Engineering:Compressorhead

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Short description: Rock band made up of robot musicians
Compressorhead
Compressorhead at the Wireless Festival, London 2014.jpg
Compressorhead performing in 2014 at the Wireless Festival, London
Background information
OriginBerlin, Germany
GenresHeavy metal, Punk rock
Years active2013–2019
Websiterobocross-machines.com
MembersFingers, Bones, Stickboy, Junior, Mega-Wattson, Hellgå Tarr

Compressorhead was an animatronic robot band created by Berlin-based artist Frank Barnes and collaborators Markus Kolb, Stock Plum, and John and Rob Wright, formerly of NoMeansNo, as musical directors, songwriters and vocalists.

The six "performers" in the band are all robots made from recycled parts, playing real electric and acoustic instruments and controlled via a MIDI sequencer.[1] The project initially debuted in 2013 with four robots (a guitarist, bassist, drummer and a small drummer's "assistant"), performing covers of famous rock songs. Two more robots (a vocalist and rhythm guitarist) were added to the group in 2017. In 2023, the entire band was seen in the movie Circus Maximus by rapper and producer Travis Scott. They would assist him while he would perform the song "Sirens" inside the stadium of Circus Maximus in Rome.

History

Stickboy (drummer), and Junior, operating the hi-hat
Fingers (lead guitarist) and Bones (bassist) performing in 2013

The first four robots (Stickboy, Junior, Fingers and Bones) were built between 2007 and 2012 and their first recorded performance was held at the Bülent Ceylan Show on the German RTL television channel in March 2012.[2][3] Their first performance in front of a live audience was at the 2013 Big Day Out festival in Australia .[4][5] The band gained initial notoriety on YouTube throughout 2013, uploading videos of classic rock covers from bands such as Motörhead, AC/DC, Pantera and the Ramones.[6][7][8]

In early 2013, Barnes recruited John Wright of the Canadian punk band NoMeansNo and The Hanson Brothers as a songwriter and "musical director" for the group.[9][10] Three songs from this collaboration were released via the band's YouTube page: the original songs "Compressorhead",[11] "Speed Walking Lady"[12] and an instrumental cover of the Hanson Brothers' song "My Girlfriend is a Robot".[13]

In November 2015, the team behind the band started a crowdsourcing campaign on the platform Kickstarter[14] to raise US$290,000 to build a robotic "singer".[15][16][17]

In 2017, the band added a vocalist robot, Mega-Wattson (voiced by John Wright), and Hellgå Tarr, a second guitarist, to the band. NoMeansNo members also perform as multi-instrumentalists on Compressorhead's debut album, Party Machine.[18][19]

Albums

  • 2017 - Party Machine

Members

  • Mega-Wattson - Lead singer; voiced by John Wright. It was built in 2017.[18]
  • Fingers - Lead guitarist; It is equipped with two hands, with a total of 78 fingers. It was built in 2009.[20]
  • Hellgå Tarr - Rhythm guitarist and backup singer; It was built in 2017.[19]
  • Bones - Bassist; It has two hands, each with four individual fingers, and is mounted on a platform equipped with caterpillar tracks that allows it to move around onstage. It was built in 2012.[20]
  • Stickboy - Drummer; It has four arms to which the sticks are secured, and two legs that play the kick drum. Its head has several metal protrusions that resemble a Mohawk hairstyle. It was built in 2007.[20]
    • Junior - An "assistant" to the drummer that operates the hi-hat cymbal; It was built in 2007.[20]

References

  1. ↑ Leonard, Michael (2013-04-09). "Meet Compressorhead — The World's Most Metal Band". http://www.gibson.com/news-lifestyle/features/en-us/meet-compressorhead-the-worlds-most-metal-band.aspx. 
  2. ↑ "COMPRESSORHEAD Robots Perform AC/DC Classic On German TV". Blabbermouth. 2013-02-02. https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/compressorhead-robots-perform-ac-dc-classic-on-german-tv/. 
  3. ↑ "History". http://www.compressorhead.rocks/history.html#. 
  4. ↑ "Robotic metal band tours Australia for Big Day Out". news.com.au. 2013-01-07. https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/robotic-metal-band-tours-australia-for-big-day-out/news-story/adbb2748a6c6c3b1cd3ad694f4dd30da. 
  5. ↑ Zanotti, Marc (2012-11-02). "Robot Band Compressorhead Part Of Big Day Out 2013". Music Feeds. https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/robot-band-compressorhead-part-of-big-day-out-2013/. 
  6. ↑ Davies, Alex; Crosby, Alexandra (2016). "Compressorhead: The Robot Band and Its Transmedia Storyworld". in Koh, Jeffrey T.K.V.; Dunstan, Belinda J.; Silvera-Tawil, David et al. (in en). Cultural Robotics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 9549. Springer International Publishing. pp. 175–189. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42945-8_14. ISBN 9783319429458. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-42945-8_14. Retrieved 2019-10-14. 
  7. ↑ Schoof, Dustin (2013-04-12). "Robot metal band Compressorhead gives new meaning to the phrase 'music programming'" (in en). https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/dustin-schoof/2013/04/robot_metal_band_compressorhead_gives_new_meaning_to_the_phrase_music_programming.html. 
  8. ↑ Crisp, Andrew (2013-01-08). "All-Robot Band, Compressorhead, Plays Motorhead". Boise Weekly. https://www.boiseweekly.com/Cobweb/archives/2013/01/08/all-robot-band-compressorhead-plays-motorhead. 
  9. ↑ "Episode 227: John Wright & Frank Barnes of Compressorhead" (in en-US). 26 November 2015. http://vishkhanna.com/2015/11/26/ep-227-john-wright-frank-barnes-of-compressorhead. 
  10. ↑ Gentile, John (2 November 2015). "Interviews: John Wright (Nomeansno) talks about writing songs for the robotic band Compressorhead" (in en). https://www.punknews.org/article/59282/interviews-john-wright-nomeansno-talks-about-writing-songs-for-the-robotic-band-compressorhead. 
  11. ↑ "Compressorhead Vocalist Drive Unit Build Part1" (in en-US). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYSCJWDUKXc. 
  12. ↑ "Battle of the GIANTS Robots VS Human" (in en-US). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQOmwTpWWVQ. 
  13. ↑ "Compressorhead in New York" (in en-US). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiIvtH3P8BA. 
  14. ↑ Barnes, Frank; Kolb, Markus; Plum, Stock (2015-10-31). "Building a Robot Lead Vocalist and producing first Album" (in en-US). https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1335681368/building-robot-lead-vocalist-and-producing-first-a. 
  15. ↑ Cook, James (2015-11-18). "A German rock band made of robots is raising money on Kickstarter to build themselves a singer". Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/german-robot-rock-band-compressorhead-is-raising-money-on-kickstarter-to-build-a-singer-2015-11. 
  16. ↑ Eckardt, Andy (2015-11-16). "Heavy Metal Band Compressorhead Wants a Lead Singer — Made of Metal". NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/heavy-metal-band-compressorhead-wants-lead-singer-made-metal-n462891. 
  17. ↑ Kennelty, Greg (2015-11-30). "Help All-Robot Band COMPRESSORHEAD Build A Robot Vocalist". https://metalinjection.net/latest-news/help-all-robot-band-compressorhead-build-a-robot-vocalist. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Warner, Noelle (2018-06-25). "Meet the New Lead Singer of Compressorhead, a Metal Band Made of Robots". https://nerdist.com/article/robot-metal-band-compressorhead-lead-singer/. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Petersdorf, Martin (2017-11-30). "Unmenschlicher Schwermetall" (in de). Deutschlandfunk Kultur. https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/roboter-band-compressorhead-unmenschlicher-schwermetall.2177.de.html?dram:article_id=402022. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 "Berlin Robotband plays with real instruments live Heavy Metal & Punk Rock" (PDF) (Press release). 2015-10-20. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-10-14. Retrieved 2019-10-14.

External links



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