out and release the tracks and we have no one putting limitations on the art that we're producing. We decide what's good and bad as a group.

I always find your shows are so down to earth, which is refreshing from a lot of shows I've been to lately. Will the live show be similar? What's the concept and the kind of crowd you want to draw?
P: Musically, it will be kind of similar to the stuff that we would DJ in terms of genre. We'll be playing a lot of 128 four to the floor electro while playing around with tempos going up to 140 trap stuff. What's different though is that we're taking our tracks and deconstructing them and replaying certain parts live with MIDI controllers. So we have several different things going on all the time, just trying to add an extra layer to it to make it that much more interesting to us. We want to create an experience that's different and covers all the bases in terms of being interesting visually, sound wise, with energy and uniqueness.

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It's definitely a challenge because we're kind of making this up as we go. Some other people do this live show but it's not really like you can crack open a manual. We have to experiment a lot to get it to a place where we feel it's good and that people will enjoy it. I think we've found a way to do it where it'll be pleasing for the crowd and fun.

J: You get a lot of people who think that a live show is just one thing. Either playing instruments or visuals and it's not always easy to have both in a club because we're going to be moving from different venues, playing with other people or playing for a longer period of time, so there are all of these elements which are always changing. We could have just kept the helmets and done DJ sets because the helmets themselves are a live experience, but we decided to challenge ourselves a little bit and push it one step further. It took some time, and we're rebuilding it as we go. At first it was drums and v-drums, but it was so complicated to bring on the road so we did this smaller live show, which we're bringing to Europe, so that way we can play it everywhere and it's easier to set up than a DJ set. Since we're three guys if we're just DJing, it's not that much fun, but now we get to do things the whole time.

M: We each have our own station, before with DJ sets it would be us three versus one interface, but now we each have our own interface and we can talk to each other.

So what's coming up with the Kannibalen Label?
M: Lots of releases.

J: We're going to blast videos throughout the year. More footage, do a little short film at the end of the year with lots of music from the label and the Kannibalen "infection." And a lot of visual content. At the end of the year we want to make sure that all artists on our label are known for their music and visual aspects and we can link everything together.