September 10, 2021

How to Build a Robot Drummer

Everyone has a Maker in them. We make for fun and exploration, we make to test ideas, and we make to solve real-world problems. Ponytrap wasn’t intended to be a Maker band — we just seemed to have a difficult time finding a drummer that wanted to play the classically-inspired tribal rhythm industrial music that we wanted to do. In retrospect, maybe that’s not a surprise, but at one point a couple of years ago, Quentin found himself stuck in the middle of a seemingly endless free-form jazz odyssey, and the idea to build his own drummer just kind of materialized. After several evolutions, dozens of burned out motors, and a lot of trial and error, Ponytrap has a solid drumline made entirely of robots.

Ponytrap is Quentin and Hilary Thomas-Oliver. They like to think of their art as tribal music for modern primitives — industrial music on classical instruments … along with a couple of robots. Quentin’s degree is in viola performance and Hilary is a professional writer. You can find them at their website PonytrapMusic.com.