Robotic rock group raises funds to build lead vocalist, record album

By Kelly Hodgkins November 12, 2015

Compressorhead in New York

The members of Compressorhead may look like our long-awaited robot overlords, but these robotic creatures actually are musicians, complete with valve-lifter mohawk hair and gas-mask faces. Comprised (so far) of an accomplished drummer, guitarist, and bassist, the three-man band now is in need of a lead vocalist, and is turning to Kickstarter to fund the building of their front man. Once their lead singer is in place, the band plans to record its first album.

Created by Frank Barnes, Markus Kolb and Stock Plum, Compressorhead differs from other animatronic bands that play pre-recorded music. The band members in Compressorhead play real instruments and play them live. The band has already performed several concerts, making its debut performance in Australia and performing another more recent event in Moscow. Compressorhead currently has three members –the guitarist “Fingers,” who has 78 fingers to shred out the notes on his six-string axe; “Stickboy,” the four-armed drummer; and lastly, “Bones,” the bassist whose movement most closely mirrors those of his human counterparts.

compressorhead-moscow — Compressorhead

Now the team is ready to bring Compressorhead to the next level by adding a lead robot that’ll sing and interact with the crowd. The front man will be equipped with a stainless-steel tracked drive that’ll allow the robot to move across the stage and perform “with special features” for improved crowd interaction. This new presence will help make the band more affable and less, well, robotic to the crowd. The creators of Compressorhead also are working with Canadian music star John Wright to produce a 14-track album that will feature songs written especially for the band.

To fund the development of the new lead vocalist and to pay for the recording cost, the Compressorhead creators have launched a Kickstarter to raise the €290,000 ($318,445) necessary for the project. Besides building a new robot and recording an album, the creators also are developing an app that’ll let fans connect with the band and receive notifications when band members go live. The Kickstarter is live now and will be available until December 5th.

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Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…

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