"Ever-so-rarely an artist comes along to stir your subconscious and redefine the unconventional. I Speak Machine—the experimental music and audio-visual project of Tara Busch and Maf Lewis–is here to show us the way"
-Liza Lentini, SPIN MAGAZINE, April 21, 2022

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Tara Busch is a Los Angeles - based writer, performer, film composer & producer. In 2013, she co-founded the audio/ visual project I Speak Machine with filmmaker/writer Maf Lewis. In 2022, I Speak Machine released their album WAR, and the album was accompanied by an iconic series of videos (see video tab), directed & created by Maf Lewis. Buy the album here on Bandcamp.

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I Speak Machine brought the WAR album to the stage in 2022, touring extensively with electronic music legend Gary Numan for his 35-date US tour and 15 dates in the EU. 2023 sees ISM supporting the legendary grunge queens L7 on two California dates, as well as several headline shows in the PNW.

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Centered around key tracks from the WAR album, Tara’s unique stage persona and performance was carefully conceived as an extension of the subject matter and artistic design of the album. It was vital that the show reflect the album’s intense anger & beauty, while keeping the darkly tongue-in-cheek undercurrents intact. Tara commands the stage alone, donning a range of costumes including pointed leather crowns, military inspired harnesses and uniforms, and vintage cherry-red jumpsuits.

Shifting in an instant between harrowing, unhinged shrieks to stratospheric, operatic swoops, her performance is wild yet entrancing, featuring dreamlike interludes on her beloved synthesizers to offset the mayhem. The performance is most accurately described by a fan as “Nina Hagen meets Norma Desmond in a head-on collision with Lux Interior”.