ZWAREMACHINE Zwaremachine is an EBM and industrial band from Minneapolis, United States. Over the next three weeks, the group will be touring Europe, with a number of dates in Belgium and the Netherlands. Incidentally, the band will consist of two Americans and two Dutch members.We also know Zwaremachine as the band Bas Mercx, also known as Dein Offizier, played in until his tragic death from leukemia in August 2023. All these interesting elements make it possible to let singercomposer Mach FoX tell his story. Hi Mach. You are touring Europe in the coming weeks with Zwaremachine. How did this tour came to be? Thank you Xavier for this interview. Zwaremachine had started booking shows in central Europe since the precovid period. We wanted to continue with our new lineup and book our 2025 tour dates to promote some recent singles that we have released and to continue to build audiences those areas. Can you tell us how Zwaremachine was formed? I had originally written and recorded a song titled ‘The Zwaremachine’ in 2011 and released it under the name Raumschiff on a German netlabel.That song was a bit of an experiment in sequencing a more electro-industrial style music. I liked the sounds and decided to pursue a solo project along those lines which would become Zwaremachine. I performed the first few Zwaremachine shows with a dj and myself. Later in 2017 I focused on writing and performing the songs that would become the first Zwaremachine album ‘Be A Light’. By then I had decided to add an electronic percussionist and synth player in order to fill out the live sound. It’s not surprising that you come to Europe, since you have European musicians performing in the band. Let’s first talk about Bas Merxc, aka Dein Offizier, who was a percussionist in Zwaremachine. How did he join the band, and what was his role in the band? Bas was friends with Kitty Sommer, a Dutch DJ who manages and books the band, and he had seen me perform a solo Zwaremachine show at the Nieuwe Nor Heerlen. We met and became online friends. I saw him posting really cool pics on social media from his percussion groups. He looked so badass in those pics that I decided to ask him to join the band on electronic drums, but he said he would prefer to play his surdo drum. www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 18 - Shortly after we booked a Zwaremachine tour in Europe, we had one rehearsal together and left the same day for our first show together in France. At the rehearsal he was pounding his drum and singing along and I knew I made the right decision. We quickly became friends on that tour and I learned about his dedication,passion and humor. Shortly after that I was able to come the Netherlands and record his drum for our second full length album
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