iEDM Exclusive Interview: Welcome To The Church of Black Tiger Sex Machine

iEDM had the chance to sit down and chat with Julien, Marc and Patrick; the Canadian trio behind the masks of Black Tiger Sex Machine right after their killer set at Lights All Night. Celebrating the first day of the new year in Dallas, Texas at the LAN festival, Black Tiger Sex Machine (BTSM) let us in on what they have cookin’ for 2016, details on their first album, and much much more.

If you are like me and wondered exactly how BTSM came up with their ever so intriguing group name, Julien from Black Tiger Sex Machine let us in on the secret and put all of the myths to rest.

It’s a very interesting story, we were looking for a name and I was in class and this girl kept texting me and I put these four words together so she could stop. I started texting her ‘Black Tiger Sex Machine’ and it worked! And then, Marc, Pat and I were all were like ‘this is a pretty catchy name we should stick with it’ so we did. I wouldn’t say there was a lot of inspiration for the name but there is a lot of inspiration because of the name…the feelings are really raw.

While watching their insane LAN set, filled with hard-hitting beats and new tracks off of their upcoming album, I was mesmerized by their Tiger helmets glowing on the dimly lit stage. Marc and Julien explained how the idea of their helmets came about and what we can expect from their new tricked out helmets.

Julien met a guy from Paris who is an industrial designer and asked him if he could create helmets for us and he did it in 2 months. For the tour we will get news ones that will be mini mapped and trigger visuals on the helmet.

Patrick also added how the helmets help to add to their onstage presence and how the crowd goes reacts to them.

People react to the helmets really intensely… as soon as we turn it on they all scream like crazy…the helmets kick it up a notch. Our sets are super dark and we don’t play a lot of known music, just all of our own music and music from the label or a few other tracks that are hand picked so I think the helmet is a great getaway for getting the vibe we want to push out there and the music and bringing both worlds together. 

Just coming back from Decadence and their 2015 Euro Tour, it looks like nothing can stop BTSM. The trio will start their North American BTSM Church Tour and are totally pumped for it.

What we love about playing in the states is the community aspect of the rave scene, it's similar to the rave scene in Canada. This tour will be massive we'll be hitting the road with Apashe and Dabin across North America and hitting up so many cities and a few Canadian cities on the way.

BTSM will also drop their very first album titled, 'Welcome To Our Church' later this month. You can expect a whole spectrum off of their album from vocals, reggae, drum and bass, dubstep and trashy/grimy electro tracks. 

We are really confident and ready to drop that shit. The key to staying up to date is having great music and we met a bunch of guys like Snails and Apashe.  We are releasing five new solo tracks and a bunch of collabs on Kannibalen Records guys like Apashe, Lektrique, Daben, Karluv Klub, Erotic Cafe....its going to be crazy. We are just doing what we feel is right in the moment and we got inspired by all the guys on the label [Kannibalen Records] for this album. 

Not trying to fit into any sort of fad or what the EDM market calls for this is what BTSM had to say about their music: 

We are not caving in to any style of music we are just doing our thing. We are playing what we feel is cool for us in the moment. Even if people are not reacting right away, there's always education to be learned.  

BTSM's Church Tour starts Jan 21- April 28. For more information you can check out Black Tiger Sex Machine's official page.