Ear Candy: Attune your ears to the grinding gears

Pop music gets an upgrade with singing robots in Steampunk suits

The members of Steam Powered Giraffe wear heavy makeup & hold instruments while standing in front of a blue & purple wall.

From left, Zero, The Spine, and Rabbit posing for Steam Powered Giraffe’s 2018 promotional photos. Wikimedia Commons | Steam Powered Giraffe Wiki

Lily Cole | Editor

This graphic shows the words "Ear Candy" in pink text inside of a blue, spherical, wrapped piece of candy. The candy is wearing purple headphones.

Jada Hauser | Graphic Designer

In the sea of mainstream pop, a unique gem stands out–Steam Powered Giraffe (SPG), a group of humans who play “singing antique automatons.” Yep, you heard that right–humans who play robots.

I was introduced to SPG when my friend Kalin and my sister, Sophie, began singing a song from their album “The Vice Quadrant part 1”–a mystical track about exactly what it sounds like–a daughter of space. Ever since then, I’ve been drawn to SPG’s approach to storytelling and their catchy hooks.

SPG is a musical project from San Diego. It was created in 2008 by twins David Michael and Isabella “Bunny” Bennett, along with Samuel Luke, and portrays steam-powered automatons. Some of their standout songs include, “Honeybee,” “She Said Maybe,” and “Brass Goggles.”

The band’s lore centers on inventors Thadeus Becile and Peter Walter I, rivals in the late 1800s, creating competing energy sources, such as Green Matter and Blue Matter. After Delilah Morreo, a scientist who worked with Thadeus and Peter and their love interest, died, Peter’s robots, who use Blue Matter to operate, including the core band members: The Spine, Rabbit, and Hatchworth, gained sentience. A war began as Thadeus and Peter battled over the matter. Peter wins and Thadeus is banished for his reckless use of Green Matter. Peter’s robots, who transformed from war machines to musicians after the battle, now perform music as “Steam Powered Giraffe,” concealing their dark past.

Each of SPG’s albums build upon the last, developing the band’s characters and deepening their exploration of complex themes such as identity, existence and the nature of performance, all within the context of their steampunk universe.

SPG invites fans into a surreal experience that challenges the boundaries of what music can do. Their music isn’t just a series of songs, but a theatrical journey where the music, storytelling and characters blend into a performance you need to experience.

Ryan Rainey, a performance major at Wayne State University, highlights one of her favorite aspects of SPG’s music, noting, “They use metaphors about the robot characters to reflect real human struggles, especially in songs like ‘Wired Wrong’ and ‘Malfunction.'”

Existential questions about life, death and meaning are central to the narrative–particularly as the robots grapple with their artificial nature and mortality.

As the robots evolve throughout the albums, their narrative evolves, too. They confront the emotional complexities of love, loss, fear and hope, furthering the depth of their journey and the listener’s connection to their struggles.

If you want the cogs in your brain to turn, I highly suggest you explore SPG’s complex narrative. There’s a little bit of something for everyone–from pirates to space travel, you’ll get transported somewhere new, every time you listen.

Listen to our playlist on Spotify: