Far from being a talented tailor, I had the idea to make a hat by myself. Also because they are quite expensive if you want a good one. All you need is about 10 Euros, an old sweat-shirt and some patience. There are many ways how to make a hat. This is how I did it.
European Steampunk outfit Victor Sierra just have released their third full-length album with the title Go for the Strange. For this reason I am re-publishing this interview which I did with Commander Bob Eisenstein two years ago (originally published on Polish webzine AlterNation). Find out how this interesting personality would describe the music they make, how he discovered Steampunk and what this idea means to him. Read More →
The evolution of steampunk-themed music was a very important prompt towards its becoming of a movement. While the whole idea of steampunk was very much an Anglo-American phenomenon through its evolution in the beginning of the new millennium, it was only a question of time that it eventually reached the European continent.
One of the first European steampunk-influenced music groups was Victor Sierra from France, a band which my readers might know already quite well. Another step towards a consolidation of a solid European steampunk movement was last year’s European Steampunk Convention. Additionally, in more and more European cities steampunk nights and events are being organised on a regular basis. Read More →
For a long time now I didn’t touch steampunk, although it is one of my favourite topics in contemporary popular culture. In case you don’t know yet, what steampunk is, have a look here.
The question, whether steampunk is an own genre of music, or not, is still widely discussed. To avoid any complications I prefer the use of the term steampunk-themed music. Anyway, it is rather the atmosphere, which makes the music “steampunk”, not the musical style itself. steampunk has a certain feel: when you hear it, you know it. The following is a list of songs that became dear to me during the last years since I am dealing with steampunk – in no particular order. Read More →
The Steampunk culture focuses strongly on technical attributes. In a D.I.Y. manner many people, dedicated to the Steampunk aesthetic, try to create diverse gadgets as eye-candy on their outfits or even to re-build modern life tools mechanically or with steam-power. When talking about this topic, we must not forget that “Steampunks seek less to recreate specific technologies of this time [the Victorian era] than to re-access what they see as the affective value of the material world of the nineteenth century” (Onion 2008: 138f). It is the fascination by the Victorian technological creations per se, which turns Steampunk sympathisers into actual engineers. Read More →
“Brought together by combining old and new, it is a great example
of how we humans aspire to create” (Harrington 2011: 8).
While steampunk is already widely known and partly acknowledged by the public in the USA, its recognition in Europe is pending. This does not imply that there are no people trying to make it more popular throughout Europe. It has potential to become the “next big thing” in popular culture.
“Steampunk is a time that never was, but one we wish that had been” (G4 Underground 2009) – as such ‘Captain’ Robert Brown, founder and front-man of the steampunk band Abney Park, describes, what is the essence of steampunk. This sentence reveals already a lot, it says that steampunk is about a certain time in the past, more precisely, the future vision of a certain past, an alternative time-line. Read More →
