Robot Monster Tour Storms Upper and Lower Canada

What started out as a quest for a couple of musicians to find like-minded acts for local gigs turned into a trial-run for one of the strangest, most unique tours you're likely to see. Over a long weekend in late August a twisted boy band (Taylor Savvy), a New Wave cowboy (The World Provider), a Kabuki freak (Corpusse) and a Gino MC (Mocky) and his puppet sidekick Marionetti — collectively known as The Robot Monsters — charmed, agitated, terrified and perverted unwitting audiences in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. In order to understand this spectacle more clearly, we've compiled some of the Robot Monsters' thoughts in this helpful little narrative.

To read more about the antics and spectacle of the tour, check out the October issue of Chart Magazine.

Corpusse(back), Mocky, The World Provider and Taylor Savvy starring in The Finale

IN THE BEGINNING...
"Malcolm [The World Provider] and I were trying to find bands that are suitable to play with. Taylor Savvy doesn't fit with a lot of other bands in town. Then this gig came up at the El Mocambo that Dan Burke from the club thought Corpusse would be suitable for and at first we were really scared. Malcolm and I flipped out — Corpusse! It seemed to be a perfect match between hardcore aesthetic and really lighthearted hardcore aesthetic," says Dave "Daddy" Szigeti (leader of Taylor Savvy) "And we thought, 'Oh, this guy is totally one of us,' because of the minimal instrumentation and the big freak-outs kind of vibe."

World Provider on Corpusse:

(Photo: Corpusse Backstage)

"It was almost too good to be true. Deep down inside I was thinking it wasn't going to happen cuz it was such a good line-up, y'know. It was ideal."

World Provider on Mocky (in exile in London and Amsterdam for the last two years)
"It totally clicked when he got on board. Everything made sense."

THE MONSTER ROBOTS ON THEMSELVES:
"The World Provider got started about a year and a half ago. I just thought it totally made sense to just do it by myself with my keyboard and drum machine. This way, the band — I can fit it into my backpack."

—World Provider

"I did all the Savvy material. Then afterwards I figured out, wouldn't it be stupid as HELL to work in dance moves."—Daddy Szigeti

"Through slogans, raps, jazz and moves, I want to hypnotize people and turn them into apes."—Mocky (a.k.a. Musical Truth and Navy Brown, co-conspirator with other ex-pats living in Europe, Peaches and Gonzales)

(Photo: The World Provider watches on as Mocky gets a haircut!) 

Mocky played bass on tour with drum 'n' bass innovator Talvin Singh and was remixed by Tjinder Singh of Cornershop. Little known fact: He's the one who, under the influence of Desmond Morris' influential 1967 book The Naked Ape, stormed the Belle And Sebastian Top Of The Pops performance a few months back in a gorilla costume.

"It's not easy. I need about an hour-plus to get into the mode. I turn myself off from everyone. It's pretty much a ritual for me."—Corpusse, on getting into the persona.

"Marionetti's been around for over a year. I made him with my bare hands and my love in London from scratch. He's headed for superstardom. Right now he's huge in Amsterdam. He's, like, bigger than me! He is his own entity; his career is not linked to mine."—Mocky

"And then people started freaking out as I kept taking it further and further with the nudity and all that junk."—Szgeti on Taylor Savvy's tendency to get naked for the occasional show.

WHAT ARE THE ROBOT MONSTERS?
"The name is from a 1950s movie. The 'Robot' represents the minimal instrumentation and the electronics, and the 'Monsters' represents being big freaks wanting to come at the audience — not let them go."—World Provider

"We're all robots, man. We're all greeted by the audience with a gaze of wonderment and fascination."—Mocky

"It definitely has something to do with karaoke and just the idea of culture becoming more depersonalized and everybody being able to get up and do their thing. It's straight out of the subconscious and into the ears."—World Provider


Calling Taylor Savvy!!

THOUGHTS ON THE TOUR:
"Yeah, I had a good time. I kind of get stressed-out but it was kind of schizophrenic cuz on one hand I was the organizer and on the other hand I was hanging out and playing which is always fun."—Malcolm

"I like to sift through the audience; only the strong survive. Look out! If starting there's 50 people and I look out later and there's 10 left, those are the people that matter. Those are the people that appreciate what I'm doing as art. So fuck them. I don't give a fuck."—Corpusse

FUTURE OF THE ROBOT MONSTERS?
"I have a good feeling we're gonna do it again and longer and bigger and more cities and maybe take it out of the continent. It'd be good to have a female side to it. Maybe if Peaches was around — or maybe Sook-Yin Lee. I thought about that."—Corpusse

Marionetti and Mocky: Who's the master and who's the servant

"We all know that it's just onward and upward from here. Mocky is talking about coming back again this spring and trying to organize something again."—World Provider

"It's like a long term investment and maybe it'll be different incarnations but it's the spirit of bringing this stuff to the next level of entertainment so we'll have to get heavier and heavier."—Mocky