Compressorhead is 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. The project initially debuted in 2013 with four robots, performing covers of famous rock songs. Two more robots were added to the group in 2017.
History
The first four robots were built between 2007 and 2012 and their first recorded performance was held at the Bülent Ceylan Show on the German RTLtelevision channel in March 2012. Their first performance in front of a live audience was at the 2013 Big Day Out festival in Australia. 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. In early 2013, Barnes recruited John Wright of the Canadianpunk band NoMeansNo and The Hanson Brothers as a songwriter and "musical director" for the group. Three songs from this collaboration were released via the band's YouTube page: the original songs "Compressorhead", "Speed Walking Lady" and an instrumental cover of the Hanson Brothers' song "My Girlfriend is a Robot". In November 2015, the team behind the band started a crowdsourcing campaign on the platform Kickstarter to raise US$290,000 to build a robotic "singer". In 2017, the band added a vocalist robot, Mega-Wattson, and Hellgå Tarr, a second guitarist, to the band. NoMeansNo members also perform as multi-instrumentalists on Compressorhead's debut album, Party Machine.
Albums
2017 - Party Machine
Members
Mega-Wattson - Lead singer; voiced by John Wright. It was built in 2017.
Fingers - Lead guitarist; It is equipped with two hands, with a total of 78 fingers. It was built in 2009.
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.
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.
*Junior - An "assistant" to the drummer that operates the hi-hat cymbal; It was built in 2007.
