The Trons

Infobox musical artist |
Name = The Trons

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|250px
Landscape = yes
Img_capt = The Trons, from left to right: Fifi, Swamp, Ham and Wiggy
Background = group_or_band
Origin =
Genre = Indie
Years_active = 2008
Label =
Associated_acts =
URL = http://www.myspace.com/thtrons
Current_members = Ham (vox and rhythm guitar)
Wiggy (lead guitar)
Swamp (drums)
Fifi (keyboard)
Past_members =

The Trons are a New Zealand self-playing robot band created by musician Greg Locke. The band consists of four robots, created from scratch using a variety of spare parts and electronic equipment.

History

During the 1990sCitation|last=Anderson|first=Vicki|title=They may be made of heavy metal, but they don't play it ...|newspaper=The Press|pages=C1|year=2008|date=2008-09-12] , while a member of the New Zealand musical duo "The Emersons", Greg Locke toyed with the concept of developing a robotic drummer. This idea, years later, fuelled the idea of creating an entire band that consisted only of robots.cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/4595294a4500.html|title=Waikato robot band an internet hit|publisher=Fairfax New Zealand|date=2008-06-24|accessdate=2008-09-15] cite web|url=http://www.3news.co.nz/TheTronstakeflight/tabid/418/articleID/68535/cat/223/Default.aspx|title=The Trons take flight|last=Farrier|first=David|publisher=3 News|accessdate=2008-09-15] The individual members of the Trons took eight to nine months to build and were created from the electronic equipment out of old decommissioned photocopy-card vending machines (which Locke built)cite audio|title=Robotic Pop — The Trons|url=http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20080613-0935-Robotic_Pop_-_The_Trons-048.mp3|accessdate=2008-09-15|publisher=Radio New Zealand] , various scavenged parts and some more advanced equipment. The construction of the band was assisted with a grant by the Hamilton Community Arts Council.

About

The band is managed by creator Greg Locke, a New Zealand based musician and mechanical engineer. The band contains no human members, consisting only of robots. Four robots make up the composition of the band; "Ham", "Wiggy", "Swamp" and "Fifi".

"Ham" plays the rhythm guitar and does the vocals. The vocals are produced through bits of tape loop created on an old tape machine and looped.

"Wiggy" plays lead guitar which is single-string. It is only possible for the robots to play four chords.

"Swamp" performs on the drums, using a pie-plate as a snare. Swamp was named as such because the word appeared numerous times on the drum set he uses when it was purchased, Locke believes that it was probably the name of a band.

"Fifi" plays the keyboard one-handed. She originally played bass but performed poorly at it.cite web|url=http://www.3news.co.nz/Video/CampbellLive/tabid/367/articleID/59922/cat/223/Default.aspx#video|title=Mechanical band hits the big time|date=2008-06-18|accessdate=2008-09-20|publisher=Campbell Live]

The robots themselves are made from a combination of scrap parts and more complex equipment and are controlled via a computer using a "top-secret" software package. The use of "flimsy material" makes the robots actions similar to that of a human to create human-like music.

Despite being robots, the members of the Trons are often treated as human by fans to the point where Swamp (the drummer) has received date requests. Locke explains this tendency to treat them as human is a result of the making of music being a "human element".

Critical reputation

The Trons first dip into stardom came from their YouTube video which received over 80,000 hits in two days. [cite web|url=http://www.amplifier.co.nz/article/39079/the_trons_sister_robot.html|title=The Trons — Sister Robot|publisher=Amplifier|accessdate=2008-09-15] They have received mostly positive critical acclaim, being described as "pure genius" and as being better than Grammy Award-winning British band Coldplay. [cite web|url=http://gizmodo.com/5017023/robot-band-is-at-least-as-good-as-coldplay|title=Robot Band is at Least as Good as Coldplay|publisher=Gizmondo|accessdate=2008-09-15]

References