ArcAttack: Lightning-Proof Musicians Share Their Tesla Coil Secrets

When Nikola Tesla invented his coil in 1891 , he believably never imagined the ominous structures taking the place of the fiddle or French horn . But with prison term , anything ’s possible . Music trioArcAttackadds its own twirl to Tesla ’s dreaming machine .

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We gather around the mathematical group in a rophy , about 8 or 10 foot away from the Tesla coils as the band performs . This is not some “ do n’t need to dance in front of the stagecoach ” form of teen awkwardness — if you tolerate too close when the band plays , you might actually get fry .

When the light go down , a flashy bombilation generates , be by streaks of light into the atmosphere . Then the music begin , come after by the sound of drums that are precise as can be . What follows is an overload of light and sound that is pure awesome , a melange of familiar melodies from our favorite video plot ( Mario and Zelda melodic theme ) , TV show ( Airwolf ) and pop Sung dynasty ( “ Sexyback ” ) .

Once the stripe stops playing , we still ca n’t stray freely . First , they must discharge the coils , ridding them of any stray lightning bolt that might be entrap deep down .

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Consisting of a yoke of Tesla coils — plus a dyad of go - equipped automatic drums and an Open Labs sound console — the ArcAttack experience is largely automated , significative of a future era when a melodic performance is n’t about the people play the instrument , but rather the technology involved .

ArcAttack come from Austin , Texas and sure do n’t fit the mold of what most see a band should be . But that ’s a good thing .

John Di Prima is the man behind the boards , creditworthy for the execution of the live show . He controls the coils and drums , plus mixing in a few new sounds during the set . He ’s also responsible for most of the songwriting and drum programming .

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Patrick Brown , aka Parsec , is the master of ceremony , bedight out in steampunk - esque attire consisting of a Faraday Suit with a cosmic string of lights that react with the Tesla roll , plus the requisite lightning - proof goggles . He ’s the link between the crowd and the show . He set up the Di Prima chum at an Austin Burning Man issue and jokes that he ’s managed to not get plain out yet .

Joe Di Prima plan , flesh and maintains everything for the group , serving as the technician when the show is on the road . When they ’re composing and transcription , he plays guitar . With a background in electronics repair , Joe eventually linked up with the engineering section at the University of Texas , where he first see about the magic of Tesla coils .

I took a few minutes to question ArcAttack — what get to them who they are — besides the Tesla coil , of form …

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Gizmodo : What does your setup consist of ?

Joe : It would be two DRSSTC ( Dual Resident Solid State Tesla Coil ) units which are MIDI assure . There ’s a fibre oculus cable running to some digital logic boards that are in the Tesla coils .

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John : The Open Labs MiKO MIDI console hosts the PC Software ( Fruity Loops ) that we apply to in reality sequence the euphony .

The MiKO is just a Windows machine with a crowd of prissy MIDI interfaces , cased in alloy — which is skillful because we have a set of EMF emit from the coils . I actually used to run it off my laptop computer , but it would crash all the clock time .

Patrick : The brake drum auto has a solenoid for every tympan , and they ’re MIDI hold in also … from the MiKO .

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Gizmodo : How did you get the melodic theme to create a musical show using Tesla coils ? Had it been done before this ?

Joe : When we did it originally , it was the first metre it had been done in this manner . There are a few way that you’re able to audio regulate a Tesla coil — this agency is experience as PRM modulation . Now there are a few dozen people that picked up on it , but nobody does it to the scale of measurement that we do . It ’s still fairly new , and surprisingly still clean unknown .

When I first see a firm state Tesla whorl in military operation , I understood how it work . After a few minute of playing with it , I got the idea that , many years later , I put into practice .

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Gizmodo : Who are some of your musical and technical school influences ?

John : Well obviously Nikola Tesla . For music , we all have somewhat different taste . But the coolheaded thing with our project is that we can do anything from Pantera to the Chicken Dance and multitude would dig it . I heed to electronic rock , Kraftwerk , Daft Punk … if I could do a show with Daft Punk , you could sprout me after .

Joe : I did n’t know what music was until three years ago . For technical school influence , severely to say , but Faraday , all my mentors at all the repair shop , my dad ( who was a biomedical engine driver ) and Steve Ward , the Padre of the DRSSTC , who I met at the University of Texas .

Gizmodo : What are some of the weird / favorite / calamitous show you ’ve played ?

John : Joe had to tackle a cop once .

Joe : Yeah the cops had come keep out down this rave we were play at , and the Tesla coils were still endure . He was coming over to close our stuff off , not knowing exactly what it was , and he was walking straight into the Tesla coils . So I grabbed him and pushed him back . Amazingly he did not Tase me . He was in reality kinda grateful . singular part is , after they quetch everyone out , they walked around and call for if we could turn the material back on .

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Patrick : My favourite show so far was when we play DragonCon in Atlanta a few weeks ago . We did the Mad Scientist Ball . We had our magnanimous Tesla curlicue and a Faraday cage , and divulge our young stage show , which assisted masses in transforming themselves into rightful delight … by being bath in the Tesla roll beam .

During our stage operation , there were about 15 the great unwashed that we put into the John Milton Cage Jr. , and this one guy named Dr. Satan had freehanded metal wings that he put onto his back . We get him up there , but the cage is sort of small , and he has metal sticking out all over his consistence . So we differentiate him “ do n’t move . ” before long the entire crowd started chanting along . That was pretty cool . [ And obviously Dr. Satan lived through it . ]

John : We were in the Netherlands for two hebdomad , and we played a ponderous alloy fest where they put us in front of this church service that was lit all demonic looking . On our stage , there were these big methamphetamine hydrochloride wake areas where you could see the deceased founders of the townspeople . I think that ’s middling much the most epic affair ever . Heavy metallic element music through lightning over seeable grave .

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