One Love Machine Band creator Kolja Kugler is, first of all, an artist.

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He’s also a roboticist–which he says he never expected to become.

Kolja started out creating sculptures from scrap metal. But the project wound up having other ideas–and he found himself turning those sculptures into robots.

And not just any robots. These are robot musicians who play real instruments!

As members of Kolja’s One Love Machine Band, they’re a real crowd-pleaser. One Love Machine Band has wowed audiences all over Europe–including at the Maker Faire Rome and during Kolja’s TEDx Talk in his native Berlin.

Kolja enjoys watching audience reactions, especially. A common response: delight.

“Everybody became a child, suddenly, when they looked at that bass player, playing,” he says.

Kolja explains that he started by building the band manager, whom he named “Sir Elton Junk”. Next came the bass player, the drummer and some unusual background harmony. He sees himself as “playing” with the scrap metal, to see what kinds of characters emerge as he builds.

And he has some exciting visions for the future.

Kolja shared the story of his robotic band, discussed his creative process and offered a look ahead at what may be next!

On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:

• How Kolja first discovered his passion for creating sculpture;

• One of the best creative lessons he learned from English arts group The Mutoid Waste Company;

• The story of the One Love Machine Band;

• The ways in which Kolja sees his robotic sculptures evolve as he builds them;

• His favorite memories from the first time the One Love Machine Band performed in public;

• A closer look at the “characters” of the musician robots;

• What helped Kolja keep going when he ran into roadblocks;

• What he considers the most fun involved in creating his playful art!;

• His vision for the band, in the future;

• Where the One Love Machine Band may be performing, in 2023.