Maker Faires 2016

Maker Faire Austin 2016

Maker Faire Austin 2016

This year Ponytrap performed twice at Austin’s first full-fledged Maker Faire. We also traveled out to San Francisco to present our drum project at the mother of all maker faires: Bay Area Maker Faire and got a couple of photos featured on TechRadar.

SXSW 2016

Quentin and Dotman on 6th Street. Photo by Ben Porter.

Quentin and Dotman on 6th Street. Photo by Ben Porter.

 

We had a great time at SXSW 2016! We were interviewed by Audie Cornish from NPR and featured in Esquire Magazine!

Promethean Waltz

Photo by Mitch McCarthy

Photo by Mitch McCarthy

In 2016, we wrote a multi-media performance called Promethean Waltz. The show features visuals by RecSpec, human and robot drums, narration by Chip Keichline, and Ponytrap’s music. The first performance in January at Austin’s Stateside Theater was produced by the fine folks at VoyagerFest. We’re filming a second production July 10 at the Off Center.

Ponytrap Builds a ‘Bot for Make Magazine

The finished MakeZine robot

The finished MakeZine robot

More good stuff for 2015, the Ponytrap Year of the Robot: Make Magazine found us through Austin’s Mini Maker Faire and asked us to create a make-your-own-drummer project. It was challenging to come up with a design that represented our machines, functioned nicely and was simple enough to build as a DIY project, but we think it came out pretty strong! MakeZine.com published the article today and we’ve gotten some great response – go have a look for yourself, and build you a drummer!

VoyagerFest 2015

We had an amazing time performing at the Rusty Mule for VoyagerFest 2015! The robots were thunderous and we debuted a couple of new tunes. We also heard plenty of great music including the fantastic Obnosticon. Daniel James produced a killer event and we look forward to participating in 2016 as well!

Ministry!

Al Jourgensen / Ministry!

Al Jourgensen of Ministry!

Holy Cats! Al Jourgensen and Ministry shared our video Fix No. One on their Facebook page! We went to see Ministry Sunday, June 7 at the Mowhawk and had our faces melted and our brains crushed. Psalm 69 was a huge musical influence on Quentin & this was a great show and a great day.

Austin Mini Maker Faire 2015

Austin's Mini Maker Faire 2014

Austin’s Mini Maker Faire 2014

Just a reminder that we’ll be playing Austin Mini Maker Faire this weekend — it’s becoming an annual tradition for us, and we have a blast seeing all the things that people are making and doing.

Here’s an interview we did for AMMF 2013, which delves into how and why we built the machines.

SXSW 2015 – Dive Bar

Dive Bar - SXSW 2015

Dive Bar – SXSW 2015

SXSW 2015 was super fun – we paraded the robots all over town & got interviewed by MTV, GeeksLife, The Daily Texan, and House of Vans plus we played a great show at the Dive Bar – we had a blast and made lots of new friends! Go check out We Are Blood Bays – definitely one of our new favorite Austin bands.

Ponytrap in the Daily Texan

Photo by Marshall Tidrick for the Daily Texan

Photo by Marshall Tidrick for the Daily Texan

A big thanks to Kat Sampson and the Daily Texan for writing this feature on Pony Trap — which is also a look ahead to our show at Dive this coming Friday at 5 p.m.

Here’s the full text of the article:

Four years ago, Austin music teacher Quentin Thomas-Oliver went looking for a drummer willing to play the type of music he wanted. When he couldn’t find one, he built one.   Read more