# Protomen: Music that defines Rock Opera, Rebellion, and Rhythm

An episode of [Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1751194045), 17 Mar 2026, 30 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c41d385f-64b2-4514-9415-b4d50130ce01/ee4f13a8-f61a-40ed-8f6a-b4d5016afa44/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=d1742151-672b-4e4d-997b-b4d50130ce0c

Behind the Scenes with The Protomen: A Rock Opera Odyssey In this episode of 'Almost Live Nashville,' host Tony Mantor delves into the fascinating world of The Proto Man, a Nashville-based band known for their unique blend of rock opera, sci-fi storytelling, and raw energy. T he band members, who go by the names Murphy, Commander B. Hawkins, and Panther, share insights into their creative process, the evolution of their concept albums, and their journey from humble beginnings to their ambitious endeavors today. They discuss the intricate storylines of their music, their experiences performing live, and their aspirations for the future, including playing in Japan and potentially creating a Broadway play. Listeners will get an in-depth look at the band's influences, the themes of rebellion, sacrifice, and legacy in their work, and the strong connection they share with their fans. Introduction to the Podcast Meet the Protomen The Concept and Evolution of Their Music The Storyline and Themes Live Performances and Audience Reactions Future Aspirations and Goals Animation Opportunities Upcoming Shows and Events Reflecting on the Band's Legacy Fan Interactions and Inspirations Quickfire Questions: Between the Beats Favorite Songs and Tour Memories Dream Collaborations Heartfelt Message to Fans INTRO/OUTRO Music: T. Wild Mantor Music BMI See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:14] Speaker 1: My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to
[0:17] Speaker 1: work with a diverse range of talent through my years
[0:21] Speaker 1: of experience i've recognized two essential aspects industry professionals whether
[0:26] Speaker 1: famous stars or behind the scenes staff have fascinating stories
[0:32] Speaker 1: to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories,
[0:36] Speaker 1: which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution
[0:40] Speaker 1: of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives,
[0:44] Speaker 1: providing information on how they evolve into their chosen career.
[0:48] Speaker 1: We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their
[0:51] Speaker 1: struggles and successes, and hear from people who helped them
[0:54] Speaker 1: achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and
[0:58] Speaker 1: insights into the fascinating world of entertainment. Hi, I'm Tony Mantour.
[1:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. Joining us today is the
[1:09] Speaker 1: members of The Proto Man, a band that doesn't just
[1:12] Speaker 1: write songs, they build worlds. Straight out of Nashville, These
[1:16] Speaker 1: guys have carved out a sound that blends rock opera,
[1:19] Speaker 1: sci-fi storytelling, and pure, raw energy into something completely their own.
[1:26] Speaker 1: Their albums feel cinematic, their live shows are full-on experiences,
[1:31] Speaker 1: and their music hits like a rebellion you can feel.
[1:34] Speaker 1: They're bold, unapologetic, and unlike anything else out there. I'm
[1:40] Speaker 1: beyond excited to welcome them on today. So before we
[1:43] Speaker 1: dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted
[1:47] Speaker 1: show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for
[1:50] Speaker 1: coming on.
[1:51] Speaker 2: Thanks for having us.
[1:52] Speaker 1: Oh, it's my pleasure. So tell me, anyone that's discovering
[1:56] Speaker 1: the Proto Man for the very first time, what do
[2:00] Speaker 1: you tell them about yourselves and what you do?
[2:04] Speaker 3: Interesting. Interestingly, we have no idea.
[2:08] Speaker 2: Okay.
[2:09] Speaker 3: So I think, honestly, my favorite thing that I've seen
[2:14] Speaker 3: recently is what Metal Sucks magazine just described us as.
[2:19] Speaker 3: And it was basically like if Queen and Rush got
[2:25] Speaker 3: drunk listening to Devo and what was the rest of it?
[2:31] Speaker 3: But basically, it was like a big, long thing about
[2:34] Speaker 3: combining all these bands. And I don't know. It was good.
[2:38] Speaker 1: So....
[2:40] Speaker 3: Yeah, a bunch of different musical references and film references
[2:45] Speaker 3: and things like that all jumbled together to make whatever
[2:49] Speaker 3: it is we are.
[2:50] Speaker 2: We've long called ourselves rock opera, but I'd say that
[2:55] Speaker 2: it's more, I mean, it's story rock somehow. Or, I mean,
[3:00] Speaker 2: I guess concept rock is.
[3:03] Speaker 3: It's sort of like listening to a film.
[3:05] Speaker 1: Now what I've read about you, You have this kind
[3:08] Speaker 1: of rock opera concept. It mentions video games, music, and
[3:14] Speaker 1: how you tie it all together. Maybe an Orwellian type style.
[3:19] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[3:21] Speaker 1: If you kind of tie all those three things together,
[3:24] Speaker 1: how does the audience relate to the features and the
[3:27] Speaker 1: different things that you are doing?
[3:30] Speaker 3: One of the features in there, we don't really do...
[3:32] Speaker 3: We don't play music from the games or anything. It's
[3:35] Speaker 3: just all original concept, all original music, that sort of thing.
[3:39] Speaker 2: I think a lot of our fans don't know that
[3:42] Speaker 2: all of those pieces of the puzzle exist. I think
[3:46] Speaker 2: we have fans that come and they say, Hey, I
[3:47] Speaker 2: really like Mega Man, which is the video game that
[3:50] Speaker 2: we referenced. And they show up dressed as characters. And
[3:54] Speaker 2: then we have fans that... They're just pure rock and
[3:57] Speaker 2: roll people.
[3:57] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
[3:58] Speaker 2: And they walk in and they say, why is everybody
[4:02] Speaker 2: dressed as Mega Man? But I think somehow in the
[4:06] Speaker 2: midst of the floor that they're standing in, they find
[4:11] Speaker 2: a way to coexist.
[4:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Now, you have what you
[4:16] Speaker 1: described as multiple acts, like an Act 1, an Act 2,
[4:21] Speaker 1: and an Act 3. Can you give us a little
[4:23] Speaker 1: information on what these acts are? and how you put
[4:27] Speaker 1: everything together as a show.
[4:29] Speaker 2: So we started more than 20 years ago with a song.
[4:37] Speaker 2: And it sort of, we recorded it, we recorded another one,
[4:44] Speaker 2: we played a show, and it's just sort of grown
[4:49] Speaker 2: exponentially from there.
[4:51] Speaker 3: After the first song we did, it was about Mega Man,
[4:54] Speaker 3: just By chance. And after the first one was done,
[4:58] Speaker 3: then we're like, well, that was really fun. We should
[5:01] Speaker 3: build a story around this and just expound on the
[5:04] Speaker 3: whole situation and just make it as ridiculous as humanly possible.
[5:08] Speaker 3: And so then we just started building it up and
[5:10] Speaker 3: building it up. And we ended up with an album.
[5:12] Speaker 3: And so we're like, OK, we've got an album. We
[5:14] Speaker 3: released that album in 2005. It was Act One. And
[5:17] Speaker 3: so that was when it wasn't even called Act One
[5:20] Speaker 3: at that point because we didn't have a full plan
[5:23] Speaker 3: for Part Two yet other than a general story that
[5:25] Speaker 3: it could do. And honestly, I knew more of what
[5:28] Speaker 3: was going to happen in Act Three at that point.
[5:31] Speaker 3: Then I did what was going to happen in Act 2,
[5:34] Speaker 3: and so Act 2 turned into the prequel. So Act
[5:37] Speaker 3: 2 is the prequel to Act 1, and it came
[5:39] Speaker 3: out in 2009, and it was a different kind of album.
[5:43] Speaker 3: Whereas Act 1 was very post-apocalyptic, very dirty, grungy, just
[5:49] Speaker 3: distorted sound, Act 2 being a prequel in the storyline,
[5:53] Speaker 3: it was a much nicer place. So the sound is
[5:55] Speaker 3: a lot cleaner, a lot, you know, more pristine sounding,
[5:58] Speaker 3: you know, polished. And so then time passed and time
[6:01] Speaker 3: passed and now we're on act three and it's kind
[6:04] Speaker 3: of a middle ground. We haven't really, you know, it's
[6:07] Speaker 3: definitely not as distorted and, you know, mean sounding as
[6:10] Speaker 3: act one for sure though.
[6:13] Speaker 1: It's almost like you created this theater with a storyline
[6:17] Speaker 1: where it's like this dystopian world. You've got fascists and
[6:22] Speaker 1: other entities in there as well. So you see yourselves
[6:25] Speaker 1: putting a statement out there of what you think and
[6:29] Speaker 1: what you're putting across of what you think in the music.
[6:32] Speaker 1: Do you think your audience is getting and grasping the
[6:36] Speaker 1: show that you're trying to put across to them?
[6:39] Speaker 3: I think they're getting it there.
[6:40] Speaker 2: The statement's in there.
[6:42] Speaker 3: I think they're getting it. But yeah, I guess as
[6:45] Speaker 3: we were saying earlier today, it's very depressing when the
[6:49] Speaker 3: storyline you've been building for 20 years has become... so
[6:53] Speaker 3: obscenely real that it's just, you can barely handle it.
[6:56] Speaker 1: Now you mentioned the story. Can you elaborate on what
[7:00] Speaker 1: the story is within your music?
[7:02] Speaker 3: Oh, you're talking about like, just basically that our storyline
[7:05] Speaker 3: that we've been writing all these years is happening all
[7:08] Speaker 3: around us now. And it's been happening all around us.
[7:10] Speaker 3: And that's why we were kind of talking about it
[7:12] Speaker 3: in the beginning, but it's just gotten far more intense.
[7:16] Speaker 1: So I think this is a great time for you
[7:18] Speaker 1: to introduce yourselves. I know you have names that you
[7:21] Speaker 1: go by in your music. So tell everybody who you are.
[7:24] Speaker 2: My name is Murphy.
[7:26] Speaker 3: My name is Commander B. Hawkins.
[7:28] Speaker 2: And I'm Panther.
[7:29] Speaker 1: Okay, that's great. Now tell us, how did you come
[7:33] Speaker 1: up with these names?
[7:36] Speaker 2: The name finds you, I think. Yeah, I mean, every...
[7:41] Speaker 2: Every character in the band has something that's happened with them.
[7:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all very personal. I'll tell you that in
[7:48] Speaker 3: our storyline, Sophie B. Hawkins is my great, great, great, great, great, great,
[7:53] Speaker 3: great grandmother.
[7:54] Speaker 1: Oh.
[7:56] Speaker 2: How? The lore. In the lore.
[8:01] Speaker 1: Okay, your albums, your music, they come across more like
[8:05] Speaker 1: epic films than just your typical musical CDs.
[8:10] Speaker 3: Thank you.
[8:12] Speaker 1: When you start a new project, what comes first? The storyline,
[8:16] Speaker 1: the music, or just the raw emotion?
[8:21] Speaker 3: It's interesting. Musically, we always have, you know, storyline. We
[8:25] Speaker 3: know where the outline, the skeleton is. And then you say, well,
[8:29] Speaker 3: this character needs to speak. Who is that character? How
[8:33] Speaker 3: do they speak? They speak with this type of rock
[8:36] Speaker 3: and roll. This type of, this one, this person's kind
[8:40] Speaker 3: of spaghetti westerns. This person is kind of whatever. And
[8:43] Speaker 3: so you build from that starting point of, well, we
[8:46] Speaker 3: know we need a song that's like this. Let's build
[8:48] Speaker 3: that song. And then occasionally you'll get into, we'll have
[8:54] Speaker 3: just a random riff or something that we've come up with.
[8:56] Speaker 3: And then it's like, well, that fits this character. So
[9:00] Speaker 3: let's build around that and build that piece of the story.
[9:02] Speaker 3: So I'd say, honestly, it is very, very much. It's
[9:06] Speaker 3: like somebody gave us a film and said, all right,
[9:08] Speaker 3: write the music for it. Figure it out. And then
[9:11] Speaker 3: we go, okay, we'll figure it out.
[9:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think definitely the story drives everything. I think
[9:20] Speaker 2: we always have that vision in the back of our heads,
[9:22] Speaker 2: even if we're just toying with a riff that sounds
[9:25] Speaker 2: cool or a certain lyric that seems to fit. We're
[9:31] Speaker 2: always cognizant that the story will come into play at
[9:36] Speaker 2: some point. It has to fit.
[9:38] Speaker 3: And if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit.
[9:40] Speaker 1: Okay, that's great. Now, you've been doing this Mega Man
[9:44] Speaker 1: concept for a few years now. Did you have a
[9:49] Speaker 1: concept where you kind of knew where it might end?
[9:53] Speaker 1: Or has the story grown alongside you as you have
[9:57] Speaker 1: developed as a band? Um.
[10:00] Speaker 3: I knew where it would go. There are things where,
[10:05] Speaker 3: you know, it's developed along the way for sure. Well,
[10:07] Speaker 3: it's refined a lot along the way. But in terms
[10:11] Speaker 3: of just knowing exactly where it's gone, no. It was,
[10:16] Speaker 3: we had to figure it out. And honestly, it's a
[10:19] Speaker 3: whole lot of plot hole plugging.
[10:22] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sure.
[10:23] Speaker 3: That's really what it is. It's like, what if, what
[10:25] Speaker 3: have we done? Our holes everywhere. Like we had to
[10:28] Speaker 3: fix these holes, but it's like, all right, but we,
[10:30] Speaker 3: we've made the pieces. It's us understanding our own story.
[10:34] Speaker 3: It's like us understanding, oh, we've created this hole, but
[10:37] Speaker 3: we also created the plug for the hole years ago.
[10:41] Speaker 3: We just have to put the piece in, in place.
[10:44] Speaker 3: And it's that sort of thing.
[10:46] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[10:47] Speaker 1: Now, Your music dives deep into rebellion, sacrifice, and legacy.
[10:52] Speaker 1: Looking back from your act one to now, how have
[10:56] Speaker 1: your own perspective on these themes changed, if at all?
[11:00] Speaker 3: That's a good question. That's pretty deep. I might be
[11:03] Speaker 3: deeper than my brain.
[11:07] Speaker 2: Like, as in, like, do we feel differently now, or just.
[11:10] Speaker 1: Yeah. How do you feel about it?
[11:12] Speaker 2: I don't know. I think I'm... I'd say... Oh, yeah.
[11:17] Speaker 3: As humans. As a human being in the year 2026,
[11:21] Speaker 3: I didn't know that I could get more jaded with
[11:24] Speaker 3: society in 2005. That's really my thing, is that I
[11:28] Speaker 3: didn't realize that I could hate people more. And so now,
[11:34] Speaker 3: 20 years later, it's like, oh, no, no, there's a
[11:37] Speaker 3: whole ocean of hate ready for me to jump into. So, no, no, it's...
[11:45] Speaker 3: Society has proven itself to be embarrassing. And that's really my...
[11:52] Speaker 3: That's what I've taken from it. There's still good in people.
[11:54] Speaker 3: I'm not saying that I'm just completely jaded. People are
[11:58] Speaker 3: still inherently individually good people. But as a group, people
[12:03] Speaker 3: are monsters.
[12:04] Speaker 2: But we also started out in 2005 from that perspective. Yeah,
[12:08] Speaker 2: so it hasn't changed. We started out, our first record
[12:11] Speaker 2: is very much about the failure of mankind as a
[12:17] Speaker 2: whole to, you know, to rise to heroism or to
[12:22] Speaker 2: rise to the place that they need to be.
[12:24] Speaker 3: The lowest level of making an effort.
[12:26] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[12:27] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[12:28] Speaker 2: So we, you know, yeah, we started out from that place.
[12:30] Speaker 2: And I think as we've gone through the acts, we
[12:32] Speaker 2: do try to keep hope alive, even if it perhaps
[12:37] Speaker 2: gets more and more difficult to do it. It's still there.
[12:40] Speaker 3: You have to search for the hope. That's really what
[12:42] Speaker 3: it comes down to.
[12:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, I get it. I get it. Is there a
[12:46] Speaker 1: lyric or a moment in your catalog that still hits
[12:50] Speaker 1: you emotionally, even after playing it a hundred times?
[12:54] Speaker 2: Oh, man. That's a good question, too. So we are
[12:59] Speaker 2: right now working on the... A couple of weeks ago,
[13:03] Speaker 2: we played in D.C. We played all three acts. We
[13:06] Speaker 2: started with Act 2, we went to Act 1, then
[13:08] Speaker 2: we went to Act 3. Across three nights. The chronological order. Yeah,
[13:12] Speaker 2: across three nights at this festival. in DC called MagFest.
[13:16] Speaker 2: So we basically played for the first time ever our
[13:20] Speaker 2: entire catalog. And I'll say that there were songs, there's
[13:24] Speaker 2: a lot of stuff that when you're able to play
[13:26] Speaker 2: the album in its entirety, a lot of stuff you
[13:28] Speaker 2: haven't played in a long time. There was a lot
[13:30] Speaker 2: of stuff from Act 2 that we just don't get
[13:33] Speaker 2: to when we're playing just an hour and a half
[13:35] Speaker 2: set in a club or a bar. So there was
[13:38] Speaker 2: a lot of rediscovering lyrics. Yeah, there's... In the second act,
[13:45] Speaker 2: sort of the protagonist's partner dies, and there's a lot
[13:52] Speaker 2: of really emotional grief that sits in the middle of
[13:56] Speaker 2: that record that we don't really play because it's a
[14:00] Speaker 2: little too heavy for just like a... a bar show. So, yeah,
[14:05] Speaker 2: there's a couple in The State versus Thomas Light. Yeah,
[14:09] Speaker 2: there's some intense lyrics on that one.
[14:11] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[14:11] Speaker 2: And there's, like, lyrics on, you know, the flip of
[14:13] Speaker 2: that is, like, we'll make stuff like, this is pretty good,
[14:16] Speaker 2: and then we'll play a song we haven't played in
[14:18] Speaker 2: five or eight years, and the kids, the fans, lose
[14:21] Speaker 2: it on, like, the stand. Yeah, sure. The stand is, like,
[14:24] Speaker 2: people's favorite song, but we, like, never play it.
[14:26] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[14:27] Speaker 2: Just for whatever reason, because the way it fits in
[14:28] Speaker 2: the set, we pull it out every once in a while,
[14:30] Speaker 2: and they lose it because the lyrics in that one
[14:33] Speaker 2: And we wrote that 20 years ago, and it has
[14:38] Speaker 2: a very, very strong message now.
[14:41] Speaker 1: You just mentioned playing in clubs. How do you fit
[14:45] Speaker 1: in clubs?
[14:48] Speaker 3: On top of each other.
[14:49] Speaker 1: Well, why I ask that, a lot of these clubs
[14:52] Speaker 1: have a certain expectation when a band comes in. They
[14:55] Speaker 1: expect certain songs. And here you come in with your
[14:59] Speaker 1: own style that you have. Which is completely different than
[15:03] Speaker 1: anything they will have come in. So how does that
[15:06] Speaker 1: work for you?
[15:09] Speaker 3: Our fans show up. We don't have random people show
[15:15] Speaker 3: up to our shows. I wish we did. But there's
[15:17] Speaker 3: never been a point in our entire history that a person,
[15:20] Speaker 3: an individual that didn't know who we were, walked in
[15:23] Speaker 3: the door and watched us. Not once.
[15:26] Speaker 2: You get people that are being dragged to the show
[15:28] Speaker 2: by friends that are talking us up.
[15:30] Speaker 3: The whole idea of street, what's it called? When people
[15:33] Speaker 3: are like, no, it's okay.
[15:34] Speaker 2: Like the locals.
[15:35] Speaker 3: You're going to have the locals or the walk-up.
[15:37] Speaker 2: You're going to.
[15:38] Speaker 3: Have walk-up, and it's going to be, it's like, no,
[15:41] Speaker 3: we've never once had a single person walk up to
[15:44] Speaker 3: the door that didn't know who we were and walk.
[15:46] Speaker 3: Not once. If they walked through, they would never leave,
[15:49] Speaker 3: and they would come back every time.
[15:51] Speaker 2: Except for maybe Warped Tour.
[15:52] Speaker 3: That's true.
[15:53] Speaker 2: Well, we played Warped Tour once. And there was a
[15:56] Speaker 2: mass exodus when we started playing of people who were
[16:01] Speaker 2: there to see the typical tour.
[16:02] Speaker 3: They didn't leave because of us. They left because they
[16:05] Speaker 3: had already left by the time we started playing.
[16:08] Speaker 2: That's true. But you would get those random people who
[16:10] Speaker 2: were walking through looking at all the stages.
[16:12] Speaker 3: They would just stare at us going, what is that?
[16:14] Speaker 2: And we would catch their eye in the hot summer
[16:17] Speaker 2: sun melting makeup off of our faces. And, you know,
[16:22] Speaker 2: it was only like six of us.
[16:23] Speaker 3: Yeah, six people.
[16:24] Speaker 2: Over seven weeks.
[16:27] Speaker 3: But generally, club shows for us are fantastic. That's where
[16:31] Speaker 3: we thrive the most because they're intimate, they're intense, they're
[16:34] Speaker 3: way more intense. And so we just played for a
[16:38] Speaker 3: crowd of 4,000 for three nights in a row the
[16:41] Speaker 3: other night or a couple weekends ago. And that's a
[16:45] Speaker 3: rare instance of 4,000 people being completely into it. Usually
[16:49] Speaker 3: when you play a big show like that, it's kind of...
[16:52] Speaker 3: I don't know, very odd.
[16:53] Speaker 2: But even then, there's a disconnect between a large crowd
[16:58] Speaker 2: like that and between that and being in a club
[17:00] Speaker 2: that has just a few hundred people that are really
[17:03] Speaker 2: packed in and really feeding off of each other's energy.
[17:06] Speaker 3: Generally, we end up playing, like for those smaller club shows,
[17:10] Speaker 3: we'll just play like a mix of whatever we're feeling
[17:14] Speaker 3: like playing. Whatever works for the set, not really like
[17:16] Speaker 3: leaning into the storyline as much.
[17:18] Speaker 1: If someone hears Proto Man for the very first time,
[17:22] Speaker 1: What is the song that you wish they hear first,
[17:26] Speaker 1: and why?
[17:27] Speaker 3: That's a hard one. For different reasons. If you want
[17:31] Speaker 3: somebody to go the rock and jam that everybody likes
[17:35] Speaker 3: a lot, Light the Night's the one. Everybody seems to
[17:38] Speaker 3: love that song, which is super grateful for it.
[17:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the one I always send people to.
[17:45] Speaker 3: There's all kinds of stuff on the new album, though. Literally,
[17:48] Speaker 3: the whole new album is like, we go to that one,
[17:50] Speaker 3: go to that one, go to that one. Like, Keep
[17:53] Speaker 3: Quiet's rad from Act 2. Act 1, Will of One
[17:56] Speaker 3: would be the way to go, or The Stand is fun.
[17:58] Speaker 3: Hope Rides Alone explains the story.
[18:01] Speaker 1: What's in your bucket list? What are you hoping that
[18:04] Speaker 1: you can do for the future?
[18:06] Speaker 2: Money.
[18:08] Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it.
[18:08] Speaker 2: There's money in the bucket. We've never played Japan.
[18:12] Speaker 3: We've loved to play Japan. Yeah. We have to have
[18:15] Speaker 3: people buy our things from Japan, though. So if anybody
[18:18] Speaker 3: knows anything about Japan and or how to get us
[18:20] Speaker 3: into Japan... Or get people to listen to us in
[18:23] Speaker 3: Japan so that we can tour there.
[18:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, we go to other... We've been to Europe, Australia,
[18:28] Speaker 2: and we can get around.
[18:30] Speaker 3: Everywhere else.
[18:30] Speaker 2: So, there's all kinds of things.
[18:32] Speaker 3: I mean....
[18:36] Speaker 2: I mean, I want to make a Broadway play of
[18:37] Speaker 2: this thing.
[18:38] Speaker 1: Yes.
[18:38] Speaker 3: There's all the things. Anything you can think of, we
[18:41] Speaker 3: want to do it. It's just do we have the
[18:43] Speaker 3: money to do it or the backing, the funding, any
[18:46] Speaker 3: kind of like that. It's like we need to do
[18:47] Speaker 3: and make a video game. We need to make a
[18:49] Speaker 3: series of animated movies or live action movies.
[18:52] Speaker 2: And the expertise. We don't have the expertise.
[18:53] Speaker 3: Yeah, we have no expertise.
[18:54] Speaker 2: We're pretty good at audio. Yeah.
[18:56] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[18:57] Speaker 2: We're not great at everything else. Yeah. Yeah. We're all
[19:00] Speaker 2: audio engineers from here. Yeah.
[19:02] Speaker 1: Yeah. I get that. Join the crowd. That's me too.
[19:06] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[19:07] Speaker 3: If anybody out there does animation, get in touch with us.
[19:11] Speaker 3: We've got all kinds of things we want.
[19:13] Speaker 1: Animation would be great. A lot of great things come
[19:15] Speaker 1: from that. So what's coming up next? You just mentioned
[19:19] Speaker 1: several different things. Without giving too much away, what can
[19:22] Speaker 1: your fans and the listeners expect from you in the future?
[19:26] Speaker 2: We've got the June 18th through 20th, we're doing the
[19:31] Speaker 2: Nashville release show, like the big celebrated release show for
[19:34] Speaker 2: the new record. album a day you know three albums
[19:38] Speaker 2: over three days like we did two weeks.
[19:39] Speaker 3: Ago yeah this one would be a bit more more
[19:42] Speaker 3: of a production more yeah yeah because we'll be in
[19:44] Speaker 3: our home turf and have more time but that's already
[19:46] Speaker 3: sold out Yeah, but it's already sold out. It's sold
[19:48] Speaker 3: out in a week.
[19:48] Speaker 2: It's sold out so fast.
[19:50] Speaker 3: So it's awesome. Marathon Music Works.
[19:52] Speaker 2: Yeah. My marathon was about 1700, 1800. So that'll be
[19:57] Speaker 2: the biggest shows we've ever done in Nashville, literally. And
[20:01] Speaker 2: then three days of it.
[20:02] Speaker 1: Let's look in the future right now. 15, 20 years
[20:05] Speaker 1: from now, someone's looking back on the Proto Man. What
[20:09] Speaker 1: are you hoping that they say your music gave to them? Hope?
[20:15] Speaker 2: Yeah. I also really love people that come up to
[20:19] Speaker 2: us and give us something that they've done. Art or
[20:24] Speaker 2: music or, you know.
[20:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, inspiration. Yeah.
[20:28] Speaker 2: And they say, your band caused me to want to
[20:33] Speaker 2: produce something of my own. That's always really cool. Yeah.
[20:37] Speaker 2: I hope we're spawning a lot of, you know, people
[20:40] Speaker 2: making their art.
[20:41] Speaker 3: Other really weird bands?
[20:43] Speaker 2: Other really weird bands, yes.
[20:45] Speaker 1: Yeah, now, speaking of fans, what is the most meaningful
[20:48] Speaker 1: thing a fan has said to you?
[20:50] Speaker 3: Oh, there's so many. And they're all very, like, a
[20:53] Speaker 3: bunch of them.
[20:54] Speaker 1: A lot of them.
[20:54] Speaker 3: Very personal.
[20:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of them. I think the one that
[20:58] Speaker 2: I love in particular, but when someone talks about, oh,
[21:01] Speaker 2: you know, I'll listen to you with my family member
[21:04] Speaker 2: who's now not with me anymore. And I... Listen to
[21:07] Speaker 2: this and think of that. I don't know what you
[21:11] Speaker 2: call that. There's a term for that. It has to
[21:13] Speaker 2: do with memories. I can't think. I'm losing the words,
[21:16] Speaker 2: but those are always appreciated when those are happening.
[21:20] Speaker 1: How do people find you?
[21:22] Speaker 3: Do you mean how should they look for us?
[21:24] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[21:25] Speaker 3: Protoman.com is a good way to get to us. That
[21:28] Speaker 3: kind of leads everywhere. We're owned. All the streaming things,
[21:33] Speaker 3: just Proto Man, Act 3, The City Made Us, the
[21:36] Speaker 3: new album. And then we're on YouTube. You can find
[21:39] Speaker 3: us on that. It's pretty much anywhere you can find us.
[21:41] Speaker 3: We're out there.
[21:42] Speaker 2: So just search our name.
[21:43] Speaker 1: Here's a part I call Between the Beats. We do
[21:46] Speaker 1: quick questions, no right or wrong answers, just something for
[21:50] Speaker 1: the fun of it.
[21:50] Speaker 3: Oh, I can say, I can make it wrong.
[21:52] Speaker 2: Don't do challenge me.
[21:56] Speaker 1: What is the first album you ever owned?
[21:59] Speaker 3: Like, owned or bought with your own money?
[22:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's different.
[22:02] Speaker 1: Bought with your own money. You owned it.
[22:04] Speaker 2: Oh, bought with your own money.
[22:05] Speaker 3: I think... I know mine. Palapalooza.
[22:09] Speaker 1: Okay.
[22:10] Speaker 2: The CD.
[22:11] Speaker 3: No, use your illusion.
[22:13] Speaker 2: One?
[22:13] Speaker 1: Two? One?
[22:14] Speaker 2: November Rain.
[22:15] Speaker 3: I bought the cassette of that.
[22:17] Speaker 2: That's one.
[22:18] Speaker 3: Yes, that's one. 1991.
[22:20] Speaker 2: It might have been Thriller.
[22:21] Speaker 3: That's pretty good.
[22:23] Speaker 2: But it was new? No, no, no. Like a cassette,
[22:26] Speaker 2: you know. bought it from Camelot. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
[22:31] Speaker 2: I don't know. I know the first album that I
[22:35] Speaker 2: ever possessed was the Alan Jackson record with Chattahoochee on it.
[22:40] Speaker 3: That'll do it.
[22:41] Speaker 2: That was like an uncle. An uncle was like, here, kid,
[22:45] Speaker 2: this is what you need to be listening to. And
[22:47] Speaker 2: I got a boombox for Christmas, one of those CD
[22:50] Speaker 2: boomboxes where the speakers pop off and you can move them.
[22:53] Speaker 2: You still have it? Three feet away?
[22:55] Speaker 3: You should still have that.
[22:56] Speaker 2: Man, I don't still have it. The first one I
[22:58] Speaker 2: bought was, I had it on my birthday, and I
[23:01] Speaker 2: was given a cassette player and like $ 20. That was
[23:05] Speaker 2: the birthday, and I went down the road and bought
[23:07] Speaker 2: Beastie Boys License the Ill cassette.
[23:09] Speaker 3: That's what I was about to say. The first thing
[23:11] Speaker 3: that I probably ever had was a copied version of
[23:15] Speaker 3: that album-owned cassette that my cousin from Memphis gave me
[23:21] Speaker 3: or my brother, and I ended up with it.
[23:23] Speaker 1: What's your favorite Proto Man to play live?
[23:28] Speaker 3: I don't like any of them.
[23:30] Speaker 2: They're all tortured.
[23:31] Speaker 3: Man.
[23:33] Speaker 2: So we just started, like, literally at the MAGFest thing
[23:37] Speaker 2: that we played a couple of weeks ago. It was
[23:38] Speaker 2: the first time we had played most of Act 3 live. So,
[23:43] Speaker 2: I think my new favorite is Light's Last Stand. It's
[23:45] Speaker 2: sort of at the end of Act 3. It was
[23:48] Speaker 2: horrifying to try and pull off live. It's a lot
[23:51] Speaker 2: of moving parts. There's a saxophone solo.
[23:54] Speaker 3: I broke my knee during it.
[23:55] Speaker 2: You broke your knee during it, yeah.
[23:56] Speaker 3: And my ankle.
[23:58] Speaker 2: But it is now my favorite.
[24:00] Speaker 1: What's your favorite tour city?
[24:02] Speaker 3: Oh, tour city? That's impossible. Like, New York's always incredible.
[24:06] Speaker 2: Chicago's very good, always.
[24:09] Speaker 3: Chicago's incredible.
[24:10] Speaker 2: L.A.
[24:10] Speaker 3: Is incredible. London is incredible.
[24:12] Speaker 2: Major ones. But, you know, the ones that are memorable,
[24:14] Speaker 2: especially in the old days, is like Richmond. Or British Columbia.
[24:21] Speaker 3: Springfield, North Carolina.
[24:24] Speaker 2: Springfield, Missouri?
[24:25] Speaker 3: No, North Carolina.
[24:26] Speaker 2: Greenville.
[24:27] Speaker 3: Greenville, North Carolina.
[24:28] Speaker 2: That was a long time ago. Now those places don't
[24:31] Speaker 2: exist anymore that we used to go play.
[24:33] Speaker 3: Like the whole towns don't exist.
[24:34] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. But there's, like, some surprising, like, small, weird
[24:39] Speaker 2: towns that you wouldn't think that are pretty intense.
[24:40] Speaker 3: Vancouver is always the wildest for some reason.
[24:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, Vancouver's, yeah.
[24:45] Speaker 3: Now, yeah, I can't. There's no favorite. There's just so
[24:49] Speaker 3: many good ones.
[24:50] Speaker 1: What's the strangest thing that's ever happened to you on tour?
[24:53] Speaker 3: Oh, also impossible.
[24:56] Speaker 1: One that just stands out in your mind that you
[24:59] Speaker 1: probably will never forget. Hmm.
[25:02] Speaker 2: That's an hour long conversation. We did push our RV
[25:08] Speaker 2: up the Continental Divide a few years ago. That was
[25:13] Speaker 2: the day. Then the tow truck driver showed up and
[25:16] Speaker 2: had to drag us up it illegally. That was a
[25:19] Speaker 2: fun day. He didn't know it was illegal. He didn't
[25:22] Speaker 2: know we were all hiding in the RV. That was
[25:24] Speaker 2: a different time. He knew that one.
[25:28] Speaker 3: That is a good story. Every time a tow truck
[25:30] Speaker 3: shows up and they're like, look, You're not supposed to
[25:32] Speaker 3: have people in the back, so you just have to
[25:34] Speaker 3: get out on the side of the road. Or you
[25:36] Speaker 3: just hide. And then as you're riding down the interstate
[25:40] Speaker 3: in the tow truck and everybody's sticking their heads up
[25:43] Speaker 3: over the dashboard, it's fantastic.
[25:45] Speaker 2: We have lots of those stories.
[25:48] Speaker 1: Okay, if you were not musicians, what would you be
[25:51] Speaker 1: doing today?
[25:51] Speaker 2: I don't even know.
[25:54] Speaker 3: It's been so long.
[25:56] Speaker 2: I could be a mechanic.
[25:57] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[25:58] Speaker 2: I'd definitely be somebody's accountant.
[26:00] Speaker 3: I'd make hot sauce.
[26:01] Speaker 2: I mean, I already am an accountant, but I would
[26:03] Speaker 2: be even more an accountant. You'd get paid for it. Yes,
[26:07] Speaker 2: I would get paid to be an accountant.
[26:11] Speaker 3: Yeah. I almost went to school to be a marine biologist.
[26:15] Speaker 1: Wow.
[26:16] Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, I went to.
[26:16] Speaker 2: School for history. No, computer science and history kind of initially,
[26:21] Speaker 2: and then we were at MTSU, and I was like, oh,
[26:23] Speaker 2: I should... do music stuff because I'm here and there's
[26:27] Speaker 2: all this million dollars equipment. And then I met these
[26:31] Speaker 2: fellows there.
[26:32] Speaker 3: I would probably be working on a dive boat in
[26:34] Speaker 3: the Caribbean somewhere. That's pretty much it.
[26:36] Speaker 2: I would fix the boat. I'd like to be a
[26:39] Speaker 2: boat mechanic. I'd like to change my answer.
[26:42] Speaker 3: When we go to the Caribbean, no, we're going to
[26:45] Speaker 3: go to the Caribbean. I'm going to work on a
[26:47] Speaker 3: dive boat. And you're going to be the mechanic for
[26:49] Speaker 3: the boat. Let's start a band while we're down there.
[26:52] Speaker 2: Oh, you... every time I think I'm out dream collaboration
[27:00] Speaker 2: alive or dead who would you like to work with
[27:04] Speaker 2: that's intense we tried to work with Jim Steinman one
[27:08] Speaker 2: time he was not all.
[27:10] Speaker 3: About it I'll tell you who we did try to
[27:12] Speaker 3: work with on this album and he kind of ghosted
[27:15] Speaker 3: us but we still love him is Dennis DeYoung from
[27:18] Speaker 3: Styx we tried to get him to sing our Wiley
[27:21] Speaker 3: part for this album and we were talking to him
[27:23] Speaker 3: for a bit and chit-chatting, and he ended up, I guess,
[27:27] Speaker 3: just passing on it or something. But that would have
[27:29] Speaker 3: been wonderful.
[27:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, we said live or dead. You say obvious stuff like,
[27:34] Speaker 2: I don't know, Bowie and things like that, but it's
[27:36] Speaker 2: also who's the underdog that would help us even more.
[27:40] Speaker 3: What's his name? I can't get to his name.
[27:43] Speaker 2: Charades. Do charades. Uh.
[27:46] Speaker 3: He has hair.
[27:48] Speaker 2: What color?
[27:49] Speaker 3: Art Garfunkel. Art Garfunkel, got it. No, I hate myself
[27:53] Speaker 3: for not getting to his name right now.
[27:54] Speaker 1: Bob Ross?
[27:55] Speaker 2: No. He's Bob Ross. Is he still alive?
[28:00] Speaker 3: No, no, he's very dead.
[28:01] Speaker 2: Very dead.
[28:02] Speaker 3: Died, unfortunately, in like 1986.
[28:04] Speaker 1: Oh.
[28:05] Speaker 3: And something like that.
[28:08] Speaker 2: Randy Rhoads?
[28:10] Speaker 3: No, no, Irishman. That's all you need.
[28:12] Speaker 2: Oh, Phil Lynott?
[28:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, Phil Lynott. The line would be unbelievable.
[28:16] Speaker 2: You said Irishman and Gavin there. You're an Irishman. You
[28:21] Speaker 2: almost charaded it out.
[28:22] Speaker 1: Let's wrap this up with a nice message to your fans.
[28:25] Speaker 1: What would you like to say to them?
[28:27] Speaker 3: Thank you. That's really it. Just thank you.
[28:30] Speaker 2: We woke up a couple of days ago to the
[28:33] Speaker 2: news that our newest record is charting on Billboard.
[28:38] Speaker 1: Nice. And the.
[28:41] Speaker 2: Bizarrely enough, in a couple of categories, but one of
[28:43] Speaker 2: them is emerging artists, which is fantastic because we've been
[28:47] Speaker 2: emerging for a long time. But I think I would
[28:49] Speaker 2: say that thank you for... Being a friend? Thank you
[28:55] Speaker 2: for being a friend. Thank you for continuing to support
[28:58] Speaker 2: and ramping up your support with each new thing that
[29:02] Speaker 2: we put out.
[29:03] Speaker 3: And especially this album's support has been unbelievable from our fans.
[29:07] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[29:08] Speaker 3: Just they've all gotten so into it and it's been
[29:11] Speaker 3: so wonderful. And we've we dragged them along on this
[29:14] Speaker 3: journey of releasing a song per week. And they were
[29:18] Speaker 3: all about it. Most of them were all about it.
[29:20] Speaker 3: There were several that were just very crying the whole time.
[29:22] Speaker 3: It was hilarious and sad for them, but it was something. So, yeah,
[29:27] Speaker 3: like the fact that they've stuck with it this long
[29:30] Speaker 3: and really, I don't know, it's huge.
[29:32] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[29:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, this has been fun. Great information,
[29:37] Speaker 1: great conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time. to
[29:40] Speaker 1: join us today.
[29:40] Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
[29:41] Speaker 2: Thanks for having us.
[29:43] Speaker 3: Thank you for being a friend.
[29:44] Speaker 2: Awesome. Perfect. Great to meet you.
[29:46] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been great. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us today.
[30:01] Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been a
[30:05] Speaker 1: Tony Mantour production. For more information, contact media at platomusic.com.

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