Tin Machine biography
Tin Machine was a hard rock band formed in 1988, famous for being fronted by singer David Bowie. The group recorded two studio albums before dissolving in 1992, when Bowie returned to his solo career. Drummer Hunt Sales said that the group's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his bandmates joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to."
History
1987-1988: Band genesis
The
Never Let Me Down album and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed, and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Bowie in fact told fellow band-member Gabrels that he felt he'd "lost his vision" and wanted to be in the band to get it back. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the
Let's Dance album, Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels (who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side) and multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kizilcay on new material in 1988 (although Erdal Kizilcay would ultimately not join the band). Bowie and Reeves met through Reeves' wife, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. Reeves' wife had given Bowie a tape of Reeves' guitar playing, and after listening to the tape, Bowie approached Reeves so they could work together. The first fruits of this came with a new version of Bowie's 1979 song "Look Back in Anger", performed at the Intruders At The Palace benefit concert on 1 July 1988. Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together -
something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, stating:
Bowie was pleased that the band members clicked, calling the ease at which the personalities came together "inspired guesswork."
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, The Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge similar to the Pixies.
The band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca and Mountain. Reeves described the roots of their sound as coming from bands like Cream, Hendrix and the Jeff Beck Group: "No lifts of licks. Those are just our roots."
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written. Tony Sales joked that originally the band was going to be called "The Four Divorcés" or "Alimony Inc," "...but I remarried and blew it up," finished Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels later elaborated on the real name choice:
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