Video Games and Loud Rock 'n' Roll, Meet The Protomen

The Protomen are a rock band whose compelling concept albums loosely based on the video game, Mega Man, have enthralled fans!

Kyle Warner: You are doing something incredibly unique. Like seriously, unheard of. For those who don’t know can you explain, as you described it, “the void in rock and roll” you aimed to fill?

The Protomen: Well, we’re all really excited by concept albums, so we never really stood a chance of not being a concept band. But we also watch way too many movies and it seemed to us that nothing in the rock and roll world managed to tell a cohesive story quite as well as a solidly built film. So… since we aren’t filmmakers, we decided to try and tell a compelling story the only way we knew how: with loud ass rock and roll. 

Little known fact, when I was a kid, my parents told me that I once took scissors and cut my own hair into a Mega Man ‘M’. They asked me, “Why Mega Man?, I ask you the same question: Why Mega Man?

He was a super tough little blue robot dude that beat the shit out of other robots, all while listening to sweet rockin’ jams super loud in his helmet that his human dad rigged up for him out of futuristic Walkman parts and a motorcycle helmet. What’s not to like? 

But seriously, we were just really big fans of the early games and the music in them was incredibly tough, so we just wanted to imagine a new take on the story and write music for it like it was a Mad Max or Escape From NY hellscape.  And things just went downhill from there!

When you came up with this concept, did you have any idea the kind of following it would attract?

Not really. We were just trying to make a fun and different kind of record at the time, which grew pretty naturally into a fun and different kind of live show. We knew people in town liked it, but we didn’t think about it going much beyond that (aside from the general world domination that everyone wants… right??). Social media and modern internet things were really young when we started, so we didn’t really have a point of reference for where things could go or how to take them there. It was kind of a case of Right Time, Right Place, Right Rock and Roll. 

The Protomen has a very active social following, including a rather animated Reddit page, what steps do you take to facilitate the social community around your music?

We’re actually really terrible at self-promotion, so, if we’ve succeeded at all, it’s because our fanbase is so amazingly dedicated. We had a small group of people in the beginning that really took a vested interest in our survival and in spreading the word. But our philosophy has always been, put out a solid product that you’ve poured your heart into and people will respond to it. 

Act I concluded with Mega Man’s apocalyptic battle with Orwellian ruler Dr. Wily. Act II was a prequel describing Dr. Wily’s rise to power. What can we expect in Act III?

Are you trying to make us spill beans?? I can tell you that Act III will take place after Act I, chronologically, but that’s about all I can say, other than… there’ll be no beans in Act III (unless we get a Bush’s Baked Beans sponsorship). 

Who writes the Acts? Is it a group effort? What comes first, act writing or songwriting?

It’s sort of a group effort these days, in terms of music. The storyline is usually fleshed out first and then we start building music to match the scene. In that regard, I guess it’s a lot like writing for film, but we just have to be a bit more on-the-nose with our story stuff, since we usually don’t have a visual to explain the scene. 

With the music you make, accompanying films is a natural fit. Your films are goddamn incredible. What’s your filmmaking process like? Do you hire out actors/directors or DIY?

I think you’re referring to the Light Up The Night short film/music video that we released a year or so ago. It was a fantastic, nightmarish, thrill-ride. We’re super proud of it. We had a LOT of help. From the EP John La Valle, who found us the dough to make it happen, to the Co-Directors, Caspar Newbolt and Matt Sundin, who grabbed our vision by the horns and wrestled it into something that made sense visually, to a full cast and crew of unbelievable professionals and incredible (tragically unpaid) extras that worked tirelessly to make the thing come to life. It’s something we could not have done by ourselves.  But this band has always been rooted in telling a story that was very cinematic, so that film was the natural (and ridiculous) next step for us.

You’ve also released a soundtrack to a film I haven’t been able to find a copy of called “The Cover Up”. What is the story there?

Since the beginning, we’ve incorporated a lot of our favorite cover songs into the live show. That “soundtrack” was a way to finally record those songs and make them part of our existing storyline. It was also an excuse to spend some time in the studio figuring out how those incredible tracks were made so we can, you know, use the shit out of those tricks on Act III. It was a win/win… for us. 

Your merch store is genius (and extensive!) — is it common to see fans rocking your gear?

Thanks a lot! Yeah, we’re really really lucky to have our design/art team, Caspar Newbolt and John DeLucca, to make it all happen.  And yeah, we’ll see people wearing our shirts around and usually give them the nice, “Hey, that band is terrible!” and scurry away. 

You may not realize it, but you are an inspiration for independent artists trying to find a way to stand out in such a saturated industry, do you have any advice for up-and-coming artists?

Don’t make music for anyone but yourself, people can smell pandering from a mile away… but then they eat that shit up! … oh man… if we’d just pandered more, we’d totally be rich by now!!! We’ve made a horrible error!!!