Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville - Protomen: Music that defines Rock Opera, Rebellion, and Rhythm

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Behind the Scenes with The Protomen: A Rock Opera Odyssey In this episode of 'Almost Live Nashville,' host Tony Mantor delves into the fascinating world of The Proto Man, a Nashville-based band known for their unique blend of rock opera, sci-fi storytelling, and raw energy. T he band members, who go by the names Murphy, Commander B. Hawkins, and Panther, share insights into their creative process, the evolution of their concept albums, and their journey from humble beginnings to their ambitious endeavors today. They discuss the intricate storylines of their music, their experiences performing live, and their aspirations for the future, including playing in Japan and potentially creating a Broadway play. Listeners will get an in-depth look at the band's influences, the themes of rebellion, sacrifice, and legacy in their work, and the strong connection they share with their fans. Introduction to the Podcast Meet the Protomen The Concept and Evolution of Their Music The Storyline and Themes Live Performances and Audience Reactions Future Aspirations and Goals Animation Opportunities Upcoming Shows and Events Reflecting on the Band's Legacy Fan Interactions and Inspirations Quickfire Questions: Between the Beats Favorite Songs and Tour Memories Dream Collaborations Heartfelt Message to Fans INTRO/OUTRO Music: T. Wild Mantor Music BMI Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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, have 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 evolved into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, 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 Mantor. 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 you can feel. They're 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. Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having us. 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? Interesting. Interestingly, we have no idea. So I think, honestly, my... My favorite thing that I've seen recently is what Metal Sucks magazine just described us as. And it was basically like if Queen and Rush got drunk listening to Devo.

And what 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. 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, I guess, concept rock is. It's sort of like

listening to a film. Now, 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. Yeah. Yep. If you kind of tie all those three things together, how does the audience relate to the features and the different things that you are doing? Well, one of the features in there, we don't really do, like 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 So I think a lot of our fans don't know that all of those pieces of the puzzle exists. I think we have fans that come and they say, hey, I really like Mega Man, which is the video game that we referenced. And they show up dressed as characters. And then we have fans that... They're just pure rock and roll people. Yeah. And they don't really... they walk in and they say, why is everybody dressed as Mega Man? But, you know, I think somehow in the midst of the, you know,

floor that they're standing in, they find a way to coexist. 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's 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 and 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 1. And so that was when it wasn't even called Act 1 at that point because we didn't have a full plan for Part 2 yet other than a general story that it could do. And honestly, I knew more of what was going to happen in Act 3 at that point than I did what was going to happen in Act 2. And so Act 2 turned into the prequel.

So Act 2 is the prequel to Act 1. and it came out in 2009. And it was a different kind of album. Whereas Act 1 was very post-apocalyptic, very dirty, grungy, just distorted sound. Act 2 being a prequel in the storyline, it was a much nicer place. So the sound is a lot cleaner, a lot more pristine sounding, you know, polished. And so then time passed and time passed and now we're on Act 3. And it's kind of a middle ground.

We haven't really, you know, it's definitely not as distorted and, you know, mean sounding is act one for sure, though. It's almost like you created this theater with a storyline where it's like this dystopian world. You've got 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, I guess as we're 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 mention the story. Can you elaborate on what the story is within your music? Oh, you're talking about like, just basically that our storyline that we've been writing all these years is happening all around us now. And it's been happening all around us, and that's why we were kind of talked about it in the beginning, but 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's Commander B. Hawkins. I'm Panther. Okay, that's great. Now tell us, how did you come up with these names?

Oh The name finds you, I think Yeah, the name comes to me I mean every 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, great grandmother Oh How? The lore In the lore

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? The 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. who is that character and how do they speak? They speak with this type of rock and roll. This type of, this person's 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. 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. 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. And then we go, okay, we'll figure it out. Yeah, I 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, it has to fit. Yeah. And if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit.

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? I knew where it would go. There are things where it's developed along the way for sure. 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 out. 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 we done? Our 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 hole 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.

That's a good question. That's pretty deep. I might be deeper than my brain. Like, as in, like, do we feel differently now or just? Yeah. How do you feel about it? I don't know. I think I'm...

I'd say... Oh, yeah. I'd say it's... 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 ocean of hate.

Ready for me to jump in. So, no, 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. But we also started out in 2005 from that perspective. Yeah. So it hasn't changed.

Right. We started out. Our first record is very much about the failure of mankind as a whole to, you know, to rise to heroism or to rise to 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 acts, we do try to keep hope alive, even if it perhaps gets more and more difficult to do it. It's still there. Yeah, you have to search for the hope.

That's really what it comes down 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 D.C.

We played all three acts. We started with Act 2. We went to Act 1, then we went to Act 3. Across three nights. The chronological order. Yeah, across three nights at this festival in D.C. called Magfest. So we basically played for the first time ever our entire catalog. And I'll say that there were some.

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 2 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 protagonist's partner dies, and 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 they will play a song we haven't played in five or eight years and the kids, the fans lose it on, like, the stand. Yeah, sure. Stan is like people's favorite song, but we like never play it.

Just for whatever reason, because the way it fits in the set, we pull it out every once in a while and they lose it because the lyrics in 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? 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? It's fine. I mean, our fans show up. Venues, we don't have random people show up to our showlists. I wish we did. But there's never been a point in our entire history that a person, an individual that didn't know who we were,

walked in the door and watched us. Not once. You get people that are being dragged to the show by friends that are talking us up. The whole idea of street, what's it called? When people like, it's okay. Like the locals. You're going to have the locals or the bar.

You're going to have walk up. And it's going to be, it's like, no, no, we've never once had a single person walk up to the door. They didn't know who we were in Waltz. Not once. If they walked through, they would never leave. And they would come back every time. Except for maybe warp tour.

That's true. Well, we played Warped Tour, and there was a mass exodus when we started playing of people who were there to see the typical war tour. They didn't leave because of us. They left because 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 stages. And we would catch their eye in the hot summer sun melting makeup off of our faces. Yeah. And, you know, but it was only like six of them.

Yeah, six people. Over seven weeks. But generally, club shows for us are fantastic. Like, 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 4,000 for three nights in a row the other night or, you know, a couple weekends ago. And that's a rare instance of 4,000 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 disconnect between a large crowd like that and between that

and being in a club that has just a few hundred people that are really packed 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 whatever we're feeling like playing. Whatever works for the set, not really, like, leaning into the storyline as much. If someone hears Protoman for the very first time, what is the song that you wish they hear first and why? It's a hard one. For different reasons.

Like, if you want somebody to go, like, the rock and jam that everybody likes a lot, Light the Night's the one. Everybody seems to love that song, which is super grateful for it. Yeah, that's the one I always send people to. Like, there's all kinds of stuff on the new album, though. Like literally the whole new album, it's like, we go to that one, go to that one, go to that one. Like, keep quiet, rad from Act 2. Act 1, 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. 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 Yeah, we go to other we've been to Europe Yeah, yeah, we can get around everywhere else things but that's one country So there's all kinds of things I mean I mean I want to make a Broadway play of this thing Yes that's 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's like we need to do it

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. We're pretty good at audio. Yeah. Yeah. We're not great at everything else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're all audio engineers from here. So. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I get that. Join the crowd. That's me too. Yeah. Yeah. If anybody out there does animation, get in touch with us. We've got all kinds of things we want. Animation would be great. A lot of great things come from that. Yeah. 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? We've got the June 18th through 20th. We're doing the Nashville release show, like 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 production for us. Yeah, yeah, because we'll be in our home turf and have more time. But that's already sold out. So, yeah. It's sold out in a week. It's sold out so fast. So, it's awesome. Marathon music works.

Yeah. My marathon was about 17, 1800, so that'll be, 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 Protoman. What are you hoping that they say your music gave to them? Hope? Yeah, I also really, I also really, I, I really love people that come up to us and give us something that they've done.

Art or music or, you know. Yeah, inspiration. Yeah, and they say, your band caused me to want to produce something of my own. That's always really cool. Yeah. I hope we're spawning a lot of, you know, 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? Oh, there's so many. And they're all very, like, a bunch of them are very personal. Yeah, a lot of them. It's usually, I think the one is, not one 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 da, you know, that, I don't know, we'd call that, that there's a term for that. It's has to do with memories. 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. Protoman.com is a good way to get to us. That kind of leads everywhere. We're on all the streaming things, just Protoman, act three, the city made us to the new album. And then we're on YouTube.

You can find us on that. It's pretty much anywhere you can find us. We're out there. So just search her name. Here's the part I call Between the Beats. We do quick questions. No right or wrong answers. Just something for the fun of it.

Oh, I can say I can make it wrong. Don't do challenge me. What is the first album you ever owned? Like, owned or bought with your own money? Yeah, that's true. Bought with your own money. You owned it. Oh, bought with your own money.

I think. I know mine. Paloosa. Okay. The CD, no, use your illusion. One? Two, one. November rain.

No, all the cassette of that. That's one. Yes, that's one. To 91. Yeah. It might have been... It might have been thriller. That's pretty good.

But it was new? No, no, no. Like a cassette, you know, bought it from, you know, Camelot or... Yeah, that's pretty cool. Like the... I don't know. Maybe, uh... I know the first album that I ever possessed was the Alan Jackson record with Chattahoochiana.

That'll do it. That was like an uncle. An uncle was like, here, kid, this is what you need to be listening to. I got a boombox for Christmas, one of those like CD boon boxes. When the speakers pop off and you can move them a solid three feet away. You still have that. Man, I don't still have it. The first one I bought was I had a birthday and I was given a cassette player in like $20.

Like that was the birthday and I went down the road and bought Beastie Boys License the Ill on cassette. That's what I was about to say is the first thing that I probably ever had was a copied version of that album on cassette. that my cousin from Memphis gave me or my brother and that ended up with it. What's your favorite proto man to play 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 Act 3 live. So I think my new favorite is Lights last stand. They started 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.

Yeah. My 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 is incredible.

Yeah, always. L.A. is incredible. London is incredible. Yeah, your major ones are. But, you know, the ones that are memorable on the, especially in the old days, it's like, you know, like Richmond. Or, like, North Carolina. Spring, Springfield, North Carolina.

What was the, where's, or Springfield, Missouri? No, North Carolina. Greenville. Greenville. That was a long time ago. Those were, now those places don't exist anymore than we used to go play. Like the whole towns don't exist. Yeah. But they're like so surprising, like, small, weird towns that you wouldn't think that are pretty intense.

Vancouver is always the wildest for some reason. Yeah, Vancouver's. Yeah. Now, yeah, I can't, there's no, there's no favorite. There's just so many good ones. What's the strangest thing this ever happened to you on tour? Oh, also impossible. One that just stands out in your mind that you probably will never forget.

That's like an hour-long conversation. We did, we did push our RV up the Compinal Divide a few years ago. And that, that was, that was the day. and then the tow truck 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. It was the other one where he didn't know. That is a good story. Every time a tow truck shows up and they're like, well, you're not supposed to be, have people in the back, so 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,

Ward? Fantastic. We have lots of those stories. Okay, if you were not musicians, what would you be doing today? I don't even know. It's been so long. I could be a mechanic. Yeah, yeah, 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'd be getting paid for it. Yes, I would get paid to be to account money. Yeah. I almost went to school to be a marine biologist.

Wow. Oh yeah, I went to school for 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 then I met these fellows there.

I would probably be working on a dive boat in the Caribbean somewhere. That's pretty much that. 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. When we go to the...

When we go to the... Japan? No, we're going to go to the Caribbean. I'm going to work on a dive boat. Okay. And you're going to be the mechanic for the boat. Let's start a band while we're down there. Oh, you...

Son of a match. Got you. Get them. Now, every time I think I'm out. Yep. Dream collaboration. Alive or dead. Who would you like to work with?

Oh. 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. I'll tell you who we did try to work with on this album, and he kind of goes to this,

but what we still love him is Dennis DeYoung from Sticks. We tried to get him to sing our Wiley part for this album, and we were talking to him for a bit and chit-chatting, 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, you know, you say obvious stuff like, I don't know, Bowie and things like that.

But it's also who's the underdog that would help us even more. What's his name? I can't, I can't get to his name. Do charades. He has a hair. He has hair. What color? See, I don't want to.

Art Garfunkel. Art Garfunkels, got it. No, I hate myself for not getting into his name right now. No. He's Bob Rock. Is he still alive? No, no, it's very dead. Very dead.

That unfortunately in like 1986. Oh. And something like that. Randy Rhodes? No, no. Irishman. That's all you're getting in. Oh, Phil Linnet? Yeah, Phil Linnet. Oh, yeah.

Unbelievable. You said Irishman. You got in there. You're 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.

Just thank you. We woke up a couple of days ago to the news that our newest record is charting on Billboard. Nice. And be, bizarrely enough, in a couple of categories, but one of them is emerging artists, which is fantastic because we've been emerging for a long time. But I think I would say that, thank you for being a friend. Thank you for, thank you for continuing to support and ramping up your support with each new thing that we put out.

And this, especially this album's support, has been unbelievable from our bands. Yeah. Just they've all gotten so into it. 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 them were 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, like the fact that they've stuck with it is 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.

Thanks for having us. Thank you for being a friend. Awesome. Perfect. Great to meet you. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, it's been great. Thanks again.

Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been a Tony Mantor production. For more information, contact media at plateaumusic.com.