jeanne crump speaks with the Pennsylvania rock band as they come to the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, N.J., for pop-break’s Shipwrecked At The Show Showcase on Thursday …
A newly formed group, Crobot (named after a half-bird, half-“bot,” half-alien) caught my attention at The Grape Room in Philadelphia one rainy, dreary night a few months back. Their charismatic and energy-packed stage presence kept me very well intrigued. They churned out solid rock bangers like they were rockstar vets. So, I’m excited to announce they’ll be performing at Pop-Break’s own ‘Shipwrecked at the Shore’, our first-ever music showcase on Thursday, February 2nd at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, N.J.
Read on for a quick interview with the Harrisburg, Pa., rock n’ roll troupe. And in the mean time, check them out here: http://www.reverbnation.com/crobot.
Pop-Break: Crobot is less than a year old, forming just this past summer from the disbandment of your other respective groups. What are you hoping to do differently with Crobot than you did with your previous bands?
Crobot: In this band, we just want to play music that we love and feels good. We don’t care about anything else. Previous bands we were in have been contrived or written towards a mass appeal — not Crobot. We lock ourselves in a room for hours and play our instruments together. Not with Macbooks. We are a real rock ‘n’ roll band.
PB: My initial thought when seeing you live at The Grape Room in Philly was “they sound a lot like Parlor Mob — they’ve got that classic, big rock band sound backed by a flashy and charismatic frontman.” Would you agree with this? Who would you compare your music to?
Crobot: [laughs] That’s great, and very much a compliment! We love The Parlor Mob, one of the few real rock bands out now. Our music is definitely similar … old-school bluesy rock riffs with high singing vocals. It’s hard to compare it, but we get Wolfmother, Clutch, and The Mars Volta a lot.
PB: What kind of touring are you planning on doing in 2012? Any cities/festivals in particular you’re dying to play at?
Crobot: Well, since we are so new, we are really working on building a few regional areas, seeing where our music sticks and hitting it hard and frequent to get the word out. We just want to play for the right people. These days, it is so hard to find people who enjoy real music and not DJs, which I feel has a lot to do with saturation of crap bands and entertainment. It’s about quality not quantity. Rock ‘n’ roll isn’t dead and never will be. We just have to give it some CPR or something. We want to find the people who have a love and respect for music like we do. They are out there … we just have to find them.
PB: Is your band name supposed to reflect some futuristic robot music creature? Or was it just a killer band name that woke you in the night?
Crobot: When the band first got together and started jamming, I [Bishop] was using octave and delay effects, which I still do, and we asked our friend Dave about some good band names, something like Crowbar — awesome band == and something robotic. He said Crobot. Immediately I loved it. It took a little convincing for our drummer because there is already a Probot, but we don’t give a shit. It’s an awesome name and fits our band perfectly. After that one of the next songs we wrote was “The Legend Of The Space Born Killer,” which is about the mythological creature the Crobot: half-bird, half-bot, half-alien. And that sort of set the stage for our whole band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmjWVEE795o
PB: What are some of your biggest personal musical influences?
Crobot: We all have many different influences. Our drummer Keith is a huge jazz guy, but we all are influenced by a lot of classic stuff such as Zeppelin, Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Soundgarden, and so on and so on. Lots of stoner rock — i.e. Clutch, Queens Of The Stone Age, Kamchatka, and so on. And a bunch of funk — i.e. The Meters, James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Bootsy Collins, Parliment. Those are the there elements of Crobot: classic rock, stoner rock, and funk.
PB: Should we expect any releases from the band this year?
Crobot: Yes. Right now, we are finalizing the dates for recording at Thorium Studios in St.Clair, Pa. No label yet — no rush, though. We want to make sure it’s the right fit. Until then, we will be pressing and releasing everything ourselves, or just burning discs and giving it out for free. We just want our music out there. We really believe in it.
Crobot will perform Thursday night, Feb. 2, at Pop-Break’s Shipwrecked At The Shore Showcase, with Those Mockingbirds and Only Living Boy at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, N.J. Tickets are $5 at the door, and you must be 21 years or older to enter. There are $2 Coors Light specials, shot specials and the kitchen at the bar will be open. There will also be a giveaway to the Holdfast record and clothing store in Asbury Park for all those who sign-up for Pop-Break’s newsletter.
Crobot is my favorite band I see them as much as I can. Very impressed
I was just looking through your list of interviews we may have missed and was thrilled to see my most favorite band, who are also some of my dearest friends, Crobot listed right up there with one of their and my most favorite bands Clutch!! What an honor! Thank You! I know they’d be thrilled to know that!!
I just wanted to say it’s really amazing how far they have come since this first interview!
I first saw them perform live in November of 2012 at our local venue of Goodfellas Pottsville, PA and was hooked!
I then began my journey of following them to as many shows as I possibly could! I was asked a few times by family and friends why I would do that, why would I want to keep going to see them, traveling long ways, even out of state to see them perform when I’ve seen them “live” so many times?
My response was that their show is never the same twice, it’s always exciting and awesome to see!!
Plus, by going to all these different shows at so many different venues I’ve gotten to see some pretty awesome places and cities!
I’ve also been introduced by the members of Crobot and have gotten to know some great new friends both from the audience and the other bands, such as Crobot and my dear friends the gentlemen of Only Living Boy, Governing Murphy, Cyanide Sunrise, Small Town Titans, Jaw Horse, and many, many more, who have now become like my family!!
Then, I’ve been able to hear and take home all the bands Music on CD by purchasing their CD’s or EP’s and having them signed. I feel good knowing I now own pieces of history of these terrific bands!!
It’s been an amazing experience and I’m always on a Music high, full of energy, and I am the happiest I’ve been in years!!
Also, I feel it’s most important to be at as many of their performances as possible because all the members of Crobot are such dear close friends that I want to be out there in their audience supporting them!!
It’s always nice to be able to get to hang out with them, chat, and enjoy the other bands with them.
I value and hold dear their friendship and love them dearly! As such, I want to show my support, because being a fellow musician my self I can relate to all the hard work and dedication they put into each and every performance!
Most of all, they are “real” musicians, they are very unique, and they do love to share their awesome music and talent with all of us, and I want to be there in support of them to give back to them hopefully as much happiness as they’ve given me since November!!
Then, this is the most awesome part;
After I began going to see as many “live” performances at all the different venues I saw a commercial on tv advertising the Grammy’s Gig of A Lifetime!
It asked: “Are you a band or do you know of a band who would like the chance to perform live at the 2013 Grammy Awards Ceremony in February 2013??” Then it gave the directions on how to nominate a band or artist!
Well, I knew right away that I wanted to nominate my dear friends, and their band Crobot!!!
So, I grabbed the code from their video of The Legend Of The Spaceborn Killer from YouTube, and shared it, then filled out their info and they were officially nominated!!!
Voting began & I made sure to heavily share the link on my facebook timeline and made it public, to where everyone could vote for them on The Grammy Gig of A Lifetime Facebook page.
I did my best to get them the votes, they made it pretty far up on the list, and were joined by our mutual friends bands too, (Governing Murphy, Cyanide Sunrise, Faith In Exile, Gas Station Disco, & True Becoming, just to name a few) who also did well in their ratings and almost won the contest this made me very happy that our local and surrounding bands were able to get the recognition they all deserve! I was so proud of & happy for all of them!!!
Then, one day, near the end of the contest, in January 2013 I’d heard that the executives of Wind-Up Records had been screening the talented bands videos for The Grammy’s Gig Of A Lifetime contest for a chance to perform “Live” at the 2013 Grammy Awards show.
In doing so they’d come across the video of Crobot that I’d shared on their band page where everyone could vote for them, they were very impressed by it, and they called Crobot to come to NY for an interview!!! This made me so happy!!
Although Crobot hadn’t won the contest, they did get noticed by a major label and that was my original goal!!
I really felt because they are so dear to me and also because I wanted to make their dreams come true!! I wanted to give back to them all the happiness they’d brought back into my life!! I really felt that they deserved to be taken under the wings of a major label, recorded and shared with the whole world!!
So,then, after being noticed by the Wind-Up Records Executives, they were invited to perform a “live” private showcase at Arlene’s Grocery in New York City for Wind-Up Records of which I had the esteemed pleasure to attend and it was amazing! They were on fire and it was one of their best performances, I was only able to catch their opening song on video, but am glad I did, because now it imortalized the moment in Crobot history.
After that it was onto a multi city tour in the USA with the awesome band “The Blue Van” that included a stop in Austin Texas for the SXSW show and The Wind-Up Records 15th Anniversary Party Show with The Virgin Marys, Civil Twilight, and many more!!
Now, they are working on their next CD and I couldn’t be happier for them!!!
In 6 months time to have come this far is amazing and couldn’t have happened to anyone who deserves it more!!
I never doubted they could do it, though, I knew in my heart and soul back in November when they first took the stage I was looking on the next band who’d become a household name!!
They are my Shooting Stars, and I really wish them all the love, happiness, and success this world has to offer, may they always, even if they become superstars, which I have no doubt they will, may they always remain as the Simple Men that they are, which I have no doubt they will, as the song from Lynrd Skynrd speaks of!
I am blessed to have them as such dear friends, who have become family and you have no idea how much my heart and soul has been made happy that my dreams for them have come true as well!
If you haven’t yet seen “Crobot” “live” please get out there and see a show, you will be left amazed and wanting more!!
Check out their pages http://www.facebook.com/crobotband, http://www.crobotband.com, and on Spotify, YouTube, Bandsintown, and Reverbnation.
Thank you for your awesome interviews of Crobot and for letting me comment here, I am so sorry it was so long, but I wanted to share Crobot’s amazing story since these interviews were done.
They are truly on their way!! I, for one, couldn’t be happier as I’ve said they are such great, down to earth, “real” people who enjoy their music and what they do and it really shows!!