Man As Machine is an

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band from

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

founded in 2008. Their debut album ''Nothing But A Thing'' was released in 2011 and their follow-up album ''Patterns'' was released in 2015. The band currently consists of bassist Xavier Knox, drummer KJ Forde, guitarist Norden Hartman, and singer Rob Visser.

History

Early history (2008-2010)

The band was founded in 2008 as a result of Telkom's failed ''Do Band Up'' competition, which had a format similar to that of

Big Brother Big Brother may refer to: * Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' ** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control ** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...

's except that all the contestants were musicians that were required to perform together. During the two year period thereafter, they released an EP called ''What Makes A Man''.

''Nothing But A Thing'' (2011)

In 2011, Man As Machine released their debut album ''Nothing But A Thing'', which received generally positive reviews. On 22 October 2012, the music video for ''Burnout'' was released. On 14 July 2013, the music video for ''Control'' was released. The band performed at RAMFest's 2013 and 2014 legs as well as

Oppikoppi Oppikoppi was a music festival held in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, near the mining town of Northam. The festival started off focusing mostly on rock music, but gradually added more genres and now plays host to a complete mixed bag of ...

Odyssey in 2014.

''Patterns'' (2015)

On 5 August 2014, Man As Machine released a new music video for the song ''Force'', which alludes to ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' with lyrics mentioning Midichlorians as well as

the Force The Force is a metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the '' Star Wars'' fictional universe. "Force-sensitive" characters use the Force throughout the franchise. Heroes like the Jedi seek to "become one with the Force", matching their personal wi ...

. On 14 September 2014, the band announced via their

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page that they were working on their second album. It was confirmed in an interview that the new album would be slated for a 2015 release. The album was released on 3 March 2015 with the title ''Patterns''. In a separate interview, the band hinted at heavy touring for the new album as well as possible dates in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. It was announced that Man As Machine would perform as a support act for one of

Dead Letter Circus Dead Letter Circus are an Australian alternative rock band from Brisbane, Queensland. Their 2010 debut album ''This Is the Warning'' debuted at No. 2 on the Australian album charts and spawned a number of singles that were played heavily o ...

' South African dates in November 2014. Dave Grevler of Anti Motion Studios produced the album and Dead Letter Circus' guitarist Clint Vincent mastered it.

Members

Rob Visser - Vocals and rhythm

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Xavier Knox -

Bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

KJ Forde -

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Norden Hartman - Lead guitar

Musical style

Man As Machine's music is often referred to as

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

, or

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

. Rob Visser's vocal technique and style is often compared to that of

Chris Cornell Christopher John Cornell (né Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American singer and musician best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary lyricist and songwriter for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. H ...

's from

Soundgarden Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil (both of whom are the only members to appear in every incarnation of the band), and bassist Hiro Yamamo ...

and

Audioslave Audioslave was an American Rock music, rock supergroup (music), supergroup formed in Glendale, California, in 2001. The four-piece band consisted of Soundgarden's lead singer and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell with Rage Against the Machine membe ...

fame. Xavier Knox' bass playing has been likened to that of

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerfor ...

Tim Commerford Tim Commerford (born February 26, 1968) is an American musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist for rock band Rage Against the Machine, and supergroups Audioslave and Prophets of Rage. Since 2013 and 2015, he has also been the l ...

. Musically, the band has also been compared to

Wolfmother Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band from Sydney. Formed in 2004, the group is centred around vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, who is the only constant member of the line-up. The band has been through many personnel changes since ...

and

Alter Bridge Alter Bridge is an American rock band from Orlando, Florida. The band was formed in 2004 by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Myles Kennedy, lead guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips. After their former band Cr ...

References

{{Reflist South African musical groups Musical groups established in 2008 South African rock music groups South African alternative rock groups