The Protomen
| The Protomen | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Murfreesboro, Tennessee |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Labels | Sound Machine |
| Associated acts | Makeup and Vanity Set I Fight Dragons |
| Website | protomen.com |
| Members | Commander B. Hawkins Raul Panther III Murphy Weller Sir Dr. Robert Bakker Shock Magnum Gambler Kirkdouglas Reanimator K.I.L.R.O.Y. |
The Protomen are an American rock band best known for composing original concept albums loosely based on the popular video game series Mega Man.
Little is known about The Protomen, other than that the band is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their stage names are largely references to pop culture films, song titles, and fictional characters. The group members refer to themselves as storytellers, creating a "rock and roll fable"; they are not characters in their stories.
The band is composed mostly of MTSU recording program graduates, and first came to be so that they could meet class deadlines and the need to record for their grades. Their first live performance was in April 2004. Most of the band had graduated and moved to Nashville by 2005.
In a 2009 interview, lead vocalist Panther stated, "We basically gathered up all of our good friends from the local rock bands of Murfreesboro, tied ourselves together, and tried to walk. And somehow it worked. At the time, we noticed a void in rock and roll. A hole that could only really be filled with grown men and women painting up like robots and playing some fierce and furious rock music based on a 1980s video game. We were fairly certain no one else was going to fill that hole. But, by God, it's filled now. You can thank us later."
The band has strong ties to the Murfreesboro and Nashville independent music scene, and some members are integrated into several bands simultaneously.
The Protomen's work is inspired by the first six NES Mega Man games. This franchise has an existing storyline featured in the games, manga, and anime; however, The Protomen have concocted a dark and dystopian version of the game's underlying world. The group is generally uninterested in concerns of making their story adhere to the original. Instead, they view the games as a jumping-off point for the story they want to tell, and have borrowed surface attributes of some characters while heavily altering their histories and functions.
The group has stated that they intend to make a three-part story. Two of the parts are complete. The third is currently in outline form. The overall story as envisioned by the group is tragic, and they "don't really expect it to end well for humanity."
In Act I, the band's first album, Dr. Wily is represented as an Orwellian ruler over a dystopic city, full of humans who are too scared to stand up to his control. Dr. Light creates a "perfect man, an unbeatable machine", Proto Man, to fight to free the City, but Proto Man is destroyed by the overwhelming power of Wily's armies. Defeated and despairing, Dr. Light then creates a second son, Mega Man, whom he attempts to dissuade from battle. Mega Man runs away from home and confronts his brother in an apocalyptic concluding battle. The album has been described by the band as "the sound of the end of the world" and straddles the line between chiptune and hard rock, with heavier focus on distorted 8-bit synthesizers and electronic instrumentation.
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