Short but electrifying interview with Greg Locke of The Trons fame!
——————–> questions:
tks: How much does the band weigh? I’m not sure what an average band weighs but I’m guessing The Trons are outside the curve.
trons: They ain’t too bad… about 30kg each. And the drummer is even the lightest! But I guess we’d be the same if we cut off all our non musically essential body parts. They have the advantage of sharing one brain too which helps reduce tissue mass.
tks: Is this something that had a long gestation period? Like, when you were 8 did you have a vision and your life from that point forward was bent towards the god-like creation of music-making machines?
trons: The robot band as a whole only became a notion a year or so ago. I’ve always been making music, making odd contraptions from junk, and working with electronics and computers. Then it just sort of hit that maybe I could do all three at once. There did come a need once in a band 15 years ago when we were without a drummer and the embryo may have been planted then… but actually doing a whole band was sort of a high speed train trip that started last year.
tks: Why do you think humans have always been so fascinated with simulated life? And, is there a creation myth for The Trons?
trons: I think the whole human – robot interaction thing of the band is indeed a really big thing. I don’t know what to make of it really and nor do the audiences which I think is part of the appeal. I am just concentrating on making songs and developing them musically and letting their percieved aliveness take its own path. Anthropomorphism is rife in our mechanical society… so add in machines making music which is usually very human and the brain seems to have a little freak out. The fact they are made out of reused bits does mean each part has a previous “life” too which is an interesting concept if one wanted to think about their creation side as well. But really it is just what was lying around!
tks: Are you suprised much when The Trons play? I mean, does everything go 100% as expected in a tightly controlled fashion, or do little music viruses bubble up to the surface and give you unexpected results?
trons: They are incredibly reliable… except they have a recent habit of just missing complete songs which is I think their little game they are having. I can’t find the software bug anyway. They have the odd mechanical hiccup but usually it is a 2 minute “oh shit” followed by frantic work with insulation tape or screwdriver. But the rest of them just keep going while the repair takes place. It’s good they do that really. Every now and then the timing of one instrument is a bit out.. like one of them is having a bad day. It is interesting how they do have parallels with human bands like this.
tks: In a way, it’s one of those ideas that seems so obvious that it’s genius. I got hooked on the videos a guy in the States has been making using an old commercial system called Rock-a-fire Explosion (list of videos he’s made so far via a bidding system: http://starsof.com/fans/page5.html). Are you aware of any precedents for what you’re doing?
trons: wow rockafire explosion videos — great! Machine music has been around for a couple of centuries it seems. Like a few people would build wind or clockwork powered ensembles for royalty back in the 1700s. Before Edison and his gramophones there was no other way for music to be recreated. So I guess this is a bit of a modern version of that. The performing and touring as a complete band thing is fairly new though and the fact too that the songs are originals. I think it is important to keep the band real like that rather than falling into tech project area, which has been done in bits and pieces as well.
tks: The last few years there’s been a heavy turn towards re-using gear from the past, not just the inevitable return to 80s synth-heavy tunes but also a more physical nuts-and-bolts mentality of re-engineering ancient music hardware. A lot of the resulting music seems to have a sensibility that is rooted in an idea of what the future was expected to be like at this point in time – i.e. we’re now well and truly living in the space-age of someone looking forward from the 1950s era of b-grade sci-fi. Where would you place The Trons in terms of ‘time’ – are they futuristic or nostalgic?
trons: Heck, that’s a hard one. I think nostaligic cause it is indeed a sort of junkyard mishmash of old gear and garage music ideas. But I’d like to think there are some futuristic elements as well. The mechanical generation of rhythms on standard instruments but with computer control does seem to open new doors for subtle sounds we may not be used to. I really want to explore that side more and make the most of it.
tks: Do you consider The Trons to be in any way either a tribute to or criticism of human-focussed bands? Or are they just there to rock out, audience or no audience?
trons: Really just there to rock out! Building the band was a personal lesson in our human capabilities and the Trons can’t really compete, but the idea is partly to turn their physical limitations into a musical advantage… like musicians usually feel a bit pointless playing say one note just once in a song… but I can get these guys to do it and sometime it is the right thing musically. Visually, in performances their lack of eye contact and ability to stay so still and focussed is sort of intriguing as well.
tks: I’m assuming the band’s intentions are human-friendly, but can you please at least ask them to overthrow commercial radio frequencies? Please.
trons: Haha.. they could maybe do it too. I get asked to do corporate type performances due to the bands unusualness… yet they are playing Velvets sort of songs. The Velvets or their indie offspring would never get asked to play those gigs so I feel the Trons are indeed succeeding in infiltrating the corporate masses!
Thanks Greg!
The Trons play Mighty Mighty, February 19 2009
w/ Doteyes, Heat Like Me, TV DisKo, Mechadrummerman
