Steam Powered Giraffe is an American musical project formed in San Diego in 2008, self-described as “a musical act that combines robot pantomime, puppetry, ballet, comedy, projections, and music”. Created and led by twins David Michael Bennett and Isabella Bunny Bennett, the act combines music and improvisational comedy on-stage, although their studio works focus almost solely on music. Steam Powered Giraffe has its own fictional mythology influenced by the steampunk subculture, with the band members portraying characters both on stage and on record; its fictional universe has been explored via several comic books mainly written and drawn by Isabella Bennett.
In October 2009, the band released their first album, Album One. It contained the previously released single from May 2009 titled “On Top of the Universe”. In early 2011 the band released a single, “Honeybee”, announcing that it would be on an upcoming second album. Erin Burke left the group to pursue a career in acting that same year. The group re-released Album One after her departure, removing Burke’s vocals and replacing the track “I Am Not Alone” (which featured Burke as the lead singer) with “Ice Cream Parade”. In late 2011 the band announced the release of a “live” album entitled Live at the Globe of Yesterday’s Tomorrow.
Their second studio album, entitled The 2ยข Show, was released in May 2012 That year, they were voted Best Live Comedy act (and runner up for Best Family Entertainment act) on San Diego A-List. Besides their musical endeavours, the band publishes a webcomic and has produced a card game based on characters in their backstory. In April 2012 they released a DVD entitled, Steam Powered Giraffe: The DVD (and the Quest For the Eternal Harp of Golden Dreams). In May 2014, they released their third cover, a version of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”. The video marked the first “official” appearance by the female Rabbit to the general public at large. The band then followed up with two new videos: “Fancy Shoes” in June and “I’ll Rust With You” in July, with the latter featuring live footage recorded at Anime Midwest in Rosemont, Illinois.
In September 2015, SPG released The Vice Quadrant: A Space Opera, a two-disc concept album containing 28 tracks, although iTunes released it as two separate albums for download. The release followed a number of video releases to promote the work. This marked the band’s first recorded work with Rabbit presenting as a woman. The album also featured vocals by Professor Elemental on the song “Sky Sharks”. In June 2016, Steam Powered Giraffe announced on their website that their fifth studio album, Quintessential, was available for pre-order. According to the announcement, a free downloadable digital copy of the twelve-track album would be included with the purchase of the CD.
In January 2018, Steam Powered Giraffe celebrated the band’s 10th anniversary with a special concert featuring all members in the band’s history, including all five former members: robots The Jon, Upgrade and Hatchworth, and humans Michael Philip Reed and Matthew Smith. It was later released as a live concert film. In April 2019, the band announced the production of their next album, the first to feature Barbarin and the first since MK III to feature Michael Philip Reed. They also confirmed that they would be releasing two new songs every three to four months alongside music videos for each song. In November 2020, the band released their album 1896, a two-disc album featuring 22 songs, ten of which are acoustic versions of other songs on the album. In October 2022, the band announced that their seventh album, simply titled The Seventh, is being worked on and would be coming “in the not too distant future.” In August 2024, the band released their newest album, Music from Steamworld Heist II, a two-disc album featuring 30 songs, 15 of which are instrumentals of other songs on the album.
