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

0:00The Maps app that came with your phone? It's fine. If you enjoy waiting and guessing and inefficient routes. Or you could use MapQuest. MapQuest is back with live directions, real-time traffic and faster routes. It moves when you move. Best of all, no prints are needed. No paper, no more misterns. Just you and the app. Get there fast with MapQuest. Download the MapQuest app on the app store or visit MapQuest.com. MapQuest. Still getting you there. My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars or behind-the-scenes staff,

1:01have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolve into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to start them, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment. Hi, I'm Tony Mantour. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. Joining us today is the members of the protoman, a band that doesn't just write songs. They build worlds. Straight out of Nashville, these guys have carved out a sound that blends rock opera, sci-fi storytelling, and pure raw energy into something completely their own. Their albums feel cinematic. Their live shows are full-on experiences, and their music hits like a rebellion.

2:04You can feel their bold, unapologetic, and unlike anything else out there. I'm beyond excited to welcome them on today. So before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. The Maps app that came with your phone? It's fine. If you enjoy waiting, and guessing, and inefficient routes. Or you could use MapQuest. MapQuest is back with live directions. Real-time traffic and faster routes. It moves when you move. Best of all, no prints are needed. No paper, no more misterns. Just you and the app. Get there fast with MapQuest. Download the MapQuest app on the app store or visit MapQuest.com. MapQuest. Still getting you there. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Oh, it's my pleasure. So tell me. Anyone that's discovering the proto-men for the very first time, what do you tell them about yourselves and what you do?

3:05Interesting. Interestingly, we have no idea. So I think, honestly, my favorite thing that I've seen recently is what MetalSucks magazine just described as as. And it was basically like if Queen and Rush got drunk listening to Devo. And it was the rest of it. But basically it was like a big long thing about combining all these bands. And I don't know, it was good. So yeah, a bunch of different musical references and film references and things like that all jumbled together to make whatever it is we are. We've long called ourselves Rock Opera. But I'd say that it's more, I mean, it's Dory Rock somehow. Or I mean, it's Kegas Concept Rock. It's sort of like listening to a film.

4:06Now, what I've read about you, you have this kind of Rock Opera concept. It mentions video games, music, and how you tie it all together. Maybe an Orwellian-type style. If you kind of tie all those three things together, how does the audience relate to the features and the different things that you're doing? Well, one of the features in there, we don't really do, we don't play music from the games or anything. There's no, it's just all original concept, all original music, you know, that sort of thing. So I think a lot of our fans don't know that all of those pieces of the puzzle exist. I think we have fans that come and they say, hey, I really like Mega Man, which is the video game that we reference. And they show up dressed as characters. And then we have fans that are just pure rock and roll people. Yeah, and they walk in and they say, why is everybody dressed as Mega Man? But I think somehow in the midst of the floor that they're standing in,

5:10they find a way to co-exist. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Now, you have what you described as multiple acts, like an act one, an act two, and an act three. Can you give us a little information on what these acts are and how you put everything together as a show? So we started more than 20 years ago with a song. And it sort of, we recorded it, we recorded another one, we played a show, and it's just sort of grown exponentially from there. After the first song we did, it was about Mega Man just by chance. And after the first one was done, then we're like, well, that was really fun. We should build a story around this and just expound on the whole situation and just make it as ridiculous as humanly possible. And so then we just started building it up and building it up

6:12and we ended up with an album. And so we're like, okay, we've got an album. We released that album in 2005. It was act one. And so that was when it wasn't even called act one at that point, because we didn't have a full plan for part two yet, other than a general story that it could do. And honestly, I knew more of what was going to happen in act three. At that point, then I did what was going to happen in act two. And so act two turned into the prequel. So act two is the prequel to act one. And it came out in 2009. And it was a different kind of album. Whereas act one was very post-apocalyptic, very dirty, grungy, just distorted sound, act two being a prequel. In storyline, it was a much nicer place. So the sound is a lot cleaner, a lot more pristine sounding polished. And so then time passed and time passed and now we're on act three. And it's kind of a middle ground. We'd have it really, you know, it's definitely not as distorted and, you know, mean sounding is act one for sure though.

7:13It's almost like you created this theater with a storyline where it's like this dystopian world. You get fascists and other entities in there as well. So you see yourselves putting a statement out there of what you think and what you're putting across of what you think in the music. Do you think your audience is getting and grasping the show that you're trying to put across to them? I think they're getting it there. The statement's in there, like, you know. I think they're getting it. But yeah, it's, as we were saying earlier today, it's very depressing when the storyline you've been building for 20 years has become so seemingly real that it's just, you can barely handle it. Now you mentioned the story. Can you elaborate on what the story is within your music? Are you talking about like just basically that our storyline that we've been writing all these years is happening all around us now? It's been happening all around us and that's why we were kind of talking about it in the beginning

8:14but it's just gotten far more intense. So I think this is a great time for you to introduce yourselves. I know you have names that you go by in your music. So tell everybody who you are. My name is Murphy. My name is Commander B. Hawkins. And I'm Panther. Okay, that's great. Now tell us how did you come up with these names? Oh, I can't find you, I think. Yeah, I mean every character in the band has something has happened with them. Yeah, it's all very personal. I'll tell you that in our storyline, Sophie B. Hawkins is my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandmother. Oh. Ow. The lore. The lore. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, your albums, your music, they come across more like epic films than just your typical musical CDs. Thank you. When you start a new project, what comes first?

9:16The storyline, the music, or just the raw emotion? It's interesting musically, we always have, you know, storyline, we know where the outline the skeleton is. And then you say, well, this character needs to speak. What? Who is that character? How do they speak? They speak with this type of rock and roll. This type of, this one, this person is kind of spaghetti western. This person is kind of whatever, and so you build from that starting point of, well, we know we need a song that's like this, so let's build that song. And then occasionally you'll get into, we'll have just a random riff or something that we've come up with. And then it's like, well, that fits this character, so let's build around that and build that piece of the story. So it's, I'd say it, honestly, it is very, very much. It's like somebody gave us a film and said, all right, write the music for it, figure it out. Okay. We'll figure it out. Yeah.

10:16I think definitely the story, you know, drives everything. I think we always have that vision in the back of our heads, even if we're just toying with a riff that sounds cool or, you know, a certain lyric that seems to fit. We, you know, we're always cognizant that the story will come into play at some point. Yeah. Definitely. It has to fit. Yeah. Okay. That's great. Now, you've been doing this Mega Man concept for a few years now. Did you have a concept where you kind of knew where it might end or has the story grown alongside you as you have developed as a band? Um, I knew where it would go. There are things where, you know, it's developed a long way for sure. It's, well, it's refined a lot along the way. But in terms of just knowing exactly where it's gone, no, it was, we had to figure it

11:17out. And honestly, it's a whole lot of plot hole plugging. Oh, yeah. Sure. That's really what it is. It's like, what if, what have we done? We are holes everywhere. Like, we have to fix these holes, but it's like, all right, but we've made the pieces. It's us understanding our own story. It's like us understanding, oh, we've created this hole, but we also created the plug for the whole years ago. We just have to put the piece in place and it's that sort of thing. Yeah. Now, your music dives deep into rebellion, sacrifice and legacy. Looking back from your act one to now, how have your own perspective on these themes changed if at all? Oh, that's a good question. That's pretty deep. I might be deeper than my brain. Oh, look at that. Like, as in, like, do we feel differently now or just? Yeah. Yeah. How do you feel about it? I don't know. I think I'm. I'd say. Oh, yeah.

12:18I'd say it's human. Oh, yeah. As a human being in the year 2026, I didn't know that I could get more jaded with society in 2005. That's really my thing is that I didn't realize that I could hate people more. And so now, and 20 years later, it's like, oh, no, no. There's a whole, a whole ocean of hate ready, ready for me to dream. So no, no, it's, it's society has proven itself to be embarrassing. And that's really my, that's what I've taken from it. There's still good in people. I'm not saying that I'm just completely jaded. Right. People are still inherently individually good people. But as a group, people are monsters. So we also started out in 2005 from that perspective, like the head of the game. We started out. Our first record is very much about the failure of mankind as a whole to, you know, to rise

13:21to heroism or the, to rise to the, the place that they need to be, the lowest level of making an effort. Yeah. Yeah. So we, you know, yeah, we started out from that place. And I think as we've gone through the act, we do try to keep hope alive, even if it perhaps gets more and more difficult to do it. It's still there. You have to search for the hope. That's really what it comes now to. Yeah. I get it. I get it. Is there a lyric or a moment in your catalog that still hits you emotionally, even after playing it a hundred times? Oh, man. That's a good question too. So we are right now working on the, a couple of weeks ago, we played in DC. We played all three acts. We started with act two. We went to act one. Then we went to act three, the chronological order. Yeah. Across three nights at this festival in DC called magfest. So we basically played for the first time ever our entire catalog.

14:22And I'll say that there were songs. There's a lot of stuff that when you're able to play the album in its entirety, a lot of stuff you haven't played in a long time. There was a lot of stuff from act two that we just don't get to when we're playing just an hour and a half set in a club or a bar. So there was a lot of rediscovering lyrics. Yeah. There's a, in the second act, sort of the protagonists, partner dies and there's a lot of, there's a lot of really emotional grief that sits in the middle of that record that we don't really play because it's a little too heavy for just like a, you know, a bar show. So yeah, there's a couple in the state versus Thomas Light. Yeah. There's some intense lyrics on that one. Yeah. And there's like lyrics on, you know, the flip of that is like, we'll make stuff like this is pretty good. And then we'll play a song we haven't played in five or eight years. And the kids, the fans lose it on the, like the stand, yeah, the stand is like people's

15:25favorite song. But we like never play it just for whatever reason because the way it fits in the set, we pull it out of once a while and they lose it because the lyrics and that one are extra and we wrote that 20 years ago and it has a very, very strong message now. You just mentioned playing in clubs. How do you fit in clubs? All on top of each other. Well, why I ask that a lot of these clubs have a certain expectation when a band comes in. They expect certain songs. And here you come in with your own style that you have, which is completely different than anything they will have come in. So how does that work for you? Uh, uh. It's fine. I mean, our fans show up, so we don't, we don't have random people show up to our showers. I wish we did. We've never been a point in our entire history that a person, an individual that didn't know we were walked in the door and watched us.

16:26Not once. You get, you get people that are being dragged to the show by friends that are talking us off. The whole idea of street, what's it called when a people like, no, it's, it's okay. Like the locals. The locals are the bar. There you go. You're gonna have walk up and it's gonna be, it's like, no, no, we've never once had a single person walk up to the door that didn't know who we were and walked not once. If they walked through, they would never leave and they would come back every time. Best set for maybe a warp tour. That's true. Well, we played warp tour and there was, there was a, a mass exodus when we started playing of, of people who were there to see the typical, they didn't leave because of us. They left because they, they had already left by the time we started playing. That's true. But you would get those random people who were walking through looking at all the stations. And we would catch their eye in the hot summer sun melting makeup off of our faces. And, you know, it was only like six of them. Yeah, six people, over seven weeks.

17:27But no, the, but the generally club shows for us are fantastic. Like that's where, that's where we thrive the most because they're intimate, they're intense, they're way more intense. And so like we just played for a crowd of fourth, you know, four thousand for three nights in a row the other night or, you know, a couple weekends ago. And that's a rare instance of four thousand people being completely into it. Usually when you play a big show like that, it's kind of, I don't know, very odd. But even then, there's a, there's a disconnect between a large crowd like that and a, between that and being in a club that has just few hundred people that are really hacked in and really feeding off of each other's energy. Generally, we end up playing like for those smaller club shows, we'll just play like a mix of our, of whatever we're feeling like playing, whatever worst of the set. Not really like leaning into the storyline as much. If someone hears Proto-Man for the very first time, what is the song that you wish they hear first and why?

18:28It's hard, it's hard for different reasons. Like if you want someone to go like a, or the rock and jam that everybody likes a lot, like the Knights, the one, everybody seems to love that song, which is super grateful for it. Yeah, that's the one I, that's the one I always send people to. Yeah. Mike, there's all kinds of stuff on the new album though. Like literally the whole new album is like, we go to that one, go to that one, go to that one. Like, he quads red from act two, act one, will of one would be the way to go, or the stand is fun. Hope rides alone explains the story. What's in your bucket list? What are you hoping that you can do for the future? Money. Yeah, I get it. There's money in the bucket. We've never played Japan. We've loved to play Japan. Yeah. We have to have people buy our things through Japan though. So if anybody knows anything about Japan and, or how to get us into Japan, or get people to listen to us in Japan so that we can tour there, I mean, yeah, we go to other, we've been to Europe, Australia, and New England, get around and do other things, but that's

19:32one crazy thing. So, there's all kinds of things. I mean, I mean, I want to make a Broadway play of this, yes, there's all the things, anything you can think of, we want to do it. It's just do we have the money to do it, or the backing, the funding, any kind of like that. We need to do a make a video game. We need to make a series of animated movies, or live action movies, and the expertise. You don't have the expertise. Yeah, we have no expertise. It's pretty good at audio. Yeah. Yeah. We're not great at everything else. Yeah. Yeah. We're all audio engineers from here. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. Join the crowd. That's me too. Yeah. If anybody out there does animation, get in touch with us, we've got all kinds of things. Animation would be great. A lot of great things come from that. So what's coming up next? You just mentioned several different things. Without giving too much away, what can your fans and the listeners expect from you in the future? Yeah. June, June 18th through 28th, we're doing the Nashville release show.

20:33Like the big, celebrated release show for the new record, an album a day, you know, three albums over three days like we did two weeks ago. Yeah. This one would be a bit more, more of a production. More? Yeah. Because we'll be in our home turf and have more time. But that's already sold out. Yeah. But it's sold out in a week. It's sold out so fast. So it's awesome. It's a marathon music works. Yeah. Marathon was about 17, 1800, so that'll be the biggest shows we've ever done in Nashville literally, and then three days of it. Let's look in the future right now. 15, 20 years from now, someone's looking back on the proto-man. What are you hoping that they say your music gave to them? What? Yeah. I also really, I really love people that come up to us and give us something that they've done art or music or, you know, inspiration. Yeah. And they say, your band caused me to want to produce something of my own.

21:36That's always really cool. Yeah. I hope we're spawning a lot of people making their art. Other really weird bands? Other really weird bands, yes. Yeah. Now, speaking of fans, what is the most meaningful thing a fan has said to you? There's so many, and they're all very, like a bunch of people. A lot of them. Very personal. Yeah, a lot of them. It seems, I think the one, it's not what's particular, but when someone talks about, oh, you know, I'll listen to you with my family member who's now not with me anymore. And I listen to this and think of that, and that, you know, if that, that, I don't know what you should call that, that there's a term for that. Let's do it with members. I can't think, I'm losing the words, but those are always appreciated, you know, when those are happening. How do people find you? Do you mean how should they look for us? Yeah. Prutumin.com is a good way to get to us. That kind of leads everywhere. We're on all the streaming things, just Prutumin, Act 3, the city made us the new album.

22:37And then we're on YouTube, you can find it all in that. It's pretty much anywhere you can find us. We're out there. So just... Here's a part I call between the beats. We do quick questions. No right or wrong answers, just something for the fun of it. Or I can say, I can make it wrong. I can make it. Don't do challenge. What is the first album you ever owned? Like, owned or bought with your own money. Yeah, that's the thing. But with your own money, you owned it. Oh, bought with your own money. I think I know mine. Halapalooza. Okay. No. The CD... No, use your illusion. What? One. One. No, but the cassette of that. That's one. That's a 91. Yep. It might have been thriller. That's pretty good. Well, it was new? No, no, no. Like a cassette, you know, bought it from, you know, Camelot. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Like the... I don't know. Maybe I know the first album that I ever possessed was the Alan Jackson record with

23:40Che. Who Cheyenne. That'll do it. That was like, that was like an uncle. And uncle was like, here kid, this is what you need to be listening to. And I got a boom box for Christmas, one of those like CD, lunches, speakers pop off and you can move. You still have it. I still have it. Three feet away. You should still have it. Man, I don't still have it. The first one I bought was I had a birthday and that was given a cassette player in like $20. Like that was the birthday and it went down the road and bought BC Boy's Lices the ill cassette. That's what I was about to say is the first thing that I probably ever had was a copy version of that Al Ohncassette that my cousin from Memphis gave me or my brother taking that up with it. What's your favorite pro-demand to play it live? I don't like any of them. They're all tortured. Man. So we've just started like literally at the magfest thing that we played a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time we had played most of that three live.

24:44So I think my new favorite is Lights Last Stand. It's sort of at the end of Act 3. It was horrifying to try and pull off live. It's a lot of moving parts. There's saxophone, solo. I broke my knee during it. You broke your knee during it? Am I ankle? But it is now my favorite. What's your favorite tour city? Oh tour city. That's impossible. Like New York's always incredible. Chicago's incredible. Chicago's incredible. L.A. is incredible. London is incredible. But you know the ones that are memorable in the old days is like Richmond. Or it's like. North Carolina. British Columbia. Springfield. North Carolina. What was it? What was it? Springfield, Missouri. No. North Carolina. Greenville. Greenville, North Carolina. That was a long time ago. Those were right now. Those places don't exist anymore that we used to play. Like the whole town's don't exist. But yeah. Yeah. But they're like surprising like small weird towns that you would think they're pretty. That's always the wildest for some reason.

25:44Yeah. Vancouver's. Yeah. Now yeah, I can't. There's no there's no favorite. There's just so many good ones. Yeah. What's the strangest thing that's ever happened to you on tour? Oh, if also impossible. One that just stands out in your mind that you probably will never forget. Hmm. Let's take those. That's a good hour long conversation. We did we did we did push our RV of the thumbnail divide. Yeah. A few years ago. And that was that was the day. And then the coach driver showed up and had to drag us up it illegally. That was a fun day. He didn't know it was illegal. Yeah. He didn't know we were all hiding in the RV. Oh, that was a different time. Oh. Oh, he knew that one. That was what we did. That's a good story. Every time a tow truck shows up and they're like, well, you're not supposed to have people in the back. You just have to get out on the side of the road or you just hide. And then as we're riding down the interstate in the tow truck and everybody's sticking their heads up over the dashboard.

26:45It's fantastic. We have lots of those stories. Oh. Okay. If you were not musicians, what would you be doing today? I don't even know. It's been so long. It could be a mechanic. Yeah. I'd definitely be somebody's accountant. I'd make hot sauce. I mean, I already am an accountant, but I would be even more an accountant. You could be a paid for it. Yeah. So would you pay to be to become a good boy? Yeah. I almost went to school to be a marine biologist. Wow. Oh, yeah. I went to school for a history. Kevin, no, computer science and history, kind of initially, and then we were at MTSU and I was like, oh, I should do music stuff because I'm here and there's all this million dollars equipment. And I met these fellows there. I would probably be working on a dive boat in the Caribbean somewhere. That's pretty much it. I would fix the boat. I think I would, I'd like to be a boat mechanic. There you go. I'd like to change the answer. When we go to, when we go to the Japan Caribbean, no, we're going to go to the Caribbean.

27:47I'm going to, I'm going to work on a dive boat and you're going to be the mechanic for the boat. Let's start a band while we're down there. Oh, you got to get them. Every time I think I'm out, dream collaboration, alive or dead, who would you like to work with? Oh, that's intense. That's intense. We tried to work with Jim Steinman one time. Yeah. He was not all about it. I'm going to tell you, yeah, I'll tell you who we did try to work with on this album and he kind of ghosted us, but we still love him is Dennis the young from sticks. We tried to get him to sing our wily part for this album and we were talking to him for a bit and Chit Chatten and he ended up, I guess, just passing on it or something. But that would have been wonderful. Yeah, we said, live or dead. It's like, yeah, you say obvious stuff like, I don't know, Bowie and things like that. Well, no, also who's the underdog that would help us even more? What's his name? I can't get to his name. Dishurates. Dishurates. He has.

28:47Yes, he has. He has hair. What color? Mark Garfunkels. Mark Garfunkels, you got it. No, I hate myself for not getting to his name right now. No. He's? Bob Ross. Is this still alive? No, no. He's very dead. Very dead. Dad, unfortunately, in 1986. Oh. And something like that and Randy Rhodes? No, no. Irishman. That's all you're going to need. Oh, Phil, line it. Yeah, Phil, line it. Oh, yeah. Phil, line it with the unbelievable. Irishman, they get in here. You're an entrepreneur. You almost charaded it out. Let's wrap this up with a nice message to your fans. What would you like to say to them? Thank you. That's really it. So thank you. We woke up a couple of days ago to the news that our newest record is Sharding on Billboard. Nice. And the bizarrely enough in a couple of categories. But one of them is the emerging artists, which is fantastic, and we've been emerging for a long time.

29:49But I think I would say that. That's so cute. Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for continuing to support and ramping up your support with each new thing that we put out. And especially this album's support has been unbelievable from our fans. Just they've all gotten so into it. And it's been so wonderful. And we've dragged them along on this journey of releasing a song per week. And they were all about it. Most of all about it, there were several that were just very crying the whole time. It was hilarious and sad for them. But it was something. So yeah, the fact that they've stuck with it for this long and really, I don't know, it's huge thank you. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, this has been fun. Great information, great conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Oh yeah, thank you for having us. Thank you for being a friend. That was awesome. Perfect. Great to meet you. Yeah, it was awesome.

30:49Yeah, it's been great. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been Atonie Mantour Production. For more information, contact media at platomusic.com. The Maps app that came with your phone? It's fine. If you enjoy waiting and guessing and inefficient routes. Or you could use MapQuest. MapQuest is back with live directions. Real-time traffic and faster routes. It moves when you move. Best of all, no prints are needed. No paper, no more misterns. Just you and the app. Get there fast with MapQuest. Download the MapQuest app on the app store or visit MapQuest.com. MapQuest, still getting you there.