Sezio

Music Video: 9/17/2008

Dinology 101 : Triceratron

The Verbavore (John Zappas) and The Paleontologist (Ben Weiland) started Triceratron as college students with the goal of exploring the area where dinosaurs and technology intersect. One afternoon they skipped their history class and wrote their first song titled "Primordial Soup" and realized instantly that they must dedicate themselves towards the goal of universal harmony among dinosaurs and robots through electro hip hop. They teamed up recently with Brad Kester to create a music video for their song, "Iguanadon Automaton," which recently premiered at the Whistle Stop.

SEZIO: So where do dinosaurs and technology converge?
TRICERATRON: If you extrapolate the metaphor of dinosaurs and technology to their fundamental roots, the past and the future, the answer becomes quite clear: they converge in the present with a nostalgia for the future. As Transhumanist philosopher FM 2030 once said: "I am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. I have a deep nostalgia for the future."

All photos by Carly Ealey

SZ: What is your song writing process?
TR: Lately we've been working towards a more dynamic process where we're each involved more with the tasks of the other, but basically we concept a song, research and find influences if necessary, Paleontologist will start fleshing out sounds and The Verbavore will start working on the lyrics. From there we go through a couple rounds of recording and practicing to get the lyrics and music to lock up.

SZ: How collaborative was the video? How was it different from your previous video?
TR: This video project was mostly Brad's baby, he heard the song and came to us with this concept and we tried to help out as much as we could, like with finding a shooting location, and making the dinosaur and the smaller stuff like that but as far as the concept and execution it was all Brad. With the previous one, we talked about making it and then Paleontologist just kind of did it. And then we were internet celebrities, which was actually a lot easier than you would think. Everyone should do it in fact, it really helps with your self esteem which is a big problem with the kids these days.