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The Klaxons 3D Printed tour
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Hobs studio logo in the Klaxons video
The Personalize twitter timeline swelled with news that UK band, Klaxons will be going on tour with 3D printed microphones and instruments, the NME reported this rather stoney-faced:
“The tour will see the band hit the road around Britain in October and November, with everything seen on stage including guitars, amps and lights, created using the latest technology in 3D printing. See the video above to watch the band explain as they visit a 3D printing press”
Yet, watching that video and it is clear that this is a pastiche/micky-take of how a band might behave should they actually go with such a gimmick.
The big give away to our trained eyes (other than the wry Office-esque glances to the camera) was the supposed company the band were having tour around - SJA 3D Printing Ltd, Chelmsford, the apparent bureau where the instruments are to be printed. Surely a bureau with the SLS machines seen in the video would be known to the UK’s leading 3D Printing publication?
There’s a dead giveaway to the eagle-eyed in the video as to the actual bureau where the video was filmed. SJA’s fake Managing Director, Jeffrey Royce is seen being interviewed in front of a giant 3D printer but just over his right shoulder is the Hobs Studio logo.
Jeffrey Royce (or the actor playing Jeffrey Royce) says in the video with a total swipe at the absurdity of the industry “We’ve printed lot’s of shapes, mainly cubes but also some people, some little models of people, but we’re really excited to have this commissioned because we’ll be printing something that people actually use rather than print something just to prove that we can 3D print it.”
Rather than being an actual story about a 3D printed band as the NME have reported it (to be fair they may well be in on the joke), we think that this is just a very nice, very subversive look at the 3D printing hype cycle and it is unlikely that the Klaxons will be going on tour with 3D printed instruments.
If you do want to see a band with 3D printed instruments you’ll have to stop by the 3D Systems stand at TCT Show + Personalize 2014…
