After being introduced to the international ecosystem from their native Canada, the three-piece animal that is Black Tiger Sex Machine quickly worked its way to the top of the sonic food chain. They did this on the back of an impressively diverse musical catalogue featuring everything from video game samples to movie track thriller remixes, a progressive and technically astounding live set-up complete with slick tiger helmets (á la Daft Punk) and a really, really cool name.
Comprised of three long time friends who grew up together in Montreal, BTSM cut their teeth in the local electronic scene, making a name for themselves and their popular monthly electronic party Kannibalen. Realizing their potential, they wanted to make the jump into the international scene, but found that the smaller labels didn’t have much to offer that they couldn’t already do themselves, and the big leagues wanted more creative and timeline control than they were willing to give. The answer, which became their response to most obstacles, was, “Let’s just do it ourselves.” So they started a label and named it after their aforementioned monthly event: Kannibalen Records.
Since then the band and the label have accomplished more than they, or anyone else in the scene, thought possible for three guys and some tiger masks. We tracked down the elusive beast and were able to ask it a few questions.
Santa Cruz is quite the journey from Canada. How do you guys usually travel? It must be kinda hard sleeping in those helmets…
We usually do fly in and out to every show, but since it’s our debut routed tour we’re travelling in a big van with the whole team. We’ve been at it like this for five weeks now and it’s been super fun. With Dabin, Apashe, our tour manager Bruce and our video/photographer Karel, it’s the ride of a lifetime. We play soccer at our various stops, say a lot of immature jokes and strangely enough find the time to work out a ton!
Helmet sleeping is okay, you get used to it after 40+ nights…
Speaking of helmets, beyond looking slick they serve as a lighting and visual enhancement to your stage show, which has garnered quite a bit of praise after you tore up the festival scene last season at places like Lollapalooza, TomorrowWorld, Electric Forest, Electric Zoo, and even SXSW. Can you expand a little bit on what makes your live show so special?
We’re definitely happy that the show has been well received. Our live setup, from a performing standpoint, is always the same for every show we play. We break it down into three stations: keys, samples and percs and DJ stations. Our setup as is is super easy to install, which allows us to be very flexible in our performances. We can one moment be into crazy DJ mode with quick transitions, sample and effects, to then go straight into a more ‘band-live’ routine of our originals.
As far as the full show, we’ve been adding new visuals to our performances, but we’re not able to bring them to every show at the moment.
Your new project and first full album “Welcome to Our Church” earned the #4 spot on the iTunes dance charts as well as tens of thousands of SoundCloud plays in less than a month. How does it feel to have your first album be so well-received?
The reception has been amazing so far. Just the fact that the album debuted at #4, as you stated, is crazy. Just the fact that a lot of the fans had pre-ordered it when we never really asked for it is insane. We couldn’t have hoped for more from the fans. It has also been a blast to play out the tracks during the tour.
You guys are known for having an aggressive, synth heavy, and a little dark and dangerous sound, kinda like if Justice and Boys Noize did the Texas Chainsaw Massacre soundtrack. How would you describe the sound you’re going for?
The biggest outside influence on the album is probably Sci-fi soundtracks, specifically ‘Conan the Barbarian’ *insert Arnold Grunt*. We’ve always been fans of sci-fi, and the classics’ soundtrack are usually always epic! The intro and outro are probably the best examples of that.
As far as being ‘mellower’, we’ve been super happy to experience with and bring some new sounds and tempos to our productions with this album. Tracks like “Crazies” and “Survivor” definitely pulled from influences from our high school and college years, when we listened to a lot of hip hop and dance hall.
So, I hate to throw you guys under the bus here, but after watching videos like “On the Run” with its obvious gamer roots, seeing tracks called “Ocarina” (a Legend of Zelda shout out), the odd 8-bit samples, and the technical masterpiece that is your live show, I began to recognize my own kind. You guys are nerds! Care to defend yourselves or elaborate on these charges? Any favorite video games or tech stuff you guys are stoked on lately?
Haha, yes we are nerds. Three different types of nerds, but nerds nonetheless. Each of us can spend hours on details in front of a screen with no problem. Patrick has been playing a lot with his drone recently. Not sure when he will enter a race yet though. We’re also about to get into DMX stuff for the new helmets. As far as gaming, our recent schedule has been quite busy so we haven’t picked up a lot of new games. League of Legends and FIFA remain our go-to choices.
Since your first release in 2011 you’ve come a long way. On top of all the accomplishments listed above, you’re also the poster boys for an independent label that you started, Kannibalen Records, and recently joined the ranks of the prestigious Madison House talent agency. What’s your next goal, or are you just seeing what comes along?
Our two big 2016 goals were album release and the current tour. Those are our two biggest projects yet and we’re super happy on both front so far (even though it’s barely March…).
As we’re finishing up the tour, we’re currently planning the rest of the year but you can expect some new singles, new futuristic thriller mixes and continuous updates to our live show.
More business-related now: some of our other 2016 goals are to keep pushing Kannibalen Records and all the awesome artists it represents, and to keep building our team. We’re blessed to be a 100% independent group (we call it the #kannifam) and we intend to keep it that way.
Black Tiger Sex Machine plays Friday, March 4th at The Catalyst Club. Tickets $14 in adv/$18 at the door.
