Unfortunately, I can't open it and read it on my computer (problem with their script and my browser), but here is the link. If someone can open it, please post!

BARFLY REVIEW

It took some poking around, but here's what I got:

IMA Robot Set Barfly on Fire!

IMA ROBOT are THE Best Live Band in Years...it's Official Says The Raft!

Jasper Stone has staked his whole reputation on IMA Robot being massive by summer 2003. Jasper was there first with The Thrills, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Turin Brakes (to name a few!) on his Big Bang column (only on www.the-raft.com) , so you better listen up! IMA Robot played the Metro at the start of the summer and had a great gig at Reading before this gig. Now it is official, they are the best band playing live out there! Read our interview with the band here and listen to the EP here.

--------------

IMA Robot Explained!

Loony LA punk-pop outfit gets grilled fyi…

They might only just be scratching at your consciousness, but the buzz on IMA Robot is building big time. NME have called them "winningly daft LA punk pop with electronic squiggles and a fixation on Volkswagens". And they’ve already notched up impressive support slots with the White Stripes in New York and for Blur in London. So who the hell are they?

IMA ROBOT Interviewed!

ALEX
SINGER OF I’M A ROBOT

How was the gig last night?

The gig was good last night. It was interesting cause I thought the people were a little stand offish and cold at first so I just mirrored that and it was little awkward at first. It was nice though as it was different. Then I started to see everyone start to dance and that was good. I was in a weird head space so I was all messed up from the travelling and I only had a one hour nap and I got there late so I had to run on stage so it was weird for me.

Listening to the album, it sounds like you have a pretty tight live set but apparently you have not played live together very often, is that true?

We haven’t played that much together since we recorded the record. As a band, a lot of us have been together for 6 years and three of us have been together for five years. As a band now we have been together for about nine months.

How did the I’M A Robot band take shape?

Me and Tim the guitar player started off to begin with and then we roped in Ollie on keyboards. Then we started to play gigs around LA. Then we just took it from there and roped Justin into it after a while. That’s when we started to get serious and write some real songs that people would consider songs. Then we got our deal and got Joey on board.

Can you take us through a few songs that you will be playing at The Metro?

They (the band) have some ideas about what the songs are about lyrically so I will let them describe those to you. Oh yeah ‘Black Jetta’ that’s a funny one. In LA, Volkswagens make Jetta cars. I guess you guys don’t have them over here.

Yes we do!

Oh okay, Justin told me that you didn’t get them over here! In LA, every girl drives a black Jetta basically and I had this girlfriend who drove a black Jetta and so did Tim and a few other band members. Then these girls became our ex-girlfriends so whenever we saw a black Jetta, we would all freak out. This particular ex-girlfriend was insane or that’s unfair maybe I am being unfair cause may be I made her insane! You just started acting all crazy and started kicking and breaking things. I was scared of her for a little while and so every time I saw a black Jetta, it was intense! I just wrote the song cause I can’t drive around in peace as there are so many black Jetta’s around so I was constantly on the look out. I just wrote the lyrics about that. ‘Ears For Action’ is an interesting song and it’s about the state of affairs and things that are going on. It spells out words, like it spells out Apocalypse and each letter becomes an acronym. It’s nice.

What about the single ‘Dynamite’?

Oh yeah ‘Dynamite’ is also about that same girl. It’s funny how a bad relationship can turn into a wonderful thing. That’s about a disrupted, bizarre, antagonistic relationship of shorts. Like one of those relationships that explode in front of you. I like that song and that’s one of the songs I wrote with a bass and a little after our new manager came in and said that we weren’t good enough to do shit with the songs that we had cause they were really out there. We got really upset and I went home and wrote a couple of songs called ‘Live’ and this one ‘Dynamite’ and then I showed the rest of the band the songs I had wrote and they went away and did their magic on it. That is how that song came about and that’s gonna be the first single.

What goes through your head when you do the songs live?

I don’t know really, I just try and get into it and just relax and be a part of the song. Then communicate it with the audience as best as I can. The whole experience of the live show is so different every time and so many things play into it like the vibration of the crowd, where I’m at. Everything you know like the song that it is and the communication skills. Last night I was getting to know the crowd and the communication was good last night.

How did it compare to Cochella?

It was different and Cochella was like a big show. It was huge and really spread out and open. It was different cause it was in California and Cochella is one of those places where everyone is expecting to see a lot of unknown bands so it’s not like they are all waiting to see another band so they want you to get off. Cochella is unique in that way and it’s cool cause everyone wants to see new bands and wants to see what is coming up.

So is that where your heart is when you do all the live stuff?

Yeah I didn’t like recording much and I like recording when you have no idea what songs you’re going to do and you just go to the studio and you write in the studio cause I like the writing process. Once you have got everything figured out, dialled in and you’re ready to go and record, the recording process to me is like make it good, make it sound like we had rehearsed and have good takes, get it finished and then mix it. I like the live process and the writing process but the middle is more like the execution and not very creative with more politics. There’s different types of people in the studio trying to get their own way like the producer and it’s interesting.

What is the mission statement for IMA Robot?

To create a sense of excitement and to inspire and to free things up a bit. To create new space for people to move about and explore. To push the envelope and push the boundaries a little bit cause things are a little tight now and people are taking chances but they are not taking chances that refer to things that took chances. The hives are referring to the stooges? We are referring to things now and I feel like we’re looking ahead.

So what are you referring to?

For me, a lot of bands pop into my head like Kraftwerk - just in their creativity and The Clash. Bowie and bands that were out there a little bit and things that have inspired me. I get inspired by quite a lot of bands.

IMA ROBOT Interviewed!

JUSTIN
BASS PLAYER AND BACKING VOCALS FOR I’M A ROBOT

What’s it like to be in London?

It’s great! I have been here a bunch of times before but never in the context of being on a mission for my band and it’s exciting and really fun.

How does it compare to back home?

The musical energy is a lot more pervasive you know cause you feel it everywhere you go. And contrary to what you may think of LA, cause it’s a big music place, it really is a lot more visible here. It’s more apparent and the music fans are more ubiquitous in music as a cultural phenomenon and it’s way more present here. It seems a lot more vital and all off your own back you can tell.

Do you think that is because there is more of a movie scene in LA and there isn’t in London?

There are a lot of reasons for it in my opinion but I would say that it’s because LA doesn’t really have a centre! LA is like this spirit of there being a collection of cities and there’s no congregation point for all these bands and there’s a lot of great bands and artists to do their thing. It’s not so readily apparent and there’s no place to go where you’re simply going on. The club scene isn’t as vital and it never has been! That’s not what people do when they go out and it’s there but you have to search. It’s this thing where you have to be well indoctrinated to like get into a scene or go out and have a good time. We were in Paris last week and we’re in London now and you arrive and feel like an instant link up with something that is occurring. It’s make you want to participate!

How was it for you last night, supporting Blur?

It was a shock and it was incredible. We were very fortunate and lucky to get it. We don’t have any record or anything out and we managed to get this opportunity which was incredible. I have been in London before and played with bands in London but for an opening band in London to get a nice reception like that and to get some applause, nodding heads and even a little moving around - you couldn’t ask for more! It was ecstasy for us and it was so great.

What is going through your head when you are playing live?

When I actually play a song or two and just start to relax and get into the vibe of the room that you’re in. I then get into a playful mode of checking the people out who are in front of me and checking out what they are feeling and then you start to relax more and get out of your own head. You start to do this sharing thing with the people and there’s this bit where they are just trying to suss you out and check out what you’re doing. They’re thinking are they cool and what are they about, then they start to get the aesthetic and start to participate in it. Then you can play forward and kind of do this little cat and mouse game of interacting with the people in front of you. It’s just all kind of a game really.

What’s it like being in IMA Robot?

It’s like an army that has five different generals. The people are so unique to themselves and we’re individuals and there’s always a lot going on with a lot of different opinions. We’re conceptualising from everybody, which is fun so there’s no people in the band who ever get demure so it’s really full-on all the time. Like when we want to talk about a concept it’s very vociferous and it’s great. This entity has been together for about a year and it feels exciting all the time that way and there’s always something you can bounce off someone else and get a real reaction. It’s an honest band you know and we’re not afraid to speak our minds. People are forthright with their creative concepts.

You were saying it’s exciting and the sound is very exciting but where would you say that came from?

Well Alex is the kind of singer who gets off on traditional music support so he can kind of groove with the most primal weird jerky monotonous thing and be really melodic on it. And as musicians a lot of us have played music for a while and now it’s almost like it’s revolving back to square one and it’s come around and we have this fun and excitement in all these details like experimenting of things like monotony or really toxic caustic sounds. Meanwhile he is singing over that stuff and it’s great cause a lot of singers are limited cause they require standard rock n’ roll tools in order to do their thing. Alex has the freedom that lets the whole band not be restrained by what the singer requires so that’s one thing that is really noteworthy about that!

I come from a pop background and developed a musicianship from there and everyone else has a different background and someone even has a jazz background and someone has a straight hip-hop background. This is the meeting of the minds for all these different things and I don’t know what it is but this is where it has evolved . It’s kind of elusive but when we write songs or record music, everybody is really doing what they would naturally do. The kind of stuff we jam to and the kind of stuff we write or the way we act in the studio is a really natural thing even though it may not seem so from the outside but it’s really natural.

It seems like there’s a coherence in sounds.

Yeah but that’s almost surprising but we’re disparate and we have very different things but what we come up with together is unique to what the five of us will create in a room together. So in other words, I rely on all of them and they rely on me. It’s all symbiotic!

Can you talk about what ‘12=3’ means to you?

Everyone has a different interpretation of what it means lyrically and we don’t sit down and go to Alex break this down and what does it mean - we don’t do that! We want to react to it naturally. So what that song means to me is that it’s a story on paralell lines like it starts off with a guy who is in school and his teacher is trying to explain some advance concepts to him and he is not getting them because he’s distracted by being a teenager and the girls.

Then in the chorus you have this bit where he realises that the reason why he is not connecting with the world around him is because he is an alien and he’s not really from the planet. He’s discovered as teenager that he’s not from earth and so he’s walking around and he’s an alien. He’s trying to figure out his place in the world and he saying goodbye to his love because the doctors are going to take him away cause he’s not from here after all! So it’s kind of mad but that’s what I think it is. For me that’s what Alex is saying and I get off on that. We’re not afraid to be fantastical and I think that’s fun!

OLIVER FROM I’M A ROBOT
PLAYS THE KEYBOARD AND GUITAR

Is playing live your background?

No actually, I’m more into the studio but I love everything you know. I love playing shows and the spontaneity of it all. I kind of started out making music by myself and just using drum machines and synthesisers, sort of playing as much as I could. Like with every instrument to get my ideas across the table and playing with this group is really fantastic.

How did that come about then?

I met Tim in LA and he was actually learning how to be an engineer. I met him over there and we just became buddies and he said I have got this kid Alex and we’re doing a band so do you want to come round and hang out. Then I came by and believe it or not I started out playing in the band by DJing and I was scratching over the stuff. They would like call me and I was like I’ll be there and I’ll bring my turntables. Then I would wait for the chorus and be like okay there’s the chorus and be completely stupid. After a while they found out that I played the keyboard and some guitar and bass. I like to program and just create sounds you know.

I haven’t seen the live show but will be going tomorrow. Is there an element of the scratching over tracks in your live show as I have not heard it on the album?

No there’s no scratching involved, thank god! (Laughter). I still scratch when I can you know, cause for me it’s just a percussion instrument or another way of creating something. I love just taking a sound off a record and it could be anything like a bird or something and then you take it and put it through all kinds of shit and you can really make it into anything you want. I love the way that there aren’t any keys and there aren’t any pads and there aren’t any notes you can play and so whatever you can make happen, happens!

Where on earth does your name IMA ROBOT come from?

It’s not good to ask me that one cause I didn’t come up with it. Alex came up with it but there’s a whole story behind it that would take me to long to explain cause I won’t be able to do it. For me though just like anything else with this band, it’s interpretative. You can probably sum up what it is on your own, for me the first thing you think of is robot and it’s like Kraftwerk or whatever and something that has to do with electro-culture. I don’t think I’m a robot but for me it’s just about interpretative and you make of it whatever you want to but for me it’s about culture and society and being a human being.

I notice that you are wearing a Genesis badge, are Genesis a big influence on your writing?

No not really but I do love Genesis. I like Phil Collins later stuff too. I am into really proggy (progressive) rock stuff too and I like super-grandiose, complicated, intellectual rock like Yes. Everybody has their thing that they really like and when you get a combination of people together who are into different things. My thing is hip-hop and you never know what anyone is talking about when they say hip-hop and I like Pete Rock and DJ Premier and those kind of producers like Large Professor.

So that’s quite a big jump from prog-rock to hip-hop...

When I started making music and seriously got into it I was sampling everything and first you’re listening to a record and you’re looking for one that will have a great sample. Then you say I can use that and it’s this much of a record. Then eventually my appreciation for everything grew and you can use something as a tool from pretty much anything and it’s all free reign from there like If you can find a marimba on a record here and a bagpipe from a record. A country record has great drums on it and so that’s more of where I am coming from and I’m really into sound and production on a record. I’m very specific about that kind of shit.

Did you co-produce the record with Josh Abraham? What was it like working with him?

Yeah it was great and he comes from a completely different place as far as the records that he has done go.

What has he done?

He did a band called Deadzine and a heavy metal band called Limp Bizkit and stuff in that genre but the opportunity came up to work with somebody who wasn’t going to be like a sixth band member. Doing this record has really showed me a lot and I have learned a lot about how records are made and what the producer’s role is and what the whole procedure is and can be. To have someone who has an objective view of things where he can go oh I like that, lets keep that. So he is basically like a ring leader and can say that’s cool cause we could go on for ever.

I have heard about all your disparate personalitites...

That’s the great thing as well cause in other musical situations that I have been in, I will do something and it will be almost too easy . We always work things out, almost everything and there will be some things that come out really naturally and happen in the first ten minutes but the things that really work has everyone’s stamp on it. We really hash them out you know with every detail.

What is the best thing about being in the band?

Being here and just being able to do what I love to do. It’s just a great learning experience being able to make records and travelling. Just meeting people and playing at shows. I was just in Las Vegas and now I’m here you know what I mean! Coming from LA to London and we’re doing tours and shit. I went to the fucking castle today and it was amazing, I’m going to go home and write. It inspires me to go home and take another look at my life and just being able to get out of town and hang and do this.

Timmy the Terror - Guitar player...

What is your favourite track to play live?

I think maybe 'Dirty Life' because I think it is a song that translates well live into a dancey, feisty, dirty song and crowd reaction has been really good in Europe to that song.

What is your background?

I guess I started to play guitar when I was little kid because my brother played guitar real mean and I really looked up to him. I also got into DJing at a young age and that shot me into the electronic stuff as well as the Hip Hop world. Growing up in California in the nineties influenced me but also the electronic stuff coming out of the U.K like the MoWax label, DJ Food, Coldcut and Ninja Tune stuff which I always tried to get my hands on as quickly as I could. That worked really well when I was playing my sets with all the American Hip Hop stuff from the early nineties.

Does it feel quite natural to be playing live in London?

Yeah I love it, all my heroes are from the British Pop and Rock scene and it is just inevitable that as Americans finding out about Punk age. I was really inspired to find out more and when I am here in London I am always looking at the people and the scene to try and find out what drives the music scene and why Britain is always at the forefront of cool.

I've been told to ask you where the name Ima Robot came from.

Well when we first started the band we did these amazing marathon sessions trying to put together a demo because as soon as we had meet we knew that we had to do something together and do it straight away. When we were in that session which was just fuelled by weed and 40 oz's we started making jokes because we where together for so long in the studio at any one time, so the name came from some totally un funny inside joke that had us floored and dying with laughter. We also sat up for nights coming up with names...

Do you remember any of those names?

Yeah, we had Climax Face (Laughter) also The Window Club which I really liked but all these like intellectual names that if we had gone with this band probably would not have been the same. Not that the name makes the band but the music makes the name and those names would have been made into garbage. I know image is not everything but it does help because it reminds you of who you are!

I’M A Robot is somehow stoned and very immature and present in stage and life because there’s a lot of maturity musically. I think it’s a compliment because as a band, we’re in the beginning stage and figuring out who we really are even though we have already captured a complete, a concentric and actual idea as our first record of who we are. But that we’re still growing is a miracle to me in that we’re still in our infancy stages, which is really motivating. I think it’s just a group of guys who kind of grew up with and maintained the idea that renegade thoughts, ideas and actions in the artistic world in music, film or art or whatever is important. That it is actually important to the sustaining of life to go against what we have been taught and what we know to be untrue but what represents the masses. It’s not like we don’t give a fuck cause we do, but in the way that we don’t care what you think as long as you know that we do care about what we’re doing. We’re doing it not for other people, we’re doing it to uphold a concept that was kind of branded with us.

JOEY
PLAYS DRUMS FOR I’M A ROBOT

What is your favourite track when you are playing live?

I guess my favourite track that I enjoy playing is ‘Scream’. I am so proud of that beat because it’s a straightforward beat that’s a little syncopated. You know it’s a little bit simple but at the same time a little challenging and you kind of feel like it’s hooky and it’s fun to play.

What can people expect from your show if they haven’t heard you play live yet?

Expect a very charismatic freaky lead singer and a very tight band with kind of great pop songs but it’s doing it’s own thing!

How did you get involved with the band originally?

Oh lets see, yeah I go way back with Justin. We played together on a bunch of stuff for years and then he kind of asked me to come and help out so I instantly found love with the band.

What was your reaction when the band got signed?

I came into the group even after the band were signed so my reaction was oh okay cool!

What about the travelling around, does it agree with your constitution?

Yeah I have travelled a lot for a long time so I guess it’s nothing new really.

What would you say is the best thing about being the drummer for I’M A Robot?

The best thing for me honestly is behind the scenes and all the joys of making music without much of fuss.

Is that less stressful for you, just sitting back?

I never have to be at the front of the stage and that is just my personality as I like to be behind the scenes.

Is production more where you’re comfortable?

Yeah definitely although I have been touring and playing for most of my life. Yeah being in production and writing is more what I like to do.

Do you notice the size of the crowds at the gigs that you have been playing most recently to the ones you do as a band on your own?

I am noticing that the bands that we are opening for, are more established bands and we’re coming from nowhere. People have been respectful of us and it’s been really nice.

You can’t say fairer than that - doing you’re first gig in the UK supporting Blur!

I can’t believe it you know and it’s such a great opportunity. They are so great and to play for their fans as an unknown band is terrifying and they were actually nice and everyone there was responsive and nice!

Who would say are your musical heroes?

Pretty obvious pop like The Beatles, The Clash. Then definitely jazz and I was into Brazillian music. I definitely have a lot of Miles Davis in my background and Chicago Blues and a lot of Brazillian music....

There’s a lot of talk about the disparate personalities but what one thing do you all have in common?

The one thing is a similar approach to a song that’s what it is. We come up with musical ideas and we have a disparate but singular vision of how to tie it into a song and that keeps it together.

Commentary on "Sex Symbols On Parade" (and some references for the reference list, Drac):

Fast furious, almost an echo of early Adam and The Ants, almost The Clash, almost New Order, IMA ROBOT defy any kind of labelling. They may be from LA but dont let that put you off the most unique band that are gagging to explode big style.


Commentary on "12=3"... what's the Handley quote?:

Fast furious, almost an echo of early Adam and The Ants, almost The Clash, almost New Order, IMA ROBOT defy any kind of labelling. They may be from LA but dont let that put you off the most unique band that are gagging to explode big style.

Nice, dude..Thanks for putting that up! Were those typos part of the interviews as well???:o:D

Yep, I just did a copy and paste, and spaced the questions from the answers a little better...

"Ears For Action"! Hehe

That site gives me so much grief, thanks for dealing with it and pulling down all these great interviews.

In Alex's, he brings up the old songs. I gotta say, he sells them short. Sure, they weren't exactly radio friendly, but they grew on you like sphagnum moss. And now a lot of the press has described the band as sounding art rock-y, maybe that will give them license to push the envelope even further in the future.

I was wondering, have any of the OLD songs/tapes been found? I think on KCRW, didn't Alex mention they'd started making recordings like 5 or 6 years ago? I wonder what they sound like!

Okay, there's a good bit of info in these interviews so I'm throwing them into the FAQ for journalists coming to the site who are looking for a shortcut.