N +

Hello Robotobots Agent B and Gustodian, first let me thank you guys for doing the interview with N+, The mods are all pretty big fans of the WiiMix project, so far it all sounds pretty wicked. I myself have wandered around the Robotobots.com site checking out everything I can, and I can’t get enough. After visiting your site, I can tell you that I am hooked, and am totally prepared to ride the Robotobot train wherever it goes, but there are still people who haven’t heard about the Robotobot project, could you explain what the story behind the project is, and what the story IN the project is?

Robotobots is a conceptual album detailing one day in a place called Savior City. It’s a corrupt post apocalyptic city where there’s a huge divide in the class system and those who run it control every aspect of the lives of those who don’t. The city has a lot of history in terms of what it was built on top of and what its hiding and how it thrives. Those who live in the bottom of it are basically slaves to those who live in its towers. Just when it seems like things couldn’t get worse, giant robots rise up and start destroying everything. So the slaves are stuck wondering if they should maintain an allegiance to a place that controls them and defend the city from their destruction or view the robots as their salvation. Everything focuses around the female protagonist Dysta, a deranged and mysterious character who is attempting to make it to the next day no matter what she has to do. The whole story will be told through artwork, instrumental music, written narrative and online content.


The Project has got legs, this thing is getting around the internet pretty damn fast, and what do you think is the biggest reason for its viral spread? Are there a ton of smaller reasons as well?

The WiiMix was our Trojan horse to bring new listeners to our album and show people our range and our roots. We’re a hip hop group but we also credit a lot of our upbringing and musical influence to video games. When we were promoting the project we specifically targeted gaming sites because it was reaching out to a new demographic for us. Stepping outside of our comfort zones and evoking a sort of Blue Ocean marketing strategy is exactly what made the Wii so successful so it’s only right that we did the same. The biggest reason the WiiMix project took off so quickly is that the Wii is a huge cultural thing right now. The interface is slick and inviting, but the way you interact with it on a whole is unique because it is constantly throwing surprises at you. That’s something we tried to mimic musically in our approach when creating the WiiMixes. We tried to keep the project as accessible as possible. The length and movement of each track was important to us as well as how much of the original Wii menu song vibe we wanted to retain. The artwork played a nice role too.

The WiiMix project was the perfect fit for us because it combined two mediums we are well versed in, however there some fundamental differences that separate video game fans from the usual hip hop fans we’re used to catering to. Gamers have this sense of interaction with the medium; they love to dissect, unlock and consume every little detail of their favorite games and the stories behind them. Also, piracy hasn’t overtaken the industry as it has hip hop. At hip hop shows you get a lot of really jaded fans who stand around with their arms crossed judging the scene, mostly because many of them have their own projects in the works. There are many more rap fans making beats or recording vocals than there are video gamers coming home and programming their own software. That mentality crosses over to how supportive they are of their respective industries. Obviously there are a ton of parallels though; both sects are obsessed with rankings, sales, what’s flashiest etc. But it’s hard enough to get hip hop heads to buy your album, meanwhile gamers are not only buying games but they’re also making fan sites and buying up all of the merchandise surrounding them.


When was the idea for the entire project born? Was this a combo-idea you both had after grubbin up a box of Cheez-It’s, or has this been pressure cooking for some time before its materialized start?

We’ve been building beats for about a decade now, but within the last few years we’ve really become confident with our own signature sound. We started playing stuff for our friends and fellow producers and we kept hearing over and over how much our music sounded like the soundtrack to a city being destroyed or a robot being built. People who were familiar with our artwork before hearing our music told us they saw parallels between it all. Creative people tend to work in this kind of xenophobic bubble where they are shut off from the world and they need the sane people to point them in the right direction from time to time. So we sort of looked at it all like, “Hey, let’s embrace this sound and how it can potentially interact with something visual and narrative to create a whole cohesive piece.” A lot of our music generally has a sort of dark and paranoid feel to it but then we inject little glimmers of hope like an elegant piano melody and it shifts the mood around. Pulling beauty from destruction and balancing the paranoia with optimism are all themes we like to experiment with.


Do you guys have any sort of deadline for the project that you guys are striving to reach, or is it more of a “the thing will finish itself” type situation? When do you guys expect to wrap this up and what will happen to the project afterwards?

It’s been in the works for about a year and a half now. Every time we think we’re close to completing it we stumble upon another puzzle piece that we absolutely have to include and thus things get reworked or moved around a bit. It’s really important to us that every aspect of the album’s presentation is in sync. Digital distribution is something we utilize but as a whole the music world is shifting more towards favoring downloadable singles and ring tones over something tangible and well constructed. That means things like album covers are being phased out. Those brilliantly written liner notes on the back of jazz records are phased out. Hearing an album and having a physical companion piece in booklet form to compliment it is something we’re not ready to let go of yet. If albums are dying we want to really go out with a bang and show people that there is still some hope in creating a full package. Our album should be finished this fall and then we’ll start shopping it around. As for the future, we created Robotobots with the story’s entire history in mind. How Savior City became what it is, where the characters came from and where they’re going, the back story on the robots themselves…all of these things are areas worth revisiting and exploring for future projects.

The artwork that surrounds the Robotobot project is intense and very unique. I as an artist myself can appreciate a style as unique as the artists who create it, is this a 50/50 effort on the visual image of the Robotobot project, or does one of you supply the preliminary artwork, or does it not work like this at all? Also let us know why this style fits with the project, and explain a little of your process, if you can without killing us that is.

Gus: Well the art style is definitely closer to a 50/50 collaboration, although we switch up our process constantly. B loves to dabble in all types of mediums, paint styles, mark makings etc, while I tend to render things out. Sometimes B hits me up with a sketch that I’ll clean up, and sometimes I have something that needs a little grime so I’ll hand it off to B. We go back and forth a lot. I don’t think staying 50/50 is our overall plan, because there are times when I want to do my own thing, and B his. If we didn’t, I think it would almost lose some of its spontaneity. The key is finding a balance, which I feel we have.

The music shares the same philosophy as the art, because it is the fusion of two minds. It’s an interesting experience to work with someone with a completely different thought process. B is definitely more boom-bap and jazzy, while I tend to focus on melody and mood. These roles seem to flip more and more often when we get stumped, and B will step up and rock some killer piano riff or I’ll come in and throw down some crusty drums. We both have our own ideas as the tracks begin to evolve, and while a lot of artists with egos tend to look at their way as the only way, we trust and respect each others decisions. That’s not to say that we aren’t critical of ourselves. If I’m going off on some wack tangent, I trust B to tell me and vice versa.

As for the process, we switch it up. How we start usually depends on the time of day or the moods we’re in, or the samples (if any) we’re working with. The success of track usually depends on how well we are able to vibe off the sound while we are recording it. That’s really the key to making the right decisions, keeping it fresh, and adding the right sounds and layers. If you can’t nod your head to something you are working on, it usually ends up a bit stagnant.


On this note, explain who all does what part of the project, and when do you two truly come together to create the one solid piece?

Gus: Well, the roles we play are interchangeable at this point. In the beginning we both had our own expertise and input to the workflow and process, but it has shifted to a different level. B and I have been working together for so long, that as soon he hits a drum, or I hit a key, we almost always know exactly where we’re trying to take the track. I don’t really remember how it was back in high school messing around, but we really have a seamless workflow. So to answer your question, we come together as soon as we step in to the lab.


Agent b: We both bring a lot to the table. It’s absolutely rare that we ever butt heads over a creative decision. When we work together it’s Voltron. We form one giant maniacal brain composed of each of our individual traits and talents and we just go on rampant destruction modes where we throw the keyboard back and forth and bounce off of each new layer. It’s fun.

My father introduced me at a very young age to smashing up televisions and radios to find circuits and wires and bulbs, and other which-what’s to create robots that looked pretty sweet. We also used the hot glue gun as weapon of choice. It’s funny, I actually called all mine Robobots. Was this something passed down to you, or was this your own creation?

Agent b: I was similar as a kid, constantly taking things apart and putting them back together in a new way. None of my He-Man figures retained their original limbs or heads for very long. I’d build elaborate cardboard cities for my Transformers to destroy. My mother is an artist and an architect so creating and building things is something I’ve always grown up surrounded by. She would bring home these elaborate building plan models and they’d become the stomping grounds for my action figures when I was young. I was a DJ in college and one night I was stupid enough to light a vinyl record on fire. I started piercing it with all the assorted artist tools I had around and it started to resemble a jagged cityscape. I decided to build a robot to stand above it and building one turned out to be pretty fun so I started building a small army of them.

Gus: The actual construction was all B. While I was working for a video game company in Massachusetts, I remember B had been slaving away, finishing the construction of the first Robotobot. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when he sent me some photographs I was floored. I can’t stress enough how that first model really set the visual stage for the rest of the project.


Have you ever created a Robotobot that moved, or lit up, or did a little dance like some robots do? Or are all of these killer action figures?

Agent b: I’ve experimented with giving them movable parts and I’d love to have them shoot lasers or something some day when laser shooting technology becomes more acceptable in the home. We can only dream. Until then we plan on doing a few videos for some of the tracks on our album so you’ll hopefully see them in action then.


Speaking of these Robotobots, I guess I can use this as a perfect time to announce the contest we had discussed a little bit earlier. What we have so far is an idea where our members can build their own Robotobots, take pictures of them, and enter them into a contest where you two will judge who the winners and runners up are. N+ would also love choose its favorite Robotobot as well. It seems like you guys are pretty on board with the whole thing and are even willing to offer some exclusive prizes to the winner and runners up!? If we are on the same page here, N+ would love to supply some sweet gifts as well.

Yeah we’re down for sure. We’re already throwing around some ideas for some really unique and original Robotobots themed prizes. We can’t wait to see what people can come up with.

Could you tell us how we can build our own Robotobots so we can gear ourselves up? I got my little tricks I picked up years ago, but I would love to hear what the pros have to say, and I am sure a few of our readers have never even thought of something like these, but they look too cool to not have, what kind of gear do we need, and how do we end up with something this fresh?

Agent b: You can construct them from anything sturdy enough to stand on its own. I’ve never sketched any of them out before making them, for me it’s really just about building a basic form and then adding to it until it’s complete. Hit up garage sales and dollar stores for parts and lay all your supplies out in front of you so you can start putting together shapes and forms in your head. Be prepared to burn your hands on hot glue a lot. Balance is also important, not just compositionally but physically so they can actually stand up. The basic materials I use are broken toys and electronics, some wires here and there, a hot glue gun and black spray paint. Working with different materials every time ensures that I never even come close to building the same one twice. There’s a detailed breakdown on our blog about one that I built for demonstrational purposes.


Awesome, I encourage all of our members to start practicing or even begin building them now, just because we have not finished all the rules or prizes yet doesn’t mean you can’t start your warriors. But I would like to get back to the Robotobot project again, and this time about my favorite part, the Music. Where exactly did this sound come from!? I know you guys lay heavy claim to hip-hop, but there is so much going on with every track I have heard, my favorite so far being “Into the End” and the unfinished “Take Me With You”, that you could fall under many genre umbrellas, I want to sincerely call you guys the future of hip-hop, what are your feelings on your music, what are you?

Agent B: We definitely appreciate that. We’re hip hop fans, we’re hip hop producers, that’s the mind state and mentality we’re in every time we create music. We’re both influenced by a huge range of musical genres, though, so it all comes in to play. The great thing about hip hop music is that it’s been so rebellious and nonconformist from the start. Groups like Public Enemy have always been a huge influence to me. If you go back and listen to the stuff they were doing you’ll realize that people were being sonically abrasive decades ago. That’s the mentality that trained me. It’s an art form that has always relied on and been inspired by so many unique types of sounds and fusing them all together to make something new. We want to show people that it can have a ton of depth and be taken seriously again. From a production standpoint hip hop seems to have been favoring minimalism recently. We want to bring out something more robust. We’re treating our album recording process like we’re scoring a film that doesn’t exist. Yet.

Gus: Yeah, as B said we’re hip hop. I don’t think we intentionally try to sound different, but we are. There is never a second during production where we feel this isn’t hip hop at its core. The hip hop and music scene in general is pretty sensitive and we’re aware that we don’t sound like your average crew. We are just making what comes natural, and what feels right. One of our goals is to bring production back to a point where you can recognize who’s making it. We want you to hear our music and be able to recognize who made it.


I would like to wrap up the big Robotobot picture now and dig into the WiiMix, are there any final comments you would like us to know before we do so? I want to know how this project is going to get into my home. Are we going to be able to purchase this as a Graphic Novel with CD insert on the web, in a book/music store? because I would pay! Or is this all downloadable stuff? HOW do we get everything that is a part of the final project?

The plan is to have a fully pressed up CD with a 28 page art/story book to compliment it. We’ll have downloadable options as well if we can figure out a way to not sacrifice the presentation of the whole thing. Even with the album as a standalone product there will be more content and details to explore through our website and we plan on fleshing everything out across the board so we can satisfy people who want to know about more than just the music itself.

Now, into the WiiMix. You guys have already said that you are pretty big Nintendo fans. Whenever I find myself poking around your four main Myspace pages, both your own pages and the Robotobot and WiiMix page, the only video-game references I come across are Nintendo themed. From cartridge scans used in artwork to original artwork that can revolve around planets, I feel you both have some roots in this. Why Nintendo?

Agent B: The NES was the first video game system I ever owned and was easily one of the most defining items of my life. From being a kid playing Contra with a friend after school to knocking around rum and cokes during heated Goldeneye matches in college, Nintendo has always been under the TV. They sculpted and defined an industry my generation watched grow from its infancy to where it’s at now and somebody who started gaming just a few years ago with a PS2 or an Xbox isn’t going to understand all that. I’ve been playing their games for 20 years now so it’s hard to not be inspired by them in some way or another.


Gus: Nintendo is in our blood. Being the only son with three sisters, Nintendo was often my escape. At a young age, with wild imaginations, the worlds presented in these games opened several doors in my mind, both visually and musically. The limitations of the art and music in the game allowed my mind to fill in all the gaps of the worlds they portrayed. I’d often find myself whistling solo’s over title music, or sketching out the characters to my favorite games. Nowadays games are so detailed that it leaves very little left to the imagination. I love the new school systems, but I really think for its time, Nintendo set the bar for the future of gaming


What are each of your favorite games of all time, of right now, and why?

Agent B: I play through the original Legend of Zelda from start to finish about once a year. It’s like some weird ritual for me. I think I’ve purchased that game in every conceivable format since its release. It’s not even the best Zelda but it’s probably my favorite game of all time. I am also a huge fan of retro gaming and I’ve already spent way too much money on downloading games on the Wii’s Virtual Console. Recently though, Twilight Princess, Dead Rising, Gears of War and the DS Castlevania games have stolen a lot of my time with drunken Wii Bowling rounding off the night. Resident Evil 4 and Killer 7 were both absolute masterpieces to me as well.

Gus: I was always into RPG’s growing up. I loved Final Fantasy 2 and 3 for Super Nintendo. They both had excellent stories, character development and above all, some of the greatest and most memorable music in video games period. Megaman 2 is on my list for the many of the same reasons. That game oozed quality control, and dare I say, had the best music on the NES. I only wished the other Megaman games had music comparable to it. Then there was Street Fighter 2. Good game? Yes. Good Music? Hell yes. Sense a pattern here? Come to think of it, I can’t play games without music or sound effects. I know a lot of people out there play MP3's while they play their favorite games. I can’t.


This next question is HUGE in my mind, and I am sure is burning a million others brains down as well I am sure. Is the WiiMix project going to continue? Can we expect some more mixes from other channels? Secondary mixes of channels already complete?

Most of our focus is going towards our debut album at this point in time. We’ll continue doing side projects though and there’s no way we could ever say we wouldn’t do another WiiMix. We’re satisfied with the WiiMix project as is, but since Nintendo is always adding new channels there’s always that option to go back and do a volume two. I think we owe it to our new fans to do something like that again, especially since there were lots of Wii channel remix ideas we didn’t get to execute last time around. We’ve got some surprises in the works .

Are you going to attempt any other video game related projects in the future? And have you done others in the past? Where can we find them if you have?

We’ve done remixes of tracks from Super Hang On, Ecco the Dolphin and more without formally announcing what we sampled. We’ll make them available on our site soon since they won’t be on our album. There are a few obscure video game samples on Robotobots but we’re keeping them a secret for now. Some of your older readers will be able to pinpoint them if they listen close enough.


How do we join Robotobots if we can? Do we get updates with the project? And have you guys thought about creating a My.Opera page?

Feel free to sign up to our RSS feed on Robotobots.com and drop us some feedback. We’re also on Myspace so check us out there since we’ll occasionally put exclusive music or artwork up. We just signed up to My.Opera as well, [check it out].

Thanks guys for the interview, this was awesome! I think this affiliation is going to work out well for both sides of the line, is there anything you would like to add or comment on about the project, Nplus, anything else?

Thank you to everyone over at Nplus for putting this together and being so supportive of us. Stay tuned to Nplus and Robotobots.com for details on upcoming contests we’ll be putting together. Much respect to our listeners. Look out for our album this fall, it’s pretty f*cking epic.

- Gus
- Agent B
- Captain Seagull