Crobot, Royal Thunder

You can't help but feel that your ears are being dipped in nostalgia then taken to another dimension and back again with the songs of Crobot. This Central Pennsylvanian quartet conjures up sonic ghosts and stories that seemingly were interpreted from crop circles with their 2012 self-released debut album, The Legend of the Spaceborne Killer. The Legend of the Spaceborne Killer , recorded before the Figueroa brothers were in the band, seamlessly manages to capture the powerful packed punch of the vocals of lead singer Brandon Yeagley and head bobbing guitar riffs of Chris Bishop. With the crucial additions of Jake Figueroa???s solidity of the low frequencies on bass guitar perfectly accompanying his brother with sticks of thunder, Paul Figueroa on drums Crobot has found the formula to take them into the riff-rock abyss and beyond. Crobot is getting ready to hit the studio with famed producer Machine (Clutch, Lamb of God, Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes) to work on their 2014 Wind-up Records debut release.
You might think the band members were all stationed at the same moon base during
the interstellar revolution but the cosmic forces that brought the foursome together
began when Brandon, who hails from the coal-regions of Central Pennsylvania, and
Bishop, from Eastern Tennessee, met through a band audition. After calling it quits only
a month into forming, Brandon and Bishop were left
with merely pieces of a band and
an unsatisfied quench for the elixir of the nomadic life of rock ???n roll....and thus the
origins of Crobot began. As Brandon transitioned from bass player to full blown front
man he combined his soaring vocals with
Bishop???s
killer guitar riffs and the two set out
to
build a band based on the music they genuinely loved to play.
It was at Bar 46 in Hackettstown, NJ where Paul and Jake, who were living upstairs at
the time, heard the sonic pleasures that would alter time and space forever. ???I heard
Brandon's voice,??? said Paul. ???Even through the muffled din of the bar below, his voice
had so much clarity and presence that I knew I would be foolish if I didn't at least check
them out. Once I heard Bishop shredding nasty riffs and saw Brandon twisting and
gyrating like a possessed astral gypsy my mind melted...I had a new favorite band.???
For Paul and Jake what happened next was somewhat serendipitous. Having grown
tired of the local scene, the brothers were getting ready to leave the East Coast for Los
Angeles to try their luck out there....then the phone rang. Paul remembers, ???
about a
week before we were going to move, Bishop called and asked us to join Crobot. Instead
of LA, we moved to PA and haven't looked back (or west...)??? Five days later the newly
formed foursome was playing their first gig of many at the very same bar where Paul
first heard those mind-altering riffs. Crobot had officially landed.
According to legend, Crobot got their name from their penchant for jamming ???Crobar- esque??? riffs with low robotic octave effects, but if you ask Brandon, Crobot has evolved into more than that. ???It???s become a counter-culture, so-to-speak. With so much emphasis on manufacturing, in terms of looks, sounds, and sights, Crobot is a collection of like-minded and like-bearded individuals who stand for neither going against the grain or with it, but avoiding shaving all together.???
Crobot???s approach to songwriting has evolved from Brandon and Bishop???s creations into a group effort. Most of the time, Bishop will come to the band with a riff or a loose song structure that they'll jam to, part by part, until they???re feeling it. ???I'll improvise some melody lines over the parts usually after the band finds solid ground, enough to jam through,??? says Brandon. ???We try to take everything to every perspective that we can, whether they???re in fact our perspectives or created ones. The music usually gives me a great sense of the direction of the lyrics. Sometimes influenced by old horror/sci-fi flicks I???ve watched as a child, literary works I have or have not read, or the sheer randomness that happens by simply hanging out with this crazy bunch of bots. Whether it???s into orbit, through a wormhole, or at the bottom of an empty bottle of some sort-of elixir, the music really does the work.???
With killer live shows described by Brandon as ???like lighting a quarter stick of dynamite and throwing it in an un-flushed toilet,??? what???s next for Crobot? With breakout live performances at SXSW 2013, Milwaukee Summerfest, Jersey Shore Music Festival, Musikfest (Bethlehem, PA), and a national tour with Clutch and The Sword kicking off 2014, the possibilities for Crobot???s interstellar domination are endless.


???WICK is different, a bigger jump as far as our sound goes, but it???s still us, it???s just the sound of Royal Thunder???s evolution...??? ???Josh Weaver, Royal Thunder

???Out of all of the albums, WICK was the hardest one to make. It was a fight, but to hear it now, to see it finished, is so gratifying. Finally it???s over, it???s amazing to be done with it.I???m looking at it, going you???re done, it???s over, go away...??? ???Mlny Parsonz, Royal Thunder

It???s 2017 and after making perhaps the toughest album of their career, Royal Thunder are coming out swinging. The Atlanta based four-piece (Mlny Parsonz ???bass/vocals, Josh Weaver ???guitar, Evan Diprima ???drums, Will Fiore ???guitar), once memorably described as playing, ???a revved-up Southern hard rock that howls like Led Zeppelin astride a psychedelic unicorn???, are, with WICK, reaching their tipping point. Following 2007???s self-titled EP (reissued four years later by Relapse Records), 2012???s CVI and 2015???s critically acclaimed Crooked Doors, Royal Thunder???s fourth release is an accumulation of shared experience, musical and otherwise, making art out of adversity and imbued with a new melodic succinctness that???s borne out of a band who???ve spent the last few years growing up together.

???There is no way we could have made this album even three years ago,??? says Josh Weaver, ???We???re all going through so many changes in our lives.We had people who had passed away during this album, that was a catalyst for how this record turned out. It wasn???t easy to record, but it was absolutely worth it.Thank god that we had this vehicle to make an album, and to put our soul in to.???

???It was a very cathartic experience,??? agrees Mlny Parsonz, ???There were times where I???d be dancing in the vocal booth and there were times when I???d have my hands in my pockets, shoved in as far as they could go, so angry or frustrated with the song, or just frustrated generally.???

In 2005, Josh???s vision for a fledging Royal Thunder (a version of the band that played exclusively instrumental material) was shared only with a best friend and his brother. A mere two years later they???d have eclipsed that notion, revamped the line-up,and created their warmly received Royal Thunder EP. ???When we were in the studio this time???, says Miny, ???We went back and listened to that stuff and we laughed and made fun of ourselves pretty good.???

The 2011 reissue of their EP would be quickly followed a year later by the startling CVI, though no one would have expected the genre-defying Crooked Doors that appeared in 2015. Impossible to pin down, it was the sound of a band finding not just their feet, but their voice. Beautifully uplifting yet mired in heartache, it showcased the band???s ever evolving (that word again) song-writing skills as well as what sounded like notes from Mlny???s personal diary. Tempestuous and down at heel, it was the most complete record the band had made to date.

???I decided to just pour my heart out on that record???, says Miny with a rueful laugh, ???And there were suddenly all these interpretations of that record. I was like, what? That???s not really quite right... So I guess I didn???t really trust how this one would get interpreted.???

Which brings us to this year???s WICK, more allegorical and metaphorical it might be, but it retains Crooked Doors yearning and majesty while offering a more succinct and melodic version of the band. Though no one???s lead them here, production and recording processes remain the tried and trusted routes close to home that Royal Thunder have always favoured, this is the sound of a band that have grown and are growing together.

???It did just happen, it was very natural???, says Josh, ???We???ve never wanted to sound like anyone else.We???ve grown a lot since the last record. We???ve experienced life, we???ve experienced loss.It all goes in the pot and makes it what it is.

???Listen to a song like Plans, where it???s mainly vocals with some guitar and drums.It???s a beautiful song, we???re very proud of it and I think it fits on what is our most diverse album hands down, which I love. It is a beautiful thing for us to be comfortable to do anything we want at any point.???

???I remember us thinking that song was not so great at first,??? says Miny, ???But we pushed ahead with it, this idea of being in your own head and in doing so you???re getting in the way of things, being your own worst enemy, destroying something for no good reason.???

The haunting April Showers is a paean to ???watching someone struggle through life and kind of understanding what their demons are???, while the undulating The Sinking Chair "encompasses all that frustration I was talking about.Get your ass up, quit sinking in that chair! I sang that one with my hands up on the wall of the vocal booth, clawing the foam in there!???

For now, WICK will carry the band???s ambition and imprint out into the world.

???Whatever we do, it still has our fingerprint on it.??? says Josh. ???Music has become our lives. We???re pretty much all chips in. We just love music so much???it???s a part of us.We want to make music that moves people.???

Prepare to be moved.