Steampunk. You’ve probably heard the term before. If you’ve been attending any kind of fandom or media conventions in the past few years, you’ve no doubt seen the steampunk costumes. But what is steampunk? Well, we’ll address that in a bit.

Alltern8.com recently had an opportunity to sit down with The Cog is Dead, a steampunk band that is preparing to launch its first album. They have a wonderfully eclectic sound, and are sure to take the steampunk community by storm.

Below is our interview with John Mondelli and Chris Fowle, two of the band’s members. Be sure to check out the end of the article to hear a sample of their incredibly catchy song, “The Death of the Cog,” and to get links to where you can hear more.

Alltern8: First off, who are the members of the band and what do they play?

JOHN: Currently we have four band members, each playing an instrument and a character. On bass is the wealthy benefactor, Sir Christofer Wolfe (Played by Chris Fowle.) On lead guitar is Joel the Navigator (Joel Dennerle.) On drums is our mechanic and the man who built our flying timeship, Tony Seville (Tony Mondelli.) And I portray the frontman and captain of this crew, on guitar, keyboard, accordion, etc... Captain John Sprocket (John Mondelli.)

Alltern8: How did you first get introduced to steampunk? What was it specifically that drew you in, and inspired you to use it as a theme for your band?

JOHN: Around the time we decided to start a band, I was interested in creating a custom look for one of my guitars (a Dean ML) because I thought it would be cool to have my own one-of-a-kind guitar. While doing an image search for unusual guitars to get some ideas, I came across an amazing steampunk guitar: The Villainizer (made by Thunder Eagle Guitars.) I didn't know what steampunk was at the time, but I loved the rusted mechanical look of that guitar. Something about the gears, the copper pipes and pressure gauge was so beautiful and charming that I decided I wanted to do something similar to my guitar. At that point I showed the picture to Chris.