[EDMTunes] [Interview] Black Tiger Sex Machine Talks ‘OMEN’ EP, OMEN Live Show, and BTSM Manga

Black Tiger Sex Machine (BTSM) have carved a unique and powerful space within the bass music scene, becoming one of the most celebrated bass acts in the world. Beyond their hard-hitting productions, they’re renowned for immersive live experiences that fuse cutting-edge visuals, dynamic lighting, and their iconic Tiger Helmets, all controlled live. Their dedicated fanbase, the BTSM Church, is a testament to how their music can inspire, motivate, and bring together a community.

BTSM’s global reach is undeniable, with countless shows across continents and performances at major festivals like Lollapalooza, EDC Las Vegas, and Ultra Miami. Their ‘Futuristic Thriller’ and ‘PORTALS’ tours pushed the boundaries of live performance, integrating cinematic storytelling and state-of-the-art motion capture visuals, selling out iconic venues like Red Rocks and Brooklyn Mirage. The ‘PORTALS’ show, presented in 4K Ultra Wide, marked a new era of their live experience, as did their innovative ‘Anime Show’ and the ‘SKULL MACHINE’ b2b with Kai Wachi.

Coming up this weekend, they are taking over the Tacoma Dome on April 4 and April 5th alongside Rusko, Reaper, G Jones, and Eprom just to name a few. Night 1 will feature a SKULL MACHINE performance and night 2 will be your chance to catch the OMEN show. Later this year, BTSM will be performing at EDC Las Vegas, Ultra Peru, EDC Korea, Forbidden Kingdom, and ILESONIQ.

Tickets for the show and the rest of their tour can be found here.

Beyond their own success, BTSM spearheads Kannibalen Records, a leading independent dance music label that has launched the careers of artists like Apashe and Kai Wachi. Kannibalen’s impact extends beyond music, with partnerships spanning Apple, Netflix, Marvel, and more.

In this interview, we will delve into BTSM’s latest OMEN EP, upcoming Omen Live tour, and how it all relates to their manga.

Hey guys, your latest OMEN EP just dropped and the artwork is amazing! From what we know, it is related to your upcoming manga. Can you share more about the EP and how it connects to the BTSM universe?

For the past few albums we’ve really been honing in on expanding our fictional universe and all the lore. With OMEN, we’ve had the biggest addition of new characters including General Taiyō and his followers and more Connected Fighters that will aid our titular character Naomi that’s been a part of our saga since the first Movie Experience tour a few years ago.

By expanding on both sides from the heroes to the villains, we’re aiming to make this post-apocalyptic world feel much bigger, complex and ultimately more real. The previous storylines were more intimate and singular, but now we have a lot more to play with that will be fully fleshed out between the new live show, the EP and the upcoming Manga.

What can we expect from your upcoming OMEN live show and how will it be different from your previous tours?

With our previous tours we’ve tested out a few different avenues regarding how to tie-in our fictional universe to the show. First we had the live action Movie Experiences, then we had the Anime Show. OMEN is a culmination and evolution of each of those, bringing together the stories and characters for the most comprehensive immersion into our world.

The Anime show was a great proof of concept for us and helped us to see the crossover between the fans of dance music and anime. With OMEN we really just went all in for a truly original multimedia experience.

Your ‘Cheatcode’ VIP dropped in March which has a techno spin on it, can you share more about the track and will we see more techno releases in the future?

We’ve been playing a little bit of techno in our shows for a long time and it gives our sets a nice change of pace between the heavier bass and some of the more classic electro we also throw in. For the VIP we wanted to do something different that we could also use as a transition in our sets, so it just made sense to go the techno route. With some of our newer characters in OMEN, we also wanted to give them a sort of sonic ID and “Cheatcode” VIP fit with our mischievous connected fighter Zoe.

The dance music industry is constantly evolving with different trending sounds and subgenres, what sound do you think will pop off in 2025?

There’s so many incredibly talented artists in the bass world that have been doing some unique things. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where things can go, but with trap music making its way back to the forefront we think the hybrid trap direction is something we’ll see more of thanks to artists like ISOxo, Kai Wachi returning to his more trap roots in some tracks, and especially with Skrillex’s latest album. From more heavy sounds to melodic anthems, hybrid trap has a lot of potential.

Social media is essential in today’s industry to connect with fans and to showcase artist identity. What kind of impact has social media had on your artist careers in the most recent years?

Social media has been our biggest community builder. We do a lot to create a sense of community and openness at shows, but social media is really where you build the family. We interact daily with fans and make it a point to be involved in their lives because we wouldn’t be here without our fan’s support. From giveaways, to livestreams, to the fan groups and beyond, we try to do as much as we can to connect to our fans in the most authentic ways possible.

From all the venues that you have performed at in the world, do you have any favorites?

This is probably the most common answer but we’ll get it out of the way first haha. Red Rocks! Some of our other favorites include Place Bell in Montreal (our hometown), WAMU in Seattle, The Torch in LA and BK Mirage.

Do you have anything else that you would like to share with your fans?

We’re currently working on tons of new music, several collabs and of course we’re deep in the middle of the OMEN Manga. It’s unlike anything we’ve done before so there’s been a lot to learn and it’s been a pleasure putting this together. We can’t wait for fans to get their hands on it later this year!

Stream ‘OMEN” below: