Marco Niemerski, known professionally as Tensnake (born 1975[1]), is a German DJ and producer from Hamburg[2] best known for his 2010 track "Coma Cat", which appeared on at least 15 compilations that year.[3]
Tensnake emerged in the mid-2000s with a disco-influenced style and rose to critical acclaim by the end of the decade. He is most widely known for his popular 2010 song "Coma Cat".
Born in Hamburg in 1975, Marco grew up listening to disco, soul, boogie, funk and 80s pop. As he grew older he went through a brief Mod phase before finding and embracing more dancefloor-inspired influences from Larry Levan to Junior Boys Own, Romanthony to Masters of Work. After starting the Mirau label with friends in 2005, Marco's first record was "Around The House". He made his commercial recording debut on the Mirau label with his Restless EP in 2006, which he followed up with I Say Mista in 2007. In addition, he released EPs on the labels Players Paradise (Dust, 2007), Radius Records (Fried Egg, 2007), and Endless Flight (Keep Believin’, 2008).
Tensnake's first taste of critical acclaim came with the release of "In the End (I Want You to Cry)" EP on the label Running Back in 2009. The EP was voted number one on djhistory.com's end-of-the-year list, and was the main driver behind Tensnake's breakthrough success. The release of "Coma Cat" in 2010 was the defining moment of his career to date. The track entered four charts published by the Official Charts Company, including number 85 on the UK Singles Chart. His debut album, Glow, was released in 2014. Talking about the album's lead single "58BPM" featuring Fiora, Tensnake commented “I wanted to make a statement with the first single and surprise people.” Glow features collaborations with Fiora, Stuart Price, Jamie Liddell, MNEK, Jeremy Glenn, Gabriel Stebbing (Nightworks) as well as Nile Rodgers.
In 2013 Tensnake launched his own label called True Romance.[5] The label has put out releases from artists such as Alan Dixon, T.U.R.F, Sunrise Highway, Dagfest, Phil Gerus, Tiger & Woods, Gerd Janson, Tuff City Kids, ILO and MAXI MERAKI. Tensnake has put out several of his own releases on the label as well, including "Hello?", "Machines," "Freundchen," and "Desire."[6]
In recent years, Tensnake has made notable festival performances at Coachella (2016), Glastonbury (2016), Panorama Festival (2016), CRSSD Festival (2017), Splash House (2017), EDC Japan (2018), and Tomorrowland (2019).[7]
After a two-year hiatus, Tensnake returned in November 2019 with "Rules" featuring Chenai, the first release from True Romance and its new partnership with Armada's Electronic Elements imprint.[8] In January 2020, he followed with the release of "Automatic" featuring Fiora, which was announced as the first official single from his sophomore album L.A.[citation needed] On March 27, 2020, Tensnake released the "Automatic" remixes EP, featuring mixes from Gerd Janson, Kraak & Smaak, and a club mix of his own.[9] On May 8, 2020, he released the second single from L.A., "Somebody Else" featuring Boy Matthews.[10] On July 10, 2020, he released a new single, "Strange Without You", featuring Sony/ATV vocalist and songwriter Daramola.[11] On August 14, 2020, he released another single, "Make You Mine".[12]
Tensnake's second studio album, L.A., was released on October 16, 2020.[13] The album "tells the story of Niemerski's time spent living in the city of angels, ranging from euphoric days enjoying the city's party scene to bittersweet emotions from ending a six-year relationship."[14] Tensnake eventually left Los Angeles and returned to Hamburg, Germany.[14]
